***Official Electronics Thread of Officialness (it starts off with lots of Nixie Tube Clock goodness

  • Thread starter Thread starter Aod
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taliesyn said:
No, that's not too hot at all. The tip temperature for the 60/40 Multicore solder I use should be around 300C, so it's slightly low if anything. I have the Solderpro 70, and I just can't seem to get on with it for detail work. Like I said it's probably me, I'm probably setting it too high.

Mind you I would suggest that 70W is far too high for PCB work, and an 18w or a 25w iron is much safer.

I'll stick to my solder station. Cheaper than wrecking boards :D
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Well at the highest setting it's 500C, so quite good i reckon :)

For doing precision work it isn't a matter of if it's electric or gas, for me at least. It's a case of how thick the iron is and how close to the tip you can hold it, as well as anything else that might get in the way (wires). The 50 model looks a lot better in these areas than pretty much everything else in the price range. Plus you can use it for more than just soldering ;)

The Weller WLC100 for ~£30 looks okay, but i think it would be too bulky for me to get on with. Something like the Metcal MX500 would be absolutely perfect, but it's out of my price range by a long shot.
 
simulatorman said:
Or how small the orignal ones are. :D Are you now building another large one?
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I will be, as soon as Pete at PVE produces his kit. He's got one in development and sent me a picture of it, it looks very good and I'm keen to get going on it.

PermaBanned said:
Feek (who i still think should start an '***Official HAM Thread***' ;))
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I don't know that there would be the interest in it. Why not kick one off and see how it goes?

taliesyn said:
Lead free solder is pants. I can't stand the stuff :)

@Feek - Those tubes are awesome :D
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I've not used lead free solder because I've got plenty of decent leaded solder left. The general impression I get is that it's rubbish though and I hope I never need to use any.

The tubes look great, I want to see them working!
 
Feek said:
I don't know that there would be the interest in it. Why not kick one off and see how it goes?
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Pft, me, Sim and AcidHell basically keep the space flight thread going between us. And from previous threads i'm pretty sure there's more than three HAMs on the forum :p
 
Zener Diodes

Hi people,

Just before we go on I've put this in GD rather than general hardware as it's seems more suitable to be placed here as it's not so much a hardware question but a wiring question.

My aim is to make a simple fan controller which works on a switch and either selects 12v for the fans or 7v.

My initial thought was to just follow this guide here LINK to create the 12v/7v switch but after further reading it appears that getting 7v from the 12v combined with the -5v line isn't the most stable way to do this, and it has been suggested to use a Zener Diode instead.

My question lies in what sort of Zener Diode do I need? I want this single switch to change all 10 of my case fans, is this going to require quite a high watt diode?

Also am I right in thinking that if I run the wiring like this I should be fine, assuming that both 12v lines are coming from the same cables just spliced with one side having the diode in it?

Wiring.jpg


Thanks for any help you can give me, or even a simpler suggestion on how to do it.
 
You'll need a resistor to limit the current through the zener, otherwise you are basically just shorting your power supply. Personally I'd just solder a few diodes in series, with a switch in parallel to bypass them. Rectifier diodes can take much more current than a zener. Solder 5-6 diodes in series, you'll get about a 5v voltage drop with minimal resistive losses. Just make sure they can take the current of all ten fans, maybe even double that, for safety's sake.
 
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I'd also go with the rectifier diode such as 1N4001 which will take an ampere without needing heatsinking. Each diode will drop the voltage by 0.6v-0.7v and dissipate the energy wasted as heat.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/20-x-1N40...096?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item45f9c0a010

How about this?

fanswitch.jpg


This is a project I was thinking about doing at one time but I'd probably go with proper voltage regulators now (LM317T or similar).

Anyway just read you wanted to wire 10 fans up to a single switch. You'd need a 5 Ampere solution then. You'd need different Diodes but you get the idea.

A zener diode is a low current device and if you did wish to use one you'd need to construct a more elaborate circuit to allow for it.
 
