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Archive for the ‘How To’ Category
Take Apart Tuesday No. 6 – HP 1120C
Posted on February 22nd, 2010 • Filed under Events, How To • 5 Comments
So a bit of a rewind on Take Apart Tuesday. This is the write up for February 9th. I was going to skip it and just go straight for hard drive we dismantled on the 16th, but a potentiometer actually smoked (sorry, no flames). It seemed like a requirement to share what that happened.
So this week a bit on optical encoding, then some on stall torque and how it relates to component power ratings. Just for giggles I threw in some DC Motor code on the Arduino at the end. So keep reading… The Case of the Smoking Potentiometer
Take Apart Tuesday No. 5: Electric Toothbrushes
Posted on February 6th, 2010 • Filed under Events, How To • 1 Comment
This week’s Take Apart Tuesday is going to be a little light because we really spent the time after the meeting watching LOST. LOVED IT.
I had dismantled two electric toothbrushes over the weekend preparing for an Introduction To Electronics class I’m teaching at Machine Project in March. I pretty much threw the parts on the table like chum saying “keep the talking to the commercials people.”
That said I have written up a little bit about the nature of DC motors and provided links.
Take Apart Tuesday No. 4: Apple StyleWriter 1200
Posted on January 30th, 2010 • Filed under Events, How To • 2 Comments
This week we ripped apart an Apple StyleWriter 1200 and got one of its stepper motors working! See, we don’t just kill things.
Once again How Stuff Works comes to the rescue with a great article on inkjet printers. Give it a quick glance, especially the Inside an InkJet Printer, before you look at the dismantle porn on flickr so you can get a sense of what you’re looking at.
This poor printer had clearly been languishing in a garage somewhere, with bugs and dirt and stray pennies… we’re happy it’s now in a better place.
Here’s the flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlynorama/sets/72157623309152076/
Last week we had a motor in our circuit inducing current for an LED so now we have the perfect segue for looking at a motor, well, being a motor. We captured two stepper motors from the StyleWriter 1200 and got a 4 phase 5 wire unipolar stepping motor to do its thing.
Take Apart Tuesday No 3. : Crank Flashlight
Posted on January 21st, 2010 • Filed under Events, How To • No Comments
Okay, it seems I’m obsessed with power.
We took apart quite a few things Tuesday night: a massive HD projector from 1996, a little bit of a laptop, an antenna, and various miscellaneous items including a hand crank LED flashlight that Tom brought in.
That little flashlight was fun. Below is a video showing Sean having way too much fun twirling it around.
Conveniently this little device also represents yet another example of AC to DC power generation… the saga continues. Read the rest of this entry »
Take Apart Tuesday No. 2: Emerson VCR
Posted on January 17th, 2010 • Filed under Events, How To • 2 Comments
This week for Take Apart Tuesday we dismantled both a VCR and a DVR. The VCR definitely wins for me hands down in terms of fun. More gears and motors and opportunities to take video… although it was pointed out by Gabriel that I shouldn’t be so hard on the DVR. It does have a fan motor and a motor in the hard drive. Okay, okay, fine.
But look at this! DVRs don’t do this!
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