trash

[trash]

There are two types of steering I’ve found.
One which each channel drives the motors independantly. The other appears to be a mix of forward/back, left/right. This one looks like the second. The same as the RC boats.

[trash]

I haven’t looked at the specs for the 8050’s that uA has in his cct diagram, but you might like to compare them to BC848’s and BC858’s. These are the SMD versions of BC548,BC558.
They’re general purpose transistors and you can do lots of different things with them and not have to worry too much about the finer points.
Perfect for blowing up and they’re much cheaper than $15 each. 🙂

Since your 8050’s etc are just running in saturation and you’re keen to blow anything up. You might like to try replace the SMD’s with the TO92 style (normal) transistors. If they work, then try the SMD. Given that you don’t seem to worried about size, you might just care to build external drive transistors for the bigger motors.

[trash]

Hmm, that’s different ?
I’ll have to keep and eye out for them.
I’m hoping to get a few SE2’s send from HK, but I’m not sure how much they cost yet.

[trash]

Flux is a four letter word ? 🙂

Good point uA, I forgot about the voltage drop across the diodes. I usually work at higher voltages, so it’s easier to ignore a few missing volts. I always thought it was about 0.7 Volatge drop across diodes, but again, I know it’s as low as 0.5 for some and higher for others.

Given than most SMD diodes come in the same package as transistors, it would make a lot of sense to use 4 transistors.

[trash]

hahah …. burn is just a simple word for oxidisation and reduction.
When you have long carbon chain molecule and some nitrogen and lots of oxygen and hydrogen.
At 4500fps pressure builds quickly up without a container !

Quote Ralph from the Simpsons: “I like to burn things.”

👿

[trash]

You should be able to get specs for the LED s your using from where you bought them.
DSE catalog used to have them in the back.

[trash]

Betty, I can think of a way of doing it with two diodes, two resistors and two transistors.
Might be tricky to draw it but I can send you a jpg via email if you like.

From the L coil wire you solder a diode (Anode).
The Cathode you solder to one side of the motor.
From the Cathode you solder the Collector of a NPN
transistor (BC848). The Emmiter you solder to the ground wire of the coil. The base you solder to a 100 ohm resistor and the other side of the resistor you solder to the R coil wire.
You then duplicate this again but for the R coil wire.
This will let you control a motor instead of the steering coils.

[trash]

Sounds like you lived in my neighbourhood uA.
I did some evil sh1t as a kid, hell, I’m still doing evil stuff now.. it’s just a bit less illegal.

I’ve managed to break a few windows, scatter a few bricks in the streets, science labs definately weren’t safe, though most unauthorised experiments were transfered to the garbage bin out front of the principal’s office. Nobody likes the fun police !

I don’t like gunpowder ph2t. It burns too slow !
Think 4500fps or faster !

[trash]

yeah, they say that. Just invent a bodgy business name and with cash or credit card.

[trash]

The Russians had a theory about the poles too.

When America created Disneyland, the Russians were jealous, so they put a fence around Poland.

[trash]

Pic still works for me…
I use webshots (trash0) but I find that pictures don’t link well, sometimes you just have to ^N and load a new page.
It looks Very cool Betty, they look like real spotties !! Much better than LED’s ! 🙂
I’ve run out of ideas for my little tank, the camera is about all I can think of putting on it.
I’d like to make a tiny robot arm, but I’m still waiting for my muscle wire from the usa.

[trash]

You can recharge normal alkalines in the grandcell charger too. There is nothing special about them. Just put them in the charger as soon as you finish using them. I ve got a many as 20 charges out of them before their cactus.

You can also recharge normal carbon batteries,
(not in the grandcell charger). Again, you need to charge them as soon as you finish using them.
You can buy a carbon battery charger, they cost about $60. Try TVSN or one of the crazy clints shops. Silicon chip had a charger kit about 10 years ago, it had a lot of info on recharging carbon batteries. BTW, you can’t recharge a 9V carbon for some reason.

I’m not too fond of NiCd’s, NiMH’s are a nicer choice these days. I prefer lithiums, but you have to be more careful with them.

LED’s, the resistor is designed to limit the current. Usually about 10 to 20mA. Lucky for you, your little 3V button batteries have a hard time giving you that much current. Else the smoke would get out of them.

[trash]

Thanks Panda for the correction.
I was trying to be generic so that is understood that electromagnets can repulse as well as attract.
I wonder if uA can explain how he’d make it posible to drive a motor instead of the two coils.
🙂
Else I might have to write the next thread on diodes and bridge rectifiers !

[trash]

farnell, wes are a few others.
what parts are you looking for ?

[trash]

just power it either from the on board power or a seperate battery.
Yep, I have a schematic … will draw it up in jpg and put it up here when I get the chance.
I haven’t addressed the problem of IR reflections, but by putting the sensor on an angle or with a small tube/filter you should be able to stop false tripping.
You can put them anywhere on the miniZ, but generally pointing up. Though a window etc.

The is no reason why you couldn’t put them under the car, and put the sensor in the track.
A bit more tricky.. would have to think some more about it.

[trash]

Thanks pork hunt. I was begining to worry that ohms law was going to become a playstation game.
you’ve restored my confidence in the young punks of today. 🙂
Ever since they banned fireworks, I’ve wondered how kids are going to learn high velocity chemistry too. 😯

[trash]

I thought year 11 you do calculus !!!
I know which one I find more difficult ! 🙂

The more you try leave the formulas out, the less meaning the descriptions seem to have.

Most year seven students can handle simple algerbra and know how to use a basic calculator.
I’m guessing most of you kiddies are in high school ?

