Convert PC ATX PSU into Lab PSU

Lately, I'm been playing with some heavily sulphated LA-batteries. Some are small, others are big.
Realizing I need a better power supply to charge those batteries in parallel, I intended to buy high-current transformer. Unfortunately enough, the price are way too high for me.

Stuck? Not yet! I suddenly just noticed that I have bunch of old PC PSU lying doing nothing in my storage box.
I did convert some of those into my lab PSU. But, the voltage is kinda fixed. Almost no chance of charging those batteries.
I Google'd on how to convert those PSU into variable SMPS.
Then, I found this site: Uzzors2k.

So, here's my version:

The victim

Specs.

Modded!

The 10k pot.

Yeah, I'm lazy to clean those junks! Lol!

(Two black-coloured wires connected to the pot.)

Done!

12V, 40W, being lit with 3V supply from the PSU.

Showing the power output without the mod.

I can vary the voltage up to 13.7V before cut-off triggered.

Now, the PSU is being tortured! I'm running an automotive air-cond blower.10 amps!

Here's the output when I turned the pot. Can't go higher voltage, connecting wire is too hot.

(I'm using cheap wire, :-P)

I even try to charge this battery cell. 2V of course.

Here's the stock output.

Here's the output at 3.3V rail with the mod

This is the voltage without the load.

Well, I guess that's it! I don't know what to type. Way too tired.
I now have a new battery charger!
I'm very happy with the mod done. Thanks Uzzors2k for supplying great instruction!


See ya' later!

The Homemade Blade-less Fan

Hi y'all!
Recently, in my tiny lab, I've been playing with HV stuffs. Lots of fun!
As the byproduct, I just built something which can provide tiny thrust. I don't know what to call it.
It could be an air ionizer, ozone generator, particle accelerator, lifter, or a blade-less fan.
I choose 'blade-less fan' as the title cause it sounds more catchy... Lol!!

Here's the vid:

As I increase the duty cycle, the HV output goes up. Thus, providing more thrust.

But, if I crank it up higher, the HV sparks is all over the place.

The fan performance is limited to the HV leaks.

It's still a primitive experiment though. 

For the next design, I'm planning to use more emitter and better HV insulation.

As usual, tell me what y'all opinion! Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Capacitive Battery Desulphator Circuit!!

Several month ago, I promised to post the Capacitive Battery Desulphator Circuit to my viewers as soon as possible...
For some random reason, I don't know why, I've been smashed with tons of work to do...
My email inbox been flooded with request from many my viewers, including Myspace too (Musicallman)... Lol!!


I take some time today to draw the circuit, but, I don't know what software is best for the purpose.
So, please forgive me for the crappy schematic...

 

Now I need your help. Can any of you, suggest a good software for me to draw the schematics?

I prefer freeware, if possible...

I will wait for ya!!

Update 1st Jan 2013: 
Somehow I lost the circuit and too lazy to redraw it. What it does is charged two capacitor in parallel, and discharge it in series back into the battery. Intended to force high current to the battery.

It's actually a solid-state "The Ron Cole One-Battery Switch".

Make a Simple, but, Powerful Air Ionizer!!

Several years ago, I've been playing with some simple "negative ion generator" circuits...
You can easily get the circuit on the internet of course... Such as this...

It uses voltage multiplier a.k.a.  "Cockcroft-Walton Generator" to multiply the voltage to several kilovolts...
I tried that before, and, surprisingly, it does work!! It makes me sleep easier, relaxed, so on and so forth...

But, it's not powerful enough to meet my requirement... I want to ionize the whole air in my entire house!!
Bwahahaha!!

So, I come out with more powerful design...
Very little parts are needed...

In this project, I use:

555-astable circuit

The circuit is pretty simple, but, very effective... All you have to do is tune it to your flyback transformer resonant frequency... To indicate that you achieved resonance, the transistor is cold to touch and it does not draw high current but yet, it produce high output...

The Flyback Transformer

As you may noticed, I also wind a new primary on the ferrite-core... Mine is about 8 turns...

I get this for free from my friend's old monitor... (Thanks Salahudeen!!)

In this case, the transformer produce DC HV output...

The positive is the one which have the rubber cap, while the negative, you have the find it on your own which pin is the correct one...

The NPN Transistor...

It may looks funny, I submerged the transistor in ATF-oil... Although the transistor is cold to touch, I believe it's safer to do it this way... It really saved my transistors from frequent death... Lol!!

The Negative Ion Emmiter Design

This is the simplest design that I can think of... I use a small hex driver as the negative pole, and I use an old hard disk platter as the positive pole...

The hex driver is been positioned at the center of the platter's hole...

Small purple arc also can being seen...

The PSU

I use 3 batteries as the PSU... First battery is used to drive the 555-timer circuit, while other two batteries is been configured in 24V to run the flyback windings...

The RESULTS!!

The result are quite impressive... It worked better than I thought... Here's several pictures of it:

3 amps at 24V max...

Corona discharge at the center emmiter...

Another corona stream shot...

Old tissue proving the strong air flow... It's propellerless!!

Ha!! Better than Dyson's design...

The breeze can be feel at over 12 inches!! It smell fresh too...

In future, I would like to make it in a bigger scale... Hopefully, I can get a strong wind as normal table fan does... Its very quite too... And, cheaper than Dyson's fan... Hahaha!!

Latest Fan Design - It's Bladeless!!

Several days ago, I'm researching so hard on energy efficient fan. Then, I accidently bump into this vid:



Well, it does impress me... I mean, look at its design, its so simple and very 'modern' looking fan.
He claim that the air sucked-in being amplified by x15 times through Venturi and Bernoulli principles...

I'm interested to have one, but, it seems like it's too overpriced... The cheapest is about $300 dollars.
To me, air-cond is much cheaper than the fan.

Since that's the case, it looks like I have to 'homebrew' it... Hehehe...
Here's my first plan:



See?? It's bladeless too!!
So, as usual, tell me what ya think!!

My Very First Plasma Speaker!!

Hi y'all!!
Just wanna share my barely working plasma speaker...
It's based on the simple 555 astable circuit...
I really mean it!! The circuit is so damn simple to build...

Here's the vid:

Here's the circuit: http://www.disorder.dk/?page_id=227

Currently, the speaker volume is so slow... I'm still finding the cause of it...
But, the sound quality is so good, crystal clear!!

Tell me what ya think!!

My Latest Capacitive Battery Desulphator Project!!

In my "Mini-Lab", I have vast amount of heavily-sulphated batteries...
Most of them were from old UPS and discarded LA-Batteries...
I'm intended to reuse those batteries for energy storage purposes...

So, instead of throw it away, I decided to research on the internet for any good mod to do...
I found hell lot of interesting stuffs!! To name the few, it's including Bedini Motor, Inductive-Desulphator, Resistive-Desulphator (Thanks Anwar.Sheikh!!), EDTA stuffs, Epsom salt, Pulse Charger and bunch of other excellent informations...

I also searched very-hardly about Capacitive-Desulphator...
Unfortunately, not even single page come out...
So, I decided to design it by myself...

Here's are several photos:

Here's the scope shot...

Currently, the circuit working perfectly...

Even with just 1-day test-run, the circuit shows obvious effect on the batteries...

I'll keep y'all updated later, and, I will post the circuit soon after I done drawing it...

Tell me what ya think!!