Science/Engineering/Technical forums

And since I had gutted the controls on the other system and replaced the motor on the roots blower with a 3 phase motor I had no way to control the system. So I decided to build a controller using labview. Used a 16in/16out PCI card and a USB data acquisition unit to control valves and get feedback from devices like the turbo pump. The USB device handled analog in from the vacuum sensors. Took a couple weeks of programming and building the control box that has the power supplies, VFD, contactors, and solenoid valves. So far it seems to work. Still attaching all the cables I made to connect to the various parts of the system.

LabView is interesting, you can get the 2014 version for $50. Its a graphical programming system that makes it pretty easy to build GUI controls for all sorts of different equipment. I needed to control one of the valves through it's serial interface and within probably an hour I had a sequence programmed to handle the serial communication. Everything is controlled through the touchscreen on this old P4 industrial PC I scrounged up.

IMG_6306 by Jerry Biehler, on Flickr

IMG_6305 by Jerry Biehler, on Flickr

IMG_6304 by Jerry Biehler, on Flickr

Awesome, as always Jerry. Your ability to remix and match gear still blows my mind - I'm usually reduced to building each piece so as to know how to work it and communicate with it, how it's going to act in some edge case. What you do...I tend to fail at.

That said, what do you think you'll mostly use this for? Lens coatings, or maybe some of the new coatings for machine tools? Both? Guys are doing some amazing things with the latter recently including preferred orientation of nano grains and composite materials at the tiniest scales.

Looks like no matter what, you'll be able to do it. The "right stuff " indeed.

Mostly to make my own optical filters and stuff.

Talking to a recruiter for Leybold Optics tomorrow, they are looking for a field service tech. I would be training in NC for a couple months and then work out in Wichita helping set up a new plant. I would be flying out every week, they were looking for someone to relocate but that aint happening with me.

Yeah, I dig it - my own roots are down pretty securely. You're in what's probably the best place to scrounge all that cool stuff you play with. I can't imagine where it'd be nicer for that.

However, that's not super far from me, so if you're in the area....you'd be welcome to come and hang out here on your way past.

I always wanted one of those hydrogen alpha filters myself, but it seems I don't have a big telescope anymore(!).
What would be cool for fusor land is a way to see very small doppler shifts in D ions moving around in the tank, but I don't think the fanciest set of etalons and filters will do that? Would be nice to know what's going in what direction where and when and how fast, and it's not easy to find out other ways. But I'm probably talking nonsense there - the ones that are making light are in the process of becoming not-ions and are probably the outliers of the distribution of what's going on. There isn't much light in mine when the neutrons are really happening, the better it gets, the less light I see in there.

I have not heard anything since I think monday, I am not sure how much I want the position, the job itself is fine, it would be working with massive sputter coaters for making low-e coatings on glass, it is just flying to NC every week for training for 2-3 months and then flying to texas every week for a year. I just dont know...

Got the system mostly wired up. Need to sort out the 208 situation next, a lot of this equipment is 208 specific for some reason. I have a bucking transformer that will drop me down 32v at about 30 amps which should do the trick.

Sounds like more flying than I'd want to do, unless I felt insufficient cosmic ray nutrition. Keep us up to date!
I guess that 208v stuff is from someplace where 3 phase is common but not the use of all 3 in the normal way?
I have to do that odd little buck/boost now and then. Glad I have a fair amount of old iron in the shed, it's not on the street corners anymore.

208 is from 208/120Y where you get 208v line to line and 120v line to neutral.