OT Philco 41-285

philo wrote in :

Morse code is no longer required...just a bit of theory however.

Those good old days are long gone
but that's fine, I enjoyed them while they were here



I will try, I think, especially if it doesn't cost much. My main interest is
in seeing how small and simple a useful idea can be built. Like haiku's in
electronics. I don't know why but I found that all my ideas seem to want to
follow this idea, maybe a reaction to all the expense and complexity that
explodes around me. I can't help rebelling against that, and 'perverting'
things like the LM317 to make it do things most engineers wouldn't consider
trying. I guess ham radio might survive in interest by taking similar turns.
When the great frontiers are overtaken like planes going every day where
previously only ships could go, and rarely, then the unexplored local
backwaters can often be the most interesting places to explore. Can seem
boring, but so is a farmer's field until someone finds a Roman hoard in it.

I hoped shortwave listening would really excite me as the sounds did when I
was a kid, but it didn't happen. Way too much noise for a basement in a city
centre to get interesting signals from, so I got fascinated by the components
themselves mostly. Hence loctals... I asked, but I still don't know those
are. My guess is like some kind of tuned circuit component?

On 01/02/2012 05:33 PM, Lostgallifreyan wrote:
wrote in :

On 01/02/2012 05:20 PM, Lostgallifreyan wrote:
wrote in :

loctals

?

Nice save. I got that feeling when I repaired an older Fenix P3D LED
flashlight. I like its light colour so much that it was worth it even
after I bought two new lights. Finding it after throwing it aside
during a night-time run past some woodland was even better. Best of all
is making my own driver circuits, simple but unusual methods that make
very interesting results. Dimmable, strobable high power floodlights
are fun, I kid you not. It was a laser driver when I started it last
month, but it mutates nicely, I find.



Yes...those LED flashlights are great

I love them because they give a lot of light and are very easy on
batteries. I can yet a year or two's worth of use on one set of
batteries!


Absolutely. Take care though, I recently read a few web pages. There are
documented cases where a good LED flashlight differs VERY little from a pipe
bomb if running on dodgy or mismatched Li-ion cells. I imagine this is easy
to avoid with care, but I will be very cautious about Li-ion cells in
confined spaces, or during unattended charge or discharge. One guy apparently
managed to blast a hole in an oak cupboard door (by accident), and showed the
mortal remains in detailed photos.

I recently got a TK35. Now that is a LOT of light for such a small lamp.. And
there's a Chinese seller who makes LED's and floodlamps. SOme extremely
impressive stuff. I'm using it on my PV setup. He made an LED for an unusual
colour temperature for me. I never knew that ANYONE would ever manufacture a
high power LED like a bespoke suit! I'm hoping he'll do it again, with 10%
more green, 5% more red. If I can find the ideal colour light for indor
use, I'll buy several to run on a 320W PV installation, as I'm aiming to see
how far I can take that idea. I intend to sign up to some forum and do a
writeup of some of this stuff. I think a lot of other people have already
done that too.



Oh I just use the "cheapie" flashlights that run or regular alkaline
batteries

philo wrote in :

Oh I just use the "cheapie" flashlights that run or regular alkaline
batteries


Even those can blow. Allegedly. I had one once, 'Peli Light' or some such. It
had a small absorbing pellet for use with alkalines in case of outgassing.
Not that those would help with explosive decompression. I think it's rare,
but given the tales of fires in laptop computers, I decided that I wouldn't
ignore the smoke, so to speak... Small flashlights are extremely strong, well
sealed. Kind of like little grenades.. I decided that thinking about that was
better than NOT thinking about it.

philo wrote in :

Sorry, but the chargers I repair are for industrial lead-acid batteries

like this

http://www.enersysmp.com/enforcer_HF_ch.asp


The chargers weigh about 400 pounds and the batteries typically weigh
2000 - 4000 pounds. Big ones!



Ok, no worries. Not flyable either. Sounds like good gear for local PV
installs though.

On 01/02/2012 05:45 PM, Lostgallifreyan wrote:
wrote in :

Morse code is no longer required...just a bit of theory however.

Those good old days are long gone
but that's fine, I enjoyed them while they were here



I will try, I think, especially if it doesn't cost much. My main interest is
in seeing how small and simple a useful idea can be built. Like haiku's in
electronics. I don't know why but I found that all my ideas seem to want to
follow this idea, maybe a reaction to all the expense and complexity that
explodes around me. I can't help rebelling against that, and 'perverting'
things like the LM317 to make it do things most engineers wouldn't consider
trying. I guess ham radio might survive in interest by taking similar turns.
When the great frontiers are overtaken like planes going every day where
previously only ships could go, and rarely, then the unexplored local
backwaters can often be the most interesting places to explore. Can seem
boring, but so is a farmer's field until someone finds a Roman hoard in it.

I hoped shortwave listening would really excite me as the sounds did when I
was a kid, but it didn't happen. Way too much noise for a basement in a city
centre to get interesting signals from, so I got fascinated by the components
themselves mostly. Hence loctals... I asked, but I still don't know those
are. My guess is like some kind of tuned circuit component?



