Hello all,
This is my first post. I’m very new to electronics so bear with me, I’m doing my best.

I have a very small (10x10cm) metal plate, with so many little holes in it. I want this plate to heat up to a degree close to the cigarette lighter in a car. The metal plate is extremely thin.

I know that connecting a wire directly to a power supply (one end to positive and other to negative) produces heat. Should I try this with the metal plate or is that just crazy and dangerous?! :P

Any hints are highly appreciated.

Naimi

 

i wouldn't put it on anything wooden! and i wouldn't advise holding it. how much power you putting to it? how much resistance does the plate have?

 

you need to consider ohms law e=i*r. although a cigarette lighter has low resistance it still has more than a plate with holes in it. this is because the element is in a coil and that lengthens the path that the current has to flow. that combined with the material that it is made out of gives it some resistance to limmit the amount of current.puy your meter on the plate you have then plug the resistance into the equation with the voltage you plan to use and see what you come up with for current.

 

I wouldn't use it in a 'water-pipe', touch a 9 volt battery to your tongue, you'll understand...

 

You might end up creating more heat in the power supply than at the target.

__________________

 

mybuickskill6979 & Gaston:
I currently have an adapter that outputs 12v DC and 2A.
The plate is not important, I can use any material, so what is the best resistance?

HarveyH42:
heh.. you cought me. :P

Sceadwian:
That doesn't sound good. How can I stop that from happening?

The adapter I have is taken from an old and broken harddisk case. Inputs 110v/220v AC, and outputs (as I mentioned before) 12v with 2A.

Thank you all for your time!

 

well if you wanted to max out the output plug in the numbers. 12=2*r so 12/2=6 so 6 ohms of resistance would draw 2 amps at 12 volts. are you trying to make a heater or something? if you are trying to make a heater you could find an old toaster oven and series or parralle the elements to get 6 ohms.

 

What are you trying to heat?

20W isn't a lot of power were heating is concerned.

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Keep in mind heaters heat relative to ambient, under the wrong conditions even a 'wimpy' 20 watt heater can be a fire risk. There needs to be some kind of thermal feedback, ususally it's pretty easy to just use a thermistor as close as possible to the heating element.

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That's true, a 20W soldering iron can be a fire risk!

Isn't is possible to use the heating element as a thermister?

If it's run from a regulated constant voltage then the current will alter depending on the temperature coefficient or the reisitive element.

__________________
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Screen name: Aloone_Jonez

 

That would be difficult compared to just coupling a thermistor close to the heating element itself.

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That wouldn't be difficult, in fact it would be easier than using a thermistor because with the thermistor you would either need control circuitry or to use the thermistor in series but it would then dissapate some power, could you not simply use a car cigarette lighter?

 

They probably use the circuit you are looking for in the "vaporizer" deals they sell now.I dont mess with that stuff, but have seen them.
There is a fine line between getting enough heat in your screen/element to make it useable and melting it. sam