I took a look at the "Turbo Pump Theory" post and saw that there was quite abit of discussion about these little pumps that were cheap and plentiful off of ebay a few weeks ago. I thought I'd throw in my opinions/troubles on the pumps so far. (Before I start throwing all of this out there, I'll mention that in past experiences, electronics have proved to be quite an enemy to me, and my knowledge is severely lack. Please forgive my noob-ness and if you have any suggestions/criticism, I'd greatly appreciate it)
So, I ended up snatching one of the pumps for $80 bucks off of ebay and it arrived with tons of gunk on the outside of it. After cleaning the outside, I took a look at the blades and the seemed to be clean and spin freely. Upon seeing Alex's post on the fusor.net (http://www.fusor.net/board/view.php?bn= ... 1283393372) forum with a controller schematic for the thing, I ordered all of the parts required for constructing the circuit. Over the past two days, I've manage to build the controller on a piece of breadboard (just like the picture).
I got around to testing it this afternoon (in air), and it has landed me in a state of confusion. Every time 24-28 volts is applied to pinA on the pump, the blades seem to make about a full rotation and then proceed to slow down and stop. The red light shines constantly and the green light has made no appearance. I wouldn't be surprised if the fault was to be found in the circuit that I built but I've checked it a 'coupla times and saw no fault (other than the fact that it looks like a mess). I here is a picture, who knows, there may be something I'm missing. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/chadramey/5015568233/)
Anyways:
Should I be concerned that the pump itself is faulty?
Should 24 volts run the motor (for test purposes)?
Is there a simpler circuit I should try building?
Need any more info?
Thanks,
Chad