Daily Shop Improvement

[Chicken lights]

I think if the charger is an inverter type, then the led's might not draw enough. Try putting an incandescent light (old headlamp, 1157 bulb?) across the connections to the led bar, see if that resolves it. Like computer supplies, iirc, there needs to be a min draw for the inverter to work. In a battery charging application, the battery sinks enough current to satisfy that.

Guessing...

Adding in a headlight didn’t help. I just scrapped a junk battery the other day too. Guess I’m putting up with the blinking
Thanks fellas

 

[Chicken lights]

Today we learned that’s a “fillister” type screw head, compared to a pan head.
0.060” skinnier than the pan head. One fits in the light the other sits proud. I was gonna redneckery make the pan head fit but they were 25 cents each to buy new, in stainless even

 

[ShawnR]

Adding in a headlight didn’t help. I just scrapped a junk battery the other day too. Guess I’m putting up with the blinking
Thanks fellas

What happens when you connect the light bar across the battery?

 

[Susquatch]

Adding in a headlight didn’t help. I just scrapped a junk battery the other day too. Guess I’m putting up with the blinking
Thanks fellas

I dunno if that's a good plan. It assumes the charger works. Putting up with a blinking light on a charger that doesn't work is prolly not a good idea. Unless you already know that it works, I'd recommend a little more testing. When are you headed Chatham way next?

 

[Chris Cramer]

I’ve finally got into cleaning out my whole shop. I have removed all the metal I have from my garage bay/shop, and now I am trying to think the best way I could store it back inside in a much more organized manner and save as much room as possible. I have come up with some good ways to store my rods, tube, bar, and and angle iron, however I also have quite a few large metal sheets and plates that take up most of my space. the best way to save space would be to build or buy a shed; but until that happens I need to store it inside my shop.

 

[Chicken lights]

I dunno if that's a good plan. It assumes the charger works. Putting up with a blinking light on a charger that doesn't work is prolly not a good idea. Unless you already know that it works, I'd recommend a little more testing. When are you headed Chatham way next?

Not for awhile, dispatch making noise about an oversize to PEI next week

 

[Chicken lights]

What happens when you connect the light bar across the battery?

The junk battery I had went for scrap, I’d have to find another one to test this

 

[jcdammeyer]

The junk battery I had went for scrap, I’d have to find another one to test this

Can we take a step back on all this?

What is the total expected current draw of the LED lights at 12V?

Have you access to a large filter capacitor from an old S100 computer power supply? They had 12V so the caps would have been rated at 16V. You'd have to condition it before trying it since it's old but it could fake out the charger.

Alternatively if you have a small 12V AC adaptor and a blocking diode you can put that across the LEDs (with the diode in series so the charger doesn't force current into it) and that voltage may 'fool' the charger into thinking there is a battery there.

 

[Susquatch]

Have you access to a large filter capacitor from an old S100 computer power supply?

S100 Computers. Now there is a trip down memory lane! So cool! I bet I still have a/d d/a and a plethora of control boards for the S100 system. Amazing capability even in today's context because bloatware didn't really exist yet!

@Chicken lights - if you need big capacitors like that, I'm sure I have lots to choose from.

 

[Dabbler]

I bet I still have a/d d/a and a plethora of control boards

I still have a tube of new, unused 2102 memory chips and an S100 backplane in my garage somewhere.

 

[jcdammeyer]

I still have a tube of new, unused 2102 memory chips and an S100 backplane in my garage somewhere.

We are _not_ going to make this a competition

 

[Janger]

We are _not_ going to make this a competition

hmm nobody has mentioned paper tape yet. jacquard loom control anyone ?
This is much earlier than I realized. 1804!

Programming patterns: the story of the Jacquard loom | Science and Industry Museum

The Jacquard loom ties together two of Manchester's most important historic industries: textile manufacturing and computing.

www.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk

 

[jcdammeyer]

hmm nobody has mentioned paper tape yet. jacquard loom control anyone ?
This is much earlier than I realized. 1804!

Well now. Back in the late 70's working at Bowtek Electric in Edmonton first introduced to the National Semiconductor Basic SC/MP kit. And programmed with paper tape... Teletype for I/O.
Didn't last long. Moved to S100 Z80 with my own design wire wrapped S100 48K memory board and a dual Persci 8" floppy drive.
Used it to try and build a robot arm with my little DB-200 Unimat Mill/Drill. All before computer control of any hardware.
So very long ago...

 

[YYCHM]

Well now. Back in the late 70's working at Bowtek Electric in Edmonton first introduced to the National Semiconductor Basic SC/MP kit. And programmed with paper tape... Teletype for I/O.
Didn't last long. Moved to S100 Z80 with my own design wire wrapped S100 48K memory board and a dual Persci 8" floppy drive.
Used it to try and build a robot arm with my little DB-200 Unimat Mill/Drill. All before computer control of any hardware.
So very long ago...

My first programing experience was in 1st year engineering in the mid-late 70's. We card punched Fortran code.
When I worked for PanArctic Oils, drilling reports were paper tape punched and transmitted to Calgary via a Teletype machine.

 

[Dabbler]

I *finally* threw out all my paper tape a couple of years ago. Focal, Basic, FORTRAN and PDP11 binaries.

 

[Susquatch]

I confess I threw out my S100 system box in the last move. I did keep a few boards. No idea why. And I kept a few programs I wrote, not so much because I might run them, but rather because of the ideas and methods they contain.

 

[YYCHM]

I *finally* threw out all my paper tape a couple of years ago. Focal, Basic, FORTRAN and PDP11 binaries.

PDP11 binaries LOL.... Why would one keep them in the first place

 

[jcdammeyer]

Never did do a PDP11. PDP8 yes. PDP10 at Uni. in 4th year for computer graphics course. First year Algol-W on punch cards, APL on special terminals on IMB370. Next year terminals on the Amdahl 470. First home monitor a converted 12" TV and a 64x16 TV Typewriter board. Even accounting for the relative dollar difference the ascii keyboard for that cost more than a Raspberry Pi4 does now.

 

[GlenG]

Wow. You guys are making me feel so young, I had to use DECwriter for my Fortran 77 course in Uni.

 

[Chicken lights]

Can we take a step back on all this?

What is the total expected current draw of the LED lights at 12V?

Have you access to a large filter capacitor from an old S100 computer power supply? They had 12V so the caps would have been rated at 16V. You'd have to condition it before trying it since it's old but it could fake out the charger.

Alternatively if you have a small 12V AC adaptor and a blocking diode you can put that across the LEDs (with the diode in series so the charger doesn't force current into it) and that voltage may 'fool' the charger into thinking there is a battery there.

I’m measuring 220-240 K ohms on one circuit, of six (now working) lights

That seems like a lot of ohms, but not a lot of amps?