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  1. chopnhack

    Designing a Time Delayed Relay

    Is that through the bottom right diode of the bridge, reverse biasing the zener, to the bottom rail and then through C13? Here is a revision of the board layout. Let me know what you think, thanks!
  2. chopnhack

    Designing a Time Delayed Relay

    Regarding pin 2 of the PIC chip getting its timing signal from neutral: on which cycle of the AC coming into the bridge rectifier does that leg leading to pin 2 get energized?
  3. chopnhack

    Designing a Time Delayed Relay

    Thank you for your thorough review Kris!! There is quite a lot I didnt catch. I wonder if partial hand routing followed by autoroute was not such a good idea after all... I will rip up all the tracks and rearrange things again. Thanks!
  4. chopnhack

    Designing a Time Delayed Relay

    The dotted line is for a ground plane - It was hard to see everything with the solid pour in place. I kept the ground plane well away from the other polygon fills. Just noticed something, R11 is between the AC signal input to pin 2 seems to share a via that is also a ground point. I know in the...
  5. chopnhack

    Designing a Time Delayed Relay

    Thanks, learning from the best on the web ;-) Yes, I did look at the data sheet for U1. I will place the decoupling caps, etc. more appropriately. I had a thought that I have been playing with over the last 1/2 hour with regard to orientation. I thought that if the layout on paper is so nice...
  6. chopnhack

    Designing a Time Delayed Relay

    I know its been awhile since I last posted about this, but I have had lots of fun distractions ;-) I have restarted the layout, spent the last 6 hours trying to rearrange components to get a tighter fit... drudgery Questions! LOL 1. Why is PIC pin 2 tied to neutral on AC side? 2. How would...
  7. chopnhack

    US based PCB manufacturer

    I have sent files to Elecrow before and as you stated, they do their diligence. I have not had one produced by them yet. Similar service was received by me with http://smart-prototyping.com/
  8. chopnhack

    US based PCB manufacturer

    Colin, have you used Smiery? Any comments about them? thanks
  9. chopnhack

    Alternative Energy.....

    Fish does indicate that this is not the case: 1) Energy Conversion Efficiency.....People always seem to assume that they can "use" all 100W from a source capable of outputting 100W...ie, if they have a 100W solar panel and it is "sunny" 14 hours a day, they assume they can STORE 1400W of power...
  10. chopnhack

    Alternative Energy.....

    Unfortunately I couldnt find it. I had it on my desktop for months and months, but of course when you need it! It was on a restaurant chain called Checkers - a quick serve fast food store. They were installing heat exchangers into their heat pumps and recovering the waste heat to provide hot...
  11. chopnhack

    Alternative Energy.....

    The most useful resources/sticky's keep opinion and political motivations out of the discussion. Present the details of AE or RE without agenda, concisely, starting with the most commonly asked questions then moving on to the more complicated discussions. No, I don't believe it should be a...
  12. chopnhack

    Alternative Energy.....

    I will have to contribute... I receive so much good stuff here. I have an article I will try to find on using waste heat from heat pumps to provide hot water. Kind of AE, no?
  13. chopnhack

    Digital temperature measurements

    LOL, my finger deceives me often times! I have powered off the devices in question in the past and have used my tongue - more sensitive, but also more painful :rolleyes::p
  14. chopnhack

    Alternative Energy.....

    I think its a great idea, I believe you can create a resource yourself. I am pretty sure you don't need to he a moderator to do so. I would love to see it when you finish it! AE is very real, but often overhyped and not always practical. I see tons of adverts down here for various systems...
  15. chopnhack

    Rain Sensor Status

    Excellent Harald! Then I can order the caps and proceed, thank you :-) Interesting that when I took out the regulator and changed the value of the zener, the simulation performed as expected. I wonder why the regulator was showing several volts dropped? Instead of the expected zener voltages of...
  16. chopnhack

    Rain Sensor Status

    LOL, that would be of no surprise :-) Thanks for looking into that for me! The file is attached below. For anyone else interested I will post the image below also.
  17. chopnhack

    Rain Sensor Status

    Excellent, thank you Harald. I tried three different values of zener's 10,12,15 Vbreakdown and they all simulated the same way. I did resimulate after each change. I looked at the values of each item in the spice model line and there were differences, including the reported breakdown voltage...
  18. chopnhack

    Rain Sensor Status

    With an active zener voltage reference I don't need a cap on the AC side which makes it much easier to find the necessary parts. When I look at the ammeter in Spice, it shows the graph below for current at C4: There is a short peak at over 5A, with peaks settling into a pattern at 1.8A - Is...
  19. chopnhack

    Rain Sensor Status

    Thanks Steve - more than meets the eye as usual!
  20. chopnhack

    Rain Sensor Status

    Interesting, on spice, the opposite seems to be occurring in the model - higher values of the capacitors seem to smooth the DC more! Capacitors in parallel are summed anyway - I may not understand you correctly: If a large and small value are in parallel, don't the values end up just being the...
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