Author Topic: The Black Box v.v. mod (Read 20206 times)

Jasen · « **on:** May 25, 2014, 04:56:07 PM »

Got some more work done on my PTR08100 mod w/ low volt indicator. (Breaktru's Side x side copper bullet v.v. and low volt circuit's)

Just a teaser for today and a big Thank You to Dave, Craig, Mamu and the gang in general for the help and patience w/ all my noob question's.

Breaktru · « **Reply #1 on:** May 25, 2014, 05:15:48 PM »

It's coming along nicely Jasen

Tell us about the enclosure

Visus · « **Reply #2 on:** May 25, 2014, 07:16:15 PM »

So you ballered the enclosure that is looking fantastic.

memoevapor · « **Reply #3 on:** May 25, 2014, 08:03:17 PM »

Looking forward to more. Looks very nice.

david4500 · « **Reply #4 on:** May 25, 2014, 09:15:31 PM »

Enclosure
http://www.okwenclosures.com/products/okw/soft-case.htm

Jasen · « **Reply #5 on:** May 26, 2014, 12:28:14 AM »

David that's it, one of my free samples from OKW. I plan to fire up the iron on Monday.

Question about trimmers. I cant find a schematic for the NTE 500-0099-BU I'm using. Is this right? three lead's arranged in a triangle placed high on case, I'm thinking the middle (high side) is ground and the sides are in/out, does it turn counter clockwise (low on R high on L), so the right lead is in and the left out?

Had to Google ballered, I'm falling behind on my slang, I must be getting old

Jasen · « **Reply #6 on:** May 26, 2014, 01:18:36 AM »

Spreading the pins on the PTR was a bit nerve wracking, had to bend pin 1 and 5 a long way. I started with pin 1 to see how it would go seeing it wouldn't matter if I broke it off.

I'm going to try and make my battery contact's from some 20g SS sheet metal I have a work.

Breaktru · « **Reply #7 on:** May 26, 2014, 07:34:00 AM »

Quote from: Jasen on May 26, 2014, 12:28:14 AM

Question about trimmers. I cant find a schematic for the NTE 500-0099-BU I'm using. Is this right? three lead's arranged in a triangle placed high on case, I'm thinking the middle (high side) is ground and the sides are in/out, does it turn counter clockwise (low on R high on L), so the right lead is in and the left out?

A potentiometer or trimmer is a variable resistor. It has NO polarity so which pin goes to ground does not mater.
You will use the center pin and one outside leg of the trimmer.
Take your ohm meter and connect one end to the center pin and the other to an outside pin. Use the outside pin that decreases in resistance when turning the trimmer clockwise. A decrease in resistance will increase the output voltage.

Jasen · « **Reply #8 on:** May 26, 2014, 11:50:41 AM »

Thanx.

Jasen · « **Reply #9 on:** May 26, 2014, 08:04:55 PM »

Need to stand up straight for a bit, but I got this part done.

Breaktru · « **Reply #10 on:** May 26, 2014, 08:35:13 PM »

Looking good Jasen

I know I never indicated it on my schematic/diagram for the 08100w but I would suggest to solder 20ga wires for the heavy current and not rely on the trace lines of the board to carry the heavy current.

memoevapor · « **Reply #11 on:** May 26, 2014, 09:00:52 PM »

Coming along nicely man....

Jasen · « **Reply #12 on:** May 26, 2014, 09:11:01 PM »

Dave, I picked up on the 20g wire from one of the many posts I've read here. You, Mamu and Craig have probably posted that a number of times. I've read so much here on the PTR, OKR, OKL, Raptor that sometimes it start's to run together and I get a little lost.

Jasen · « **Reply #13 on:** May 27, 2014, 02:16:51 AM »

Now for round 2. I tested it once I had it together and no joy, checked the layout, made sure nothing was touching, all the solder joint's looked good, no cold joint's. I was struggling w/ a connection, desoldered it, struggled getting it soldered again and I think I might have cooked the IC.
I've got another IC, but one of the cap's didn't survive desoldering, broke a lead clean off so I'll have to order somemore, knew I should have bought extra..
Oh well, I did learn a thing or two and came up with a better way to do my wiring and a better assemble procedure.

