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Dazza

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Everything posted by Dazza

  1. Hi Ante :), The way it's looking, I may have to make my own silicon matting from a tube of silicon, I'm not sure how that'll turn out, it could get very messy :o. I think you're right Ante, there are probably better quality balloons that are stronger and thicker, I know of a couple of places around town that could have them, I'll have to go and have a look see. The connecting rods are just timber, and there are no Barings just some Greece ;D. Ante, my ceiling solution idea works and I'm confident that it is reliable, I will provide a close-up pic of it tonight ;). I have many other improvements for this design that I know will work 8), but I'm not sure when I'm going to get the time to put it together :(, if you're interested Ante I will concentrate my efforts on drawing up my improved design, with as much detail as I can for making the parts and putting it together, the only equipment that is really necessary for making it is a drill press?
  2. Hi mixos, Codyhtml, thanks for your replies. Ok, a new mailbox it will have to be ;).
  3. Hi GreekPIC :), Very nice work :D, I have been planning to go the same way about it, start off with some think simple to become familiar with the whole process, then go on to the real deal 8). I have been dreaming up all sorts of ways to make a starter project, but I do like yours ;) and it would be really nice and I would appreciate it, if you could provide a few more picks of the really good parts. And I'm sure you know what I mean by the good parts ;D ;D.
  4. Hi My daughter who is 9 has taken an interest in electronics, and has been nagging me to help her become a member here, now I've got no idea what she wants to post, or what questions relating to electronics she wants to ask, so now I've finally caved and said ok ::), but with the usual strict supervision ;). Now I'm having a problem registering my daughter as a member, because we have the same e-mail address, would the only solution be to create another e-mail address, or could there be another way? Thank you for any help :).
  5. Nicely explained MP :D. I'm no expert on the subject That's for sure, except for having the pleasure to witness countless storms here in oz 8) ;D, with spectacular lightning shows :o, anyway to the point I have been led to believe that lightning travels from the ground upwards, and I have heard this being stated many times. you seem to be very knowledgeable on the subject MP, I would appreciate your thoughts on this ;).
  6. Dazza

    nokia 3310

    It downloads ok for me 8) ???
  7. Hi Ante :), No, I very much doubt an empty beer can will work :(, although may be you should prepare a couple more, just in case they come in handy for some think ;D. Yes it will run with two cylinders ;), but I suggest making two identical Stirling engines, and then joining their cranks together at the right phase angle. Yes I did try using a latex glove, but it didn't work because it was not flexible enough :(, a solution for this could be to use a wider diameter cylinder whilst maintaining the same height. I'm thinking silicon might be a good choice, because it has high flexibility even when using a thick layer for strength, as well as it can handle very high temperatures, not that it really needs to. At the moment, I'm testing a new ceiling solution for the connection from the crank through the diaphram to the piston, and it is working :D, but the problem is with testing it for reliability, I had to keep replacing the diaphram/balloon far too often,and it's getting very annoying >:(. If this ceiling solution proves to be reliable, I will move on to making a new Stirling engine with many more improvements, and I will post my progress here with some picks of course ;D.
  8. Hi GreekPIC :), This link may give you some answers(http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.storefront/4292562d0a01eeac273fc0a87f9c06ed/Product/View/R2620) ;).
  9. Hi audioguru, Yes I would like to make a model steam engine eventually ;), and it would be interesting to see how much energy can be recycled using the two, but the steam engine will have to wait until I have made my metal turning lathe, I don't think I would get away with making a steam engine out of timber wire and balloons ;D, precision and strength is important for a steam engine, considering the high pressures involved, I've already got plenty of opportunities to blow myself up with my hydrogen experiments ;D ;D.
  10. Hi audioguru, It sounds much noisier on the video ;D. you should make one Audioguru, you could mount it under your porch and when your skunk sleeps under it, it will start-up and scare it off :o ;D ;D.
  11. Hi Ante :), Yes it's cool isn't it ;D, when I first fired it up I just watched it takeover in amazement :o, I was quite pleased with myself 8) ;D. This is where I got the plans from (www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~khirata/english/make.htm) the membrane is a balloon and the piston is made of layers of balsa wood, there needs to be a space between the piston and the cylinder, to displace the air. I'm pretty certain leather will not work for many reasons :(, but I'm thinking silicon rubber may work well, I have a lot of improvements/modifications in mind that I am going to try, I will post my progress with this project here. Go for it Ante make one, it's well worth it, this project is definitely a good place to start 8).
