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Step 2So HOW do you MAKE THIS THING?
The parts:
Some of the things you will need are:
Structual Pieces:
1. Some plexiglass or wood, approx 1/4" thick and about a foot in length. I always have some plexiglass around, so that's what I used, but hardwood would probably be better.
2. Four nails
3. A Dremel tool or router, and preferably a routing table.
4. Routing bit and side-cutting bit (or perhaps a thick cutting disk would suffice).
5. A drill and drill bit the same size as your nails
6. Coarse sandpaper
7. For plexiglass: some acetone and a dropper bottle, or some epoxy.
For wood: wood glue? I dunno much about wood-working.
Electrical Part:
There are literally an infinite number of ways to skin this cat. I can't describe them all, so I'll tell you exactly how I made it, using a laptop power supply, 19.5V and 3.16 amps.
If you have the power supply and the tools/supplies to make the structural parts, and you can solder smd parts and read a schematic, I can provide you with the exact circuit components I used. The kit would include all of the following items.
1. Nichrome wire (this comes in a plethora of specs and sizes. After much experimentation and for several reasons, I have settled on Kanthal A1, 27 gauge.) 2 yards of it. More than enough for a couple of screwups.
2. A power mosfet that can handle 9amps!
3. A PIC microcontroller, custom programmed to provide the pulse and to be user-programmable on the fly so that it can be instantly adjusted for a myriad of wire length, power supply, and bag thickness combinations, using only a single button!
4. A bicolor LED, red/green.
5. A 78L05 voltage regulator to power the PIC
6. A couple of caps and a few resistors
7. Some SIP headers, male and female
8. Some protoboard
9. 30AWG kynar wire, about 3 feet.
Some of the things you will need are:
Structual Pieces:
1. Some plexiglass or wood, approx 1/4" thick and about a foot in length. I always have some plexiglass around, so that's what I used, but hardwood would probably be better.
2. Four nails
3. A Dremel tool or router, and preferably a routing table.
4. Routing bit and side-cutting bit (or perhaps a thick cutting disk would suffice).
5. A drill and drill bit the same size as your nails
6. Coarse sandpaper
7. For plexiglass: some acetone and a dropper bottle, or some epoxy.
For wood: wood glue? I dunno much about wood-working.
Electrical Part:
There are literally an infinite number of ways to skin this cat. I can't describe them all, so I'll tell you exactly how I made it, using a laptop power supply, 19.5V and 3.16 amps.
If you have the power supply and the tools/supplies to make the structural parts, and you can solder smd parts and read a schematic, I can provide you with the exact circuit components I used. The kit would include all of the following items.
1. Nichrome wire (this comes in a plethora of specs and sizes. After much experimentation and for several reasons, I have settled on Kanthal A1, 27 gauge.) 2 yards of it. More than enough for a couple of screwups.
2. A power mosfet that can handle 9amps!
3. A PIC microcontroller, custom programmed to provide the pulse and to be user-programmable on the fly so that it can be instantly adjusted for a myriad of wire length, power supply, and bag thickness combinations, using only a single button!
4. A bicolor LED, red/green.
5. A 78L05 voltage regulator to power the PIC
6. A couple of caps and a few resistors
7. Some SIP headers, male and female
8. Some protoboard
9. 30AWG kynar wire, about 3 feet.
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I am really interesting in your neat project. Are you willing to share your PIC program? Which chip did you use? I hope it would work with either the 16F84/16F628. If you do not mind, I would love a copy or some help since I barely played with some of the PIC tutorials.
Dave
Perhaps you could recommend a good hosting site for HEX and assmbly files, so I could post a link?
Thanks