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I'd be happy to create the "***Official Electronics Thread of Officialness***" but why not just rename this one?

Those look beautiful Feek! by the way, how did you get in contact with Pete from PV? through the site?
I'm hoping he can help my debug and fix my clock :)

Also, Lead free solder is complete cack and i hate the stuff with a passion. not to mention that it drastically increases the failure rate of anything it's used in and is stupidly expensive by comparison to regular lead solder.
 
I may have just renamed the thread, hope that's OK :)

Aod, I just started off emailing him using the addresses on the site and it's carried on from there.

PB - I'll work out a radio thread over the next week or so. I don't have time at work to do much nowadays and I'm away at the RSGB Convention all weekend so I can't give it the time it needs straight away.
 
Feek said:
I may have just renamed the thread, hope that's OK :)

Aod, I just started off emailing him using the addresses on the site and it's carried on from there.

PB - I'll work out a radio thread over the next week or so. I don't have time at work to do much nowadays and I'm away at the RSGB Convention all weekend so I can't give it the time it needs straight away.
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Rename's fine with me :)
maybe merge the Zener diode thread into this one now?

I'll email him soon then :)

I look forward to your Radio thread, i'm not a radio enthusiast but i'm sure it'll make for fun reading :)
 
Rusty_Noob said:
Hi people,

Just before we go on I've put this in GD rather than general hardware as it's seems more suitable to be placed here as it's not so much a hardware question but a wiring question.

My aim is to make a simple fan controller which works on a switch and either selects 12v for the fans or 7v.

My initial thought was to just follow this guide here LINK to create the 12v/7v switch but after further reading it appears that getting 7v from the 12v combined with the -5v line isn't the most stable way to do this, and it has been suggested to use a Zener Diode instead.

My question lies in what sort of Zener Diode do I need? I want this single switch to change all 10 of my case fans, is this going to require quite a high watt diode?

Also am I right in thinking that if I run the wiring like this I should be fine, assuming that both 12v lines are coming from the same cables just spliced with one side having the diode in it?

Wiring.jpg


Thanks for any help you can give me, or even a simpler suggestion on how to do it.
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Can you just use a dc-dc converter like this one HIGH Efficiency 100W 15A DC-DC power supply module and connect as much fans as you like.
 
Feek said:
I may have just renamed the thread, hope that's OK :)

Aod, I just started off emailing him using the addresses on the site and it's carried on from there.

PB - I'll work out a radio thread over the next week or so. I don't have time at work to do much nowadays and I'm away at the RSGB Convention all weekend so I can't give it the time it needs straight away.
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Nice rename on this one. I'm looking forward to the radio one. :)
 
Well, if this is now a general electronics thread I'll share my latest creation. My own design optical compressor. Operating as a stereo bridge and featuring calibrated metering. Sidechain developed in SwitcherCAD and beyond that real construction has to take over. Soviet military equipment look!

v6pBZ.jpg

oIMpO.jpg

D0s81.jpg

2TLOg.jpg



Demo of the unit on drums. Will try to get some vocals and other instruments up at some point.



Feel free to ask any questions! I don't like to put too much in these posts as it'll quickly get a bit heavy.
 
A good first question! It reduces the dynamic range of a signal by lowering any loud sound. Like someone turning down the volume when something gets loud, but very very fast. Called optical as the method of doing it is to use an LED shining on a CdS cell (vactrol) as the gain control element. As the signal increases, LED brightness increases, the associated CdS cell resistance decreases and more signal current is shunted to ground.

If you lower the loud parts, you can bring up the overall level of a sound, hence the GAIN dial. 9dB was not enough to iclude in this design however. You may hear about music being overly compressed and the loudness war killing dynamic range, this is what they're talking about. This compressor isn't fast enough to be used like this though and is just used to make drums sound "fatter" really, and smooth out vocals etc!
 
That actually makes perfect sense now, thanks. Looks amazing :D

Where did you get/how did you make the enclosure? I too am a sucker for those 50s style needle dials. I was looking for a good multimeter with one the other day ;)
 
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