Fume-0

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Bobzilla
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Fume-0

Post by Bobzilla » Tue Mar 15, 2011 1:48 am

Been a long, long time since I've posted anything. Way distracted by WoW right after I began relocating cartridge slots on my future portable(s). Now that WoW is boring again mere months after the expansion, I got back to another distraction. Only this one had a purpose with the amount of soldering I was doing. I call it Fume-0 (that's a zero by the way but Fume-O sound cute).
It all started when i was doing the cartridge slot relocation. I'm just inhaling the hell outta these solder and flux fumes working so close to the board with my "helping hands" and all. I knew it was bad or at least not good. First thing I started doing was holding my breath. Like a sniper I'd take a breath then slowly exhale as I execute my foe, in this case a solder joint. I did this about 20 times on an N64 board before I realized this was just not gonna work in the long term. Not only was I light-headed, I was also taking forever.

Next I thought about fume extraction. Sure I'd seen these things for sale a hundred times. A quick check on google and "BAM" there were several right there. I saw the median price around $50 with the cheaper ones in the $30 range. I could afford that but hey, I think I can make one of those. How hard could it be? It'll also get me away from this tedious cart slot relocation. Bleh, another distraction.

I had a few Antec 80mm case fans laying around that I thought could do the trick. The operative word is "had" as I blew up the first one mid-project, more to come. Anyway, I just took a fan and stuck it in the thing that it came in with the case, not exactly sure what happened to that mid-tower but I saved the fans for some reason. Ok, next step was to get power to it. What do these things run off of anyway? I'd think DC of some sort. Computer fan right? I then found a power supply for a PSone LCD. Gee, I wonder why we have these kinds of things laying around? Something you know about me, I let nothing go to waste. I'm like a hoarder. God don't let me get on that show.
Ok Ok. So this PSone LCD power supply is 7.5VDC so it'll work. I find something to stuff the small male socket thingie into. By stuff I mean I reamed out the center with my impact drill until it fit. I alligator clip the female end socket thingie (from some old computer junk) to the case fan that I cut the 2-pin molex off of. I plug the thing in and it works. Of course it does. This is obviously no major feat but I still celebrate small achievements. I then grabbed my soldering iron and jammed it into some flux stationed near the fan. It pulls the fumes quite nicely. Ah, but now lets try it with some filtration. One of my carbon-activated cat box filters should work nicely. Ok, in hindsight I don't think they were carbon-activated but they were definitely impregnated with ammonia. Thank you cats.
Filter in place, I tried the flux again. Negative. It would not pull those fumes. Maybe a trace but not enough to be noticeable. I needed more power but had nothing else laying around to help me. I gave up for the night.

As luck would have it, the very next day I came across a 12vAC power supply. I was ecstatic until I realized it was AC. A companion, and employee, who used to do some electronics stuff in the NAVY told me to use a rectifier. Rectifier? I have no idea what he's talking about. I'm a noob, the second thing you should know about me. I've been faking my to where I'm at this station in portablizing life. He explained to me that it converts AC to DC. I was flabbergasted.

After hitting up radio shack, again, I had my rectifier bridge in hand. I wired the whole thing up similarly with the rectifier and more alligators. Yeehaw! It worked again. Testing it with fumes. Yes. Testing it with used-cat filter (both cat and filter are used, hehe, works both ways). Success!! Ok. Now lets just hook up some stupid switch to it. I had a toggle laying around and with a few more alligators we were in business. I then thought to package the whole thing up but thought twice after realizing I must have an LED indicator telling everyone to "KEEP AWAY" from the dangerous fan blades. I had a white LED from some old computer project that I then attempted to fit into the mix. Who knew that I wasn't paying very close attention when I wired it up and subsequently killed the fan. It was a quick death. The speed of light I estimate. Later, I found out that everything else still worked. I just lost the fan. As luck would have it as well, I had a duplicate fan on the ready as mentioned earlier.

I didn't screw it up this time, double checking my alligatoring. Success again although the fan was slightly weaker now that I was powering the LED. No matter, it was still able to pull fumes after another quick test. So now I was ready to package the whole deal. I thought about what I would put it in or what to clad it in over a few days. I then was arbitrarily compelled to change the toggle to a toggle with an LED in it. This was purely for aesthetics and cool factor. Kind of hard to tell how to wire up one of these types of switches from the Shack. I guessed right and now things were really looking good.

