stan.distortion
Well-known member
Or does anyone know of any hardware/engineering threads?
How do I word search a subforum?
- Thread starter stan.distortion
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stan.distortion
Well-known member
I've a hardware project in mind that would involve cryptos, could be a lot of potential in that area so wanted to ask if there's more engineering types in the Dash community but didn't want to start a new thread if there's already one going. I know a few folks doing hardware on BCT but its not something I'd want to discuss on that mutlithreaded trollbox and it makes more sense to use dash than bitcoin anyway.
Sub-Ether
Well-known member
I am almost finished a budget AMD mining setup using a cheap dedicated H81 bitcoin mobo ($30), old throw away 350 watt PSUs that are paralleled to power each card separately, the only thing that costs money is new graphics cards (unless of course you put slower old ones in!)
I have thought of writing this up as a build , and even took a few pictures, but I am having 1 or 2 issues with the mobo to do with a conflict of the powered risers voltage rails, haven't got my USB type risers yet, to try them (they have a separate regulator on board that should sort it), so didn't want to writeup a moody mobo that will give newbies issues..
Btw, my background is electronics and I can read circuit diagrams so if you want to discuss anything to do with ohms law, real watts used, wiring configurations etc, I am happy to discuss it :smile:
What did you have in mind?
moli
Well-known member
stan.distortion Sub-Ether -- on Freenode IRC there're channels for those topics, and actually any topics imaginable are on there..
You can use an IRC client or the web to join those channels... Here are a few names, make sure put "/join" in front of the channel name and hashtag
##electronics (note two #'s)
##hardware (two #'s)
#arduino (just one #)
I used to hang out those channels pretending i understood what they were saying.. lol... there's a blind girl in ##electronics channel who can type perfect English, no spelling/grammar errors and she knows every bit about electronics.. i think her bf taught her but idk... just amazing
Also, there're a lot people in those channels, like ##electronics has about 800 regulars there, ##hardware has about 700 people, #arduino has about 535 people.
You can use an IRC client or the web to join those channels... Here are a few names, make sure put "/join" in front of the channel name and hashtag
##electronics (note two #'s)
##hardware (two #'s)
#arduino (just one #)
I used to hang out those channels pretending i understood what they were saying.. lol... there's a blind girl in ##electronics channel who can type perfect English, no spelling/grammar errors and she knows every bit about electronics.. i think her bf taught her but idk... just amazing
Also, there're a lot people in those channels, like ##electronics has about 800 regulars there, ##hardware has about 700 people, #arduino has about 535 people.
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stan.distortion
Well-known member
Cheers, that'd be a good route. There's still a lot of active yahoo groups in that kind of area too but they're slowly dying out.
Sub, its a wind turbine project, open design, as many off the shelf parts as possible, simple to fabricate, aimed at having the fastest return on investment time possible rather than high tech and/or efficiency. The main thing with it though is its a marketable project, its one I can run with myself and that's likely how I'd start it off, just document it and anyone can join in, transparent accounts and if anyone can make and ship parts cheaper... etc. I've plenty of similar projects and so have plenty of other folks, get a chain going from manufacture to market with folks making their cut at every stage in between, there's profit in it so it could grow fast. I'd considered suggesting it for Dash funding but that'd be cheeky
Sub, its a wind turbine project, open design, as many off the shelf parts as possible, simple to fabricate, aimed at having the fastest return on investment time possible rather than high tech and/or efficiency. The main thing with it though is its a marketable project, its one I can run with myself and that's likely how I'd start it off, just document it and anyone can join in, transparent accounts and if anyone can make and ship parts cheaper... etc. I've plenty of similar projects and so have plenty of other folks, get a chain going from manufacture to market with folks making their cut at every stage in between, there's profit in it so it could grow fast. I'd considered suggesting it for Dash funding but that'd be cheeky
Sub-Ether
Well-known member
There are some interesting vertical axis designs that are meant to be more efficient,quieter and save space,Cheers, that'd be a good route. There's still a lot of active yahoo groups in that kind of area too but they're slowly dying out.