  12. I'm sorry to post of topic now ;D ;D, Ante, I was thinking of going that way about it, but I was thinking the low RPM may be a problem, depending on what I wanted to power from it. Thank you to everyone who has posted, you have been very helpful 8), and any more ideas or suggestions will be very much appreciated :).
  13. Hi all, and thank you for your replies :D, I posted a video clip of my Stirling engine as well as some information here(http://www.electronics-lab.com/forum/index.php?topic=3353.0). Ok audioguru, my clock displays the right time now, I just thought I might wait for the next server change to fix it. Sure audioguru ;), I do understand I will need to use some kind of gearing to drive the generator to a suitable RPM ;D, and I can add more candles for more talk, but I must also avoid increasing the RPM to much, which can be done to a certain degree by adjusting the led wait on the handle, I don't want the poor little thing flying to pieces after all it's made of balloons fishing line and wire :o ;D, and as I mentioned in my other post for the construction side of things, I found some reliability problems so I may not end up connecting a generator and a electronic device to this one just yet :(, it still early days for this project, I thought I was ready to take this project to the next step, but those bugs are still popping their heads up, I may have to knock up, another larger Stirling engine with a little more strength 8). Thanks audioguru, that's a couple of good project ideas that you mentioned in your earlier post.
  14. I am posting the mechanical side of my project here, as there was interest in this part of my project, and the electronic side of this project is posted here(http://www.electronics-lab.com/forum/index.php?topic=3343.0) I'll have a go at trying to explain how this engine works for those who are interested, first of all it's important to have a perfect seal, when heat is applied to the bottom chamber (the loosely fitting balsa wood piston is at the top") the air inside expands forcing the diaphram upwards, as a result forcing the push-rods upwards creating a half turne of the crank, the piston which is connected via a piece of fishing line to the crank, at the point of which is to a 90 degree phase angle in relation to the push rods, descends downwards displacing the hot air from the bottom of the chamber to the top, and as a result cooling the displaced air which has the effect of drawing the diaphram inwards creating a complete revolution of the crank shaft. This Stirling engine design is relatively simple to construct, and I think it is a very good place to start for experimenting, however I have found one major problem with this design, which is the whole in the diaphram connecting the piston to the crank, it wears out far too quickly. I do have some ideas to remedy the problem, but to do so I think it will be best to scale up this Stirling engine a bit, because it is just two small and fiddly to try to implement a reliable ceiling solution. Another problem is, the crank shaft needs to be of a much heavier gauge, I found that I need to bend the crank shaft back into shape, each time I needed to replace the diaphram, so basically the crank is getting more and more out of whack each time I have to straighten it, resulting in increased friction and reduced efficiency. I have attached a short video clip of my Stirling engine ;D. Sterling_Engine_video.zip
  15. Hi all, and thanks for your replies :), I am very sorry but I am a little short on time to properly respond tonight :(, but I will tomorrow night and I will provide pics of my Stirling engine or maybe even a short video clip ;), that is if I get the time to replace the diaphram which has failed, and of course just four you hotwaterwizard I will provide the design plans I used and further information on the principle of operation of the Stirling engine ;D.
  16. Hi EdwardM :), Yes, I do believe the Stirling engine will play a big role in our future energy needs, but I don't believe it will replace the internal combustion engine. it's a fare bet that the internal combustion engine will be fuelled via hydrogen in the near future ;), it has already been done and it was done as early as the Seventies 8)( http://www.rexresearch.com/hyfuel/ybrown/4014777.htm ) Thanks for the advice/suggestions EdwardM :D, that might be the best way to go to get started, use a very small motor as a generator to power some LEDs and see how the engine handles it.
  17. Hi audioguru and thanks for your reply :) That's not very optimistic Audioguru ;D ;D, I thought you were very good at making a project run on very little power, like your 3V LED Chaser project 8) ;D. Sure I can add a few more candles and I can improve its efficiency ;), it's still early days ;D. I'm in my comfort zone with this project to the point of adding a generator to power an electronic device, then it becomes a little more difficult for me :o. That's why I'm asking the electronic experts for advice on the best way to generate power from this Stirling engine as well as a nice project to be powered from it. The short of it is, I want to produce a very efficient model Stirling engine, and demonstrate its efficiency by powering an electronic device from it, I have little confidence of achieving good efficiency on the electronic side of this project, but I do have a lot of confidence of achieving good efficiency for the mechanical engineering side. you could say this is my area of expertise although I have no qualifications, but I do have many years of experience in various kinds of mechanical engineering and construction ;). I would appreciate some nice low-power projects ideas that could be powered by the Stirling engine, but the first step would be some ideas of an efficient generator of some sort.
