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| Let's drop in on Wily and
look over his shoulder at his latest project.... |
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Single Lead-Acid Cell
Voltage Monitor
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| Wily was just finishing his
morning cup of coffee when his phone range. The caller was the owner of a
large photovoltaic power system installation company. They install ed
systems for business owners and home owners who wanted a complete solar
power system, using photovoltaic solar panels mounted on the roof of their
home or building. Most of the systems the company installed were grid tied,
which do not use any storage batteries. But, sometimes, the company did
install systems with a large battery for backup power and for off-grid
systems. The caller explained that the battery banks used large lead-acid
cells to harvest the energy made in the daytime by the solar panels, so that
energy could later be used at night..... |
con't page 7 |
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Wily Widget,
the Lone Inventor
with Gadget & Gizmo |
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| WHAT
THE WORLD NEEDS NOW is a....Water Heater Flame Detector |
| A while back I got an email
from a Discover Circuits visitor. He had a house full of guests who all had
to share one bathroom shower. The small home’s water heater was not large,
so it frequently ran out of hot water. He wished there was a way he and his
house guests could know when it was safe to take shower. .... |
| story
con't on page 6 |
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25 Watt-hour
Battery Pack for Charging Devices through USB Port
By: Dave Johnson
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| My wife often
forgets to plug her phone into its charger. Later, the phone runs out of
juice. I thought it would be nice to have a compact battery pack which could
conveniently fit in her purse and be switched on to charge not only her phone
but any device which draws power from a USB port.... |
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story con't on page 4 |
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Swapped Parts
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| One of my old clients was still
producing a product I had designed for them decades before. Over the years,
they had to make a few changes here and there. Most of the changes were in
response to some older parts which had become obsolete and had to be replaced
with more readily available parts. The company had just received a batch of
new boards soldered by one of their suppliers. None of the boards worked
properly. Over the years, they had never had any problems with the design or
the boards so they were puzzled. I told them to send me a few boards to look
at..... |
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story
con't on page
3 |
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Bad Bug Zapper |
| About 6 months ago, I
purchased an electric bug zapper (“Stinger”, made by Kaz, Inc. in
Southborough Massachusetts) for my shop. Ugly flies buzzing around
my head and biting my legs and arms while trying to work were driving me
nuts so I thought this product would help knock down the fly population.
I figured I could leave it plugged in day and night and let it zap away.
It was a classic design with a high voltage screen grid inside a plastic
case and an ultraviolet lamp, to attract the insects..
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story con't on page 5
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Email us
and let us know what you would like to see in upcoming issues. Thanks |
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