I do need to get some of those magnifying goggles with duel 48 LED array's or a lit magnifier helping hands. I had a lamp, a LED work light and my LED headlight on and was still struggling to see what I was doing.

It's all part of the fun right

CraigHB · « **Reply #14 on:** May 27, 2014, 01:01:18 PM »

Quote from: Jasen on May 27, 2014, 02:16:51 AM

I do need to get some of those magnifying goggles with duel 48 LED array's or a lit magnifier helping hands. I had a lamp, a LED work light and my LED headlight on and was still struggling to see what I was doing.

I wouldn't be able to any of this stuff without good magnification. I've got a bunch of different magnifiers. I think you'll find you can do much better with things once you have that. My vision is not great like it used to be, but even with perfect vision I would still need it.

Jasen · « **Reply #15 on:** May 31, 2014, 12:57:01 AM »

Yippieee, got my fire switch today.

Not only is it the wrong switch, I put 3V to it as stated on the web site and it doesn't light up

I got a zero "0" it was supposed to be a O like this one

Breaktru · « **Reply #16 on:** May 31, 2014, 08:07:18 AM »

Quote from: Jasen on May 31, 2014, 12:57:01 AM

Yippieee, got my fire switch today.

Not only is it the wrong switch, I put 3V to it as stated on the web site and it doesn't light up

I got a zero "0" it was supposed to be a O like this one

Did you check which pins are for the LED and check the polarity? Did you check w/ a 3V source? If using with higher voltage, a limiting resistor is necessary.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1pc-Blue-Led-Dia-10mm-Cap-Number-3-Momentary-12V-Tact-Push-Button-Switch-/290868724504?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43b9208318

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1pc-Blue-Led-Dia-10mm-Cap-CIRCLE-12V-Momentary-Tact-Push-Button-Switch-/290868683992?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43b91fe4d8

Jasen · « **Reply #17 on:** May 31, 2014, 10:37:50 AM »

I used a 3V source. It has 6 lead's, 4 just like a typical PCB mount tact switch and 2 straight leads which I figured were to power the LED. When I didn't get anything from those I tried the other lead's and still got nothing.

But at least I can use this one to finish laying out my board, drill holes in the box etc. until I get another.

CraigHB · « **Reply #18 on:** May 31, 2014, 07:37:55 PM »

Sounds like you got a dud, though if you apply too much voltage to an LED without a bias resistor, it will burn out quickly. Don't know if that's what happened or not, but you do need to be careful with LEDs powering them without any current limiting resistance. Without it, you don't have to very far over their forward voltage drop to fry them.

Jasen · « **Reply #19 on:** May 31, 2014, 09:00:09 PM »

How many hundred's or thousands do they crank out a day, there's going to be a dud or two in there somewhere.

BigHoffy · « **Reply #20 on:** May 31, 2014, 10:01:46 PM »

Im in love with that button at the moment. I don't even care about the led, ok that's a lie. I'm just not a huge fan of tiny buttons. the hana style ones are cool for voltage up and down, but a want a nice easy button like on a playstation controller. Hmm that gives me an idea, I know there are metal replacements for them buttons. and I'm fairly certain the real button underneath is quite similar to the sx350 included one. Mod it for me guys so I don't have to think

Jasen · « **Reply #21 on:** June 01, 2014, 12:12:29 AM »

It is a bit small, but no smaller then the one on my Itazte. But once I factored in the cool factor, I had to get it.

Jasen · « **Reply #22 on:** June 15, 2014, 07:09:59 PM »

Got some time in today while waiting for the kids to come over to burn me up a Fathers day steak on the BBQ.

New 08100, caps and board, managed to salvaged the pot, resistor and slide switch from my earlier SNAFU

Breaktru · « **Reply #23 on:** June 15, 2014, 07:23:25 PM »

Cool!
Did ya get to fire it up yet?
Happy Fathers Day

Jasen · « **Reply #24 on:** June 15, 2014, 11:14:31 PM »

Kids showed up just then, so now that they've left I'm going to test fire. Forgot I still need to make the connections to the 80100

Jasen · « **Reply #25 on:** June 16, 2014, 12:10:29 AM »

Well it would seem I've done something wrong again. I've looked and looked but can't see any bad connections, I'll have to look tomorrow with freash eyes.
Just to double check, but the leads on the caps are the same as an LED right, long leg + short leg -

Breaktru · « **Reply #26 on:** June 16, 2014, 07:16:00 AM »

Quote from: Jasen on June 16, 2014, 12:10:29 AM

Well it would seem I've done something wrong again. I've looked and looked but can't see any bad connections, I'll have to look tomorrow with freash eyes.
Just to double check, but the leads on the caps are the same as an LED right, long leg + short leg -

Yes, on a tantalum you will see that there is a plus (+) sign above the long lead.

