NeilRG

A wonderful project! I do not think that the person who created this can be held responsible for knowing material costs outside of his familiar area. I wish the nit pickers would stop it!! There are some useful things to be learned here. Thank you.NeilRG

This made me smile. Elsewhere on instructables there are servo controlled air valves that could be used to control air flow out of the balloon. Obviously not having made one I've no idea how this wonderful little car with the added weight. But this is the synergy that comes to followers of this site.Cheers,Neil

Interesting chip. I'll bet no one says they "made one"..... ever!!!!How is this an instructable???

the ingredients are not toxic but neodymium magnets are NOT for young children. They are brittle and if they are allowed to fly together they can chip and spark and the chips are sharp. There have been some serious problems with kids swallowing small neodymium magnets which attract to each other through intestinal walls requiring surgical intervention.Given the relatively fluidity of this compound you could work with ceramic magnets. They are less powerful in a given size, cheaper and relatively safer than neodymium

I might have had better results running it on a 9 volt battery and putting into a metal enclosure with the antenna sticking out but the circuit exhibited poor noise immunity when assembled on to a solderless breadboard I actually got a better result by eliminating the first stage and connecting the antenna to the second stage. I must add that I was working with this unit in front of my laptop and around some test gear on my bench so the circuit may just have picked up on ambient noise since it is not filtered.Thank you for the post.

This is exactly what I was looking for. I will probably increase the gain/sensitivity because i have a narrowly focused need for this type of circuit. Specifically I need to detect when a haptic feedback motor runs in a piece of gear that i cannot wire to directly. Are the inductors you selected air core or ferrite core?Thank you,NeilRG

One method to isolate a non isolated variac which I used years ago to make a servicing rig for my bench was to take two identical beefy STEP DOWN transformers i had laying around and wiring them back to back low voltage to low voltage sides. The emphasis on step down is to keep some noob from connecting two microwave transformers these as many know are step up transformers and VERY dangerous. Interesting post. Thank you.

Another thought is the idea of reducing radiation by twisting the wiring going to the steppers using a variable speed drill. This will help with inductive radiation. These ideas have helped on 3d printers I have built. With a machine as large as the one you built, the runs are much longer so the capacitive and inductive coupling has more "plate" area or more turns through which to couple inductive noise.Best,Neil

I believe you misunderstood my last question. I not concerned how much current the spinner motor draws. Im trying to figure out if the upper bearing could be replaced by a motor which is being spun by the rotation of the ring and used as a generator to supply power to the rotating electronics in the ring .The shaft of the generator is fixed to the frame. The body of the generator is attached to the rotating ring so that as the ring is spun up, the generator could supply power instead of putting voltage through the bearings.I look forward to hearing from you.

I saw this, collected it and downloaded it , i havent actually studied it yet !! I havent searched instructables specifically for propeller projects but you have inspired me to do so. Keep up the great work. I have a idea . If the upper bearing were replaced by a brushed dc motor mounted inside the rotating ring and the shaft were fixed to the frame the motor would become a generator driven by the spin motor and thus supply a dc voltage to the display and micro controllers. Because the mass is centrallized balance would not be affected, however driving a load with the generator would increase the mechanical load for the spin motor. Could you provide current measurements for just the rotating part of the display? I havent done the math but i think the idea may have merit.

Gallagher is getting on in years. All hail the New Gallagher!!

and may i add a hearty Yabba Dabba Dooooooooo!

Larry03052 you are not political you are citing unverifiable facts, or alternative facts that have no basis in reality.

Thankyou for condensing this process down so effectively. I find that when i explain something that i benefit as well because we achieve a clarity of thought.

The tracking adjustment is a nice and essential feature. Nice project.

