Maintenance of the DIY solar thermal collector

Getter and repaired

Hello dear readers, I do not know in your area, but here in northern Spain we have had a February 2017 very very windy, with gusts over 100 km / h  (some kind of cyclogenesis ), so strong that it removed literally one of the panels of cellular polycarbonate, and after the noise we heard, we have found, pushed by the wind literally against a tree!

So light it is (1 cm wide and 1 mm wall), who knows where we have found it if the tree was not in the middle of his path. Even it had a brown mark, a sign that before it arrived there, it hit the tiles of the house, partially breaking it.

But this would not have happened if the panels had been properly anchored, and better protected from the wind. On the one hand, the wood of extreme suffering the ravages of rain, rotting it, it should put more sheltered. And secondly, the screws that secured panels only the timber were fastened, when should having crossed and fastened to the rigid metal under it much safer.

Cleaning and drying a smartphone that has fallen into water: Eg. the NEXUS 5X

To repair wet electronic boards , like a mobile that has entered him water, as this Nexus 5X that, despite rapid action he took water by charging connector, speakers and hole cards, it is best use pure alcohol or distilled water and an ultrasound machine , in addition to rub with a soft brush on the visible parts (and still no full guarantees, as if you were running shorts could damage a chip).

If you do not want to complicate , and you have 30 or 50 € which typically charge for repairing these problems, better take it to a repair center phones with good professionals, you will leave no trace of water or debris and running (but do not light after the accident), or try the Waterrevive liquid (which works very well if turned off immediately).

But if the water has not reached penetrate into the metal lids of the base plate (where sensitive to interference electronics is hidden), we can obtain very good results without ultrasound machine with brush and distilled water or alcohol (alcohol It has the advantage that evaporates easily later).

Waterrevive : A couple of young Spaniards have developed a liquid that promises that your phone back up and running in 98% of cases, they say. This liquid (possibly alcohol, distilled water or other solvent of mineral salts) introduced displaces water (containing mineral salts) preventing depositing causing short circuiting. Using this system has good result if we turned off / disconnected the battery quickly, before the lime and salt is deposited. If that system will not work, you can try these indications (100% of cases so far) .

Adding hot bed BQ Hephestos 3D Printer: Compiling and installing new firmware

If we want to print in ABS, heated table need

There are instructions on how to do this on the official website of Spain BQ, but are outdated and only explain how to do it in version 1.4.2 , which differs substantially from the latest firmware more refined versions , such as 2.3.1 or 2.4.0 ( do not not try it with 2.4.0, it gives compilation error at the very beginning).

Well, in short, I will show how to compile the firmware to serve you for these and subsequent versions , with optional hot bed activated and working properly. But first, I show how I've ridden (and there tutos on youtube so I save this part - The guy in this video , although physical and clothing clavadito me, not me lol).

A clause ... is a company of the stature of BQ should have precompiled firmwares with different options , and let the user choose (even versions with height sensors for self - calibration table), it is outrageous that a user who does not have know anything about compilers, have to eat the head ... even though deep down that is when you ride a printer that whole piece yourself ... but it is a trifle compile and save many headaches (there are several threads forums questions about this topic).

Before anything else, apart from the table, cables and thermistor, to feed the table need a power supply of at least 12V 8A ( best of 11 or more); the more heat amps before the table and more easily keep you warm. The most economical and reliable is to use an old power source ATW at least 300W, by looking at the indicating amperes for connection + 12V, are durable and well refrigerated fan:

Repairing and updating a Lacie NAS (Fvdw version at Plugout.net)

If you have a Lacie NAS with a broken hard drive, it is very difficult to recover the Lacie firmware/partitions, but we can replace the HDD and install the Fvdw firmware version with this tutorial and improve its possibilities by the way.

Previously I explained several improvements with hard drives (NAS) I drive, Lacie brand with Linux firmware.

These small file servers have as main advantage that allows us to have servers of various types, in addition to files with very low power consumption (less than 10W in general).

The fact is that there is an alternative firmware developed improved from the LaCie sources that have compiled Plugout.net guys that we can install in our NAS, which greatly improved the performance of our network disks , adding possibilities as possible choose media server (ideal for home), NFS, VPN, etc servers and download torrent files, among others. And it also serves to revive the NAS if the hard disk fails, and see, step by step, the installation process.

• Faster , it is having been optimized with the latest software versions, up to 40% more agile list of directories and copy files.
• More reliable, uses file systems safer.
• More complete , with all the features expected from a small server.

