[QUOTE=thomasfn;40889967]I'm looking into designing and building a quad-copter on the cheap. Buying one is boring (and expensive) and I kinda want to do it without using any kind of kit (so I'd buy the motors, propellers and chassis parts all separately - as well as designing the chassis itself maybe). I also want to build my own flight controller rather than buy a premade one... I got a raspberry pi I could use to control it, which I'd program myself.
My question is, do you guys know of any electic gyroscopes I can use? All the ones I found on the internet are really expensive for some reason ($40+, is this normal for gyroscopes?). I guess I'll need 3-axis ones, I've never really done anything like this before.
I was also thinking of attaching a mobile broadband dongle to the pi and a shitty webcam and trying to control it from my PC.[/QUOTE]
I'm attempting a similar thing. I'm going to use a Wii Motion Plus. I've heard good things about them and you can get hold of one for £5.
I spent my cold-ridden day figuring out how to make a semi-permanent version of my synthesizer circuit and this is what I've got so far:
[t]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62766551/20130608_190900.jpg[/t]
I still have to add the other 4 capacitors for my oscillators, finish the resistor connections on the other side of where the 40106 sits and then add transistors to silence the inactive oscillators, but it's not more than a days work left in this one.
The whole thing runs a Teensy++ 2.0 and receives single serial strings that tell it what the overall state of the synth is.
Finally decided to get off my ass and do something I've been meaning to do for several months.
Testing out my 12AU7 dual triode tube made by Tungsram.
[t]http://u.cubeupload.com/Chryseus/LSWyoc.jpg[/t]
Getting the supply voltages right was a bit of a pain with my crude HV supply putting out 350V, thanks to Mr. Ohm however I was able to drop it down to 300V max by putting 39k in series with my 220k plate resistor, the filament supply also provided the same trouble since I have very few power supplies, a problem I will soon rectify (pun intended) I used 7.6 ohm in series with six NiCd batteries to give around 6.3V at the rated 300mA current.
I've not done a lot of testing as I need to build a test rig, it's not very safe having a couple of hundred volts going all over your desk as I have had the pleasure of finding out, still touching the grid gives a change in plate voltage of 120V! which is pretty huge, keep in mind I have no cathode resistor so the gain will be very high but also non-linear, still the data sheet specifies a gain around 10 with a proper cathode resistor which is actually really quite good for a single stage not to mention it can pump out over 2.5W.
So yeah pretty power inefficient compared with a modern transistor but it still does a damn good job at amplification.
Cool, because I don't have the config sheet for my tube tester.
Why im poor and my parents/cat never go in my room:
[img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7411/8994969099_cb63401bcd_o.png[/img]
Where the fuck did you find a variac that big? :V:
[QUOTE=pentium;40961103]Where the fuck did you find a variac that big? :V:[/QUOTE]
I know right, i was chatting to a guy at a hamfest and we came along to variacs, he said he had 2 variacs (each of them are designed for 25A but can take upto 40-50A for 30mins) so i brought 1 of them, i found that one had most of the enamal on the wire had came off, so i took it back and got the other one x3, should have kept them both and rewound the bad one....
they are both made around 1950 i think.
il try contact that guy some time and get the other one, id sell it to you if i did BUT shipping to canada is kinda expencive. (for somthing over 50Kg)
Heres a pic of the core when i was changing the wires to the windings:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/Nw6CHg5.jpg[/img]
The transformers from the last pic were from a UPS i got from london for £50 + driving 100 miles :L
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/yGHL4Bi.jpg[/IMG]
Im always looking for very large UPS as they have really nice IGBT bricks, capacitors, Inductors, Driving ICs ect
I like my tiny Diffusion pump much more, ive got 2 of them the same size, trying to work out how to get a nice chamber and roughing pump for it.
planning on building a farnsworth fusor with it but im abit scared of x-rays :x
FYI SELLING:
By the way guys, if annyone wants the actuators on the top left picture, im selling them as i cant get them to work. the controller is complex.
(they are intelligent Actuators one is about 7ft long, the other about 2ft i think.)
The two linear actuators? They look pretty high quality, I'm curious; how much would you be looking for them?
