Archive for the ‘Electronics’ Category
100 LEDs, 16 Square Inches
I wrote about a project back in August that I called the Twinkle Tag, as an experiment in PCB design and construction- seeing if I could fit 100 RGB LEDs, plus all the circuitry required to drive them in a scanning array based off the Peggy 2 from EMSL on a four inch square two-layer […]
Twinkle Tag: An SMD Experiment- Part 1, Design
I’ve designed and had manufactured several PCBs over the last couple years for the Battery Regulator project. I’ve focused on using through-hole parts, using surface mount components infrequently only when necessary. Even after spending hours condensing the components and finding clever ways to rout traces to maximize the use of board- space I find the […]
Back in Action
After having the last couple weeks of my life stolen by first illness, then jury duty, I’m finally back in control and ready to get the stuff that needs to get done done to make the projects that need to happen happen- like the car and the kart. I didn’t shave until I was booted […]
In: Battery Regulator, EV Miata, Life and Times
Making progress on Loose Ends
I’ve got three big areas that need work on the car: Overloaded suspension Plug-n-Play chargability Amp-hour/range remaining instrumentation
In: Battery Regulator, EV Miata
Massive update
A lot has happened since June 8th, when I wrote the last post- Let’s get all that out of the way and move move on to what’s new- I visited ohio and drove my great-uncle Cal’s tractor on the old family farm: The semester ended, I got good grades. As I have hinted, I drove […]
In: Battery Regulator, EV Miata
How to Charge Your EV’s AGM SLA Batteries
This is a work in progress- I am working on planning how the battery regulators for the car are going to work. One key part of that process is deciding on the actual optimal charging procedure for the Optima-type AGM battery. One often-seen charging procedure is the “three-stage charging” process. It consists of three distinct […]
In: Battery Regulator, EV Miata
Battery Regulator- the OTHER part of the project
I devised a workable fix for the circuit FAIL previously described and finished assembling a set of four battery regulator boards- their relatively small size belies that they have a LOT of parts on them! They are a pretty involved assembly project! I haven’t tested everything about every board, but as far as I can […]
Circuit FAIL
First- the good news. The circuit boards came in from Gold Phonenix, it really is very easy to order from them, and I am pretty happy with the quality. I first contacted them on March 13th (Friday), asking for quote confirmation for a 155 in^2 “Special Price” order, including the gerbers in a .zip file […]
Battery Regulator- The Next Step
I finished the new board design a few days ago- I don’t think I’m an expert or anything, but definitely did a better job this time than I did on the prototype- Just to begin, I checked my schematics and footprints carefully. That in itself will make a big difference! I also got the overall […]
Battery Regulator- part 4
I finished testing the battery regulator board over the last two days, as I planned I did a full-current “burn” test and tested the MCP2551 (CAN transciever) based communications circuit. Things went mostly according to plan. I had planned to burn in the power circuit for ~2hrs, but I got all the information I needed […]