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Pointless Project of the week!

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tcmtech

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Actually this is my pointless project of the week from about 3 weeks ago.
Just thought I would show it off a little.
Its 45 super bright green 3mm LED's wired in a series and ran off a capacitive reactance current limiting power supply right from the 120 VAC line.

It does not serve any real purpose other than to be a rather unique and bright night light/conversation piece! The actual power consumption is around 3.5 watts and hopefully the life expectancy is near the estimated 100K hours that the LED's are rated for.

I just built it on an old piece of prototyping circuit board that I trimmed to fit in an old Compact fluorescent bulb base. :)

So you got any pointless projects you would like to show off? ;)
 

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Hope you used a good cap, that's gonna go long before the LED's do.
 
Actually this is my pointless project of the week from about 3 weeks ago.
Just thought I would show it off a little.
Its 45 super bright green 3mm LED's wired in a series and ran off a capacitive reactance current limiting power supply right from the 120 VAC line.

It does not serve any real purpose other than to be a rather unique and bright night light/conversation piece! The actual power consumption is around 3.5 watts and hopefully the life expectancy is near the estimated 100K hours that the LED's are rated for.

I just built it on an old piece of prototyping circuit board that I trimmed to fit in an old Compact fluorescent bulb base. :)

So you got any pointless projects you would like to show off? ;)

Tell me about the telescope in the backround. That Celestron or Meade? What size? What type, reflector?

Lefty
 
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If you would've used RED leds, it would've made for proper area illumination for astro-viewing with that telescope. Green is the WORST color for night time viewing.
 
Tell me about the telescope in the backround. That Celestron or Meade? What size? What type, reflector?

Lefty
My guess is it's old to begin with and is perhaps a 3"-6" reflector on a modified equatorial mount. Celestron's typically have a white or orange tube.
 
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I will get a LED schematic posted soon.
I did Green because I had loads of ultra bright Green LED's. A red one and a blue one are on the to do list!

The telescope is a mid priced EBay unit. They call it a Galileo.
I have some suspicions that it is possibly a lower end version of one of the bigger and better brands.

I will post some pictures of it soon too! May be you guys can tell me if you think its a knock off or not. I dont know much about telescope manufacturers in general.

Most of its mounting brackets are plastic. But its actually a solid and heavy plastic.
For what I have done with it I am still very pleased with the overall performance.
I have been thinking about machining out some adapters for the pan and tilt so I can motorize it.
 
Tell me about the telescope in the backround. That Celestron or Meade? What size? What type, reflector?

From the angle it's sitting at looking out the window, I'm guessing it's currently used to check out the windows of the nearby apartment building.
 
Sorry to disappoint! But I am a country dweller! :(:p
The nearest neighbor in that direction is a mile away and behind two hills!

Actually I can pick out several geostationary satellites from that spot, and get monthy moon views that are super!
With the window down of course!

Here is the telescope in the day time and the actual view of what I do see! The most interesting daytime thing I can view is my home made wind generator.

the utility pole is where the big wind genreator unit is going and hopefully soon too! Spring and summer are often very windy here.
 

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Did you make that generator yourself? I'd really like to make one for my Sister. She lives on a farm. Open land and windy as well. I know there's lots of how-to's on the net, I just need to make a decision and start gathering parts.
 
Want to make it a new how to thread in the alternative energy section?

Ive got an old homemade frame from one I am going to rebuild and modify as soon as the rain stops. I can have loads of pictures relating to it if needed. (new 1gig memory for my camera, 3000 high resolution pictures Vs 22 before!):)

I am using a 120 volt 1.5 hp PM motor for the generator, and I just got done re machining a 6:1 in-line gear reducer off of a 12 hp gas engine to fit it so I can speed it up and get the full 120 VDC off of it.
The 8.5 ft blades on the one in the picture are tearing the old wind generator tower right out of the ground! And the bigger blades need to be rebalanced a little too.

Since everything is going to need to come down I figured why not make a new test unit. and move it up to the pole in the back ground for better all around wind, and thats where my underground lines come up too.
I have an above ground line between the old tower and the pole but my dads horses just love pulling it around and unhooking it! :mad:
 
The telescope is a mid priced EBay unit. They call it a Galileo. I have some suspicions that it is possibly a lower end version of one of the bigger and better brands.

Aaaah yes, the Galileo that often advertised on QVC and similar home shopping channels. It offers lots of features and fair performance for the price, but as you mentioned, it is lower end.

BTW, you need a house maid --- lots of dust collecting on that scope and everything else around it! ;)
 
BTW, you need a house maid --- lots of dust collecting on that scope and everything else around it! ;)

Just a single guy living by myself!
The living room does not get used much sense I got the high speed INTERNET connection and dual 30" LCD HD monitors . Once I found out all the nerd and cartoon shows I like are on the INTERNET for free the satellite got turned off last spring and I never looked back.

One of these days I am going to take the storm windows off the house and run the big air line over from the shop.
All I need is a fair cross wind and all the windows open and I can have the whole house dusted in a few minutes! A 1/2 inch air line with 150 PSI (15 hp shop compressor with 200 gallon tank) beats any maid!
Now if I redo my floors I may have to make the sub flooring water tight so I can pressure wash my carpet and the just suck it dry with the 10 hp commercial vacuum machine a friend owns!
Lets see your hoover beat that!:p
Forget those wimpy ass OCD cleaning methods! Mines faster, more thorough (even gets into the cracks) and far cheaper! ;):D
 
You forgot to use the Tim Allen grunt :)
He had a bit where he would duct tape everything down and use a yard blower...
 
Just a single guy living by myself!
The living room does not get used much sense I got the high speed INTERNET connection and dual 30" LCD HD monitors . Once I found out all the nerd and cartoon shows I like are on the INTERNET for free the satellite got turned off last spring and I never looked back.

One of these days I am going to take the storm windows off the house and run the big air line over from the shop.
All I need is a fair cross wind and all the windows open and I can have the whole house dusted in a few minutes! A 1/2 inch air line with 150 PSI (15 hp shop compressor with 200 gallon tank) beats any maid!
Now if I redo my floors I may have to make the sub flooring water tight so I can pressure wash my carpet and the just suck it dry with the 10 hp commercial vacuum machine a friend owns!
Lets see your hoover beat that!:p
Forget those wimpy ass OCD cleaning methods! Mines faster, more thorough (even gets into the cracks) and far cheaper! ;):D

Just get a maid service and clean it once a week. Then you can watch or surf to your hearts content and just lift you feet once and a while :D

kv
 
I have a two-stage dust collector in my shop that uses a 4" hose and a 2hp motor. The vacuum is amazing and it filters to .5 microns. My air compressor is a 200PSI Westinghouse Airbrake, off of a locomotive. It took a garage crane to load it in my truck and three of us to control its roll off down a plank. Every component on it from guages, pressure switch and regulator is 100% USA made. I regulate it to 140PSI.
 
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