Not trying to interject here, but does anyone here know of any good reading material on electrical engineering for the layman? I've always been very interested in this kind of stuff but frankly I don't have the slightest idea on how or where to start learning aside from auditing engineering courses haha.
Thanks for any help!
[QUOTE=Fuxed;40966386]The two linear actuators? They look pretty high quality, I'm curious; how much would you be looking for them?[/QUOTE]
they were never used, just taken out from a work project they disbanded during prototyping, i also have the mounting gear for it.
its all perfect and new other then i cant get the controller working and one of the switches on there is broken, but it can be fixed easly.
the gear would include a wire carry, x-y mounting gear, and several other bits and bobs that i got with it.
how much would you offer since these things usually go in for £10,000s
[QUOTE=DrToboggan;40968259]Not trying to interject here, but does anyone here know of any good reading material on electrical engineering for the layman? I've always been very interested in this kind of stuff but frankly I don't have the slightest idea on how or where to start learning aside from auditing engineering courses haha.
Thanks for any help![/QUOTE]
Try the book "Art of Electronics"
one of the best books ive got on the subject.
Made a time card (punch in/out) system using arduino+RFID scanner (which actually came with an old BASIC parallax board)
[IMG]http://labs.codyprojects.info/punch/pics/1370003629534.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://labs.codyprojects.info/punch/pics/1370003738345.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/c0rrtbW.png[/IMG]
I ran into this image of what looks like a 1052E's interface, but with a beautiful white skin:
[img]http://i.stack.imgur.com/73kCY.png[/img]http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/69851/reducing-led-pwm-noise-which-is-the-best-option
Does anyone know how/where to get that?
You can select different skins in some menu
Yes. Under utilities, but you can only choose between the 4 ugly ones.
Maybe there's some way to install new/custom ones?
It looks like someone has inverted the image, I've done the same before.
[img]http://u.cubeupload.com/Chryseus/vpfeJM.png[/img]
Yep I was right.
How do you guys get the money to get all this equipment? Money is the one thing holding me back from tinkering...
Save up every little bit of money.
Electronics is practically the only stuff I ever spend money on.
Repair broken things for people.
[QUOTE=Chryseus;40999542]Save up every little bit of money.
Electronics is practically the only stuff I ever spend money on.
Repair broken things for people.[/QUOTE]
I can agree with that 100%
[QUOTE=Chryseus;40999542]Save up every little bit of money.
Electronics is practically the only stuff I ever spend money on.
Repair broken things for people.[/QUOTE]
Electronics and beer
because beer is the fuel of electronics
[QUOTE=smlance;40999520]How do you guys get the money to get all this equipment? Money is the one thing holding me back from tinkering...[/QUOTE]
I do jobs for people. I build stuff for them, install stuff, repair stuff.
In the queue at the moment;
Replacing the broken screen on my sisters phone
installing decorative LED lighting in my other sisters apartment
installing decorative LED lighting in my parents caravan
All of these things I get not only a little bit of cash for but a bunch of experience. Plus for things like connectors for LED strips I order in bulk from ebay so there's always a bit left over, which helps me build up a small stock of parts.
Who said I had money? :v:
[QUOTE=pentium;41016798]Who said I had money? :v:[/QUOTE]
Craigslist yo
If your family doesn't have any thing for you to fix, always check there. I'm about to fix an interactive dance/game floor for someone in my town. (Imagine a big illuminated DDR pad)
[t]http://u.cubeupload.com/Chryseus/e2UfpV.jpg[/t]
Come to daddy!
Going to be fun replacing the 15V battery though..
I need an USB to Serial (as in UART) with adjustable voltage
Any idea where I can get this, I can ghetto it up by hooking up an arduino for 5V stuff and another board that does 3.3V but its large, hacky and unpractical
Use a voltage divider ?
Problem is size
I could get a tiny AVR and hook it up to some USB chip and use voltage dividers for a settable voltage
But I'm not too good at this so I would probably screw it up miserably
Plus I need to handle some high speed stuff preferably, not sure if a crappy AVR could do that
[editline]15th June 2013[/editline]
Oh wait, yeah, I could probably get one of those USB to 12V(or whatever it was) serial things, strip it the fuck down and hook up a voltage divider
What? Just use 2 transistors to translate the voltages!
Don't make it more complicated than it is.
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