Image – Charles Ihler

VFD Modification: Part 1

First off I’ve been really tearing it up in my nerdery the last two weeks… It’s messy.. That happens so don’t mind the mess.

So I scored this sweet variable frequency drive (VFD) or also known as a VSD. It’s a Rockwell Automation drive that is to large for my application but it’ll work just fine. I figured I might have to tear out the entire front because I’m feeding it straight DC but they broke out DC to a terminal block ?! I’ll give it a try… I have a 96V power supply that was a long shot but it was no surprise two amps wasn’t enough just to power the electronics for configuration. It isn’t jumped to run… So this beast is a watt-hog just idling. I have a couple batteries I have to pick up in a few days; I am guessing I can start it up on a 48V/19AH string. The power down defaults to zero and I believe it’s set up to run on just enough to run the electronics. I guess I’ll see?! If this doesn’t run on DC (and maybe even if) I’ll gut the AC front end because it’s extra weight. Check out the terminal strip..DC is on the left. Also… In case you’re wondering its about 90lbs.. A lot of heat sink!

Weekend stepper fun!

I got got home to take delivery of this front end frame piece. Now I’ll be busy this weekend working on electronic steering. The PIC 16F1509 will be controlling all steering functions. I’ve written a remarkable amount of code for how long it’s been since I worked I a project with a F628A and 18F1330 motor control for the Roomba sumo bot. This project has gotten painfully expensive despite scoring some nice freebies. I spent way too much on wire because I want MTW or Teflon.

An easy 4-bit Sunday

A 4-bit counter for a slow speed tachometer I’ll be monitoring through a Raspberry Pi. LEDs were just for testing my debounce circuit. You can just make out the circuit diagram written in my book. A nice lazy Sunday morning project.

Killed my IGBT pack & driver

What a rookie mistake… My variac is grounded… I’ve gotten too spoiled by working on a lot of isolated 24VAC circuits lately… One little check with the scope and boom. PCB death… So much for my one-of-kind short cut. I suppose I need to invest in one of those sets of isolated probes. Silver lining is I didn’t let the smoke out of the front-end of my tektronix scope.

A plumbers version of a blown fuse?

While installing my DIY boiler I found I didn’t get all the water out of my heating hot water lines the first time around.

Soldering Large Connectors

When it comes to soldering large connectors on LMR400 or larger you owe it to yourself to have a large soldering iron. This ancient beauty has a lot of thermal mass and really gets the job done. I borrowed this from my good buddy Gary for some large work. You’ll likely need to visit eBay to pick up something like this anymore.

Deception Pass State Park

Melissa had the weekend off so I had to opt for a low accent hike and semi-scenic. I had never been on North Whidbey Island so we headed out this morning. Not the hike for those seeking solitude… But a nice beach walk was included and really it was 80 on a May weekend… There were going to be people everywhere… Back to the Raspberry Pi tomorrow… Going to configure it and perhaps I’ll try out a few of the OSes.

Stacking Pi plates MacGyver style

Using the stacking SIP connectors for Arduino’s works enough to get me by stacking these boards. One thing to note, this isn’t soldered in place, it actually needs a temporary spacer while soldering it so that the depth of the connector to the raspberry pi matched the original connector. (put the connector in place without soldering then try to plug the plate into the raspberry port and you’ll see what I mean)

EDIT: 5/8/2013: http://www.adafruit.com/products/1112 … don’t know how this slipped by.. easy to buy and cheap…problem solved.