Three months then passed. Stupid WoW. Seriously, it is over now.

Then last week happened. I guess I just got bored enough to want to finish this thing. I went to my shop, cleaned it, then began to make sense of where I left off. Apparently, I had taken it all apart at some point. I had to start over. Only this time, my hands guided by either spirits of dead ham radio operators or my subconcious, it was easy. It just made sense with every alligator clip. I was in the zone. Feeling so confident I began to start soldering wires and getting away from the alligators. I was even so bold as to use some tiny perfboard. So it took about an hour and the circuit was complete, the extractor was working, and life was good. Years ago I bought a project box made out of anodized aluminum. I trusted my solder joints but it was nice to know that the anodized was still there to protect me. These are low volts and relatively low amps, why am I worried? The circuit fit perfectly after putting a few stand-offs in place. Now I can proceed to an enclosure. I really think that the enclosure to any project is such a subtle thing but ultimately what kills most projects. That and lack of funds, patience, good music, etc..

Overnight I had a stroke of genious. A fan spins in a circle therefore I should stick it in something that is circular or tubular. PVC! Of course! On an 80mm fan you need some PVC with a 3" inner diameter. They sold this at my local Lowes in 2' sections. I would need that 2'. See, my chop saw (compound miter) is far from accurate despite my added laser guide. The guide cost more than the saw. I truely am an idiot but luckily I'm already married off. I eventually gave up and used a regular hand saw and a miter box. Better if not perfect. I kind of felt like that guy on the Woodwright's Shop only without the skinned up knuckles. If you don't know of this PBS gem well you aren't missing much.
PVC cut, I then made some notches for the original fan guard. I then used the fan guard from the fan I blew up to make a fan sandwich with some #8 machine thread screws and nuts. I made notches in a roughly 1/2" piece of PVC for this other fan guard. The guards are held in place by my absolutely favoritist thing in the world. Hot Glue! Love the stuff. Best purchase I ever made and at only $6 with 8 glue sticks. Nice.

Well this has been dragging on long enough. After sticking it all together. This is what we have. Of course I'm going to mount the project box to the PVC after I paint the tube. Just have to pick a nice color. Suggestions? I'm also going to cut the thing down. It's about 18" long right now. I also forgot to mention that I fully expect the fan to die therefore I made it replaceable. I am still using a 2-pin molex connector to attach it to the circuit within the project box. Genius!

Oh, and BTW. I estimate Fume-0 has cost $50 if you don't count any of the costs from stuff I had laying around. If I worked for minimum wage then it cost more like $200. But at least I learned what a rectifier is and how to wire an LED toggle. Thanks for reading if you did.
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No! Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try. - Yoda

Snow_Cat
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Re: Fume-0

Post by Snow_Cat » Tue Mar 15, 2011 2:23 am

Nicely done. If you are willing to tempt fate you might try wiring the (led with a reisistor) in parallel with the fan so that the fan will spin faster.

Instead of:
(+)--[X]--[Y]--(-)
where (X+Y)=(Fan+LED)=12V

it would be
(+)--[X]-[R]--(-)
(+)----[Y]----(-)
where (X+R)=(Y)=12V

http://home.cogeco.ca/~rpaisley4/LEDcalc.html will calculate the appropriate minimum resistor value for you. This resistor prevents the LED from drawing too much current and burning out.


Also do you have extruded active-carbon elements availble? Unlike the granulated catbox filters these do not significantly reduce airflow.
These retail new for $50/9 (in central Ontario), but can be salvaged from air cleaners.

edit: added brackets to second where statement for readability
Last edited by Snow_Cat on Tue Mar 15, 2011 2:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Bobzilla
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Re: Fume-0

Post by Bobzilla » Tue Mar 15, 2011 2:28 am

Thanks for the tip Snow_Cat. I have plenty of room on the perfboard. It's an assurity that I will add your suggestion. I'll look for those filter too. Thanks again.
http://portablog64.blogspot.com/

No! Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try. - Yoda

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Bobzilla
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Re: Fume-0

Post by Bobzilla » Thu Mar 31, 2011 11:12 pm

I opted out of putting a resistor on the LED. The LED was already pretty dim.

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No! Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try. - Yoda

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