Underwurldes - Diy Auto Top Off Project
- Thread starter sophos9
- Start date
Underwurlde
Always look on the bright side of life..
Like I said, no money in it. Going 'on the road' is not all it's cracked up to be...
Look at it this way: Mobile phones - the technology that goes into them is quite literally mind blowing. Staggeringly clever stuff. But they are chuck away items. No one therefore places any worth in electronics now. DVD Players, Cameras, PCs - staggering bits of technology - throw away prices. Someone told me the other day that 'you're designing tomorrow's land-fill' - that hit a nerve!
What price would you put on this little project?
Now, what price would you put on this little project, when you can get a mobile phone for a tenner?
I do enjoy what I do though - I create, even if that only just pays my 50K mortgage off.... I'm happy at the very least!
Andy
Look at it this way: Mobile phones - the technology that goes into them is quite literally mind blowing. Staggeringly clever stuff. But they are chuck away items. No one therefore places any worth in electronics now. DVD Players, Cameras, PCs - staggering bits of technology - throw away prices. Someone told me the other day that 'you're designing tomorrow's land-fill' - that hit a nerve!
What price would you put on this little project?
Now, what price would you put on this little project, when you can get a mobile phone for a tenner?
I do enjoy what I do though - I create, even if that only just pays my 50K mortgage off.... I'm happy at the very least!
Andy
Now you put it that way... 
In my last business, we would have killed for someone like you to design 'one off' destructive testing equipment and production of 'one off' production line automation pieces.
When we had the robotics team in, they were on £550 per day....
In my last business, we would have killed for someone like you to design 'one off' destructive testing equipment and production of 'one off' production line automation pieces.
When we had the robotics team in, they were on £550 per day....
Underwurlde
Always look on the bright side of life..
Hmmmm. Ha, let me know if you want anything else doing.... I only ask £500/day BARGAIN!!!!!
Anyway, I am about to trot off down the post office and send your Auto TopOff back. Should be with you tomorrow.
I couldn't be bothered to wiat for an order slot so I have done some surgery on a surface mount 74HC02 (you'll see). It will work the same as it's larger package brother (same silicon inside).
May be worth you ordering some '02's but up to you, what you have will work.
Cheers,
Andy
Anyway, I am about to trot off down the post office and send your Auto TopOff back. Should be with you tomorrow.
I couldn't be bothered to wiat for an order slot so I have done some surgery on a surface mount 74HC02 (you'll see). It will work the same as it's larger package brother (same silicon inside).
May be worth you ordering some '02's but up to you, what you have will work.
Cheers,
Andy
Hi Andy, thanks loads for sorting the kit, cant wait to plug it in!! To be honest, topping up is one of the house keeping chores I totally hate so this will be ace...
Will do - I work in a different industry now (unfortunately) but I still know some of the guys! God, if I knew what you did I would be making hardware based IT security tools - how much fun could be had then!
Will do - I work in a different industry now (unfortunately) but I still know some of the guys! God, if I knew what you did I would be making hardware based IT security tools - how much fun could be had then!
Nice. What aspect of design there? Battery design and protection; main drive power; regenerative braking; monitoring and control; all of the above?
Underwurlde
Always look on the bright side of life..
Technology centres around innovative pancake motor design and the control & drive of the car there of. You can do some cunning things if you have 4 pancake motors on each wheel (think torque) such as dynamic damping. Regenerative braking yes, but with such motors you can stop 3/4 tonnes of car from 60 to 0 in 2 secs, that's dumping 200KW of energy into the batteries.... but how the hell? Also with regenerative braking is the cunningness of no PHYSICAL brakes.... nothing wears out.... nothing to replace! Certainly battery protection comes into it (aka how the f do you dump 200KW over 2 secs of energy into a battery)... battery design now that's way beyond me (I hear the next gen of rechargables are deep deep cyclic, i.e. normal cell phone, camera, camcorder etc type batteries, instead of trickle charging for >1hr, a pain, you dump 50A into for about 10sec and bop - battery charged! How cool will that be
)
Now I'm whittering....
Andy
)Now I'm whittering....
Andy
Hehe, yeah battery technology has come a LONG way. I know here in the States there's a new REALLY high-current lithium-ion cell (with some new polymer construction) made by A123 Systems. Tradidional Lithium Cobalt Dioxide batts (like laptop ones) do not take kindly to over-current at ALL, although to date have the best manufactured power density. Stinks that they also are small cells and need lots of protection down to the individual cell level. I've also heard a lot of rumblings on the research front about Ultra Capacitors which might really be the way to go with the whole regenerative breaking and high-current issue. Although last I heard those were still just in the early lab testing stage at MIT. That's totally where energy efficiency is though. If most of that braking energy can be re-claimed... Wow thats freakin exciting.
Underwurlde
Always look on the bright side of life..
I never did understand why they use 2.
So, One only.....
So, One only.....
Ahhh.....
"A second float switch can be used to prevent accidental overflows due to the primary float switch becoming stuck in the on position. The secondary switch is mounted above the primary in the same tank. If the water level rises to the level of the secondary switch, the controller will deactivate the relay."
What does the buzzer do mate?
"A second float switch can be used to prevent accidental overflows due to the primary float switch becoming stuck in the on position. The secondary switch is mounted above the primary in the same tank. If the water level rises to the level of the secondary switch, the controller will deactivate the relay."
What does the buzzer do mate?
Got it, system failure (relay welding)... Cool!!
I've wired the two sensors in series so any one of them can cut the circuit (incase a dumb snail tries to help!!), testing this it seems to work fine. Tomorrow will see me playing about n getting it in the tank (with photos)
Thanks again Andy, superb job!
I've wired the two sensors in series so any one of them can cut the circuit (incase a dumb snail tries to help!!), testing this it seems to work fine. Tomorrow will see me playing about n getting it in the tank (with photos)
Thanks again Andy, superb job!
Got it, system failure (relay welding)... Cool!!
I've wired the two sensors in series so any one of them can cut the circuit (incase a dumb snail tries to help!!), testing this it seems to work fine. Tomorrow will see me playing about n getting it in the tank (with photos)
Thanks again Andy, superb job!
Wait, it works with the two switches in series? THought they had to be in parallel for the desired functionality here...
Underwurlde
Always look on the bright side of life..
I 'guessed' early on in the project that they were normally open switches - phew, got that right as normally my luck dictates that a 50/50 chance means I usually choose the wrong option...
Andy
LOL You asked for it!!!!!!
Andy
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