My Motors got me to Tap into Radiant Energy

[prochiro]

arduino

@ All
This is not a promotion for arduino, but on youtube there is a guy named jeremy that has 15 videos about learning electronic basics thru advanced work with the arduino as an aid. He is good and a beginner can learn the basics of what we are working on there. If you are also interested and ever want to try arduino I would suggest the new Leonardo. Just watch the videos and learn.
Dana

Here is the first one of 15.


Tutorial 01 for Arduino: Getting Acquainted with Arduino - YouTube

[iflewmyown]

Thanks for this.
Garry

[Donald Haas]

Through the paces

Hi All,

Dana helped me with a solid basic circuit and now I've added UFO's voltage regulator and have it running with 5 mosfets.

The slightest change requires new tuning.

I'm getting 13.7v from regulator but it seems that it drops too much for 6 mosfets with 330ohm gate R's so I'll try a little more voltage from regulator or a little less resistance on gates.

At present all is bread boarded except the mosfets are on a AL angle iron.

I'm surprised at the heat in the mosfets at 36v.

Full brightnes with cfl at about .3a.

Are we recovering from yesterday's proceedings. (Dec 25) My wife and 10 kids plus the cat are coming along fine.

bro d

[prochiro]

Donald
13.5 is enough to run the primary part of the circuit. Actually less voltage will also do at first part. How the other voltages are ramped up is 12V is injected into the output square wave signal using a 1K resistor before the fet driver. At the fet driver, 12,24 or 36 volts is input directly to fet input. ????? Do you understand ????? See John Stones circuit for example and set up fet driver like this for starters. He has a new driver design you should use later. With that many fet you should drive many lights. It only takes one to do the job of one light. Good work so far and keep reading and doing research.
Dana

[Cornboy 555]

10 KIDS, What.

Hi All,

Dana helped me with a solid basic circuit and now I've added UFO's voltage regulator and have it running with 5 mosfets.

The slightest change requires new tuning.

I'm getting 13.7v from regulator but it seems that it drops too much for 6 mosfets with 330ohm gate R's so I'll try a little more voltage from regulator or a little less resistance on gates.

At present all is bread boarded except the mosfets are on a AL angle iron.

I'm surprised at the heat in the mosfets at 36v.

Full brightnes with cfl at about .3a.

Are we recovering from yesterday's proceedings. (Dec 25) My wife and 10 kids plus the cat are coming along fine.

bro d

Hello Donald, ten Kids is more than a full time job just on it's own, how you find the time to do extra is a credit to you and your wife.

Warm Regards Cornboy.

[Donald Haas]

Retiree with young wife

Hello Donald, ten Kids is more than a full time job just on it's own, how you find the time to do extra is a credit to you and your wife.

Warm Regards Cornboy.

Hi Cornboy,

I'll give my wife and her creator all the credit.

She's almost 20 yrs younger and I'm retrired as of 2011.

She is very quiet and gentle like a peaceful mother hen.

Our youngest is 4 so it's still like living in a nursury school.

I'm the only problem child but there's hope.

bro d

[Cornboy 555]

Me Too.

Hi Cornboy,

I'll give my wife and her creator all the credit.

She's almost 20 yrs younger and I'm retrired as of 2011.

She is very quiet and gentle like a peaceful mother hen.

Our youngest is 4 so it's still like living in a nursury school.

I'm the only problem child but there's hope.

bro d

Yeh, i'm like a naughty big kid too.

Regards Cornboy.

[Donald Haas]

PWM to driver voltage?

Donald
13.5 is enough to run the primary part of the circuit. Actually less voltage will also do at first part. How the other voltages are ramped up is 12V is injected into the output square wave signal using a 1K resistor before the fet driver. At the fet driver, 12,24 or 36 volts is input directly to fet input. ????? Do you understand ????? See John Stones circuit for example and set up fet driver like this for starters. He has a new driver design you should use later. With that many fet you should drive many lights. It only takes one to do the job of one light. Good work so far and keep reading and doing research.
Dana

Thanks Dana,
I'll be doing JohnStone's 555 driver and sending the square wave from your circuit to it. How much voltage should the sq wave to the 555 driver be.

I see a separate PS of 12v for the driver. Don't want a conflict.

Also, what's best for a parallel bifilar coil (turns and wire size)?

Thanks,

bro d

[Donald Haas]

555 fet driver

Thanks Dana,
I'll be doing JohnStone's 555 driver and sending the square wave from your circuit to it. How much voltage should the sq wave to the 555 driver be.

I see a separate PS of 12v for the driver. Don't want a conflict.

Also, what's best for a parallel bifilar coil (turns and wire size)?

Thanks,

bro d

Hi Dana and all,

I just tried JohnStone's 555 timer fet driver.
It scopes vertical ons and offs at every frequency that I tried.

I gave me many more frequency and duty cycle combo's that "lit the light".

Thankyou Mr Stone!

I just went with the output pwm that I have been working with into the driver.

Time to build a keeper.

bro d


bro d

[prochiro]

Donald
Glad you see the light. As a solid 12.5 volts should be hitting fet base it should work fine. John S. has said that just a little more might be good as it helps the fet open and close fully and sharper. Keep doing this and playing with it until you own it in your mind.
Dana

[Donald Haas]

Clean scope shot?

