Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Convert Battery Powered Electronics to Run on AC

It is very rare to find a power supply that will perfectly match an electrical appliance unless they are sold together as a pair. So we are going to have to modify our power adapter to match the circuit that we want to power. The easiest way to do this is to use a variable voltage regulator such as a LM317. The typical configuration for this kind of circuit is shown in the picture above. This regulator uses two resistors to set the output according to the formula: Vout=1.25*(1+R2/R1).

For most applications this circuit can be simplified a little bit. The capacitors are only needed if your load circuit is sensitive to small power fluctuations. So in many cases, these can be eliminated. The variable resistor R2 is useful if you want to be able to power multiple different devices. But if you are going to use the power supply exclusively on one device you can replace it with a fixed value resistor. Wire the circuit as shown with Vin connected to the power supply and Vout connected to the circuit that you want to power. The regulator will bring down the output of the power supply down to the value that you set.

Depending on the power rating of your circuit, you may need to add a heat sink. 

Example:
My son's swing normally runs on four C size batteries. So I found an old power supply with a 9V 1000mA output. I figured that would be enough to replace the battery pack. Then I soldered together the LM317 regulator circuit with a 220 ohm resistor for R1 and a 820 ohm resistor for R2. These resistor values give an output voltage of 5.9V. (It would have been ideal to use a 240 ohm for R1 and a 910 ohm for R2 but I didn't have those values on hand) This output is still well within the operating range for a four cell battery pack. Anything between 1.25V and 1.5V per battery will usually work. Since the electronics on the swing just consists of a motor and a speed controller, I decided that the filtering capacitors weren't unnecessary and I left them off. See the following steps for the best methods for connecting everything together. 


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VW Taillight Lamp

13, 10:03 PM.jpgAs you may guess, I am truly a VW nut. My biggest problem? I will read VW books, magazines, catalogs, and manuals while in bed. If only I had a lamp... Then it struck me! Turn the spare taillight for my 1973 super beetle into a lamp! Now how cool would that be? 13, 7:43 AM.jpgTo complete this instructable, you will need the following items: -1 VW tail light (in my case it was a 1973, but any model year from 1968-1979 should do. You could use a 1949-1967 light, but it would be much smaller and nearly impractical. -1 wood plaque ( get one a little bigger than your tail light.) -1 9 volt battery clip -Electrical wire -Small light bulb and holder -Toggle switch -Solder and soldering iron -Drill and drill bits -basic electrical knowledge (If you don't have this, don't try this project)

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Cardboard Floral Lampshade

floral lampshade.jpgLamp shades are soooo much fun to make. The light effect is always a surprise, which is very exciting :) This instructable will show you how to make a cardboard lampshade with floral pattern sooo easily. It won't take more than half an hour.
So lets start!20130602_163211.jpgTo make this lampshade you'll need:

1) White cardboard,
2) Scissor and anti cutter,
3) Pencil,
4) Ruler (to measure),
5) Super glue and white glue,
6) Lighting system (bulb holder, plug, wire, light bulb),
7) Golden glitter paint and paint brush (if you want to paint the flowers).


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colored comic book image on a wooden dog tag -easy laser printed transfer-

-item you want to decorate (wooden? but a lot of things could work for this)
>>If you don't live near a techshop, you can buy a blank wooden dogtag from my etsy shop =)
https://www.etsy.com/listing/152845115/blank-wooden-military-dogtag-dog-tag

-acrylic medium or gesso (modge podge probably too? it just needs to be not water soluble and pretty adhesive)

-laser print out (NOT INK JET) you can use all black OR color
---so, taking your favorite comic to the kinkos to make laser color copies would be awesome
!!!!!!Your image transfer will result in a mirror image of whatever your print out is, so if your image has text, or you are picky, you will need to flip your image over (ie with your computer before printing or with a smart photo copier). So when the transfer process flips it, it will flip back to its original state.

-nice paint brush or foam brush to apply medium or gesso
-water
-acrylic paint (optional)
-detail brush (optional)


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Whirlpool Penny Bank

Image 2.jpgMy boyfriend and me are saving money for a wellness weekend. Whenever we make some extra money, he tells me to put it in the "pool" for the wellness weekend. So I decided to make a "real pool" to put our saved money in.

It's actually very simple to make and it looks really nice! It took me about 1h to make it (inclusive baking time of the polymer clay).

Photo15.jpgAll you need is a metal box (like an old cookie box or something) and polymer clay.

I took FIMO which is a brand of polymer clay. You can shape it and mix colors like with putty, but after making the shapes you can put it in the oven, bake it and then its hard. The nice thing about it is, that it's not changing size during baking, so usually it won't form cracks or anything like that.


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