Colmans Mustard

[Bassendale]

Hi,

Have I seen an example, in real or virtual life, of somebody who has created a controller in a small colmans mustard tin?

If so, does anybody know who did it, how was done, what are the 'inerds' eg 12v dc no pwm. 

 

Cheers 

[Nigelcliffe]

Not seen that, but have seen beer cans (with knob on top).    As to innards, any design you wish, just put together the control circuit.   Basic 12v control is not complicated - couple of transistors and a few resistors and its about done.   There are dozens of published designs, of varying complexity and varying quality of output control.   

 

 

- Nigel

 

 

[AndyID]

You'll find one way to do it here

 

https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/blog/variable-voltage-power-supply.html

 

The LM317 does not go all the way down to zero volts so you might want to drop the output voltage through one or two diodes.

[lesmond]

Here's one I made today:

 

 

 

Slightly fiddly to assemble, but it works ok . There's plenty of room inside the tin for the various components.

 

Les

[DCB]

Er, looks good, but why?    Wouldn't it  be better to have a centre off control knob like a Morley  and just have a potentiometer and knob in the hand held and keep the rest attached to the baseboard?

Edited October 1, 2021 by DCB
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[kevinlms]

45 minutes ago, DCB said:

Er, looks good, but why?    Wouldn't it  be better to have a centre off control knob like a Morley  and just have a potentiometer and knob in the hand held and keep the rest attached to the baseboard?

Something called personal choice I guess?

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, DCB said:

Er, looks good, but why?    Wouldn't it  be better to have a centre off control knob like a Morley  and just have a potentiometer and knob in the hand held and keep the rest attached to the baseboard?

 

I like centre-off controllers too but it's not so simple to make one using an off-the-shelf potentiometer.

[lesmond]

5 hours ago, DCB said:

Er, looks good, but why?    Wouldn't it  be better to have a centre off control knob like a Morley  and just have a potentiometer and knob in the hand held and keep the rest attached to the baseboard?

 

Because I could 

 

[RAF96]

You could get all that in an Altoids Mints tin, which are a standard size used for packing all sorts of things, hence readily available.

[lesmond]

1 hour ago, RAF96 said:

You could get all that in an Altoids Mints tin, which are a standard size used for packing all sorts of things, hence readily available.

 

I believe there's one of those about somewhere too....

[Bassendale]

Hi Les,

Would you be able to list the components you have used.

And what is the input? 16v ac or 12dc?

 

Thanks

Stuart

[lesmond]

Hi Stuart,

 

No problem - input is 16v AC.

 

To convert it to DC I used one of these:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264940437804?hash=item3dafae412c:g:VDgAAOSwZzxgyVLF

 

then used an LM7812 voltage regulator to give a steady 12v output. The rectifier above has an output of 22v DC from a 16v AC input, so a bit high :).

 

The 12v DC output from the LM7812 then goes in to one of these:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/193312727515

 

which controls the voltage to the track. It has an "off" position on the pot. which is handy.

 

The track output goes through a DPDT switch to reverse the polarity and give forward and reverse control.

 

I got the bits from AliExpress - with a bit of a wait - for a good bit less than Ebay sellers want for them. This was however well pre Br%xit so import charges may well be a factor now.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Les