EdwardM

Hi Xenobius ??? Doh, it's late the illustration reminds me of those anti-theft devices fitted to high value goods in shops which gives me the idea of using a largish lump of sellotape or similar, sticky side up and carefully wind around that. As I said it's late, hope this helps Ed

Hi Xenobius sorry if this sounds dumb, but wind it on a rod first, remove rod and spray with lacquer or similar, ends of wire can be glued to plastic strip or am I missing something? ;D Best of Luck Ed

Hi Xenobius no worries, glad we could help Ed

Hi John hopefully he's got the point by now... Cheers Ed

Hi mphotis you could try experimenting with something like this... Best of Luck Ed

Hi All, thanks to tnk2k, I can can see that my post was not as unambiguous as it might have been... By this I mean enamelled copper wire. As I said, I've heard the term 'Magnet Wire' but never in the UK, I suspect it's something originally from across the pond, perhaps someone from there could enlighten us? All the Best Ed

Hi Junaid would you please stop SHOUTING, hotwaterwizard has provided links to get you started. Perhaps it would help if you could tell us the range of temperatures that you wish to measure, is it 0-100C for example or the full range of the sensor? Best of Luck Ed

Hi Xenobius over the past few years I've designed a number of transformers and coils and whilst I keep hearing the term 'magnet wire' I've never used anything but single strand insulated copper wire. My guess is that the wires insulation properties are geared toward the production of coils e.g. insulation class (temperature), resistance to chafing and breakdown voltage, no doubt other properties as well! Hope this helps Ed

Hi Alun basically, none at all and the magnetic pickup is well proven and cheap. Using the type of thing I suggested would probably get people involved in DSP and the higher realms of mathematics. But the original question was about designing an optical means of achieving the same thing - probably its most important outcome was a learning exercise and, don't know about anyone else but that's one of the main reasons why I enjoy this forum. All the Best Ed

Hi this is the sort of thing I was thinking of, a Fairchild 2048x1 pixel sensor. Whilst many are designed for use with scientific instruments, I'm sure that you'll find others which are much cheaper and which could be used either staggered or in line to cover the full distance beneath the strings and to include pitch bending Best of Luck Ed

Hi moeburn I recently did some design work on an absolute angle encoder, arising out of that I looked at 'other' ways of achieving a solution. One of these ways was to use a cmos strip or CCD sensor, there are a few companies, mainly in California which supply them and which may be a solution to your problem, I'll take a look at my notes and come back later. Best of Luck Ed

Hi I bought Lochmaster some time ago and it's an excellent program for stripboard layout and produces brilliant images of the design, but very high on my 'wish' list would be for it to do schematic capture and manual or automatic routing! Best of Luck Ed

Hi better yet, join lots together to make a condo, rent it out (internet now possible) Hey it's saturday, wind-down time ;D Ed

Hi likewise, I recently freelanced for a company which used a swipe card entry system, every time the system failed, NO ENTRY, you had to hope you could attract someones attention inside who could open the door in the old fashioned way! Ed

Hi All If slightly off topic, sorry :-[ Because air-wire construction is fast and fun, perhaps we might like a photo competition, not forgetting upload limts, of working circuits built this way? What do you think? Ed

Hi All doesn't look too dissimilar to a standard first try HF air-wire found in most electronics labs, minus the bird of course ;D Ed

Hi crazy_azz_mat I've used Target 3001 and it's very good and has lots of support. The one I currently use is Eagle as I find it slightly more intuitive to work with, it too has lots of support on the web in the form of tutorials, FAQ's and libraries. The free version has a size limit of, I think, about 10x8 cm, which is more than big enough for general projects. Whichever program you end up with, you'll find you need a lot of practice to become proficient and I've yet to find one which is easy to use in making new IC's/packages - it can be done but I don't find it simple. ??? Best of Luck Ed

Hi Kasamiko (Thanks GreekPIC) My uncles design used a modified lock on the door and it could also be opened with a key in the event of a power failure. Ed

Hi looks something like this... Ed

Hi Kasamiko back in the 'ol bicycle shop days, my uncle showed me an electric lock that he'd designed, it consisted of a C and I core mains transformer with the C part fixed and the I part vertical and free to move laterally in a guide. The free side of the I part was attached to a door-bolt so that when mains were applied to the transformer the I part jumped back to the core and completed the magnetic circuit pulling the bolt open. Sorry if this sounds like a patent application but I've just changed PC's and haven't installed my drawing program yet, will try later. Best of Luck Ed

Hi audioguru Don't know, but it caught me out some years ago, I'd guess at about the time when most cap manufacturing started being done in the far east. Cheers Ed

Hi icetuser8 Google search first hit...SCADA http://ref.web.cern.ch/ref/CERN/CNL/2000/003/scada/ DCS http://www.sixnetio.com/solutions/dcs.htm Ed

Hi Shahriar one way to do what you need is to have two or more beams separated by some distance so that, for example, a bird flying through one beam wont trigger the other(s). Some other non-laser ways to achieve the same thing: It just depends how much technology you want to include... Pressure pad which must be stepped on (or stepped off) to initiate timing. Sound level switch, if a loud noise initiates start. Someone looking at start line, press chronometer start button. etc Best of Luck Ed

Hi alkv23 What kind of transformer do you need to check?, there are many kinds and each will have different requirements for testing. Types of transformer: Power (mains) Audio Pulse Radio Frequency (RF) and others which are less frequently encountered. Best of Luck Ed

;D Absolutely ;D Ed