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look over his shoulder at his latest project.... |
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Wave Length Indicator
Wily was in his back yard
trying to get his beagle “Gizmo” to stop barking at a squirrel running along
the fence when his cordless phone rang.
The call was from a
company, which installed optical fiber communications systems. The
caller described a simple battery powered device they needed designed and
built for them.
The company installed
several types of optical fiber systems and needed a quick way to spot check
to see if a fiber cable was active with light and determine which one of 4
wavelengths was being used.
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WHAT
THE WORLD NEEDS NOW is a....Drinking Fountain from Pond Water
There is a nice lake about two
miles from my house. Many people get some exercise by walking around the
lake several times. A complete loop is just under a full mile. I take my
two Beagle dogs there about every other day. I sure wish they had a
drinking fountain there. In the summer it can get rather hot. But, I’m sure
part of the problem is that there is no nearby city connection for clean
drinkable water.
The lake water itself is not
clean enough for drinking. But, I’m wondering if some solution might be devised.
Suppose one were to install a custom drinking fountain near the lake. It could
be powered by a pole mounted solar panel.
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Electrodeless
Fluorescent Lamps
By: Dave Johnson
Compact fluorescent lamps are quite popular
these days. They can offer more light for less power when compared to
standard incandescent lamps. When made by quality companies, they can also
outlast standard lamps. But, many of the lamps coming out of China are poorly
made. Very few of the lamps I have purchased lately have lasted more than two
years, even when the package says that the lamp would last 5 years. I’m sure
many of you have had similar experiences.
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Wireless Battery Charger
By: Dave Johnson
Project Description: A while back, I described on the DC forum my
desire for a wireless battery charger for my wife, who often forgets to plug
in her cell phone into its battery charger.
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Exploding Capacitors
I hardly got to finish my first cup
of coffee when my phone rang. It was one of my old clients. They were in
a panic. Capacitors on a circuit board used in a product I had designed
for them years earlier were exploding. They didn’t understand why.
I asked the usual questions. Which caps? Were there any changes to
voltage or temperature? Were they paying attention to the polarity of
the caps?
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Bad Solar Powered Birdbath
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My wife wanted a small water
feature in her garden. I looked around and decided to buy her a birdbath
with a solar powered water spray. The photo on the box showed a nice
pattern of water jets from the center of the device. I assembled the
thing with some difficulty. As usual, the instructions were written in
broken English with poor illustrations.
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Wind Energy Ship
Let’s imagine a large ship built for a single mission. It would be
designed to convert the forces produced by the wind at sea, collected by a
gigantic sail, into electrical power. As the ship is pulled through
the water by the wind, several oversized propellers under the ship would
spin, producing electricity. The electrical power generated would then
be stored in special cargo containers, which store the power like a battery.
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New Products 2008
New product announcements are made nearly every
day. I subscribe to many trade journals and each is filled with
hundreds of flashy advertisements. But, only a few of those product
ads catch my eye. Since I’m a circuit designer, I especially like
those components that trigger many new application ideas in my mind.
Sometimes it is the smallest products that are the most useful. I
often discovered new products in surplus electronic catalogs. The
surplus companies often buy up stock that came from companies that went out
of business. Bad marketing or bad management may have killed a
perfectly good product idea. Their loss can be your gain if you can
spot the bargain.
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