Why Not Try A DIAC?
There are plenty of electronic components which were once ubiquitous but once the niche which led to their existence has passed, they fade away to remain a junkbox curio. The …read more Continue reading Why Not Try A DIAC?
Category Archives: ac
How To Survive A Wet Bulb Event
Territories across the northern hemisphere are suffering through record-breaking heatwaves this summer. Climate scientists are publishing graphs with red lines jagging dangerously upwards as unprecedented numbers pour in. Residents of …read more Continue reading How To Survive A Wet Bulb Event
Tech in Plain Sight: Field Guide to Power Plugs
It is the bane of worldwide travel: there isn’t just one way to get AC power from the wall. The exact connector — and what you can expect when you …read more Continue reading Tech in Plain Sight: Field Guide to Power Plugs
The Benefits of Displacement Ventilation
The world has been shaken to its core by a respiratory virus pandemic. Humanity has been raiding the toolbox for every possible weapon in the fight, whether that be masks, …read more Continue reading The Benefits of Displacement Ventilation
Tricking a Smart Meter into Working on the Bench
When the widget you’re working on is powered by a battery or a USB charger, running it on the bench is probably pretty safe. But when the object of your …read more Continue reading Tricking a Smart Meter into Working on the Bench
Building a Mechanical Oscillator, Tesla Style
Before Tesla devised beautifully simple rotary machinery, he explored other methods of generating alternating current. One of those was the mechanical oscillator, and [Integza] had a go at replicating the device himself. (Video, embedded below the break.)
Initial attempts to reproduce the technology using 3D-printed parts were a failure. The …read more
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Hackaday Links: July 28, 2019
It looks like Apple is interested in buying Intel’s modem chip business. Seriously interested; a deal worth $1 billion could be announced as early as this week. That might look like a small potato purchase to the world’s biggest company – at least by market capitalization – but since the …read more
Scott Swaaley On High Voltage
If you were to invent a time machine and transport a typical hardware hacker of the 1970s into 2018 and sit them at a bench alongside their modern counterpart, you’d expect them to be faced with a pile of new things, novel experiences, and exciting possibilities. The Internet for all, desktop computing fulfilling its potential, cheap single-board computers, even ubiquitous surface-mount components.
What you might not expect though is that the 2018 hacker might discover a whole field of equivalent unfamiliarity while being very relevant from their grizzled guest. It’s something Scott Swaaley touches upon in his Superconference talk: “Lessons …read more
Down the DIY Rabbit Hole with a Shop AC Installation
There’s a fine line between a successful DIY project and one that ends in heartbreak. It’s subjective too; aside from projects that end up with fire trucks or ambulances in the driveway, what one DIYer would consider a disaster might be considered a great learning opportunity to someone else.
We’re pretty sure [Cressel] looks at his recent DIY mini-split AC installation for his shop as a series of teachable moments. Most folks leave HVAC work to the pros, but when you run a popular YouTube channel where you make your own lathe from scratch, you might be persuaded to give …read more
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A Dramatic Demo of AC Versus DC Switching
Switches seem to be the simplest of electrical components – just two pieces of metal that can be positioned to either touch each other or not. As such it would seem that it shouldn’t matter whether a switch is used for AC or DC. While that’s an easy and understandable assumption, it can also be a dangerous one, as this demo of AC and DC switching dramatically reveals.
Using a very simple test setup, consisting of an electric heater for a load, a variac to control the voltage, and a homemade switch, [John Ward] walks us through the details of …read more