re working an old Anderson Power pole product

[Jack Crow]

Hi all,
Re worked an old Anderson Power Pole mulit connector project.

These guys made a good connector array, and a less than wonderful holder.
8-6-2017 026.JPG

As you can see a simple "C" channel made of extruded plastic with some glue to hold it all in place.
This glue did not last too long. We have the ability, time to fix this annoying little problem.
8-6-2017 028.JPG

This connector array needed some improvement for bench use.

Worked out a holder and cover.

The holder will keep the connector array in place and has recessed screw holes to attach it to the shelf in the shop.
The recessed attach point holes are needed since this thing is un insulated on the inside, can't have it shorting to the screw tops.
Made the base 5mm thick with a 3mm recess. It clears.
8-6-2017 022.JPG

The top cover will keep the array in place and prevent any other movement.
8-6-2017 023.JPG

The holder screwed down onto the bench shelf, connector array installed and the top cover attached.
Plugged some wires into it. Now have the ham radio, the APRS reader fully powered. The others are just for show at the moment.
8-6-2017 034.JPG

Hope this helps to inspire some ideas.
Jack Crow aka Radio Mike in VB

[RetireeJay]

Jack, thank you for posting these interesting projects! You obviously have some darn good mechanical design skills. For the benefit of the community, would you mind sharing what software package you use for doing your designs? Have you compared different CAD products? (There is a sub-forum for that topic if you care to share in any detail).

[Jack Crow]

Jay
Let's not get too excited.
There are a lot of limits to what I know and can do.

Due to a significant financial stress I am not enjoying, I have to keep things on the cheap.
Cheap puts limits on life.
Found a free 3D cad program called EMachineshop.
Using Cura 15.04 for running the printer.

Some years ago when I was introduced to 3d printing at NRL, the Navy had several licences for Pro E.
I was a fish out of water there.
Until that point I never used a cad program, let alone a 3d one.
Pro E had a reputation for not being "user friendly".
Most people called it "user obnoxious". They were right.

NRL is 'not the boy scouts'. I was working for a PHD who directed me to make items for electronic weapons.
One of the things we were working on was using explosives to make high voltage.

NRL was a follow on to my time in Iraq working on counter IED items.
We were thinking deployable systems.

In 135 degree heat electronics won't work well or for long.
Most troopers don't know the proper way to work on that kind of voltage.
It's not fair to even ask.
But they are trained on the basics of explosives.
C4 and blasting caps they are trained in..

MY PHD worked out how to use the energy from a blasting cap and get useful DC out of it.
That could be used to make high power RF, and that would either inert or pre detonate IED's, electronics, and car bombs.

Part of my job was to sketch out and print (on a Dimension 760 printer) various explosives holders. Those holders would be assembled, and taken out to the firing range.
There instruments connected, then the blasting cap. Fired and the voltage recorded.
From that the engineers can work out the best way to make weapons.

A lot of subtle and important things were investigated trying to defeat IED's.

Anyhow, EMachineshop is a program designed to sell machine shop services for the publisher.
I suspect they give it away free to people like me on the off chance we become successful and need machine services that they are happy to provide for a price.

Pro E was something else and I was not ready to learn all it could do.

There are still things I am learning about EMachineshop.
Have yet to make a sphere or a conical part.
Have no clue how to do that. With Pro E I could.

Most of the stuff I share here are from ideas related to hobby projects.
I can't share the details of the military work.
Exact values and tech details Im sure are still classified.
I can talk about programs in general but the specifics will not be discussed.

Being a life long SF fan 3d printing holds a small amount of magic for me.
It is very cool to be able to have an idea at noon and be able to make a useful part by the end of lunch.

Other things that are 'rule restricted' with E Machineshop is the use of rounded edges, and chamfers.
There seems to be a blind spot in either me or the program that gets in the way of results.
That's why you see my stuff has rounded outside edges but not the top and bottoms.
My bud Stan once said we need a new button on the keyboard, a DWIM key. Or "Do What I Mean".

For now it ain't happening.

As for comparing other packages. I have the mind set of a kid on some things. I know what I want and tend to want it 'right now'.
So I tend to use the tools that I know, even if they are used poorly. Get results that are 'good enough'.
There is an expression in engineering, 'to get the lat 3% of performance one must expend 50% more than the budget'.

So far on my projects 97% has been good enough.

So that is the news here.
Thanks for the kind words.
Jack Crow aka Radio Mike in VB

[thawkins]

[Jack Crow]

Thaw,
Thanks for the tips, will look into them as time permits.

As for the PHD, he was not doing it that way.
His way was subtle, simple and reproducible.

I can tell you about one of the gadgets we played with.
A commercially made Marx Bank.
It's a way of charging caps in parallel and discharging them in series.

Our caps ran 30kV (about 15pF broadcast transmitter parts) each and there were seven or so in the bank.
The bank was in a metal cylinder, and insulated with Sulfur Hex gas.
When tripped it made about 250kV VERY FAST. About 2000A of current. (We are talking events that happen for nano seconds here)

One brilliant summer day, I saw this thing self discharge. Like a ten inch lightening bolt.
Super bright, and rather loud.

This was the kind of thing you did not want to make contact with.

Plasma causes all kinds of trouble in real life.

There is a guy on the web who makes vids of what happens when you discharge high voltage into various kinds of food products.
He exploded a watermelon. Just blew it to shards. In another vid...
With just voltage he blew a hole inside a chunk of beef.
This guy used big caps.

That Marks bank would do the same thing to a human.

Here is a thought that most people refuse to consider.

Your average door knob spark, just how hot is it?
Solar temps. Even though it's small, it's still electrical plasma.

That is one of the reasons why filling up your car on a dry day is touchy.
How many times a year do we see peoples cars going up at gas stations?
There is a reason for it.
Getting in and out of a vehicle we build up static charges.
Even with modern gas pumps, there is still a vapor cloud next to the filler neck in our cars.
Given even a tiny spark from personal static discharge it's enough if conditions are right to touch of a fuel explosion.
Even a small sun hot plasma discharge is enough to send gasoline molecules looking for excess oxygen.
So I make a habit to discharge before and after filling the car. And never get back in the car while fueling.

Even had a fire marshal watch me once and smile once he figured it out.

Life is full of exciting things, just need to go look for it.
Thanks for the tips, will follow up.
Keep it safe.
Jack Crow aka Radio Mike

[Mooselake]

After looking at the price for the current 8 PowerPole gadget those buss bars are really copper plated silver.

I started on a homemade fused version using #10 stranded for the buss, #12 solid for each connector, and spade terminals for fuse holders along with an optional meter opening. Never quite got the slots sized right and it went into the get around toit stack. Just not gonna pay over a hundred bucks for one...

[Jack Crow]

Moose,

That's the trick with Andersons, if your making holders, they are slightly non symmetric.
One side is thicker than the other, so what should be a center hole is offset by about .5mm to one side.

Thinking of getting away from using tie wraps for anchors and replacing them with 2-56 screws.

One of my radio buds wants me to make a ten position box, plus binding posts and a Drok V/A meter.
It can be done as long as the wire runs are kept short. I squared R Losses being minimal over a short distance.

The project it's self is not too hard, what it will do is eat a lot of parts, and that adds up.

Right now the commitment is not all that firm.

Such is life,
Keep it sane.
Jack Crow aka radio mike