Improving the Ebike with Arduino to monitorize battery and add anti-theft alarm 2/2

As discussed in the previous post, my goals to put a microcontroller programmed with Arduino on electric bike they were:

• With an RGB LED display the charge / status of the battery monitoring one of the (weaker if possible) cells, to avoid surprises of not having enough charge for the trip the next day, showing orange when needed recharging (between 20 and 40%).
• With an accelerometer and a powerful piezoelectric speaker  (and a mosfet to activate) we can add an anti-theft alarm, easy disabled with a button hidden from view, which is very handy against foreign's friends.
• And even (this slope time), add light automatic brake  using the accelerometer (which changes from low intensity to high intensity when the accelerometer receives a deceleration in the axis of the fly), to keep usage statistics (number of refills, airtime, or adding small OLED display to show instant consumption in Ah with  a Hall sensor  (such as Allegro ACS75x, etc), battery charging, etc.

So this Christmas I could get down to work, and start to test in a breadboard to get something functional:

Extending the range and power of the bike by adding two cells in the luggage carrier

Before this project, the battery of my bike consisted of 8 cells in series of 6 batteries LiFePo4 A123 in parallel each, and I realized that I could have some more top speed and range by adding two cells with the previously left over LiFePO4 A123 batteries, and changing the BMS for the one I found of 10S and 60A (much better than the previous 15Ah only):

BMS / Control LiFePo4 charging battery cells 10 and 60A  maximum.

I will not cease repeating that if ye ride yourselves a Lithium Ion battery, you must put always a BMS, as this is essential prottection for the battery, cutting the flow of current in both overload and over - discharge in any of the cells.

One important note: This only works if you use the SAME type and state of cells for the additional cells (or you will get an unballanced battery fast, or worse, damaged cells that can't cope with the current).

On the other hand, increasing only 6V maximum load, I can still use the configuration of the motor control for 24V (having automatic cut if they drop too low voltage with the BAC-281P ebike controller, we cut prematurely the current if we use 33V battery with a 36V configuration). 

Features of BMS 10S LifePo4 60A load balancing ref. BMS-10SQZ6060LF375 :

Important data:

• 10 Cells LiFe 3.6V, 36V full.
• Maximum peak current: 90A
• Constant current approx. without sink: 30A
• Standby power consumption: 0.1 mAh (100 microamperes / hour).
• For the rolling is effective with only 70mAh per cell balancing, the load should be as slow as possible (depending on the difference of load cells), recommended < 500 mAh.

As  I noted, the 12 could fit on a damaged old hard drive enclosure aluminum made. 

Installation and improvements over an Hephestos Prusa i3 3D Printer from BQ

Those who follow me will have seen that I have uploaded some videos with the assembly of the i3 Prusa BQ, plus reducing vibration and the last has been adding LED light, adapting for printing flexible filament and isolating the extruder with silicone (spanish voice):

Improving cooling a powerful notebook graphics with a transistor and Arduino

Laptops that come with powerful graphics have an usually badly designed thermal control; This is the case of my dear Acer 5930G (already I spoke above ) wearing a removable Geforce graphics card.

Engineers Acer believed it was enough to regulate the fan with the processor temperature, since the sink joins both, but the graphics consume more, which can reach 70 easily while the CPU is 40 and the fan medium gas.

We'll see how we regulate the fan directly 5V , depending on the temperature of the area that interests us, with the advantage of being able to use any fan that can be coupled to our team, plus you can customize the level of cooling in the Arduino code. 

The result : I got him down more than 20 to the graph regarding the regulation of factory, from 70 to about 45 ° C at rest. And in 90 games at maximum 70 ° C. You hear more, because almost constantly is 100% , but if that win in durability, I welcome the resulting hiss. Another advantage is that by taking the power from the USB port, turn it off when no temperature peaks but still cooling off while connected to the grid, until it cools completely and stops. 

Materials Needed:
- Chip ATtiny85 
- Transistor NPN 50V typical and 5Vgs ( 2N4401 I used myself). 
- Capacitor 220uF 6V and min. 
- Diode 5V and minimum hold 200mAh. 
- Tubing.

Drivers for Windows 10 ATI RV370 (X300)

Here you have the direct download, without advertising, of drivers that work for this card in Windows 10 (64 - bit and I think also 32 bits).

If it gives you an error with the installation, you have to install them manually (by going to Device Manager -> Select Display driver (right mouse button) -> Update Driver, select it manually on the system, locate the driver directory).

I've gone crazy looking for them ... getting no more than incorrect drivers for it (Ati no longer supports it) so if I hope will save more than one headaches... :).

Reusing power sources to power devices of different voltages: voltage converters

42V DC Power 19V 2A regulated DC to charge a laptop that spends 3A

In this post we will see how to feed these appliances we have at home, whose power supplies had stopped working and left, forgotten, in a drawer.

For example, that portable power supply can have a second life and continue feeding any device that requires a power exceeding the capacity (watts) of the transformer. While we maintain the amps equal or exceeding the needings by the apparatus we want to power, we just have to make sure that the voltage output is the same or little less of your device needs.

If for example we need an  e-bike charger, or need a charger of a given voltage, we can adapt economically the output voltage: This is where the boosters and converters come into play modifying voltage DC to DC.