This is it !

[gmeast]

price$

Hey Guys I found a better place to buy electronic componants online, I think.
Not sure if they will have everything i need but maybe most.

Components Circuits - 74LS Series&category_title=74LS Series&main_menu=IC&sub_menu=IC74LS

I can get the 74LS85's for 42 cents each. Compared to $1.95 ech from the electronics store in town.

And IRF540's for 63 cents each. In town they want $6.95 each.

I think i will have to have a talk to those guys if I ever go back there.

Could those price's be for real, I will find out.

I have an idea for another practical use for this self charger effect. It's to do with self charging too.

Cheers

Hi Farmhand,

The header over the pricing collumm it reads "AUD" ... what's that mean? Australian Dollars maybe?

I paid $1.35 American each for mine.

Later

[Farmhand]

Yeah that means Aussie dollars so thats cheap I think. Not sure at the moment but usually $1 Aussie buys about 70cents U.S. . That would work out below 35 cents U.S. . Wouldn't it ? I feel like buying 100 of them.

That link is not the best you will have to navigate by the index to the left.

I have to say I got my IRF540's from online not in town. I would never pay $6.95 for one. At that price they may as well mug me for my money before I leave the store.

Cheers

[gmeast]

90deg

Hey Greg, Call me crazy but did you actually measure your core ? It looks kinda different, did it come wrapped like mine did ? If I went to 45 turns mine would be very close to 90*. Is there a chance your's is a different diameter or height or something.

I'm easy going about this because I won't be cutting the wire's, well not for a long while yet. So i'm happy to start with 90* of turns. It might be the more fail-safe approach. I think it's important to put aside any of my own pre-conceived idea's at this point and stick with the program. Even though sticking with the program is not usually in my nature.

I'm already getting funny idea's about filling the spaces between the primaries with one coil wound like three series connected coils, like three coils wound in series without cutting the wire. It could be used like another secondary maybe or pulsed aswell or instead of the other pimaries. But thats another one for later.

I can't help it I have an active imagination. I haven't spaced my primaries or anything yet. My neck is playing up again. Dammit. It make's me like chronic fatigued. I may have to dalay my trip to town a few days.

Cheers

Actually I already have 2-down and 1-to go. I can always 'unwrap' and re-tape. That's actually NOT a big deal. I'll start with this. There are still tasks ahead regarding the controller - like a circuit board. I will try and have all components working on the prototype board working sometime this weekend ... including firing the IRF540Z's ... well single phase first to look at stability and noise issues. I have enough of everything for a full-compliment of circuits, but one step at a time I think.

Oops ... Last - First. My toroid is to spec... it's a 650-52. Mine looks a little 'fatter' because of the fatter secondary. It really does make a difference in the appearance. Your black secondary looks so tiny compared to mine ... I'm still pretty upset with Hydrogen Garage. When I told the jerks about the fat insulation and yellow tape that wouldn't come off their CRAP Re-Wind job without ripping, I said in my e-mail "thanks guys ... hosed again!". Their comment back to me was "...you can keep the hose." So, those ass holes will never have my business again. I see they watch the thread from time to time. When a vendor doesn't care to fix their mistakes or offer a solution, a refund or anything, I don't mind giving them LOTS of free advertising ... I owe them NOTHING.

Later

[gmeast]

Wow

Ok I added two inverters as a buffer and hooked up the MOSFET driver. Running it on 6 volts, I get some beautiful spikes out of the MOSFET driver. I bet it would be even nicer with a faster buffer and higher slew rate op amps.

YouTube - Op amp pwm + inverter + mosfet driver = 3% pulse width

Rave154, how can I hook up something that small to a breadboard? There has to some trick to interfacing those pins without soldering...?

Hi 7imix,

That is nice! I must have missed this post.

In the past, I've taken a piece of perf-board ... the kind with solder pads on one side, and glued the chip to the plain side and then soldered pins on that. Now it's at .3 X .1 pitch and fits the solderless board hole/contacts ... never fails.

I feel like I'm falling behind because I haven't even hooked up the MOSFET driver yet, but. I think that's probably because there's no room left on the boards plus I've been winding on my toroid. Once I strip off the 5-chip comparator and replace it with the '85, I'll have room. When I remove the Op-Amp PWM and replace it with the 6900, it can go there. On second thought, I should leave the PWM where it is, and "TEST" the 6900 on the new real estate created on the comparator board. I'd like to keep that, but only have 2 solderless boards.

Again, 7imix, looks VERY nice!

