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[CLaNZeR]

Did you leave enough room for heat sinks on the FETs?  Figure someone will drop larger ones in to drive a coil

I did think about the Heatsink and first thoughts was I would leave all the Fets in line and use one big lump if needed.

But now I am thinking of a re-design of Circuit, I may opt for seperate Heatsinks Like I used on my power supply design.


(http://www.overunity.org.uk/cncdudez/powerkit.jpg)


Thanks for the feedback!

[CLaNZeR]

The board I made like yours, I did not finish the PC side.  Just hard coded the PIC and two pots for tweaking it. 

But my plan was to configure the board, write it to flash and unit was to be stand alone.  PC was only to configure it.  Is that you plan as well?  If so I will build one.

Need to get MAX 233 and 3232 next time I order..  Normally I use two transistors.

The Windows application downloads the settings to the Pic Chip and the Pic stores them in it's Eeprom memory as there is plenty of rooms, so this lets you disconnect it from the PC and run standalone.

I am drawing up a new design now which is going to be modular. So you have the first board that has the Max233 (I am using this level converter because I had one lying around and also it does not need caps like the max232) and main Pic Chip. Then you can attach upto 8 modular boards depending on how many optical sensors and coils you wish to run.
Each Board module will have it's own Pic Chip, Opto Sensor and Fet with BIG Heatsink this time! and will be able to monitor all the Opto inputs from extra Modules you add.

With this method the Main Pic Chip will communicate with the PC and then download the configuration to each add-on module you have in line. Then each module will be independant from the main Pic Chip and also be dedicated to the job it has been programmed to do. This then free's up the main Pic Chip to do the Tacho calculations and feed them back to the PC or even an LCD.

I have started laying up the PCB but trying to source some nice PCB connectors that will do the job of linking the modules together.

Will post more when done.

Regards

Sean.

[FredWalter]

I am drawing up a new design now which is going to be modular.

Will your design work with the following motor?

http://www.overunity.com/index.php/topic,2222.0.html

From the sounds of it, the answer is yes, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask.

[CLaNZeR]

Hi Fred

I can see no reason why not, just use one opto sensor for each coil trigger position and away you go.

Looks an interesting concept from Nali2001 and great graphics.

Regards

Sean.

[IronHead]

If I understand this right CLaNZeR ,
You are making these boards up and selling them.
If that is the case I would like to buy 5 of them .
This would save me much time.

[CLaNZeR]

If I understand this right CLaNZeR ,
You are making these boards up and selling them.
If that is the case I would like to buy 5 of them .
This would save me much time.

Sorry to say Ironhead I am not planning on making the PCB boards for re-sale, instead just releasing all the information public so people can make their own pcb's and use the code etc etc for free.

Spent too many years selling PCB's and kits on the Internet and the support expected is huge, with most errors being down to people not being able to solder LOL,  so I try not to do that anymore.

If the PCB ends up double sided and there is enough interested people then we could do a batch run maybe from factory for forum members.

Must crack on this week and get it finished, too many thinks distracting me as usual and weekends trying to juggle family with play time


Regards

Sean.

[CLaNZeR]

Is the pic software done?  I would make one.  I assume it is not single sided though..

I am trying to keep it single sided so people can make it at home easy enough, but if the links become too many I may go to Double sided. Would rather not if I can help it though.

I tested my original circuit here and it worked fine with the Opto Sensor triggering the first coil, but as expected the low resistance on the Electromagnets I was using pulled too much current and over heated the Fets after a while LOL.
But I still want to use those Electromagnets and hence going for the Heatsink on each Fet and modular design.

I am still locked up looking for PCB connectors to join each module together, and now wandering whether to just use 9 Pin Serial Female/Male Sockets for now and some Blocks for linking the power over via cables.

Working away from home this week again and will defo force myself to get the PCB layout finished one evening in the Hotel Room.

Regards

Sean.

[CLaNZeR]

Due to the feedback I have now started Version 4 of the controller which is a different beast and started a new thread
http://www.overunity.com/index.php/topic,2263.0.html

Regards

Sean