Felipe La Rotta.
Fixing the Speed vs. Voltage issue
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Insufficient speed, the light will not glow. Too much speed, and the light will blow up. Controlling this generator-thing looks awful…
Not really. There is a lot of mechanical and electrical solutions to adress this issue. The most complex designs are reserved for aircraft http://www.b737.org.uk/electrics.htm, but on this project we will use a less-spectacular solution
Remember the 12 volt battery, from the previous work?
Yes! the battery compensate the moments of low or zero-voltage coming from our generator. Recharges when the voltage is good. And even better, it absorbs the lethal over-voltages. But wait! you can not connect it to your generator “As is”.
Have you ever heard about AC – DC? Yes, it’s an awesome Australian rock band. But the term is also applied depending of how the current is generated.
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What’s AC and DC current?
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Check an AA battery. The + and – poles are clearly marked, and they will always remain on their places. That’s called Direct Current
Other power sources, like the wall socket or some types of generators create Alternating Current. That means, polarity changes over time. At one moment, the upper “pole” will be +, and the other -. At the next moment they will swap roles, the upper one becomes the -, and the lower the +, and so on.
The process occurs 50, 60, 400 or more times per second, depending on the desired application.
(click on the picture to enlarge)
AC and DC currents are good for some applications, but bad for others. At the beginning of 20th century, that issue originated the War of Currents, where the incredible Nikola Tesla won.
Yes, I stopped saying “Dynamo”, dynamos produce DC current. My generator produces AC current, so the correct name for it is Alternator. But I’m not trying to trick you, dynamos are also very common as bicycle generators.
Ok, let’s go back to our “Engallamiento”
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Getting free diodes and capacitors
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Many thanks to Sceadwian and Crutschow from Electro-Tech-Online.com for the circuit idea
(click on the picture to enlarge)
As you can see, there are some new triangles in the schematic. That symbols represents Diodes, an electronic component that rectify current (that means converting AC into DC)
You can buy your diodes at Radioshack, Digikey or any other electronics store, or scrap them from an old device. At the store, look for any General Purpose Rectifier capable of 3.0 Amperes (Forward Current)
If you like the “recycling” idea, all the electronic things have lots of them: stereos, alarm clocks, printers, old computers, TV‘s, etc. Avoid dismantling TV’s and microwave ovens if you don’t have electronics training. Even long after disconnected, they store lethal amounts of power.
I cannibalized an old computer power source
It’s like a candy store: Desolder everything you want and save it for future projects. Avoid keeping the welder too much time over the components, to avoid damaging them
I saved some capacitors, diodes and wire. We only need the last two.
You may solder the components “on the air” (like the regulator on the previous project), making sure that they are firmly fastened and well insulated, to avoid short circuits.
But I prefered to use a more elegant solution, a Stripboard. It works like a Breadboard (maybe you used one at school) but their connections are permanently soldered. If you wanna learn how to use one, check this good site
Ok, I’ll post the schematic again. Watch out the white line on the diode’s body! They must be connected in the same way shown in this picture. Do it backwards, and the thing will never work.
That’s the finished product. White wires come from the generator, yellow and black go to the battery
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Circuit Mounting
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I placed it on the generator clamp, well insulated using hot glue and duct tape. Find the method that works better for you
A nice switch completes the recipe
The left empty space will be destined for the smoke bomb button and front machine guns trigger… perhaps not
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Finished Work
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Hell yeah!