Jasen · « **Reply #27 on:** June 16, 2014, 11:33:21 PM »

OK, so that's not the problem. Frustrating day at work today so it sits cradled in the 3rd hands waiting my for attentions.

CraigHB · « **Reply #28 on:** June 17, 2014, 01:01:10 AM »

Oh you'll know if you hook up a tantalum backwards, it will pop like a firecracker. Yup, did that one time on the breadboard holding one between my fingers, ouch, that left a mark. I needed a 10uF cap really quick to check something and grabbed the first one I had laying around. Shouldn't have grabbed that one.

I threw away all the standard tantalum caps I have in my parts stocks the other day so I won't be making that mistake again. Don't need them, there's better caps available now. Had those tantalums from years ago. The one possible use for them is some old linear regulators need them on output for stability. If I come across any of those old regulators in my parts stocks, they'll end up in the circular file too. All modern linear regulators are designed for MLCC caps.

Jasen · « **Reply #29 on:** July 19, 2014, 03:21:42 AM »

I may have been a little gungho dusting off my LED soldering skills to build the 08100 so I'm falling back on my strong skill sets, design and fabrication. I'll return to the 08100 down the road, so for now I ordered a DNA30 from Cignot.com last Saturday and it showed up the following Monday.

Visus · « **Reply #30 on:** July 19, 2014, 04:03:22 AM »

Quote from: CraigHB on June 17, 2014, 01:01:10 AM

Oh you'll know if you hook up a tantalum backwards, it will pop like a firecracker. Yup, did that one time on the breadboard holding one between my fingers, ouch, that left a mark. I needed a 10uF cap really quick to check something and grabbed the first one I had laying around. Shouldn't have grabbed that one.

I threw away all the standard tantalum caps I have in my parts stocks the other day so I won't be making that mistake again. Don't need them, there's better caps available now. Had those tantalums from years ago. The one possible use for them is some old linear regulators need them on output for stability. If I come across any of those old regulators in my parts stocks, they'll end up in the circular file too. All modern linear regulators are designed for MLCC caps.

You can circular file it my way Craig anything ya no wants has a home here. I desolder old electronics and use their parts been saving everything electronic for just that, have old puters tv's remote controls, motion switches etc. I made my coil welder out of a 1980's camera lol aha see if I threw that away I would have needed to drive a few miles for some free boards. rfol My bro in law just threw out an old microwave I was gonna make a capactive welder with it but their garbage collection day changed on me and they got it before i did. lol..

Jasen · « **Reply #31 on:** July 19, 2014, 04:33:27 AM »

I will add that I've been working like a mad man on a new box design in google sketchup for the DNA30, just gathering a few more bit's to start that build. I think it's a bit of a twist compared to anything else out there.

CraigHB · « **Reply #32 on:** July 19, 2014, 10:24:50 AM »

That Sketch-Up is a pretty amazing free product. Actually Google sold it some time ago so it's another company that handles it, but it's still free. Gotta love free software. LTSpice is another program like that, great software and it's free. Even if you want to do simple stuff with it like checking a voltage divider it's good for that.

I'll PM you Visus next time I want to get rid of something that still may be useful. You know the old saying, one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Jasen · « **Reply #33 on:** July 19, 2014, 01:17:01 PM »

I've been dabbling in Sketchup sense way back, great piece of software.
Just downloaded LTspice, I'll have to play with this a bit, thanx Craig.

CraigHB · « **Reply #34 on:** July 20, 2014, 03:46:31 PM »

Welcome, yeah I can't recommend LTSPice enough, it really is a handy bit of software whether you're designing complex circuits or simply want to light an LED. The interface is a bit weird. It's designed wholly around running simulations, but once you get used to it, it's super fast and easy to set up circuits to test.