1
General discussion / Spam slipping in?
http://dangerousprototypes.com/2011/07/ ... ment-49095
I'm assuming that this is more SEO foofah... Can't think of any other reason to plop that comment down in an item from 2011.
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all Show Posts made by this member. Note that you can only see Show Posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Messages - piotr1600
http://dangerousprototypes.com/2011/07/ ... ment-49095
I'm assuming that this is more SEO foofah... Can't think of any other reason to plop that comment down in an item from 2011.
2
Project development, ideas, and suggestions / Re: cheap USB <-> UART board
But that graphic is IMO a better indicator of actual pollution - because it measures *total* particulate below a certain size in the air column (space to ground), as opposed to just the presence of one specific gas. And a lot of the pollution is coming from burning off land to use it in farming in the equatorial zones.
Your previous graph is essentially an indicator of location of of fossil fuel consumption by NO2 emission.
Valuable info, but particulate content is, according to everything I've read, the true danger to health *in the air*.
Besides I know that there are many sites of hazardous/toxic chemicals in US, China, Russia, (and all the former Soviet satellites) among other places that don't appear much, if at all, in *any* air pollution chart. (There's an *incredibly* toxic site on an island in the Caribbean for instance!) In those places, the chemicals/pollutants have leached into the ground/drinking water or are in the soil that food is grown in, and nothing I've ever found shows them in any detail, except for things like EPA "superfund" sites in the US.
The US is a large polluter, no doubt. IMO We need to do better - We must keep improving.
But China, India, Malaysia, Viet Nam - and several other places - are fast growing nations with bare lip service to environmental issues short of things that cause immediate mass deaths. They have the same issues we do with mercury pollution from coal fired power plants and such, and considerably less - almost no - actual pollution controls.
3
Project development, ideas, and suggestions / Re: cheap USB <-> UART board
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/ ... pollution/
I do wish there were additional graphics that showed quantity/toxicity level by color for ground, ground-water, and oceanic pollution as well.
4
Hardware biz / Re: When do I get regulated
And you may need to be aware of the area/environment it is going in - forex if your widget has to be co-located near a household propane tank, it might fall under hazardous area ratings requirements.
It gets a lot more tricky when you start selling "complete" items.
Most US states allow you to do things to your own house/electrical/plumbing etc with little to no need for inspections or 3rd party safety approvals. Regulations/approvals for "kits" and "DIY" and suchlike are vastly different than those for finished products.
If it is a finished product, intended for installation into a house in the US, it most likely will require *some* kind of UL approvals, if only to help limit your financial liabilities if there are some safety issues. IMO - It would be well worth your time to research that. If it is a non-house installed item, it may still require UL - that will vary wildly by state. (Having sheparded multiple industrial products from concept to market, and along the way thru the UL/CSA/FM etc. approvals process, I can tell you that it is painful, tedious, and *expensive*.)
5
Project logs / Re: HAKKO (907ESD) and SOLOMON (SL-10/30) soldering iron dri
The heating effect on the thermistor with the iron at operating temp is going to be really, really minimal - I would think that you could totally disregard it in this specific setting. - even with the 5.1V reference @ 20mA you'd only be looking at ~1/10w.
6
Project development, ideas, and suggestions / Re: PCF8593 RTC board
For pure "easy", I'd just add another supercap in series so that your voltage tolerance exceeds the design supply voltage- IOW, you can charge the stack up to the rail with no issues. Plus, no resistive dividers, no transistors, or any other complications.
This will also give you 4x the operating margin, (3.3V compared to 2.7V, gives .8V instead of .2V difference between the power supply and the minimum I2C operating voltage)
It's still not a lot of room, but seems quite workable, especially if the device current is quite low..
7
Project development, ideas, and suggestions / Re: Underwater touch button/panel
You might try looking on the Atmel site at the AT42QT1010 or similar.
Other than the IC, a few support parts, and tweakage, all that is required is an appropriately sized PCB, and waterproofing.
Good luck!
8
General discussion / Re: engineering vs. manufacturing in the US.
The first accomplishable thing is to start lobbying your US Representatives & Senators to remove/revoke any and all existing tax incentives AND especially any outright payments that encourage companies to exit the US with either engineering or manufacturing capacity. That saves taxpayers money and jobs.
On the other side *do* offer tax incentives and/or outright payments to any company that is willing to invest in additional engineering & manufacturing capacity instead of moving it overseas. The trick of course is to never let the tax breaks & disbursements exceed the actual value of the taxes the business pays.
Personally, I laughed at arhi's comment about the STDs because it was obviously a joke...
9
General discussion / Re: AC-DC converter
I have actual product out in the 'real world' with these - if you can live without the isolation, this is a pretty solid design, up to about 200mA or so:
(heh - looks to spammy for a new user... OK how about this way?)
electronicdesign (dot) com/article/power/simple-off-line-power-supply-minimizes-cost7165 (dot)aspx
I've seen two of them operated in parallel. The most expensive thing is the high voltage cap.
Also, if you're not intent on using 'in hand' parts, it might help reduce the relay draw if you went to a high sensitivity relay.
*As in the last time I played with them in earnest a 6802 was cutting edge. The tools today are AWESOME and I'm having a majorly good time with my shiny new digital fiddling about... :)