woensdag, augustus 17, 2005

System up and running



It's finaly working !!!

With the new controller in place the system should work for about 200 days on a 16Ah battery. I will add solar panels as well in the future but for now I'm happy the way it works.

On the photos you can see the MAX5033 with the components to transform the power from 12V to 3.3V.
On the top left is the transistor that switches the motor, there is also a diode in reverse over the motor connection to absorb any reflow of current. The trasistor BC547C can draw 100mA and since my motor only consumes around 50mA this is more then enough. When you want to use a bigger motor you might need to use another transistor or a relay.
On the bottom you can see that all components were placed to avoid bridges.

Right now the system turns on at 8.05h in the morning and runs for 11 minutes, that way the chickens get the same amount of food as before.
It was funny to see the progress with these chickens, the first time the system started up the were so scared they wouldn't come near the tube that is transporting the food. Now they would jump over each other to be the first when they hear the motor turning on.

In case you need more info, please leave a comment.

zaterdag, augustus 06, 2005

Controller V2.0 finished, tested, working and ready to be installed



Since the power consumption of version V1.0 was too high, a new version had to be made before I could install the system.
The transistor is still the same but the power is now regulated using a MAX5033. I have copied the diagram from their datasheet so you can see what the PCB will contain.

I will post a photo soon but for now I can already tell you that the consumption is no longer 20mA like with the LM317 but 2.5mA !!! (yes that is 8 times less). The size of the PCB is now also chosen to fit inside the timer.