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- Tested out the new power supply. It was able to deliver constant voltage with all 8 wind sensors.
- However there's the issue that the last two sensors hooked up are outputting higher voltage than the 0-3.3 V range that is expected. around 4 or 5V.
- When the current was higher these two sensors were getting much more hot than they probably should have been, at least much hotter than the other sensors.
- I checked the connections and tried changing the sensors that were plugged in but that didn't seem to change anything.
Stubbs comments- OK, good! Thanks for the update. Here's what I suggest:
It could be the power supply issue you encountered isn't due to too many sensors, but rather either a wiring/construction error or outright sensor failure. We need to figure out what the problem is (Duh).
Possibilities include:
1) all sensors are OK but some of the connector positions are fouled up, i.e. problem lies inside the box, not outside with the sensors
2) One or more of the sensors have a problem, for some reason.
3) Other (I put this down because a major way to fail in science is to make a list you think is exhaustive and includes all possibilities, but doesn't!).
Although we never wrote it down, our earlier hypothesis was that the overall system was drawing more current than the power supply could deliver, and that otherwise everything was fine. I think we have now eliminated that prospect.
Here is my request: be really specific and fill in this table with your version of hypotheses and experimental tests. You kino of did that implicitly a bit above, but let's be really specific. Then you can do the tests and fill in the outcome column. Welcome to the scientific method! Sound OK?
| hypothesis | test | outcome |
|---|---|---|
Issues Encountered
- When all 8 sensors are plugged into the Lab Jack, the sensors output very small voltages. The voltmeter reads out a cycling voltage. It seems to be a problem with the power source.
- With the outlet by in the office it seems it can only deliver constant voltage to 1 sensor. More makes it cycle
- With an outlet by the lab bench, it can deliver constant voltage to 5 sensors. The 6th makes it cycle
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