[trash]

is that year 11 these days ???
I thought simple algerbra was like year 6 ?

[trash]

Hehehe,
what amazes me is that some clown 300 years ago invented calculus. But the world is a cruel place and his most famous for being hit on the head by an apple !!!!

[trash]

cool stuff, I’m keen to hear want other new goodies you discover. It sounds a lot like Canal St in New York or Sham Shui Po in Hong Kong. 🙂
Akihabara… hmmm I can’t even pronounce that, but the pics of it look really familiar.

[trash]

I’m not sure where I heard the comparison to water. Ham Radio has been the best education,
I’d figure you’d probally have tinkered with it yourself uA ?
In the days before internet, CB was the big deal. These days 27Mhz has more SETI traffic on it than local. But it’s still a good place to experiment and learn about radio.

I figure it might be worth writing some simple threads and get the boss to archive them ?

something like ohms law, voltage, current, resistance, power.

resistors, capacitors, diodes, transistors.

magnetic fields

blah blah blah ?

[trash]

Ah Japan !
I went there once for a weekend 🙂
Yes, well you should be able to get just about anything there as well as you can here.
I had a few other ideas I meant to mention, I just forgot about them.
The first was to get hold of the old disposable cameras, they have an LED in them and a diffusion/light ducting plastic that you might like to cut up. Putting groves in them can create the smooth diffusion you talk about.
The rest of it is a small voltage inverter, storage and trigger circuit, with a xenon flash tube. The xenon tube is a true ‘gas’ tube and you can light it up much like a real neon light.
It will give you a pale white/blue colour.
Be careful though, the voltages on the trigger board are dangerous and they can bite.
😯

The other choice is to use real neon tubes !
So you’re stuck in the land of the rising dollar,
probably might still like to have a look at jaycar’s web page (http://www.jaycar.com.au) and then try find the same thing locally or just mail order. There is also ELS panels and even ELS wire.

Hmmm… yeah, I know something I need, it’s called a Kenwood TM-2400, it’s a two way radio like a CB. If you find one, (not likely) I’m sure I can grease your palm with cold hard yen. 🙂

[trash]

Don’t stop now !!!! Get an extra capacitor and add it to the circuit !!! We’re all on a roll !!! heheheheh:D:D:D

ph2t, the current actually flows from + to -.
The eletrons flow from – to + , but generally most people don’t care about what is going on at the quantum level. 🙂

BK, go out an buy a DSE funway 1 book. (orange book) It’s got these nice little basic electronics things in it like resistors, capacitors, diodes and transistors.

Electricity is just like water, if flows like water.. easier down thick pipes/wires than it does down thin wires.

Current is like the amount of water in the pipes.
the more water you have, the bigger the pipe need to be. The same for electricity.

Voltage is like the pressure of the water.

Resistance is a bit like the size of the pipe.

A transistor is actually a lot simpler than you think it is. It’s is basically a switch.
Look at the 8050 transistors. The line with the arrow is the emitter, the one without is the collector and the one behind the thick line is called the base.

When current flows from the base to the emitter,
it turns the transistor on and it lets (more) current flow from the collector to the emitter.
That’s a nice simple view of how it works and you can get through life with that. Go to uni or tafe and they’ll make it a bit more interesting. 🙂

Edited by – trash on 10 November 2003 20:03:22

[trash]

OK bithed,
where you do live ? I’m sure all of us started off in the world of wire twirling. I used to look around telecom sputniks for scrap wires as a kid.
I had one of the 20 in 1 kits and telecom wire was like gold to me. I was then given a BIG old plumbers soldering iron, it changed my world, though I used to cook a lot of BC548’s in the begining. When I was given a fine tip iron, real electronics was possible.

These days soldering irons are really cheap.
$25 will get you a good cheap one. Jaycar have
a special on multimeters at the moment, $12 for the cheapest.
If you can’t afford those prices, then I’d suggest to the old folks that you need some really educational xmas presents.
Through in a roll of solder, some other small tools, solder suckers, cutters etc.
Don’t forget to get them to through in a few of the component packs. 🙂 Resistors, a handfull of capacitors, diodes 1N4001’s etc, transistors BC548, BC558’s. LED’s or various colours etc.
$100 all up will go a really long way.

OH, get one of those experimenters patch boards where you can just poke the components in. Once you make up your circuit on them, you can correct mistakes etc and then solder it onto veroboard.

You can go all out with power supplies, oscilliscopes and lots of other fancy stuff you won’t need. I saw one kid and his parents in an eletronics shop the other week, he was insisting he needed the top of the line soldering station, while purchasing an LED flasher kit. The quick thinking salesman asked if he needed a multimeter,
but the kid blew it when he wasn’t sure what one was, and his folks realised that the $200 iron
would not help anymore than the $10 iron.

SMD (surface mount device) led’s you can buy from any mobile phone shop for about $1 or $2 each. You can buy SMD resistors from jaycar, and Dick Smith has a pack of SMD type LED’s that you’d be interestd in getting hold of, they are the same as normal LED’s only much smaller.

If you can’t find what you need at your local store, just ask.. a lot of guys know all sorts of places to get what your looking for. Places like Farnell, WES, RS have catalogs that put the phone book to shame.

Oh… and for everybody who wants to know some basic eletronics so that you don’t blow up your 20 cent LED’s etc. Buy a Dick Smith Funway 1 book.
It probably still costs $7, and it has all the basics that you’ll ever want to know.

[trash]

yes, sounds like he’s right too. 3V for your rxer,
and 6V for your motors. Might like to try external drive transistors too. Dual power supply rails etc.

[Author]

Posts