Bang..

[Nick Tomlinson <nickandkathryntomlinson@xxxx>]

To Martin,
 
It's nice to see things go bang now and again, as long as it isn't your own! (Or a precious Delorean!)
 
At least your mate gets to nick the good bits off powerful kits.
I just plug my laptop into the appropriate network or communications moduleand be very careful what I type for field addressing and ladder logic.
 
Did you win any rounds in Robot Wars? I haven't watched it for a couple of years. My favourite is scrapheap challenge. Maybe the club could have a rebuild a Delorean challenge?? Maybe not.....
 
Nick.

Martin Gutkowski <webmaster@xxxx> wrote:
One thing we learnt ages ago is that the control stage is relatively
easy *in theory*, it's the power stage that's a headache especially when
something goes wrong (as you say) and you pop 4 fet packs worth £40
each! Our friend Si Harrison (King B) is now using 400A IGBT half-bridge
packs the size of a playing card- elegant but extremely expensive. Si is
the real genius behind our controllers. He works for a company supplying
and maintaining UPS systems and gets to rob secondhand silicon from old
systems being taken off line.

Draven has two 1200W S2 motors running at 24v - at stall (which in RW
happens all too often), they'll draw 250A. We've accidentally shorted
the supply cables (120A nom copper braid) and it popped like a fuse in
less than a second. Nasty.

BTW forgot to mention, our controllers weigh about 400g each - in RW,
it's all about weight too!

Martin


---------------------------------
Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping" your friends today! Download Messenger Now

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]