Hi All,

Been working with a PWM circuit that has the following:

UFO Voltage Regulator -PS=coil pulse batt 24v

555/393 adj freq/duty%-PS=voltage rugulator

JS 555 driver-PS=adj PSU from wall - 15v

two mosfets-PS=24v batt

I can get a clean scope shot from the driver when it is not hooked to fets,

But cannot get a clean (normal sq wave) when fets are hooked.

The scope and the adj PSU are on the same wall circuit.

Grounding issues?

I have the 1000uF cap accross batt but very close to the fets and coil (soldered directly to both)

Circuit is working well. No heat problems and easily controlled input amperage..

Did a demo for a friend.

I've tried the neg scope probe clip at every ground connection.

Maybe someone can help me understand grounding hookup.

Thanks,

bro d

[Michael John Nunnerley]

need load

Hi All,

Been working with a PWM circuit that has the following:

UFO Voltage Regulator -PS=coil pulse batt 24v

555/393 adj freq/duty%-PS=voltage rugulator

JS 555 driver-PS=adj PSU from wall - 15v

two mosfets-PS=24v batt

I can get a clean scope shot from the driver when it is not hooked to fets,

But cannot get a clean (normal sq wave) when fets are hooked.

The scope and the adj PSU are on the same wall circuit.

Grounding issues?

I have the 1000uF cap accross batt but very close to the fets and coil (soldered directly to both)

Circuit is working well. No heat problems and easily controlled input amperage..

Did a demo for a friend.

I've tried the neg scope probe clip at every ground connection.

Maybe someone can help me understand grounding hookup.

Thanks,

bro d

Just incase you have no load on output of your fet, will not work, you have to load the fet. Hope that is the problem

Mike

[Donald Haas]

Just incase you have no load on output of your fet, will not work, you have to load the fet. Hope that is the problem

Mike

Hi Mike

Circuit is working .......... lighting lights and running motors.

bro d

[JohnStone]

Hi ALL Friends?
Now I'm, back from vacation and you get my best wishes for your personal life and those you love and of course for our success here in UFO realms!

I am glad some of you have success with FET driving.
I will stress it again and again that the drivers suggested are not the top of technology available but a very good tradeoff between cost, complexity and understanding. All of us need to master this step before imgining any further improvements. (German saying: It is better to hold da sparrow in your hand than watching a dove sitting on the roof)

If FETs get hot soon there is something wrong:

• Driver too slow
• Driver emits voltage below 10V
• Oscillations at gate side (sourced by driver or output) (especially with long leads and breadbourd)
• Very low inductivity at output

The max Vcc for 555 (NE... or TLC... or LMC...) is specified between 15V and 18 V depending on manufacturer. Consult the respective data sheet and stay 2V below absolute maximum voltage. Therefore 12.5V is a quite secure operationg point while giving enough voltage to open FETs fully).

The reason for attatching a 555 to FETs directly is because of short leads from pin 3 to gate and the secure recovery of oscillator output. The 555 will do its genuine switching if the voltage exceeds the threshold at input pin 2 and 6 tied together. ON exceeding 2/3 of Vcc and OFF below 1/3 Vcc.

Connect a ceramic 100nF (=0.1µF) cap between pin 1 and 8 and additionally a electrolitic cap 1µF...10µF. It garantees stable performance of switching

Use a central GND point (or massive bus bar) at FET source pin(s). Else you have no known basis for driving, load, measurements .... = roulett play.

Test the driver excluding FETs.
Do not test driver + FETs without load. Those measurements make no sense.

Test FET switching with resistor load of about 1A only. This should work stable and with clear square wave shape. Check for oscillations at gate side.

Switching coils will show very strange voltages at FET including (possibly) on gate. Do not believe any scope shot blindly. They sometimes add artifacts.

If you hook your coil at FETs make sure you have minimum pulse width. If they heat up soon there is something wrong.
If it stays cool increase pulse width and check for heat.

For inspiration see this diagram
And do not foret this post as enhancement

As I posted in my document - build building blocks (oscillator, FET/driver block) and examine them before you tie them together. This is professional behaviour conversely to throw all components to their place and torture your brain in order to find errors out of a plurality of errors possible. That's not smart at all.

Mastering the process above enables you to build serious pulsers later on.
JohnS

[JohnStone]

Measurement of low OHM

We have problems in measuring low ohms of our coils with cheap DMMs. In fact it is easy if we add some cheap components.

How do DMMs measure resistance?
They generate a constant current through the probes and unit under test and calculate the resistance from known current and voltage measured. As DMMs battery powered they can't use much current. Thus the voltage on a 0.5 ohm coil is minute and not consistant.

How can we improve it?
Build a current source yourself rated at about 1A and measure the voltage. Calculate yourself conforming Ohms law: R=U/I

How can we build a current source?
The good news is that any voltage regulator can be convinced to perform as current source. Take i.e. a LM317

The regulator will try to regulate the voltage between reference pin (bottom) and output (right hand). It can do so by sourcing current independently from the resistor under test. It will perform identically even if you short circuit the unit under test.

The green line above relates to voltage scale and amp scale at same time (strange but true).
Do not operate the circuit for long time because of heat.

Prcedure:

• Measure the current without UUT (corrsponds to short circuit).
• Connect the UUT - but please: make massive contacts i.e. with screw terminals (do not use those tiny baby alligator clips!)
• Measure the voltge on UUT - directly on contacts of the coil.
• Calculate resistance R=U/I