  18. Hi steven, and thanks for your reply :). Yes that's a good idea for a counter :D, I'll have to have a hunt around to see if I can find one. I have scavenge the electronic components from a couple of video recorders, but unfortunately that's all I kept, the electronic components :(. I guess it's time for a trip to the scrapyard ;). Steven, have you had any experience in using an electric motor as a generator? I would expect that some would work better than others.
  19. I've completed my new project a tin can Stirling engine 8). It runs reasonably well, but It does needs some tweaking to maximise its performance.
  20. Well I can remember months ago when I knew nothing about electronics ;D, and I came across these types of schematics and thought, (what the) and now seeing frowning faces in them, well that's just scary :o ;D.
  21. Hi Alun :), Interesting project, and you've given me an idea ;). First of all,do you have any idea of what the frequency response would be, for an average headphones speaker being used as a microphone? I have thought of this before, trying to use a speaker instead of a microphone for the electronic stethoscope project, but haven't tried it yet, I am thinking that it may have very good low frequency response. And the idea that you have given me, the electronic stethoscope project could do to things, play music to the unborn child, which is supposed to be a good thing ;D, as well as being a stethoscope 8).
  22. Hi ronjr@ronsraceshop, Ante How about using something like an electromagnet a solenoid, maybe if you were to wind the coils of a solenoid in a taper, fewer coils at one end to many more at the other end, then by varying the current to the solenoid should have the effect of steadily drawing the plunger into the solenoid, and then of course the return spring on your throttle will provide the return and maintain throttle position. It's just an idea, but if it was to work there would be very little to worry about in the way of safety, as the most likely failure to expect would be loss of power, and would result in the throttle returning to idle.
  23. Hi all ;D Check this link out, if anyone is interested in hydrogen as a fuel, (quite impressive) :o http://www.rexresearch.com/hyfuel/ybrown/4014777.htm
  24. Hi Kasamiko, I also owe you a nice cold beer ;D, Thanks for the links Kasamiko ;) 8).
  25. Hi Alun, MP :) Ok Alun, your last paragraph worked ;), I am responding ;D, of course a more orderly forums is important, I doubt that anyone would think otherwise. First of all Alun, I'm sure that the community appreciates your efforts to point out areas of improvement, and also appreciate your efforts to assist the less knowledgeable members of this community ;), which includes me ;D. The members of this community have been very generous to me, Freely offering me their time and knowledge, unfortunately there is very little I can offer in return, but I do try to help out if I can, and now being given the ability to moderate, I can do a little more :). It can sometimes be difficult to decide whether or whether not to move a post, for example my electric furnace project, it was first posted where I felt was in the appropriate area, as I was only requesting assistants for the electronic/electrical side of this project, and I was not intending to discuss the construction side of the project, however it was promptly moved to mechanical Constructions/Hardware, so now it didn't matter if I continued on into the construction side of this project, which is good but it could be seen as an incorrect posting, because now there is a circuit along the lines of a circuit request in mechanical Constructions/Hardware, instead of having the electronic/electrical side of this project in one area, and the construction side of this project in another. There are other post similar to this, start off as one thing then on to something different that should be in another area, then returns back to the original subject. There are going to be postings that could be moved or left where they are, or others that change subjects and even contain lengthy postings discussing the whether (chit chat) I guess a point that I am trying to make is, keeping order to the forums is to everyone's benefit, but there is always going to be postings that go off topic and have chit chat, without some chit chat and occasionally going off topic, I think that it would mean we would be pushing towards a sterile type environment, instead of a friendly worldwide community based environment, where people can share their ideas and help one another out, and also to get to know other people from different corners of the globe. About the on English-speaking members, I think there must be a lot of them that do not post because of their poor English, and the ones that do post usually apologise for their poor English, which they shouldn't feel they need to do, I think that it's the community's responsibility to try to encourage these members to continue to post, which will help improve their English. I have received messages from members asking for assistants, who have not posted in the forums, and I'm fairly certain that the reason why they chose to send me a message asking for assistance, instead of posting is because of their very poor English. MP, Alun, unfortunately my time for awhile is limited with the new baby on the way, and I think it is good to discuss ways of improving these forums, I hope that I have offered some useful input, and I will continue to offer as much time as I can to help make this community a great place to be for everyone. Cheers, Dazza :).
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