Sunday, February 17, 2019

finished dew controller

Buttoned up the dew heater controller. It works well. Now I can battle sultry nights on two independent rigs.

Cut the lead wires from the components off the bottom of the finished printed circuit board. Cut the test power feed. Used thermal paste between the sinks and the big transistors. Finally drilled the PCB for the large wire of the reverse polarity Schottky diode and connected the positive power input line.

Tried some plastic standoffs with tiny screws with hot glue but I wasn't really happy. Hacked some shrink wrap tube cut very short and used contact cement.

Wired up the fused Cigarette Lighter Adapter with heavy wire, cut a bit longer than my Kendrick controller.

Attached the case parts. Stoopid skating drill bits; should have used a press. Installed the Richlok plastic strain relief. Soldered the big pots and the indicator LEDs. Pressed the LEDs into place; locked. Soldered the shell tabs of the RCA female connectors in advance. Tightened the RCA jacks with a 9mm spanner. Once the PCB was glued in place, I soldered the RCA plugs on their centre pins.

Glued the power switch into the case. I wanted to use removable connectors to the tabs but they were too deep so I (carefully) hard-wired the SPST.

Summit Brand. Sony guts.

Heated the shrink tube on the power feed. Closed up the box. All done. Tested. Works good.

Project box sealed. Go to eleven.

In a moment of inspiration, printed up some labels.

Shared the photo with Charles on Facebook. He quickly responded: "When we're observing and it's hit the dew point and our dew controller is already on ten and we need a bit more to get us over the edge we can go to eleven." Couldn't have said it better.

None more black.

1 comment:

MAK said...

That's a thing of beauty. Going to "11" just put it over the top.