hobby
Why the guy who posted it went to such trouble to layout a non functioning design is beyond me.
That's simple. Because it's not really much trouble. For me. For you, I don't know, but it's easy for me.
You seem to get the idea that I did it in a day. I spent an hour or two here and there for a few months getting this far. You're also coming in at the middle, I'm not done yet. I'm not in a hurry to prove or disprove this idea. I think that if it were easy, everybody would be doing it all the time.
It's relatively cheap, all the software is free, and prototyping parts aren't particularly expensive. The tools can be pricey but are multi-purpose, so I don't mind those. Getting the circuit boards processed is expensive, especially if you haven't worked out a lot of complicated math, done extensive testing, or screw something up that can't be fixed with an X-acto knife and a hot lead pencil. I'm not formally trained in electrical engineering, so I eyeball the board printouts. When I'm good and ready, I'll have the prototype shop make the PCBs.
You sir, are completely capable of downloading this Creative Commons licensed work, importing the file, making modifications, and sending it off to be manufactured for yourself.
So far the frequency counter and the safety circuit boards are done. I learned a few things in doing each of them, I did make a few mistakes, but nothing serious. The PLL board is definitely more complex, and I'm not hurrying it's development. I'm also using conventional form parts, which make it easier for people to solder up a board with a cheap $4 Radio Shack soldering iron. I assure you, if I made this with surface mount components, it would be a lot smaller and I might have been done by now.
I label it as "THIS DOES NOT WORK" because there's a lot of design variables that can go one way or another right now. The PLL circuit works. So far, on the breadboard, it does exactly what it's designed to do. When I get more time to devote to winding the inductors, I'll find out just exactly which components I can hard-solder and which ones I need to be able to adjust. I can certainly add a dozen switches, another half-dozen potentiometers, additional oscilloscope taps... but I'd rather find a way to eliminate most of those so it's easier for silly people to get working. I'm tending to want to get something onto copper, so I'm likely to put taps everywhere and send it off to the prototype shop.
Maybe I'll fail. Okay, it's just a hobby. I may prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the techniques that I have tried DO NOT WORK. Hokey dokie, smokie, pass that cigarette and watch this balloon go BOOM. It's what I call fun.
My main problem at this point is whether or not I need additional control over the feedback amplifier to the PLL lock, which can only be answered with additional 'production grade' inductors. Okay, great, you ever tried hand winding a torroid? Man, it sucks! So do I need to design a stepper motor controller so I can make my own torroid winder? Manufacturers that sell commercial torroidal transformer winders are out of their minds pie in the sky expensive, building one from old sewing machine and bicycle parts seems more worthwhile. Then again, I'm going to try Metglas amorphous iron "C" cores, that should prove interesting, and I should be able to wind them just using a homemade jig on the end of a power drill.
I'm also entertaining an idea to overdrive the switching circuit using a real time linux kernel on Gumstix boards, which are also amenable to home designed expansion electronics. This would give exacting and precise control over the dwell of the transistor gate, using web pages instead of raw electronics. It's an interesting idea, but I'm pretty much convinced I'd need to quit my day job to really follow through on it. I'm not quite ready to retire yet.
So if you'd like to follow my progress at
Stomping in Clown Shoes » Archive for Mad Scientist - Boo , I don't mind, but it occurs to me that you've got better things to do. Try overdosing on attention deficiency drugs and banging rocks together, great fun.