Recent content by vbsaltydog

I just soldered up a new chip and repeated my wiring and everything works fine. I must have burned my previous chip at some point. Thanks for your reply.

I have single 741 op amps running as unity gain amps and they work fine but when I tried to use a quad 741 op amp (LM348n) with the same config as the single 741 (short the inverting input to the Vout), the results are not correct. Can anyone provide a chip id and wiring config for a quad 741...

The experiment board does not have a servo integrated and does not use picaxe so the cost is too high given my project and considering the fact that I still have to obtain and wire up the servo. The ac to 12v dc converter is helpful but I thought I read that picaxe runs at 6v and that...

I have read about picaxe and microcontrollers in regard to servo control and it seems like a good fit however, I don't work with breadboards and electrical circuits so I don't know how to mount the picaxe chip, power it, wire the servo, etc. Is there a kit that has the power supply, circuit...

Perfect. Thank you.

I am a computer programmer and not an electrical engineer so please pardon my ignorance in your field. I am interested in turning a knob 5 times per day, the fifth turn is for returning to the neutral position at the end of the day using a servo (unless you know of another method). I...

howstuffworks explained the lawn sprinkler mechanics and I think I can modify one for my needs or reverse engineer it to build something given my water pressure and other variables. Thanks again.

Great idea. Do you know the mechanism design or an example. This is going to be for a 3/4" pvc pushing about 400 gph and the oscillation needs to be smooth. Thanks for the great place to start researching.

I would like to rotate a water outlet line 180 degrees using the water pressure as the force driving the rotation. Does anyone know of any designs for an application like this? Perhaps some type of a butterfly valve under tension to one side? As the pressure builds behind the closed...

I assume that in order to increase the stroke length of a scotch yoke driven device you have to increase the diameter of the flywheel. Is there any other way? Are there any charts that show the ratio of scotch yoke flywheel size to linear stroke length?

I think the scotch yoke is the winner so far but all are great ideas. I was thinking of doing a spline shaft and drive gear to "climb" up and down the shaft like the steering rack of a car but this too, would require "end of travel" ? switches to reverse the motor but your ideas for converting...

Perfect. I like the fact that I can use it to rock the lights like a pendulum but without the vertical movement. Thank you.

Thanks for the link. They were helpful but they were too expensive for my project. I am going to have to fabricate something myself with a bolt/nut/motor/switches. Ehhh. Any more ideas are appreciated.

I am not a mechanical engineer but rather a computer programmer so pardon me if my question is simple in your field. I have a need for a linear actuator that has a stroke of about eight inches but it needs to be constant motion so as soon as it reaches the end of its stroke, it needs to reverse...