The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning
Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
Cruisin’ the streets
Based on recent experience, this “Baby, Think It Over” rig works even better than a propane tank:
I was going to take a picture with it posed next to the gas pump, but the whole affair isn’t all that stable: it’s tough to look cool when your fancy faired Tour Easy ‘bent flops over like dead possum…
The BOB Yak trailer I tote behind the ‘bent has a flag with a two-part pole which generally stays together; I pull the entire affair out of the frame socket when I hang the trailer up after a trip. The ferrule between the two pole sections recently worked loose and I took it to the Basement Workshop for repair.
The assembled nickel-plated brass (?) ferrule came off both pole sections all too easily, which was a Bad Sign: those little punch marks originally clamped the tubes to the pole. You can’t overestimate the Bad Effects of prolonged vibration on bike parts.
Separating the two ferrule sections required running several pin punches down the bore and tapping gently, all accompanied by considerable muttering; the joint was no longer a slip fit. Eventually I produced this tableau:
The small hole gauge to the far left showed that the inside of the larger section (on the bottom) had entirely enough clearance for the smaller section, but the rolled ring at its end had somehow shrunk to a tight interference fit.
I’d actually chucked up a piece of rod in the lathe, with the intent of making a mandrel to expand the ring, when I came to my senses. The smaller part was 0.253 inch diameter, so I deployed the letter drills:
A few whacks with a center punch reclamped the dimples firmly in place on the dents in the poles.
That was easy…
This shrubbery grows just south of the Dutchess County Airport on Rt 376:
I’ve called it in, so maybe it’ll get trimmed back in a while… meanwhile, we’ll take the lane and hope for the best.
After I mentioned I was thinking of repurposing the nearly unused lithium-ion batteries from the Wouxun KG-UV3D radios for a blinky light, Dragorn of Kismet introduced me to his Baofeng UV-5 radio. The radio itself seems to be the worst amateur radio you’d be willing to use, but when seen as a standardized battery and drop-in charger with a free radio and antenna tossed into the deal, it’s not all that bad:
The Wouxun and Baofeng 7.4 V batteries allegedly have similar capacities: 1700 vs 1800 mA·h. The Baofeng also has a 3800 (or 3600) mA·h pack that extends well below the base of the radio (not all large packs seem to be compatible with the UV-5RE radios I got); that would be roughly equivalent to the larger packs that power the Wouxun / APRS / voice gadgetry on the bike.
The Baofeng battery pack is smaller and has features that seem less likely to misbehave on a bike.
It has a latching tab with a ramp and a positive notch, with ridges around the edge that engage the radio shell:
The radio body (which is what I must duplicate) has a movable latch tab above the battery contact pins, so the latch holds the battery into the compartment. The spring-loaded pin pairs are wired in parallel, presumably for redundant contact with each battery terminal:
The battery terminal pads are reasonably well protected by the tab:
The battery slides into the radio compartment and latches with a snap. Two holes on the battery base engage a pair of pegs on the radio case:
The holes are rounded rectangles and the pegs have one corner sliced off. The pegs seem entirely too fragile and not well suited for 3D printing, so some metalwork may be in order. The pegs must resist only pulling forces perpendicular to the case back, not sliding forces, and the case constrains side-to-side motion.
The two square posts (with two others not shown) form the “feet” that support the radio when it’s standing on the desk or in the charger.
Now, to doodle up the dimensions and measure the actual capacity.
Speaking of capacity, BL-5 batteries on eBay range from $23 for “genuine Baofeng” that may or may not actually have that name on the label, all the way down to $8 for the usual no-name equivalent.
I managed to lose another kickstand plate, sooo…
The horrible paint crazing came from “priming” the bare plywood scrap (yes, that’s a stray hole from its previous life) with a specialty white paint intended for plastic lawn furniture; it apparently gets along poorly with the forget-me-not fluorescent red topcoat. Doesn’t matter in this application and uses up more of both rattlecans, so it’s all good.
Of course, after tucking it in the bike’s underseat bag, I spotted the lost plate along the DCRT: now I have a spare!
A day or so after kvetching about that informal DCRT vehicle entrance to the head planner developing the Dutchess County Master Plan for bicycle & pedestrian facilities, this appeared:
Notice the blue electrical junction box on the right? That can’t possibly be a Good Thing… but, so far, it doesn’t seem to bother anybody enough to repair it.
Those missing ADA strips at Grand have been swept out, converting them into rough-bottomed trenches across the trail. At least they’re not quite so slip-prone, even if they’re still a tripping hazard.
This is a simulation showing that a p-channel power MOSFET should work fine as a battery cutoff / switch for the bike taillight (clicky for many more dots):
The general idea is to have a pushbutton or vibration sensor turn on the power, whereupon the Arduino wakes up and activates an output pin that holds the power on. When it’s time to shut down, the Arduino turns that output pin off, the power goes away, and everybody’s happy.
The MOSFET must be not only p-channel, but also have a logic-level gate, which is a rare and precious combination among cheap surplus MOSFETs. I’m hoping those FDS6675 MOSFETs work better than their package looks.
The capacitor and resistor over on the right simulate a reasonable load.
The voltage-controlled switch in the middle represents the vibration sensor, which is either shorted or open as determined by the voltage source at the bottom. There doesn’t seem to be any other Spice-ish way to do that.
The Arduino output, simulated by another voltage source drives the NPN transistor, which isolates the output pin from the 7.4 V (up to maybe 8.5 V when fully charged) Li-ion battery. It also isolates it from the switch, which would otherwise yank the output pin to ground if you pushed the button when the power was already on.
You’d want a few more pullup and pulldown resistors to ensure things stay where they’re put while the lights are out. I’d want to measure an actual vibration sensor; it may require a pulse stretcher to ensure the Arduino has enough time to wake up and smell the electrons.
The overall concept seems workable.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 