Later

[Farmhand]

Yes those are nice spike's. I'm still not exactly sure what parts to get. I realise it has probably been told to me but i'm confused about it. It's just not possible to take in so much info so quick. I will just have to wait untill it become's clearer. I can do that. I'm a good waiter.

My new solar panel came today so I mounted that.

Now I have two little 10 watt panels to spare.

Greg, so we are going with 50 turns ?

Cheers

[gmeast]

4-bit system

Yes those are nice spike's. I'm still not exactly sure what parts to get. I realise it has probably been told to me but i'm confused about it. It's just not possible to take in so much info so quick. I will just have to wait untill it become's clearer. I can do that. I'm a good waiter.

My new solar panel came today so I mounted that.

Now I have two little 10 watt panels to spare.

Greg, so we are going with 50 turns ?

Cheers

Hi Farmhand,

What I've decided to do is (try to) put together a completely functional 3-phase system, but not a full-resolution system. What I mean by that is that it will only be a 4-bit system... it will not have the range of frequency adjustment we will eventually have nor the 'fineness' of adjustment. This is to test all of the component types 'together' in a single system and see if there is any indication of potential problems as the system resolution is expanded. The system is expanded by 'cascading' the key component like the counter and comparator. For a final version having the useful ranges we (may) need, we may choose the 8-bit counterparts from the 74LS family instead, but at least the confidence would have been built on the 4-bit prototype.

I believe this step would save everyone time, money and possibly frustration. So don't worry about buying any final parts yet until I'm finished with the 'frustration-part' of it. I guess clocks and drivers are OK though.

One more coil, and I'll actually have something to pulse.

You know, all of the multi-phase stuff we're doing here is already done in 3-Phase inverter motor controls. I've designed and built dozens of variable speed resin fluid pump systems and I used 3-phase inverters on all of them. And they even use 'phase shift' as one of their power outputs for managing acceleration/deceleration/load along with PWM. I think an 'adapted' one would use too much circuit power though. So we've been doing a little 're-inventing' here, but who cares? ... plus they use a micro ... ah ha!

Later

[gmeast]

LTC6900 CLOCK: How to mount an SO package

Hi everyone,

I mounted the LTC6900 clock today; It's easy:

1) Take a deep breath.
2) Unpack the tiny, itsy, bitsy chip and accidentally flick it across the room.
3) Now hunt for it in the carpet for the next two hours.
4) Remember to write down all of the new curse words you just invented.
5) Take another deep breath.
6) Chop off a piece of PC perf board (pads one side preferably) to make a frame.
7) Make 4 X 4 holes or 4 X 3 holes.
8) Cut some pins from some resistors you don't want or like anymore.
9) Bend one end to make circuit traces.
10) Solder them onto your perf board.
11) Bend the traces so they look like they're pointing correctly.
12) Place the chip between the traces and position with a needle
(you might want to plug your frame into a piece of foam to help steady things)
13) Solder the chip in place ... yeah right!
(you will need to hold the chip down with a needle because the solder will suck it right up onto the solder tip)

I have made these many times ... almost got good at it. One trick to soldering these things is to start your soldering tip at the far end of the circuit trace and 'pull' the solder along the trace and onto the IC's pin and up and off. Try to do this in one, quick motion to keep the heat off of the IC.

That's it. The pictures of me doing this are here:

http://02d1852.netsolhost.com/radiant/charging/chop.JPG

http://02d1852.netsolhost.com/radiant/charging/blank0.JPG

http://02d1852.netsolhost.com/radiant/charging/blank1.JPG

http://02d1852.netsolhost.com/radiant/charging/pins0.JPG

http://02d1852.netsolhost.com/radiant/charging/pins1.JPG

http://02d1852.netsolhost.com/radiant/charging/soldered.JPG

It's frustrating first time through.

Hope this helps.

Later

[gmeast]

new clock now running the multi-phase controller

Hi all,

The following video shows my Multi-Phase Controller being thumped by a 'real' clock ... the LTC6900 ... 1KHz to 20MHz spec.

The Controller is controlling 2 phases right now and is consuming 41mA = 205mW, and I still have 4 more IC's gobbling up power that can be removed.

Today's video is here ... sorry the video is 'listing' to the left a little. Can't explain it:
YouTube - Gregs_Multi-Phase_Driver2.MPG

Getting real close guys. Thanks.

Later

[7imix]

Awesome, great video. I just got the ltc6900 running on a board and now I need to solder it. This clock is way too fast for my scope! Looking forward to getting my dso quad. It's not going to be here until march unfortunately. Hoping I can borrow someone else's scope in the meantime.