Sub, its a wind turbine project, open design, as many off the shelf parts as possible, simple to fabricate, aimed at having the fastest return on investment time possible rather than high tech and/or efficiency. The main thing with it though is its a marketable project, its one I can run with myself and that's likely how I'd start it off, just document it and anyone can join in, transparent accounts and if anyone can make and ship parts cheaper... etc. I've plenty of similar projects and so have plenty of other folks, get a chain going from manufacture to market with folks making their cut at every stage in between, there's profit in it so it could grow fast. I'd considered suggesting it for Dash funding but that'd be cheeky
neat eh, blade tip speed much slower so quieter, more reliable as less weight distributed better,easier to service and does not kill birds.
stan.distortion
Well-known member
I'm running with the familiar mast and impeller layout for now at least but they're a very interesting design and well worth a look, the reduced complexity of non-directional operation and drive train at ground level are huge bonuses. One quirk they have is their rotation speed isn't directly related to wind speed, they work on the pressure difference between the interior and exterior of the blades rotation, inside and outside the drum in effect and that creates a feedback loop of sorts and the aerodynamics behind that are outside my scope of development for now.
That highlights one of the complexities of turning shaft torque into electrical output, you can't simply attach a generator to a shaft and get usable power. I'm side stepping that issue completely and frankly I'd rather avoid generating electricity completely as it accounts for the majority of the cost involved but unfortunately its where the market is, for anyone getting started with renewables heat generation is a far better place to begin.
There's currently a trend towards rare earth magnets and air core windings in turbines and I'd suggest avoiding following it without significant research as its a costly route to take and largely an unnecessary one imho as they're more best compromise than solution. That's more significant for vertical designs than horizontal as variable load is essential for getting the best out of them, they need to spin freely in low winds to keep the internal pressure low and load up in high winds and that means field windings are more or less essential. Winding size isn't much of an issue with them due to the relatively constant speed but its a big issue with horizontal designs, available power rises exponentially with wind speed so either the fine windings needed for low speed operation turn into molten blobs of copper at anything beyond a strong breeze or the heavy windings needed for sustained output in heavy winds produce little or nothing in a light breeze. Imho the best route to take there is DC to DC convertors, relatively constant current and variable voltage input turned into fixed voltage, variable current output and its a relatively untapped market.
The bird-killing aspect was my initial starting point with this and its been a primary point all the way through it, I've a rare species of falcon living near me and the last thing I want is to find one of them dead. That meant the old fashioned multiblade waterpumps where the best case to base things on and they're worth looking into as a comparison for the current state of the art with 3 blade designs, lots of compromises for simplicity over efficiency and a little too heavily focused on low wind speed operation but in real world terms very little has been gained in a hundred years or more of development. If hilltop land with space for a reservoir is available then they're the most cost-effective off the shelf solution to generation and storage when coupled with small scale hydro.
That highlights one of the complexities of turning shaft torque into electrical output, you can't simply attach a generator to a shaft and get usable power. I'm side stepping that issue completely and frankly I'd rather avoid generating electricity completely as it accounts for the majority of the cost involved but unfortunately its where the market is, for anyone getting started with renewables heat generation is a far better place to begin.
There's currently a trend towards rare earth magnets and air core windings in turbines and I'd suggest avoiding following it without significant research as its a costly route to take and largely an unnecessary one imho as they're more best compromise than solution. That's more significant for vertical designs than horizontal as variable load is essential for getting the best out of them, they need to spin freely in low winds to keep the internal pressure low and load up in high winds and that means field windings are more or less essential. Winding size isn't much of an issue with them due to the relatively constant speed but its a big issue with horizontal designs, available power rises exponentially with wind speed so either the fine windings needed for low speed operation turn into molten blobs of copper at anything beyond a strong breeze or the heavy windings needed for sustained output in heavy winds produce little or nothing in a light breeze. Imho the best route to take there is DC to DC convertors, relatively constant current and variable voltage input turned into fixed voltage, variable current output and its a relatively untapped market.
The bird-killing aspect was my initial starting point with this and its been a primary point all the way through it, I've a rare species of falcon living near me and the last thing I want is to find one of them dead. That meant the old fashioned multiblade waterpumps where the best case to base things on and they're worth looking into as a comparison for the current state of the art with 3 blade designs, lots of compromises for simplicity over efficiency and a little too heavily focused on low wind speed operation but in real world terms very little has been gained in a hundred years or more of development. If hilltop land with space for a reservoir is available then they're the most cost-effective off the shelf solution to generation and storage when coupled with small scale hydro.