Category Archives: Electronics

55g servo drawing.

For anyone that needs the drawing for a 55g servo, here we go. It’s been some time since I’ve updated but never fear, more boring stuff is to be posted soon heres is a link to the actual PDF if … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, Personal Projects | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

A quick review of the HPS10se portable Oscilloscope from Velleman

I ordered this device about a year and a half ago for about $130USD. When I got it, I wasn’t terribly impressed but overall, for the price it’s not a bad unit. I figured it’s be nice to provide a … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Coolant mixture sensor (psuedo-refractometer)

A bit ago I got the idea of trying to determine the mixture of coolant vs. water by detecting both light occlusion of the mixture and the wavelengths blocked / passed. This initial device is just a rough prototype that … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Long time no post. Machining and trying to get back on my feet.

Well, it has been some time since I posted, about a month and a half or so. There have a been a number of events that have occurred in that time that have both beneficial yet disappointing. I’m not really … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, Programming, Work | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

A crummy little servo tester and other minutia

The little servo tester Well, I needed a way to test all of these servos I got from EBay and I decided to spend a little time making a quick and dirty little board for doing that. It uses a … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, Personal Projects, Work | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Viscometer board proceeding, some RS232 fun.

  Well, things have been proceeding apace, and I’m feeling pretty confident that I’ll have both versions done fairly soon. For debugging the device I’ve decided to create a kind of terminal, this allows one to directly access commands and see … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, Work | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Stormer Viscometer Grams to Oz-Inch Conversion

Trying to make sense of the standard stormer viscometer and methods that could be used to calibrate a device, I’ve been looking at the original stormer viscometer in order to get an idea of what ‘grams’ actually means in the … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, Personal Projects, Work | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Grams to Krebs conversion formulae

After many a day scratching my head as to why I can’t get my viscometer to calibrate correctly, even assuming logarithmic and quadratic relationships, I find out why I have been having so many problems. Krebs units are in not … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, Programming, Work | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Working on new viscometer head

  Well, I’ve been designing some new stuff since having a little wind of inspiration. This head weighs in at about 700g and provisions have been made to allow an attachment to a handle and therefore a hand-held version could be … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, Programming, Work | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Quick post, a couple of drawings.

The chill is in the air, October is here. I’ve been pretty busy with the viscometer and some other things, however I drew a couple of objects just for future reference. I figured somebody might need the dimensions of either … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, Personal Projects, Work | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Getting closer to final completion

A long road behind and still some ahead, here are some pic of the viscometer in its state of completion. Now to implement the ModBUS protocol and finish up this project.

Posted in Electronics, Programming, Work | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

In-Process Stormer Viscometer – Damn near complete

  The viscometer is nearing full completion! YAY! To mark this occasion to mark the end of a long two years, I am placing a small gallery of the almost finished product. The only thing missing is the outside cover which … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, Programming, Work | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Yay! They work!

Well, I got the power board and control boards done. They both work flawlessly. YAY!   The peripherals seem to work too.

Posted in Electronics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

An experiment in heat transfer

  After being apprised of an issue with heat transfer through PCB traces, being the stubborn idiot I am, I had to try and solve the problem. The issue is with a particular PCB that has a cutout section with a … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

FDM Part Prototyping

This post is simply to show how neat the FDM process is. FDM stands for Fused Deposition Modeling and is a neat tool for prototyping plastic parts. I was able to see the results of FDM after a customer had … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, Work | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Programming, Drafting, Designing and whatever else…

Well, it’s been a busy few weeks since I left the business training program. Thankfully I have some work lined up and things may go well for the short-term. For the last while I was working on the design for … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, Programming, Work | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Time’s a passin’ – DIY Arms, Music, and invention

Well, the past few weeks have been eventful and interesting. I’ve been busy and school is almost over. I’ve had a few things on the go and I’ve come up with some interesting ideas and implementations. Sorry for the lack … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, Personal Projects, Work | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Rotary Viscometer almost finished

Well, it’s been a long road but I’m almost at the finish line in terms of the majority of development. All of the parts are mostly made and I’ll begin programming very soon, most of which has been done already … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, Programming, Work | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

3 point quadratic regression formula

While developing the in-process stormer viscometer, one of my goals is to allow the end user to calibrate the device with 3 fluids of known viscosity. With a bit of help from mathematica, I’ve found the formula and for whoever … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, Miscellaneous, Work | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Viscometer Project, coming along…

I thought I would have nothing to post but I do I guess. I’ve felt the need to really expedite this project now that I am starting a business. I have done a few of the mechanical things associated with … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, Work | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Drawing of a Servo, for reference.

Well, my servos have all come in for a project I’ve been working on. These ones being some cheap Chinese servos that I picked up off Ebay. Here’s a photo of one of them. Now that I have them I … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, Miscellaneous, Personal Projects | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Rotational Viscometer design proceeding apace

It’s been a while since I’ve worked at full steam on the viscometer project. Though now a long way from it’s DIY roots I am making this new version from mostly Aluminum, Phenolic, Nylon and Low Density PolyEthylene. I had … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, Other/misc | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Some motors for the viscometer.

Now I have to find some suitable DC gearmotors for the viscometer. here are some links, for reference, to some suitable gear motors. A 300 RPM one from batteryspace, a little small, good low cost though. A little pricier. This … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Viscometer Ver.(Eleventy Billion Jillion) a la rotational

Well, this has a been a long few days of work. I have created the ideal rotary viscometer in both terms of price and repeatability. Now, this idea is nothing new but I’m simply happy that it works. I guess … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, Work | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sky-Tracker, so far, so good.

For the last few days I’ve been working on the electrical portion of an astrophotography mount for my camera. The mechanical portions were built by my father and I’m handling the electronic portion of the device. Basically, for those who … Continue reading

Posted in Electronics, Personal Projects | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment