Water Vitalizer Beta

Now there are no parts of the Legacy Water Vitalizer left in my system.  I've got a Erlenmeyer Flask, and a Magnetic Spinner "Pill", sometimes called a Flea.  I still tuning the system a little.  The Spinner is a little short for the Rotor's magnet spacing, so it can sometimes break loose from the Rotor, and jump around like a Flea.  The Erlenmeyer Flask is two liters, and I'll need a better coupling between the Rotor, and the Spinner to get that much Water moving at a rate which can Oxygenate the Water.  Overall it is working fairly well, and with a little more tuning it will Rock!

New Water Vitalizer

Over the past week I have been breaking in the New Water Vitalizer.  The philosophy of the Legacy Water Vitalizer was to use a mineral basket to ionize the Distilled Water that you were supposed to put into it.  Well those mineral baskets are expensive, and prone to harboring contaminants.  Mold grows in them if they sit for any length of time without being used.  You cannot keep the lid on the pitcher when the unit is idle.  You'll wind up with a science experiment growing in your Water Vitalizer.  My spin on this is to use pre-oinized water which is in great supply.  The pre-ionized water gets reorganized in the Magnetic Stirrer.  This eliminates the contaminant trap.

Pre-ionized water is Spring Water.  The Ion that the pre-ionized water is ionized with depends on the Aquifer.  It is usually Sodium, or Calcium.  If you were to use Rain Water, or Distilled Water you would want to use something to add the Ions to the water, and that is why the Mineral Basket is there in the first place.  But if the Mineral Basket is going to harbor potentially harmful stuff I don't want to use it.  This gave rise to the idea of using pre-ionized water, and then just stir it.  You can apply a specific amount of energy to the water by the time you let it spin.  Over the past few days I have let a pitcher of water stir all day long.  I'll experiment with this more in the future...

Water Vitalizer... Hacked...

My Water Vitalizer broke down this weekend.  The motor quit.  I can hear the circuit trying to apply current, but the motor has too much friction to start.  Oh Bother!  I can't haz this...  I need my Water Vitalizer...

 Well, fortuitously I already have reverse engineered the magnetic coupling system, and built a Magnetic Stirrer.  So, I put the major parts together to see if they will work together, and they do.  The Magnetic Coupling System is almost perfectly matched.  So I have run a couple batches of water now, and it seems like its working good.  Itza Electromechanical Hack...

More RX300 Windows

Electromechanical things are very predictable.  They say if it has tits, or tires its gonna give you trouble son...  Well same thing applies to dry contacts.  Electromechanical relays are destined to fail, and they need to be replaceable.  So, driving home yesterday, in July, in Texas, my driver window decided its not gonna roll up.  So I got 13 miles of hot, highway air...  Blarg, time to change another window relay.  I did the passenger window last December.  That one I dealt with for a couple years before I found a way to fix it.  This time I have a stash of relays, and all I had to do was pull the window controller, open it, desolder the old relay, and wire the new one in.  It took like an hour, LOL!

PWM Modulator for the Magnetic Stirrer

The last time I was working on the Magnetic Stirrer I was using a Laboratory Power Supply to modulate current to a DC Motor, and then was stuck there, looking for a more suitable motor, and a cost effective way to modulate power to the motor.  To build copies I need to have an affordable way to modulate power because not everyone will want to buy a couple hundred dollar Power Supply for their Magnetic Stirrer.  My solution for this is Pulse Width Modulation, and a cheap DC Motor.

The Motor is salvaged from an old Ryobi Drill.  Its a common brushed DC Motor which are very cheap now.  Most Motor Technology has moved on to Brushless Motors, and Stepper Motors, and the Brushed Motors are the cheapest technology now.  The Drill used a PWM Power Control scheme, but had it integrated into the Trigger for the Drill which was a spring loaded mechanism.  For a cabinet top kitchen appliance I need a power switch, and a dial speed control, something that can be set, and left running without continuous pressure on a trigger mechanism.  In the above photo you can see a toggle switch, and the potentiometer handle.  Also notice that on top of the plexiglass there is a magnetic spinner spinning.

I used the venerable NE555 Timer IC that gets used for all sorts of pulse control, and modulation schemes.  This Timer was introduced by Signetics back in 1972, and is so versatile that it is still very popular today.  Previously I had made some very sophisticated PWM Power Contollers using PIC Processors, but for this project I wanted cheap, simple, and easy, not to mention quick, and dirty.  Well, yeah, this analog timer is dirty.  Its got a scratchy potentiometer which makes the PWM intermittent, and it also doesn't span to full 5 to 95% of the PWM range.  The motor also stalls at the end of the potentiometer throw.  Caveats to Cheap, Quick, and Dirty.  But it makes the spinner spin right?

Another caveat to using a "cheap" motor is a massive inductive kickback when the brushes break contact with the armature.  The motor is generating almost 70 Volt inductive kickbacks.  I managed to pop one of my NE555 Timers because of this.  I think it was an older one that didn't have freewheeling diodes on the output.  For the circuit values I picked a "off the shelf" schematic from the interwebs, above.  I did have to spend a little time debugging it, but overall it worked good.  Now my little Magnetic Stirrer is working good, and it doesn't need my laboratory power supply to run it.  The original intent for this stirrer was to stir the Wort for Home Brewing.  Lets make High Gravity Lager...

Clean Space

I worked on the Garage a little this weekend.  I was able to clear off one of the workbenches, and make some clean space.  Also got to clean off the Tool Box, organize all the crap that was sitting on top of it.  I closed a few projects like the Smoke Detector, and that pile of slightly used AA Batteries.  I found a under cabinet LED lamp that runs on AA Batteries, so it can be used to deplete those used batteries.  Also illuminated the new clean space...

EVAP Redo

Now I've replace the rest of the Vapor Line from the EVAP System.  This line comes from the Charcoal Canister, and feeds the Fuel Vapors from the EVAP System to the Intake Manifold via a couple valves mounted on the Intake Manifold.  This line holds the EVAP System Service Port, and a Vacuum Surge Tank, so I replaced 3 links of vapor tubing, and all the hose clamps.  Also replaced the clean air line which goes to the EVAP System by the gas tank...