Sunday, August 15, 2010

Going Mobile

New shock absorbing mount for radar dome on top of car....D3 power supply driven by standard 12vdc-to120vac inverter...first test drive was a success.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

24KM 3KW Radar


Gracious gift from a local lobster man, lucky to have a 24KM radar with display (not shown)....D3 isolated fault to power supply board in display unit, and built temporary multi-voltage supply with PC power supply to drive system....works great, demonstrated good discrimination and tracking of paddle board user just inside a causeway at 200yards...clearly indicated large container ship offshore waiting entry into major harbor....plan to mount it on car shortly.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Chicken of the Woods


Laetiporus sulphureus in our backyard....currently, approximately 4"x9", we'll see just how large it will grow!

Friday, July 23, 2010

System & Network Management

D3 has Munin running and monitoring servers and virtual environments in our private cloud. Link to Munin by clicking on post title. Display is a 32" flat panel LCD TV obtained for free this week by chance, that D3 returned to service by repairing the power supply.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Application of Pressure Threshold Switch


Harvested from a very large, high power pump control panel, D3 integrated this pressure threshold switch into his large air cannon to control when the two valve relay's fire. Capacitors were added to keep the relays open longer than the brief contact period of the pressure switch.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

D3 took a break from building virtual appliances for his cloud to make this water cooled heat sink for a high power H-bridge controller.
Very cool D3 design for steering drive; metal bar at top-center attaches to tie rod arm between front wheels.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

New Robot Platform


New robot platform.....work-in-process photo... not shown: steering mechanism with stepper motor, battery box, control and communications subsystems.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

New Motor Controller Design


D3 Design for an AVR controlled H Bridge motor controller based on high power FETS with complete PCB design.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

More Progess....


D3 is now using an ATMEGA 164PV10PU programmed via an AVR Dragon board, with remote Zigbee communications for speed control (bottom)....a power supply out of a LCD display (center) provides circuit voltages and 24VDC for the motor.