8/4
I started green training at the machine shop today. I will be building the Lucy air engine. I started cutting the parts for the assembly.
8/1
Same issues.
| Hypothesis: | Test: | Outcome: |
|---|---|---|
Bad connections | Measure the voltage across the pins themselves with a voltmeter. | The voltages from the "OUT" pins are ~11.25V, while the voltages from the "+9-12V" pin are ~3-4V. |
The "OUT" and "+9-12V" pins are mixed up | Swap those pins | Both the voltages are in the correct range, but it doesn't seem to respond to the wind. |
| The rainbow coded cables that live in the tube and the rainbow coded cables that live in the box don't follow the same color coding. | Take apart a spare and check | They are the same |
Issues 7/15
- 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.
...
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sensors have some kind of problem | Change out a sensor with one of the spares | This seems to bring the voltage closer to the 3.3V max but is still slightly above, ~3.7V |
The sensors can run between 9 and 12V, with 12V being the "optimal," but maybe they just need to run at a lower voltage. | Change the voltage | This seems to get most of the sensors within the proper range, but I don't know if this is the ideal way to achieve that. |
| The connections have some kind of problem | Take a sensor that works and plug it into each socket | If the sensor was reading out a voltage, it would read the same voltage out of every input, e.g. if it read 2.45V in AI0, then it would read 2.45V from AI2 and AI4 and so on. |
| The sensors need to be calibrated to output between 0-3.3V?? unsure |
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
...