A loctal is just a vacuum tube (or "valve" to the British)

see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_socket

Though not rare, they were not all that commonly used, but Philo used
them fairly often. Since the socket locked them in place fairly well
I am sure they were used often in portable devices.

Now, as to radio...I think it was more exciting in the old day as
communication was not "instant" the way computers/ newsgroups are today.

Though it was fun, today Usenet is my "ham" radio.

philo wrote in :

A loctal is just a vacuum tube (or "valve" to the British)

see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_socket

Though not rare, they were not all that commonly used, but Philo used
them fairly often. Since the socket locked them in place fairly well
I am sure they were used often in portable devices.


Thanks. I thought of the octal sockets then rejected the thought. Shouldn't
have. But I kept thinking of those amazing canned assemblies with coils,
small caps, tunable ferrite slugs. In really old gear, those are works of
art. I think some of those may have used valve sockets too.

Re Usenet and ham radio, I think many people seem to have found that parallel
too. Usenet was the closest to the way people I'd met when I was a kid were.
Less noise, more informal but deep exploration of technical things.

On 01/02/2012 05:52 PM, Lostgallifreyan wrote:
wrote in :

Oh I just use the "cheapie" flashlights that run or regular alkaline
batteries


Even those can blow. Allegedly. I had one once, 'Peli Light' or some such. It
had a small absorbing pellet for use with alkalines in case of outgassing.
Not that those would help with explosive decompression. I think it's rare,
but given the tales of fires in laptop computers, I decided that I wouldn't
ignore the smoke, so to speak... Small flashlights are extremely strong, well
sealed. Kind of like little grenades.. I decided that thinking about that was
better than NOT thinking about it.


Alkalines are pretty safe. but if someone tried to recharge one
I suppose it could explode.

On my job, I once blew up a large stationary battery.


In my 38 years on the job that was my only accident...but it was one too
many!

On 01/02/2012 06:02 PM, Lostgallifreyan wrote:
wrote in :

A loctal is just a vacuum tube (or "valve" to the British)

see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_socket

Though not rare, they were not all that commonly used, but Philo used
them fairly often. Since the socket locked them in place fairly well
I am sure they were used often in portable devices.


Thanks. I thought of the octal sockets then rejected the thought. Shouldn't
have. But I kept thinking of those amazing canned assemblies with coils,
small caps, tunable ferrite slugs. In really old gear, those are works of
art. I think some of those may have used valve sockets too.

Re Usenet and ham radio, I think many people seem to have found that parallel
too. Usenet was the closest to the way people I'd met when I was a kid were.
Less noise, more informal but deep exploration of technical things.



I like Usenet in that conversations are not cut short by atmospheric
conditions. Of course there is still static to be filtered out.
Instead of atmospheric static which can be filtered,
there are trolls to be filtered out by the use of software.

I guess in a way it's true:

the more things change, the more they stay the same !


As to those coils with the tunable slugs etc...
indeed they are works of art. Many of the old radios were true
mechanical wonders. At least as much (if not more) engineering went into
the mechanical design as the electronics!

philo wrote in :

On 01/02/2012 05:52 PM, Lostgallifreyan wrote:
wrote in :

Oh I just use the "cheapie" flashlights that run or regular alkaline
batteries


Even those can blow. Allegedly. I had one once, 'Peli Light' or some
such. It had a small absorbing pellet for use with alkalines in case of
outgassing. Not that those would help with explosive decompression. I
think it's rare, but given the tales of fires in laptop computers, I
decided that I wouldn't ignore the smoke, so to speak... Small
flashlights are extremely strong, well sealed. Kind of like little
grenades.. I decided that thinking about that was better than NOT
thinking about it.


Alkalines are pretty safe. but if someone tried to recharge one
I suppose it could explode.

On my job, I once blew up a large stationary battery.


In my 38 years on the job that was my only accident...but it was one too
many!


A good bang too, no doubt. I live in a rented flat, so if I don't take
serious care, I could be held responsible for any accident unless I can prove
that I took more care than all the firemen and forensic scientists and expert
witnesses can even imagine! As you say, it only takes one accident, so if it
happens, I want to be able to at least show I tried to prevent it if it
happens. I have 12 KHh of storage under a low table right beside my chair.
It clearly pays to be careful of this. The Li-ion thing caught my attention
mainly as an example of how the real danger might be where I wasn't looking.
I also discovered some old celluloid-handled knives in a box. When I read
about aging celluloid I was glad I found those!

On 01/02/2012 05:53 PM, Lostgallifreyan wrote:
wrote in :

Sorry, but the chargers I repair are for industrial lead-acid batteries

like this

http://www.enersysmp.com/enforcer_HF_ch.asp


The chargers weigh about 400 pounds and the batteries typically weigh
2000 - 4000 pounds. Big ones!



Ok, no worries. Not flyable either. Sounds like good gear for local PV
installs though.


I work mainly with forklift batteries or large UPS's...

I even had one job in a nuclear power plant!


They have good security there.
One wrong move and you soon face an armed guard with a patrol dog!

As long as you are there legitimately, all that happens is they say

"Just checking!"