Unusual functions of cheap parts
 

In article ,
Paul Keinanen wrote:

On Thu, 24 Nov 2005 18:49:24 -0500, Jon Yaeger
wrote:

Take apart a couple of D cell carbon-zinc batteries.

Wash off the carbon rods. Put each in a wooden clothes pin and connect the
attached ends to the mains voltage (US customers only, please).

The problem is that the carbon rod conducts heat quite well, so after
a while, any wooden object will catch fire :-).

Tap the free ends of the rods together. Move them apart as necessary.

You must have quite slow fuses in 110 V land if you can do a reliable
ignition without blowing the fuse. For 230 V operation, I would
suggest using a current limiting resistor (such as a large heater) or
an inductance (such as fluorescent light ballast) during the ignition.
When there is a solid arc, the current limiter can be shorted out.

Paul


I would put a 100 watt lamp in series thereby limiting the current. I
would shave the ends down to points so they heated up rapidly. I put
them into a hollowed out fire brick and made a cheap furnace. Of course
don't look at it; it's like looking at the sun.

PS: I was 16 at the time ;-)

Unusual functions of cheap parts
 

hi,

sorry if you didnt like everything, but sometimes some voilence against
parts that cost you half a day of time and gave you a bad headache while
troubleshooting is necessary...

For more useful things, FETs actually can work as quite useful
one-component HF oscillators if wires and connection points are properly
chosen.With a second transistor one can build a working shortrange AM
transmitter.

A rather useful (works perfectly for SMPS uses) AC current probe for a
scope can be made by using a small UI cored RFI filter coil from a
monitor, connecting its windings in series and terminating with a 1ohm
resistor, to which a coax cable with BNC connector is soldered to.
The wire you want to measure the current in simply is fed trough the
core one time.
This only gives quantitative measurements unless calibrated but can be
very useful if you cant afford a real current probe.

The known resonant royer circiut used for CCFL inverters can be used for
larger inverters if appropriate parts are chosen, and can produce some
high frequency/high voltage with a transformer from a old TV (with no
internal rectifier).
This has its uses, besides connecting it to a old light bulb that works
as plasma globe or connecting both outputs to a large neon bulb
[Bienenkorbglimmlampe], which simply looks very nice but also produces
lots of RFI, so dont run it for too long.

FET gate drivers make nice TTL output stages for function generators, as
these can drive rather high currents and are fairly robust.

If a slowly, steadily changing linear voltage is necessary (for ex.
confirming the linearity of something) a 10turn precicion pot copuled
with a slow syncronous motor (a old microwave oven has a nice 2.5u/min
one) by some tape (so it slips/breaks when the pot is at its endpoint)
works nicely.

Unusual functions of cheap parts
 

On Fri, 25 Nov 2005 20:48:19 GMT, Al wrote:

In article ,
Paul Keinanen wrote:

On Thu, 24 Nov 2005 18:49:24 -0500, Jon Yaeger
wrote:

Take apart a couple of D cell carbon-zinc batteries.

Wash off the carbon rods. Put each in a wooden clothes pin and connect the
attached ends to the mains voltage (US customers only, please).

The problem is that the carbon rod conducts heat quite well, so after
a while, any wooden object will catch fire :-).

Tap the free ends of the rods together. Move them apart as necessary.

You must have quite slow fuses in 110 V land if you can do a reliable
ignition without blowing the fuse. For 230 V operation, I would
suggest using a current limiting resistor (such as a large heater) or
an inductance (such as fluorescent light ballast) during the ignition.
When there is a solid arc, the current limiter can be shorted out.

Paul


I would put a 100 watt lamp in series thereby limiting the current. I
would shave the ends down to points so they heated up rapidly. I put
them into a hollowed out fire brick and made a cheap furnace. Of course
don't look at it; it's like looking at the sun.

The current limiter I saw used a glass pie pan with pieces copper
metal on each side with salty water as the electrolyte. It would
start to steam some when in operation. The furnace was a small
clay flower pot with holes in each side with the carbon rods
sticking inside until they touched.

Unusual functions of cheap parts
 

Si Ballenger wrote:

I would put a 100 watt lamp in series thereby limiting the current. I
would shave the ends down to points so they heated up rapidly. I put
them into a hollowed out fire brick and made a cheap furnace. Of course
don't look at it; it's like looking at the sun.


The current limiter I saw used a glass pie pan with pieces copper
metal on each side with salty water as the electrolyte. It would
start to steam some when in operation. The furnace was a small
clay flower pot with holes in each side with the carbon rods
sticking inside until they touched.


