Some images of my work

Very Important Legalese Message:

JUST BECAUSE I take my life in my hands, tinkering with electricity and other  POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS stuff, does not mean YOU should try to do likewise.

IF YOU CHOOSE TO DO SO, it's YOUR DECISION, and YOU ALONE will REAP THE REWARDS --- OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES. Or some mixture of the two!

I wish you Luck, but don't depend on Luck! Do your homework and CYA at all times!




As you read on you will learn that I salvage a lot of my parts from discarded electronic devices.

What use is a circuit like this? DC motors can be used in robotics projects.

Being able to change the direction a motor turns is pretty important.

Next comes being able to control the speed of the motor.

Next would be the ability to precisely position some mechanical device (like a robot arm).

That involves stepper motors, or some sort of position feedback device. Check back for future news on these subjects.

Also I need to put in a word of thanks to my friend Gus, who is an Electrical Engineer. He helped me get past quite a few of the stumbling blocks I have encountered.

OK, here are some photos of the prototype I've been working on:

This photo shows two groups of four MOSFETS (two separate H-bridges). I salvaged them, the heat sinks and most of the insulated wire from some old CRT monitors.

The supply voltage for this project is a nominal 12 Volts DC. I use a salvaged PC power supply to power up this gadjet.



The motor assembly was salvaged from a printer. I couldn't find any specs on this motor. It may have been designed to run on 24 volts, since that's what the printer's power supply was designed for, but it seems to do fairly well on 12 volts.



The small circuit board visible in the lower left corner is a voltage multiplier (more about this later).
There is a toggle switch mounted to the right of the motor and associated plastic gears, for reversing the motor direction.



A closeup of the voltage multiplier circuit.
This takes the nominal 12 Volts DC and converts it to approximately 21 Volts DC, to drive the gates of the MOSFETS. Why? More on that later.