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Let's drop in on Wily and
look over his shoulder at his latest project.... |
Vertically Lifting
Security Gate Power Source |
Wily got a call from one of
his old clients. A few years earlier Wily had designed a control
circuit for the client’s nifty security gate, which lifted vertically,
instead of the usual horizontal motion. The act of moving the gate
vertically and folding up was ideal for mountain homes, where narrow roads
and heavy snow depths were common. His old client had received a
request from one of his customers who wanted a gate power source with a much
longer life than the usual 3 to 5 years that a lead acid battery offered.
The customer said that he had batteries die at some very inconvenient times.
Could Wily come up with something?
The vertical lifting security gates, as shown below, were most often
installed far from any AC power source. The standard system used a
small 5 watt solar panel and a 12v sealed lead acid battery as a power
source. Both the battery and the control circuit board were housed
inside an insulated plastic case.....con't
page 7 |
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WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW isDrinking
Water from Thin Air |
A while back, I saw a
demonstration of device which could pull enough water from thin air to
keep an insulated tank full of a few gallons of clean pure cool water.
The unit was plugged into an AC wall outlet but did not need any plumbing.
I think this is a wonderful idea. It sure beats man handling bottled
water jugs......story
con't on page 6 |
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Hot Rock
Geothermal Energy
By: Dave Johnson
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I’ve been doing a lot of reading about various schemes to reduce America’s
dependency on foreign oil. I like the idea of a diverse approach where
energy is produced using a wide variety of different methods. Roof mounted
photovoltaic solar panels, large and small wind generators, flex fuel
vehicles and hybrid cars can all help. Cellulose ethanol, biodiesel,
compressed natural gas and even fuel from algae are some of the latest
alternatives to petroleum based fuels. But, it seems that many of the
discussions on energy overlook one energy source which is just below our
feet, at least here in the western half of United States where I live. I
think hot rock geothermal energy is one energy source which has a lot of
potential..
story con't on page 8 |
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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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NiMH
Battery State of
Charge Monitor
By: Dave Johnson |
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Problem: For the last 6 years or so, I have been using
rechargeable NiMH
batteries for my MP3 players, my portable CD players,
batteries for my digital cameras and AM/FM radios. Rechargeable
batteries make sense for devices which are used frequently. A good
battery can be recharged 100s of times. The ability to recharge a battery
over and over can really save a lot of money, not to mention less material
sent to the dump. But, lately I have been quite frustrated and angry at
some of the rechargeable NiMH
cells I have purchased.....story
con't on page 4 |
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Connector Woes
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It was
in the early 1970s. I was fresh out of college and found myself working for a
major aerospace company in their power systems group. Our group handled
most of the power supplies and power converters for company’s space craft and
missiles. For many months I had been assigned the task of supporting the
company with their various “squib fire circuits.”. story
con't on page
3 |
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Bad Alarm Clock |
My wife bought a simple clock to
put near her bathroom sink. She just wanted an easy to read clock that
would display the time, day and date. She saw the clock below in a
typical blaster pack and thought it was perfect for her needs. She got
it home, installed the two batteries and immediately noticed something funny.
The display numbers did not display correctly.....story
con't on page 5 |
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Supercapacitor Home Energy Storage Unit |
Most
off-grid home power systems use a large bank of lead-acid
batteries to store excess power produced during daylight hours
for later use at night. Some of these battery banks are massive,
able to power the home’s electrical loads for many days.
Can existing supercapacitor technology be useful for storing
electrical energy for a home? Let’s explore this and see
if it is technically feasible....story
con't on page 2 |
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