Zoopaman,Hoot, Anyone-Ever build an Electrobus?

[WillysNut]

The way to get around the LM317T voltage limits is with a bypass switch for the full 12 volts. Here are a couple of pics of the one I built last year.

Wow! Nice work man! Lot's of close soldering...don't know if I'm at that level yet. The second schematic at the top of this thread includes a bypass switch for full power. Def. a good addition when working with that particular setup and the 3 pin vs. 5 pin regulator.

 

[WillysNut]

Got the voltage regulators today, and the first attempt worked like a charm(unswitched version). 120mm GlobalWin slowed to a crawl, just about silent, and cranked up to max. Great control. Switched version will be next.

OH YEAH! That is awesome! Full voltage on a 120mm fan. Sweetness. Can't wait to get my regulators. Keep us posted.

 

[stool]

Spent most of the day on a breadboard trying to get the switched version working, but no joy. Back at it tomorrow.

BTW, Colin, are those switched pots you are using?
I grabbed a couple like the photo, but am not sure on the correct way to wire the on/off portion(upper lugs).

 

[WillysNut]

not sure on the correct way to wire the on/off portion(upper lugs).

The Rheo you have is an audio taper version, it has two connections for left and right. Sounds like you already know, but you only need to use the upper lugs, I would clip off the lugs on the back of the cylinder base. If you're wiring up the switched version of the above layout at Bittech using the 5Pin regulator it works like this:

If you look at the above layout, the rheostat is facing you (the knob is facing you) Looking at the rheo headon:

-Left post goes to ground with a 4k Ohm resistor
-Middle goes to Pin 5, no resistor (from left to right 1,2...5, The Adjust pin)
-Right post goes to the bottom left rung of the 3way switch with a 33K Ohm resistor. I then attached a second wire from the voltage out pin to the bottom rung of the switch..see above

I tried the setup above, utilizing the stereo jack mount, with a 3 pin regulator and it worked, albeit at a lousy voltage with the weaker LM317. PM me if you have other questions.

 

[WillysNut]

This should clarify things

 

[stool]

That's the part I have OK. Its the switch lugs on the cylinder base that I am not sure how to wire. That would give me an on/off capability.

 

[WillysNut]

Stool..is this what your looking for????

 

[stool]

That helps. I see at least 1 wire I was missing.

 

[WillysNut]

Finally finished a "working" fan controller. Had a couple of rough attempts but I managed to build my soldering skills..at least a little.

The plans for this setup can be found here at hardware corner.net.

The addition of an external psu allows you to increase the voltage that is applied to your fans..above stock ratings!! Check out the article. I've been running the blower setup below and some 120mm fans on and off for about a week without any issues.

Running the positive and negative solder lines proved to be the challenge that led to failure two previous times but this sucker works!!

Fan is spinning but the camera doesn't show it.

 

[WillysNut]

Soldering job..still quite sloppy but seems to be holding up w/o any hotspots to the touch...other than the little heatsink on the voltage regulator...that bugger get's warm! Had to do a tiny dremel fix near the VR..woops!

 

[WillysNut]

Top view...sorry for all the bandwidth..but I'm proud right now!!

 

[Sonny]

Congrats on the mod Looks like you finally got that bead going

 

[DanFraser]

LM317T

I can get these... Can somebody show a schematic so I can make my own rheobus/electrobus thingy using two VRs, two switches to control the power of those VRs, and one VR is powering one 120mm Fan, and the other one is powering two 80mm Fans...

 

[stool]

Willys Nut, did you ever see the others I found? Check here Nice work, BTW.

 

[WillysNut]

Thanks for the replies everyone! Sonny..Where you been hiding? Stool...replied to your other post...sorry I missed it. The temperature circuit looks to be a pretty sweet little project...might have to give that one a try.

 

[Robbiem01]

wow both of those look so nice! Makes me want to learn more about electricity and how to alter it. Maybe I'll build on of those things this summer. Anyways I just wanted to say those look really nice.

 

[WillysNut]

After all the stuff inbetween, I finally had a chance to get to my original project idea in this post. After much practice with PCB board, I worked out a relatively compact layout for the schematic supplied by bit-tech which should fit nice in a project box.

I had a chance to test one unit separately as stool did and am all smiles at the much reduced voltage drop over the commonly used LM317 regulators. The ones I purchased from newark.com seem to be of good quality and haven't gotten that hot with a fair load.

Takin' a break from the soldering..lots of wires with my current setup. Trying to work out the best, shortest way to connect up the two 10k rheostats, two bi-color LED's and two switches. Gonna be a tight squeeze. Thinking of doing a dual-layer PCB setup like Colin's above..might work out best with the number of leads. Thanks again for everyones input...soldering is fun....

 

[WillysNut]

This is the completed unit I used to test. with. A single regulator setup, but still incorporating the switch to bypass the VR. A very good alternative to using a mechanical reho only...plus it's gotta heatsink!!!!