Will it blend?

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marcos.placona

Senior Member
Hi guys, just a joke on the thread's title.

In fact, I've been working in a very basis schematics for running a small bot I'm building, and wanted to knoe if there's any problem with that.

I'm using a Picaxe 08m, two dc 3v toy motors and a Darlington transistor to control the motors with the Picaxe.

I'm using the same power source to save some weight, and wated to know if there could be any potential risk of frying anything, or if you can think about a better way to do that.

I'm almost 100% sure that there won't be any problem, as the picaxe is powered by the way it should be normally, but I wanna be sure I ain't doing something wrong here.

So... will it blend ;)?

Cheers
 

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moxhamj

New Member
Good joke. I thought you were referring to this website http://www.willitblend.com/ Personally, I like the video of the ipod blending in the "most popular videos" section. I wonder, if you blend your circuit, will they send you a free blender?

Jokes aside, your circuit won't work for several reasons. First, leg 2 and leg 3 have been swapped - leg 2 is the serial in, not leg 3. Second, the serial in needs to be either grounded or connected to ground via the standard 22k/10k network. Third, the picaxe will reset when the motors come on and the power supply briefly collapses to zero volts. Fourth, the picaxe may well be destroyed by back emf from the motors when they turn off. Fifth, the RF hash from the motors will reset the picaxe.

Pull apart a radio controlled car and you will see a few tips and tricks. The motors have small capacitors soldered between the metal case and the + and - leads. And sometimes between the + and - leads as well so there are 3 caps on the motor. The radio is run from a seperate power supply. There are lots of filter caps. I'd use two power supplies - either 3x1.5V batteries for the picaxe and 3x1.5V for the motors with a common ground, or a 9V and 5V reg for the picaxe. You will need back emf diodes. You will need the usual caps across any voltage regulators. You might get away with a diode into the picaxe supply and a 470uF across the picaxe supply but I've never tried that.

When in doubt, build it on a breadboard and see if it works. If not, stick it in a blender...
 
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M

marcos.placona

Senior Member
Dr_Acula said:
Good joke. I thought you were referring to this website http://www.willitblend.com/ Personally, I like the video of the ipod blending in the "most popular videos" section. I wonder, if you blend your circuit, will they send you a free blender?

Jokes aside, your circuit won't work for several reasons. First, leg 2 and leg 3 have been swapped - leg 2 is the serial in, not leg 3. Second, the serial in needs to be either grounded or connected to ground via the standard 22k/10k network. Third, the picaxe will reset when the motors come on and the power supply briefly collapses to zero volts. Fourth, the picaxe may well be destroyed by back emf from the motors when they turn off. Fifth, the RF hash from the motors will reset the picaxe.

Pull apart a radio controlled car and you will see a few tips and tricks. The motors have small capacitors soldered between the metal case and the + and - leads. And sometimes between the + and - leads as well so there are 3 caps on the motor. The radio is run from a seperate power supply. There are lots of filter caps. I'd use two power supplies - either 3x1.5V batteries for the picaxe and 3x1.5V for the motors with a common ground, or a 9V and 5V reg for the picaxe. You will need back emf diodes. You will need the usual caps across any voltage regulators. You might get away with a diode into the picaxe supply and a 470uF across the picaxe supply but I've never tried that.

When in doubt, build it on a breadboard and see if it works. If not, stick it in a blender...
Click to expand...
Great Dr_Acula, That exactly what I was looking for. I knew I could have some problems with that, but wasn't entirely convinced that the back emf and the noise generated could do really some harm in this case.

Regarding the wrong pin, that was something that came unnoticed, but wouldn't be much of a problems 'cause I'm sure I was gonna detect it as soon as I really started to assemble it on the breadboard.

Now I'm gonna follow your advices and use two different power sources grounded together. I think this might be the best way to avoid at least half of the problems mentioned.

Thank you very much,

Marcos


Ps. Did anybody here actually bought the blender? (http://www.blendtec.com/products.aspx?catagory=1)
 
D

Dippy

Moderator
I'll buy one when I want cellphone soup. My Dualit one is just fine.

I saw the guy doing his bit on TV the other night. At first I thought "Silly Fool" (or words to that effect) but then I realised what a great marketing job he's done - especialy with all the nerds who love watching stupid things on the internet. It's the next step on from microwaving CDs.
I can't wait to see how the London International Group plc are going to market their products!
 
M

marcos.placona

Senior Member
"It's the next step on from microwaving CDs"

And they already do it in a British TV Show called Brainiac.

It's amazing the kind of stuff they do using a microwave and some home appliances.

Christmas lights into the microwave was the best one in my opinion :D.

CD's have a great effect too.

Cheers
 
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demonicpicaxeguy

Senior Member
i always thought the whole "will it blend" idea had a place in plastic recycling and provided it could powder pcb's and the components fine enough it's even got an application in the ewaste sector all thats lets after that is to seperate the different powders
 
D

Dippy

Moderator
andstancouldlableeachbitofdustandusetweezerstoputeachparticleinaseparatebinyeahivewatchedbraniacwiththatlittlefellahfromtopgearanywaymarcosgetonwithyourprojectandremembertofollowthemanualsprecisly
 
D

demonicpicaxeguy

Senior Member
Dippy said:
andstancouldlableeachbitofdustandusetweezerstoputeachparticleinaseparatebinyeahivewatchedbraniacwiththatlittlefellahfromtopgearanywaymarcosgetonwithyourprojectandremembertofollowthemanualsprecisly
Click to expand...
ladies and gentlemen this is what happens when you breathe in the fine dust after blending an ipod.
 
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