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Rotating monitor construction *Project finished*
DaOld Man:
Ok, I have thought about this until my head hurts. I think I will just use the relays for the drive.
I already have everything I need, and they work perfectly with my already built isolator board.
I plan to post the finished drawing of my isolator board (I made some modifications from the original).
I also plan to talk to a friend of mine who is an electrical engineer about the H drive.
Maybe he can tell me where Im going wrong. But I decided that I just cant take the risk of this thing failing on me during one of my "show off the arcade" parties. (I think you all know what I mean.)
So, I plan to assemble the relays and opto board on a block of wood and call this section finished. So then I can move on to the hard part, making the monitor turn..
(More pics soon, I promise) :angel:
DaOld Man:
Ok, I talked to my engineer friend and he thought that the transistors definitely need to be heat sinked.
Also, he said since the circuit was designed for logic signals (0-5 VDC), that the 12 volts from my isolator board may be too much.
Ok, so here is my plan now:
I am going to rebuild the drive from the extra parts I bought.
I am also going to use 5 vdc from the AT power supply to power my isolator board. I have already tested it and I think it will work on 5 volts. (I was worried about the two isolators switching the inputs to the computer, since I calculated the resistors at 12 volts.)
The only draw back will be having to use 5 VDC relays for the monitor on/off instead of the 12 volt ones I already have.
My new H Drive will have heat sinks. (My common sense told me to use them the first time, but its not the first time I didnt listen to common sense.)
If this one fails, Im going with the relays and thats that!
With Christmas coming up Im not going to have much time to work on this project, so updates may be a little slow.
I would like to hear if anyone else is working on a similar project, and if anyone is using my relay circuit. I know people are working on rotating the monitor, but are you working out the electronics like I am at this stage?
DaOld Man:
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a good New Years eve.
I am finally updating this thread.
I have built another H drive. It is the same as the first one, except I added some pretty hefty heat sinks to the power transistors. I also changed the isolator board a bit.
I added a dual terminal for the 5 VDC power. I also re-wired the isolator board to look for the limit switches pulling the inputs to low.
I hooked it to my dos machine and tested it using drotate.exe.
It all looks good now.
First pic is the H drive mounted piggy back to the isolator board. Its connected to an old AT power supply and a motor.
Second pic is my dos machine.
Next step: rig up the 21" monitor I plan to use and play around with it a bit.
This is my plan:
The first machine I built was called "Benny B's Arcade".
It has a 17" crt monitor in it now.
I plan to redo this arcade. (Add trackball, put on heavier plexi glass, and a few more things).
I plan to mount the 21" monitor in Benny B's, if it will fit. I am still not sure it will fit.
I plan to start a new thread on the progress I make re-doing Benny B's Arcade.
But I also plan to keep this thread going until I am satisfied I have a rotating monitor setup finished.
DaOld Man:
Here is an updated drawing for the isolator board.
I didnt change R8 and R9 when I changed supply volts from 12 to 5. It appears to be working, but if you build this same circuit and use a 5 volt supply, I suggest you change these two resistors to 100 ohm.
DaOld Man:
Here is modified hook up diagram.
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