As a boy, I used an electric teakettle as a ballast for a two-D-cell carbon
arc lamp--worked great.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

Unusual functions of cheap parts
 

A simple 1.0 K Ohm or so carbon film resistor placed across the
line makes a very nice display after a couple of seconds. They also
make a handy fuse to trigger a little firecracker when used as a
"surprise" for some unsuspecting technician placed across his load
behind the workbench when he turns it on in the morning.

boB
K7IQ

Unusual functions of cheap parts
 

In article ,
Al wrote:

In article ,
Paul Keinanen wrote:

On Thu, 24 Nov 2005 18:49:24 -0500, Jon Yaeger
wrote:

Take apart a couple of D cell carbon-zinc batteries.

Wash off the carbon rods. Put each in a wooden clothes pin and connect the
attached ends to the mains voltage (US customers only, please).

The problem is that the carbon rod conducts heat quite well, so after
a while, any wooden object will catch fire :-).

Tap the free ends of the rods together. Move them apart as necessary.

You must have quite slow fuses in 110 V land if you can do a reliable
ignition without blowing the fuse. For 230 V operation, I would
suggest using a current limiting resistor (such as a large heater) or
an inductance (such as fluorescent light ballast) during the ignition.
When there is a solid arc, the current limiter can be shorted out.

Paul


I would put a 100 watt lamp in series thereby limiting the current. I
would shave the ends down to points so they heated up rapidly. I put
them into a hollowed out fire brick and made a cheap furnace. Of course
don't look at it; it's like looking at the sun.

PS: I was 16 at the time ;-)

I used a 0.5 or 0.7 mm pencil lead gently torqued down across the
terminals of a regulated DC power supply. Set the current limit very
low, crank the voltage up all the way and increase the current limit
until the center of the lead starts glowing red. Due to the heatsinking
effect of the binding posts, the lead will always heat up the most in
the center, then the carbon will start to evaporate and the remaining
lead will gradually neck down in the center until it is glowing white
hot. As soon as the lead breaks in the middle, you convert from
incandescent to carbon arc lamp, which usually surprises everybody
watching. The arc is good for about 5 seconds until the voltage drop
across the arc exceeds the capability of the power supply.

Unusual functions of cheap parts
 

I have also seen thermistors used as a self regulating thermal element
for a crystal oven.

Joe Leikhim K4SAT
"The RFI-EMI-GUY"

"Follow The Money"



Pooh Bear wrote:

John Larkin wrote:



TO-220 bipolar transistors make nice temperature sensors.



I like that trick. Esp the isolated tab type.

Graham




--
Joe Leikhim K4SAT
"The RFI-EMI-GUY"

"Follow The Money"

Unusual functions of cheap parts
 

On Fri, 25 Nov 2005 12:29:52 -0800, Roy Lewallen
wrote:

Paul Keinanen wrote:
. . .
You must have quite slow fuses in 110 V land if you can do a reliable
ignition without blowing the fuse. For 230 V operation, I would
suggest using a current limiting resistor (such as a large heater) or
an inductance (such as fluorescent light ballast) during the ignition.
When there is a solid arc, the current limiter can be shorted out.


Aren't you in danger of damaging your eyes from the UV emitted from the arc?

Certainly.

I used arc welding glasses when conducing these experiments.

Some trivia:

In the silent film era, actors had eye problems due to the UV
radiation from arc studio lamps.

Most of the usable illumination from the arc lights is actually from
the glowing carbon electrodes.

"Automatic arc lights" used a solenoid in series with the arc to keep
the distance constant between the poles regardless of carbon electrode
burnout. I assume that if this is to be used with a AC arc light, both
the moving coil as well as the static coil should carry the arc
current.

Paul OH3LWR

Unusual functions of cheap parts
 

Frithiof Andreas Jensen wrote:

"Henry Kiefer" skrev i en meddelelse
...


Do you know of other interesting devices or circuits good for misuse?


Unbuffered logic gates can make a really bad but still useful analogue
amplifier by adding feedback and bias.


E.G the CMOS 4007. See the old handbooks for a '100dB
amplifier' based on a RCA chip - there was a wiring
error in that old description - IIRC it was 3800? -
whatever, the 4007 is the same chip.

Murray vk4aok

Unusual functions of cheap parts
 

On Sat, 26 Nov 2005 21:19:18 +1000, Murray wrote:

Frithiof Andreas Jensen wrote:

E.G the CMOS 4007. See the old handbooks for a '100dB
amplifier' based on a RCA chip - there was a wiring
error in that old description - IIRC it was 3800? -
whatever, the 4007 is the same chip.

The Motorola McMOS handbook (2nd edition 1974) warns about this usage
by pointing out that by cascading three such AC coupled stages, the
last stage will be saturated by the noise from the first stage.

Paul OH3LWR