The Maxun solarbike project
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Build your own Maxun solarbike
At first, I planned selling the Maxun solarbike in small quantities, that’s why I patented it in the USA. But building the Maxun is quite time consuming and expensive, the bike would only be available to the happy few. So, I’m still the sole owner of the Maxun, but I wish everyone this pleasure. That’s why I’m going to share the solar bike under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Spoty precision SMD micro-dot solder paste dispenser
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With this tool you can precisely dispense very small dots of solder paste. Although this solder paste dispenser is cheap and uncomplicated, it works better for small SMD parts than many automatic dispensers. It is used in aerospace and medical electronics companies.
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Arduino switch and button library with Short/Long Press, Double Click and Beep.
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User Rating: 5 / 5
Switches and push buttons need debouncing. It is straightforward to do this with software, using a library. The advantages of the Switch library are:
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Yamaha hacking dongle to use any 3rd party battery instead of the Yamaha battery.
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Introduction
This device has two uses:
- Yamaha hacking dongle to use any 3rd party battery instead of the original Yamaha battery. Described here...
- Wireless battery Fuel Gauge / Watt meter
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DIY ergonomic space saving e-bike thumb throttle switch
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For the speed control of my Maxun One solar bike, I use an up-down thumb-throttle switch. Normally, such a throttle is mounted between grip and the brake lever which increases the distance between them, see for instance the Bionx throttle or the Shimano switch unit SW EM800 L. That's not handy. That's why I made a throttle that is mounted on top of the brake lever clamp so that no extra space is needed on the handlebar.
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Connectorless self-clamping zigzag test connector
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For programming and testing, I don’t use physical connectors on the PCB but connectorless self-clamping zigzag connectors. The pin header of the programming tool is inserted directly into the holes. By the zigzag positions of the PCB holes, it provides lateral pressure, sufficient to grip the pins and allow good connection. For use as for programming and testing, it works fine, I have never experienced any contact problems.
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Robust two-wire (GND, 5V) current controlled bus for ebikes
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Intro
I have developed a 2-wire control bus for e-bikes. The signal and the power supply go together with in total two wires: GND and 5V. With this bus we can wire among other the throttle switch, brake sensor, pedal assist sensor and the speed sensor. Because the number of cables has been reduced drastically, very robust RC-model connectors can be used, because these connectors are only available with a maximum of three pins.
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About this website
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I'm an inventor and new products should always be as elegant and simple as possible. I have 40 years of experience in electronics and software.
During the development of the Maxun One solar bike, I constantly needed special equipment, parts and software, and so I rolled from one project to another. In September 2010, I started this website where I share my ideas and designs with the world. On my webshop, I sell products that I initially made for myself, but that were also interesting for others, such as a spot-welder controller and a solder-paste dispenser.
DIY battery tab spot welder
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I have developed the D.I.Y spot welder because I needed a special spot welder for the building of my Maxun One solar bike. It turned out that the spot welder is being built by many people worldwide, so I have published here the entire building project.
Dual pulse battery tab spotwelder controller with zero crossing detector
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This advanced controller was used by many people and has a unique reduced inrush current circuit that prevents main fuse blow up.
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Arduino Universal Power Control (UPC) board
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This Arduino board can be used for any project where something needs to be controlled and that is menu-driven.
See the open source PCB Eagle files on GitHub. It includes Gerber files for let making the PCB.
Vacuum tube works on 3.3V totally
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Vacuum tubes are awkward, need always 6.3V filament and high supply voltage? No, they can also work on 3.3V. I have built a vacuum tube pre-amplifier that runs entirely on 3.3V, inclusive the filament voltage. Apparently, the electron emission of the filament still works at 3.3V. Despite the very low supply voltage, the tube amplifier still works well.
SAM 15x15mm Arduino Zero compatible SAMD21 board
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The SAM 15x15 is a very small Arduino development board, with the same powerful controller as the Arduino Zero: the SAMD21G18.
All I/O pins are used: despite the small size, it has more I/O pins than the Arduino Zero or SAMD21 Mini/Dev Breakout: 34 instead of 21. Due to the very small dimensions it will fit easily into all embedded electronic projects, even in microdrones.
Bosch Active Line 3 mid-drive motor tear down
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For my solar powered bicycle, the Maxun One, I designed a very powerful and lightweight mid-drive motor. I also wanted to investigate whether I could use a Bosch Active Line 3 motor. The Bosch motor weight is 2975g, this is relatively lightweight for a mid-drive motor, but it is still too heavy for my solar bike.
Cheap DIY precision voltage current reference standard
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I have developed a cheap multimeter calibration reference by which you can calibrate a digital multimeter yourself. Here we calibrate my favorite multimeter, the PeakTech 2010, it has a lot of features and it cost just €35.
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My todo list
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I have inventoried my on-going projects, because I honestly speaking lost the overview. I had started many projects but many of them are on-hold because they, on closer inspection, cost years to finish and in the meantime other things had become more important and I keep getting interesting new ideas.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.