[Farmhand]

Hey Guys, Thats a funny mounting guide Greg, I had too take a deep breath at 5 and I don't even have the clock yet.

Things seem to moving at a rapid pace, very impressive results Greg. Can the rise and fall time's get any faster or are they allready instantanious. Rhetorical question.

I don't think we have left many stone's unturned. The choke is the final fronteer. Looks like.

I would advise we still keep testing the choke function with a circuit we can afford to fry. I think i've almost freed myself of enough distraction and neck troubles to try some idea's for the choke that I wanted to try a few days ago. I will try my best to test some different core's and numers of turns. The number of turns needed may be related to the power level or frequency being used aswell.

Cheers.

[gmeast]

too fast?

Awesome, great video. I just got the ltc6900 running on a board and now I need to solder it. This clock is way too fast for my scope! Looking forward to getting my dso quad. It's not going to be here until march unfortunately. Hoping I can borrow someone else's scope in the meantime.

Hi 7imix & Farmhand,

@ 7imix ... the clock goes all the way down to 1KHz. My scope (12MHz) looses it at 10Mhz on this clock. I'm sure you can see 2MHz with your Nano can't you?

Tomorrow guys, it's 'change out the comparator' ... can't wait for the freed-up real estate on the upper board. That's where I'll be putting the MOSFET drivers and other comparators.

@ both of you ... In the video ... W said " ... and pulse it as fast as humanly possible ... ". The "human" part aside, Bob never said anything about frequencies. His frequencies were as per Hydroxy production ... you know 4.5X Faraday yield. I can get very close to 120 deg phase angle with this 4-Bit'er. When I get to that point, I think I will try and pulse at the 125KHz. I'm pretty sure the core will handle that easily. No question about the wire.

@ Farmhand ... I can't believe the rise/fall times myself. It will be interesting to see how things change with that driver IC being tickled by the output of the logic chips.

@ 7imix ... using inverters and logic chips sure cleans things up allot, huh?

Anyway, I've NEVER been part of anything that has begun to come together like this project is doing... it's getting exciting!

Later guys

[Farmhand]

Battery swapper ?

Ummm I was thinking we might even need to design a kind of a battery swapper so after our battery has charged itself it can top up some other batteries. Maybe a three way swapper. Haha sounds a bit sus.
Makes sense to me if we don't want to turn it off. Once it charges it's own battery it would swap to a dual bank swapper to charge two banks, then swapback and recharge it's own battery again. Batteries could be taken out of either bank and used or the load could also be swapped to the bank not being charged or not next to be charged. Phew. Now that sounds like a job for a micro. Could micro's could do all that ? Maybe we wouldn't need a micro for that either. Would be an awesome setup.

Especially if we could do that too without micro's. Voltage level/time swap basis, manual overide, load dump. Fun to envision.

Cheers

Oh yeah so can my scope read up to 5 Mhz ?

[7imix]

Yeah I dunno, either I fried the clock chip or my wiring still isn't correct... I can't seem to adjust the frequency. I'll keep trying.

[Farmhand]

Oh no, I hope it's ok 7imix. The thing i find most frustrating is not knowing if i actually fried something or not. Grrr

7imix, are you aware of the Voynich manuscript, some say it was crafted by Lionardo Da Vinci himself when he was 8 years old. It reminds me a bit of Walter Russells books, the style of the drawings and some of the apparent content aswell I thought you might enjoy a look at it. I'm trying to track down a PDF of it for decifering fun. The diagrams behind the second link are very interesting. Considering when they were drawn.

Voynich manuscript - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

File:68r.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cheers

[gmeast]

clock

Yeah I dunno, either I fried the clock chip or my wiring still isn't correct... I can't seem to adjust the frequency. I'll keep trying.

Hi 7imix,

I've missed your post indicating you are having clock trouble. Make sure none of your pins have anything like flux or something dirty that can cause even a mild short ... especially solder spatter (but your stuff's so tidy, I don't think that's it). There's also a range of 'RSET' of 10KOhms to 2MOhms ... I guess so you don't overload the chip. Post a picture of your clock set-up ... let me peek ... it's NOT easy working with these teeny-weeny things. Also I think 6VDC is the Absolute Max voltage supply. A fresh battery pack will exceed that.

Right now, I have the DIV pin pulled Low and 73KOhms as the 'SET' resistor. My scope says I'm at 2.8MHz and that agrees with the formula in the 6900's Data Sheet of 2.74MHz considering the 73KOhms is actually a 51K resistor plus a 22KOhm resistor ... and they're only 5%'ers.

Let me know if I can help.

Later