Newbee

Posted by: @inst-tech

Posted by: @inq

Welcome to the forum.  How hard is it to find tubes for your hobby/past time?  I've always heard that tube amps are the mac-daddy, but have never been around one side-by-side to a good quality class-A transistor amp.

Indeed Tube Amps are the Mac-daddy , especially for audio amps..very good micro-phonics, and somewhat easier to troubleshoot as when the tubes go, so does the glow...lol

regards,

LouisR

 

I'm just barely young/old enough to be in that transition.  Dad had tube amps/pre-amps, he made from kits, but he transitioned to store bought stuff as financial realities changed.

I also remember him building (with my great supervisory and organization skills 🤣 ) a HeathKit 25" color TV.  We spent hundreds of hours meticulously going through it.  For each circuit board, I'd pick out the components, color-code resistors, etc and he'd double check them and solder them.  It was great fun!  I just now looked it up and I must have my dates wrong, because, I would have sworn, I saw the Moon landing in '69 on that TV.  But it doesn't look like it was available until the early '70s.

VBR,

Inq

@inq Yes, Heath Kits were popular in the 70's.

I built a 9 transistor heath kit radio with the help of schematics, time and good smell of lead solider. Ha. I also built a "cat whisker radio", basically a 3 component AM receiver. O what fun...    

@js - A less hectic and simpler time to be sure. 

Back then, a 100% chance of getting a thank-you from a lady for opening the door.  Now... you're just as likely to get chewed-out.

Yes, technology increases expediently and Moral values decrease at 1k order of magnitude. 

Posted by: @js

Yes, technology increases expediently and Moral values decrease at 1k order of magnitude. 

Indeed, I've lived long enough to see that truth come to past..I too was an avid heath kit project builder many years ago.. While in Tech school, A buddy of mine, and myself, built a superheterodyne receiver .. That guy was a genius, especially with tubes..he built a submarine dive alarm..out of tubes! Put it in a box, all self contained with a push button on the bottom, placed it on the instructors desk.. then we waited for him to pick it up and set it off..you could hear it all over the building..needless to say, the instructor was not amused because he couldn't shut it off.. so he threw it on the floor and jumped up & down on it until it stopped...lol Yep , them were the good ol' days.. 1972...

Hi Louis, 

My mother gave me a robot floor sweeper and I thought I would harvest the components from the ole girl. It's got a good 20 V. rechargeable battery bank, and various ir's, I guess they are for position  and/or collision. If it has open source code, I can flash the EEROM with features. It looks like it has impendent DC drive motors, and lots of other goodies. It looks like a good reverse engineered jobbie for me... 

I love to here some suggestions goin forward with this project.

Thanks, J.S.

@js 

Maybe don't harvest the components first think about modifying it as is.

Can you attach an image or give the name of the robot sweeper?

I have had experience with utilizing robot vacuum cleaners and it is simpler to simply replace the brains if possible and just add anything else you might want like a camera or other sensors.  Does it for example have a bumper sensor?  Easier to keep than replace. Does it have a separate board to charge the battery?

Posted by: @js

My mother gave me a robot floor sweeper and I thought I would harvest the components from the ole girl.

For my own peace of mind, would you confirm that the "ole girl" refers to the floor sweeper and that you're NOT harvesting the parts from your mother 🙂

@will HaHa, sometimes I thing I need to harvest from mother, but no, the components from the sweeper. Ha..

@robotbuilder I have not got into the major stuff yet, however the battery is charging to full potential on voltage but it fails on current load. Is there a way to revive the cells? Also it would help if I had a schematic. It looks like a good project because it has basic robotic components. I think I need to hack the memory and the EEPROM just to see if I can.

Thanks,

JS

@js 

How are you charging the batteries? I used the charging circuit that came with the robot base. I don't know what "charge to full volts but fail on current load" means. A battery charger should tell you if it is charging (filling up with electricity) and when it stops filling up. (current stops) it should turn off. If you overcharge some types of batteries they will blow up or catch alight. Also the battery pack should have a temperature sensor.

I don't know how to revive cells. What type are they? The best way to get suggestions is to provide detail and often an image provides more unambiguous detail than text. (see Attach Files in bar on bottom of the post with the paper clip image).

This used the guts of a robotic vacuum cleaner. I retained the battery and battery charger circuit. I identified the connections to the motorized wheel (including encoders) to connect to the Arduino brain. Now I wished I had retained the casing with bumper as well. It just so happened to fit into a bamboo food tray.

To enlarge image right click image and choose open link in new window.

@robotbuilder I believe that it has bumper sensors, <IR>, around the edge. I am trying to transfer the pics. from my phone camera to laptop so I can attach the pic to you.. I will be happy when I get my Kodak camera back from Ca. ( a warranty issue ).

@js 

Can you post images from your camera to your email address?

Yes, we are one the same page. Yep let me see if I can save on desktop and then attach thru the forum message to you..

@js Here are some typical charging curves. With old style Flooded Lead Acid the special charge stage called Equalization was sometimes erroneously referred to as 'revive' but all batteries are born to die, some just take longer. Just a hunch but you probably have LiPo batteries. Each battery chemistry has specific voltage settings for what denotes 'full charge', and what is the absorb voltage. I have also included screen shots of my battery and solar controller settings for my LiFePO4 batteries. Your LiPO settings will be slightly different.