I appreciate this is a Propeller based project. Yo habla Spin. The clever way you got around needing a slipring is inspired. Beautiful project. Thank you,Neil

Very thorogh instructable excellent presentation especially in the presentation of the tradeoffs that one has to make in any technical project of this scope.The links will be helpful. Iam envious of the aluminum shown at the dealers yard. New is an option but that place seemed to have an amazing assortment of odds & ends.The one likely problem with the limit switches is electrical noise pickup especially if the limit / home switch runs are bundled with the motor cables. I would recommend running the limit switch wiring in shielded cable with two internal conductors. Tie shield to ground at the control box and let the shield float at the switch end.I hope this helps. Thank you,Neil

Black anti static foam sandwiched etween two metal plates works very well.

Nice quick proof of concept. Small servos are not meant for such a large cantilevered load. The life expectancy of this design could be improved by having the axes supported by a shaft running through a hole in your printed plastic parts and the servos only being used to impart rotary motion either with printed gears or via servo horn to a wheel on the drive shaft (s) via pushrod. This will reduce the off centered load on the servo output shafts which should improve the smoothness of the pan tilt motions.

The artistry comes through in everything about this project. Fuctional art like this is inspirational. What do you think of getting a pin up girl painted onto the shell in the style of ww2 nose art that appeared on planes?

this is a clever piece of up cycling. Since i always use filament from the same manufacturer, i just rely on weing my spool before a long print.

this really useful. An actual piece of test equipment that does not have a uproc in it. Still an arduino could provide scale conversion and data logging among other features.Great instructable! Thank you.

what if you have a guest and need a second cup of tea!! Fun stuff.

I like the idea of using this as a light for an umbrella rig, or other bounce lighting techniques. Can this led be strobed?

i admire your willingness to "BOLDLY GO...."

ummm yeah, this isn't going into my test equipment file but a good safe project for young school kids.

This has inspired me to build a custom harness using a pair of meters i already own that i would not want to glue together. I will use pomona banana plugs and jacks for the input to the individual meters and the input to the paired meter rig.While not as economical as the great solution you present it preserves the fuctionality of the meters i have .Thank you for a well written instructable.

Beautiful looking display. But not much spectrum information it seems to display more time duration than spectrum, and the repetitive tinkly music was spectrally limited and frankly annoying to listen to.

excellent disciplined approach to engineering and design. I wish you the best in your carreer.

I agree the frame work is needed and that a box made 1/4 " mdf would be hard to fasten. So this is not a criticizim.You could take the frame pieces and fasten the strips of wood to the back side of the panels with glue and short brads this allows work against a solid surface. After the glue dries the panels would be easier to fit together without risk of the frame racking . The point here is that if the panels pull an out square frame into alignment the frame will possibly not fit tightly into the corners and the case will not be as strong.Thanks for your post.

I appreciate the experimental spirit. But i must call you out on the very naive and shortsighted assumptions you have made. The recent coverage of the Samsung battery fires should serve as a warning about the energy potential these compact and powerful batteries have. Samsung got it wrong TWICE with the original and the replacements and their resources for test far exceeds yours.

While this is not something I will build, I hold your creative thinking in very high regard. I am inspired to follow my own creative ideas on my to do list . Thank you for following your instincts to an impressive conclusion.

imho you might want to go with larger diameter guide rods or upgrade to block and track linear bearings. Wonderful project overall!!

I use these http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-threaded-inserts/=14qfrpt

Hey no need to apologize for not making the most efficient motor! You did well. The instructable was clear and well written. Some one looking for a good science fair project or teaching model would benefit from this.Here are some suggestions:Use hot glue instead of foam,less messy. Use washers on the bottom of the field support rods to reduce the size difference between the rod and coupling to make it easier to keep the rods straight.Fix the rotor to a shaft.Set bearings into the rotor support to make the motor able to drive something. No criticizim here, just a way to drive home the point if this is built for demo purposes.Thank you.

A welder is not likely to work as they are very high CURRENT but low voltage, the exact opposite of what is being demonstrated here.

Would it suit your design objectives to use an external control scheme ? I'm thinking that if the "armature" mounted some Nd magnets and the commutator operated a polarity reversing relay feeding the coils and there were another set of coils on the opposite side.........Hmmmm.I noted that you took your welding ground thru the workbench when welding to the first wheel hub and then to the sprocket segments for the other welds . Did the workbench ground damage the bearings ?