Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Wiring Our Own Power Extension Cord

One of the major challenge on our FYP is the restriction to get our project bike into our room; we tried to appeal, but refused. The refusal costs much of our time.

Hence, the need of long power extender. We need it to probe signals on the bike with oscilloscope.

On 30th Jan 2013, Sudirman, with the aid of Fazrol, managed to get it done.

Snapshot of the scene.

Many thanks to Fazrol for helping us... :)

Better PCB Etching Solution?

So, after being tempted by various sites, I finally can't help to try it for myself; particularly this one.

Yesterday, 29th Jan 2013, Sudirman and I go to local pharmacy and hardware shop to get our hydrogen peroxide and hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid).

We bought two H2O2, to make sure everything works well.

Does it works better than ferric chloride? I don't know, no experiment being done yet, maybe near in the future. :)

Monday, January 28, 2013

Getting Project Resources

On 26th Jan 2013, we managed to allocate some time to get our resource, at the famous Pudu Pasar Road

On our way home.

Reviewing bought item.

We spend close to MYR200 on that day, buying E24 resistors, LCDs, PIC-MCUs, SLA-batt, switches, flux, caps, ultrasonic transducer, PIR sensor, and Haidar's Transformer.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Spark Plug Side Gapping Mod

On 14th Nov 2012, Sudirman and I attempted to try the famous spark plug mod, mostly inspired by this webpage, on our project bike.

Sudirman disassembling front fairing.

Complete removal of ground electrode.

The result is quite surprising. Improved performance, easier starting, better low-end torque and the most obvious. smoother idling.

Video might follow... To be continued. :)


Update: On 24th Jan 2013, we tried to improve our test procedure.

Initial state.


Making progress...

Getting closer.


Finally.

Before modded.

Being modded.

Comparison between plugs. Notice there's more exposed spark area.

Installing and ready for test run.

Result: Somehow, after numerous test done, it's confirmed, that our previous result was a placebo. The engine suffers at both low and high-end curve. Main suspect is the increased spark gap distance. Need to redo this experiment.


Update:  In 25th Jan 2013, being unsatisfied with previous result, we decided to make a better test rig, this time, with proper test procedure than before.

Three spark plugs and a feeler gauge on a Dremel like tool case.

Stock spark gap was about 0.5mm.

Using cutting tool to trim the ground electrode.

Result: Sadly, the test needs to be postponed, due to insufficient time and resources... Video still unedited. 





Friday, January 18, 2013

Just Can't Get Enough PSU

Somehow, someday, you'll mixed up your designed circuit with both CMOS and TTL, once this point reached, you wondered; "seriously, who says you could get enough PSU to play with?". :)

Anyway, here's my version of solving my problem quick.


Nothing special really, it's just a family of 78XX-series linear regulator, with 12V, 9V, and 5V output, starting from yellow to black (ground) respectively. Heatsink was from old ATX PSU.

Input coming from 16V power-adapter, via barrel-jack, filtered by 6800uF cap.

In my academic years, most of the colleges used to discard stripboards, so I take it. 

Using it as the main base; not pretty I know, but hey, when you're cheap and desperate enough, anything could work. :)