Underwurldes - Diy Auto Top Off Project

[Underwurlde]

That's a good find. What is the sellers name?

Cheers,

Andy

PS, that's £55 to £60 then...

 

[pengy666]

I have been looking and see no reason to question his item's either, I have contacted him and he is very helpful. Quick responding and offers 7-10 business dleivery from china. What I gather is he is based in germany and gets items sent directly from china to the buyer

Dehaoe Department Store


I was quoted

2 x set of 12 cup Moonlight LED sets £38.00 USD business delivery of 7-10 days

 

[Underwurlde]

Sophos,

Got your bits & bobs in the post yesterday. Been looking at sorting things out, and it looks tidy & works just dandy. I have not had to change anything - the original design is perfect as far as I can tell (you didn't send me the float switch, so that part of it is untested).

So:
1) The design of the electronics is perfect - infact the alarm was going off because the IC was not in (the one you busted), so the design is self testing as well!
2) The PCB is perfect (apart from the fact that I got some pins on the transformer slightly *ahem* out of position).
3) The shape of the PCB fits prefectly into the box, less 0.5mm (I was well chuffed with that as I had to make some educated guesses).
4) The size of the box is just right.



Infact, as you had sent it, it worked. (OK, albeit without the IC).

I will now spend some time drilling holes in things to mount all the LEDs, switches and the POT. I can see you had some 'fun' with the soldering iron, but I'll tell you why you had problems: Let me guess you were using some of that crap lead-free RohS compliant solder? That stuff is a nightmare to use, even for people well skilled in soldering...

This is a sweet looking little DIY project now... I'll get some photo's off later...

Andy

 

[SkiFletch]

Let me guess you were using some of that crap lead-free RohS compliant solder? That stuff is a nightmare to use, even for people well skilled in soldering...

Amen, gimme lead fumes anyday

 

[sophos9]

Hi Andy,

Great stuff, glad to hear its all good - thought after getting that IC the wrong way round thought that I'd fried out... Yep - the solder is lead free, it dont smell right at all.

Kudos to you fella, you def know what you are doing and thanks loads for picking up the pieces

 

[Underwurlde]

Just got to order some new 74HC02's. (I'll sneak them into a work order - don't tell anyone).

I have fully tested it, albeit with some surface mount '02's (and some VERY thin Kynar wire).

Andy

 

[sophos9]

Will not tell a soul mate!! Is that the chip I fried?

So fully tested and all is good, unreal! You should be self employed!

 

[Underwurlde]

Is that the chip I fried?

Yes. But we won't mention that!

You should be self employed!

I would be if there was any worth in what I do....

Andy

 

[Underwurlde]

OK, pics of the finished article, in its box as promised:

Parts assembled, fitting snugly in it's box (try not to look at the Jet Melted LEDs too much )

PCB tracking - just to show Sophos that things can be recovered!

The lid assembly - apologies for the crap pic:

Andy

 

[SkiFletch]

Now THAT is slick

 

[sophos9]

Hi Andy... Wow, check that out! The tracking is looking great, cannot even see where I burnt the tracking out

Have you re-soldered all the components?

Its looking really good, thanks loads for sorting it (and persevering with all the stupidity )

 

[Underwurlde]

Hell, I'm looking at those pics and they're bloody crap. Daylight t'boot, what AM I doing?

What stupidity? (Persivering is spelt persevering by the way). LOL

Just got to wait for a new IC then (You know, the one you burnt out? Did I mention that again, the one you burnt out?)

Made a bit (slight) hash of the lid I'm afraid, but working in that plastic stuff is an utter shyte at the best of times..... That's my excuse anyway!

Andy

Edit: Sorry, yes I did re-do all the joints to get rid of that lead free RoHs compliant crap. Nailed it to a cross and flayed the man-flesh from it's puny frame.

 

[sophos9]

You ask what stupidity then follow on the burnt out IC sentence

No problems with the lid mate, the bits that matter work (now)! Cant wait to get it in and flood the front room (why not, I've done the kitchen with RODI water about 5 times now!) and with the upgraded lighting kicking into its full cycle in the next few weeks I will be evaporating a lot more than usual!!

What other things have you designed?

 

[SkiFletch]

What other things have you designed?

Heh, amen to that. Ever looked into designing Multi-cell Lithium Ion protection circuitry that can fit on a circuit board not much larger than a business card and no thicker than 7mm?

J/K, would love to hear some other stuff you've worked on though.

 

[Underwurlde]

What other things have you designed?

Don't get me started.

This is where I work now: www.pgdt.com
Products there I've designed are:
Sip & Puff controllers for severely disabled people - aint I the hero. No, it makes me feel like I'm 'doing my bit'.
VR2 & GC - High volume, low cost wheelchair controllers - 150,000 per annum being made in China! I wanna pay-rise!
Access 120 - boom and scissor lifts - wooowowooo
Trio - scrubber thingy for floor cleaning - cool thing actuall for such a boring subject matter
Solo - Scooter controller for old biddies (yep, it's me you've got to blame)

Before that, De La Rue Cash handling - ATM Cash machines (did you know that for evert tenner taken out in this country, 1p goes into my off-shore account?), high security paper & print detectors - forgery detectors for bank notes and the such like (you'd be amazed).

Before that, Marine Engineering - installations for 'boats' such as Seafarer, Raytheon, Bayliner, Glastron, *ahem* SunSeeker...

Homers (such as this Auto Top-off thingy of yours) - I'm into video processing (or was) so things like MacroVision removers, Time Base Correctors, html homepages 'on-a-chip', blah blah blah

Currently I want to get into hybrid & fuel-less cars. (Got a phone-call jsut the other day actually.... fingers crossed then!).

Andy