Search found 18 matches

by Karl Williams
Thu Jan 08, 2009 12:22 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Thyratron
Replies: 21
Views: 10723

Hi Bigglez,

Thanks for posting the pics - nice collection!
The first O-scope I ever owned was a really old heathkit tube model and one of the things I liked about it was the smell of the hot tubes.
The clock source for the scope was the 60 Hz from the AC line - LOL.
by Karl Williams
Wed Jan 07, 2009 12:30 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Thyratron
Replies: 21
Views: 10723

Hi Bigglez,

Can you post some pictures of your valve museum?
by Karl Williams
Wed Jul 02, 2008 10:44 am
Forum: Robotics
Topic: Radio Electronics Unicorn One robot article
Replies: 15
Views: 32992

Hi Mark, I was 13 years old too at the time of the Unicorn-1 articles and always looked forward to reading the next issue. I'd spend most of my time at the library going through the Tab robotics books too. I've got book cases full of all those old robotics and electronics books now but my favorites ...
by Karl Williams
Wed Jun 04, 2008 7:01 am
Forum: Robotics
Topic: Radio Electronics Unicorn One robot article
Replies: 15
Views: 32992

I've uploaded a PDF (36 pages) containing most of the scanned Unicorn-1 articles to the www.scribd.com website for everyone to view or download: http://www.scribd.com/doc/3231860/Unicorn1-Robot-Articles-in-Radio-Electronics- There are a few more articles I need to scan to complete the series. Take c...
by Karl Williams
Fri Apr 25, 2008 6:11 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Counter Displays
Replies: 15
Views: 7438

Hi Robert,

If you ever do need a small amount of parts from a Canadian supplier that won't ship directly to the U.S. you can have them sent to my place and I'll forward them on to you.

Take care, Karl
by Karl Williams
Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:24 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Forrest Mims workbench
Replies: 0
Views: 2361

Forrest Mims workbench

This might be of interest to some of you.

It shows Forrest Mims old workbench:

http://www.forrestmims.org/biography.html
by Karl Williams
Thu Apr 10, 2008 12:02 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: High Voltage Power Supply Unit Article
Replies: 15
Views: 7833

Thanks Peter!

The rectangular polygon tool is exactly what I was looking for! I just tried it and it worked great.

I'm going to order the Light version today and eventually move up to the standard version.

Take care, Karl
by Karl Williams
Thu Apr 10, 2008 11:01 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: High Voltage Power Supply Unit Article
Replies: 15
Views: 7833

Hey Guys, I've been using the free CadSoft Eagle version for my latest project and really like it so I do want to go ahead and buy it but I'm wondering about a few things. I do eventually want to be able to use it commercially (like writing books and articles for Nuts'n'Volts) so I probably won't ge...
by Karl Williams
Sat Apr 05, 2008 7:14 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: "The Hum"
Replies: 32
Views: 13848

I live about a 1/4-mile from a railroad switching yard and although I can't hear the "hum" I can often feel the house vibrating at a very low frequency. Sometime all the windows vibrate. I've gotten so used to it that I've tuned it out. There have been many times that I've been awakened ou...
by Karl Williams
Mon Mar 31, 2008 7:50 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: High Voltage Power Supply Unit Article
Replies: 15
Views: 7833

High Voltage Power Supply Unit Article

Hey Peter, Nice job on the High Voltage Power Supply Unit article! The printed circuit boards look really good. What software do you use and where did you get the boards made? Can anyone recommend good schematic and pcb software that doesn't cost too much ($100-$200 range)? I've been trying out the ...
by Karl Williams
Fri Mar 28, 2008 11:23 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: EM Gun - New PSU Ideas
Replies: 21
Views: 10401

I just put the exploding wire hypervelocity gun pdf up:

http://www.thinkbotics.com/exploding_wire.pdf

They were getting 4000 ft/sec from 2000 joules all the way up to
49,000 ft/sec from 3,500 joules with a lighter projectile.
by Karl Williams
Fri Mar 28, 2008 8:29 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: EM Gun - New PSU Ideas
Replies: 21
Views: 10401

Hey Guys, Ya, there are huge energy losses in the conversion of magnetic to kinetic energy with coil guns. If you dump the same amount of energy from the capacitor bank into a thin wire contained in a more traditional breech -> exploding wire -> projectile -> barrel system then you get much higher v...
by Karl Williams
Thu Mar 27, 2008 12:18 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: EM Gun - New PSU Ideas
Replies: 21
Views: 10401

Hey Peter Nice design that you came up with. I was thinking of using a PIC microcontroller to drive a transformer through something like the MC34152D. A couple of the PICs output pins could drive the device and the frequency could be programmed. One of the PICs analog to digital converters could mon...
by Karl Williams
Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:02 am
Forum: Robotics
Topic: Slightly OT: Press Mention Of "Robot" Suicide
Replies: 5
Views: 5617

Blame it on Rube instead

I hate when they blame the robots - LOL.

The device sounds more like a Rube Goldberg contraption...
by Karl Williams
Tue Mar 18, 2008 1:47 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: EM Gun - Trying to understand schematic
Replies: 40
Views: 15531

Open source coilgun project?

Hi All,

Maybe we could get an "Open Source" type of coilgun project going based on a popular microcontroller that we all agree on?

People could submit ideas and then a few of us could breadboard and debug as we go...