Join me for a strange one...

[ErikS]

The template removed. Dang! I should've stuffed something in the return line port.

So you got the "router & acrylic" = let it snow, let it snow.......................

Leave it to a reef geek - raising the lights for access is good enough for most folks..........but for an RC DIYer? Pfffft, too easy............."I know, let's lower the tank instead"

(yes, I know, the height issue.........just seemed funny)

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

RC DIY'ers don't "think outside the box." For us, there is no box.

 

[cdeboard]

Read through this entire thread over the course of a couple hours at work. Very interesting. Cant wait to see more.

 

[ErikS]

RC DIY'ers don't "think outside the box." For us, there is no box.

:lmao:

And here I always thought is was..........

I'm not thinking outside that box, it sucks & it's expensive. We can design a better box, for 1/2 the price and think outside of a good box

I stand corrected.

 

[buy_baff]

Read through this entire thread over the course of a couple hours at work. Very interesting. Cant wait to see more.

Read it at work! Well sir you must have a nice labor free job to pull that off! I guess thats better than sleeping on the job LOL

 

[4adam12]

Just wondering if you managed to squeeze into the tank yet.

 

[oscarsdad608]

Are you stuck in there?

 

[tahiriqbal]

RC DIY'ers don't "think outside the box." For us, there is no box.

Box!!! What box? Never heard this word before, is this in English dictionary? :reading::reading::spin2:

Kcress, how is that lovely red legged horse doing? I am sure it can't wait to lift some heavy weights :beer:

 

[cooper13]

Wow! Just finished reading this thread--fantastic project and fantastic writeup!

So my one question at the moment is whether you ever got bothered by the tang police for keeping that poor yellow in a 1 quart, L-shaped pico tank?! :eek2: :lol::lol:

Here's Tang during one of his 300 commutes a day.

 

[kcress]

A stand that goes up and down??! mWHAHAhahahaaaaaa

What a dweeb!

oh. :hmm4:





You guys are a bunch of comics!!:lmao:

The beatings will continue until moral improves...





I've had a bunch of pressing problems lately:

The kitchen sewer failed from age. I had to replace the sewer pipes laying under the house.. :thumbdown



We then had the kitchen stove keyboard fail. It's no longer available and I'm not up for dropping $1,500 on a new stove because of a keyboard. We've been using various camp stoves for cooking. :celeb1:

I finally fixed it by puzzling out how the 25 key keyboard interfaced to the controller. I then built my own replacement keyboard. I used isolation routing on my CNC router. Done yesterday.

Now I can return to my tank. I'll give it a shot tomorrow. If you don't hear from me send food and water - and probably money , guns, and lawyers.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I finally fixed it by puzzling out how the 25 key keyboard interfaced to the controller. I then built my own replacement keyboard. I used isolation routing on my CNC router. Done yesterday.

Awesome. And for the record, you have no idea how loudly I am laughing right now. Last week, the microprocessor controlled touchscreen keyboard on Dear Old Mom's stove died. I was frustrated to find out how much a new one cost, and I found myself thinking "I bet somewhere out there, there's a master tinkerer who's built his own replacement." I shoulda figured you'd be the type to do so. :lol:

 

[kcress]

Awesome. And for the record, you have no idea how loudly I am laughing right now.

I shoulda figured you'd be the type to do so. :lol:

A lot of the hassle of large appliances are the mechanicals. If all that works fine you can often hack the controls to get what you want.

I make a living designing controls so every appliance I get I critique the controls on. Most are absolute cr@p!! Clearly the dorks designing these things never use them. I often wish an appliance will have its controls choke so I can put my own in that work - instead - logically.

We had a top loader washer. The timer controller died. I purchased a new one for $120. It ran 4 months and died.
I tore out the controller and chased down all the wires and what they did. I dredged up an opto-isolator board, a XT-PC mother board, a floppy drive, mono monitor, keyboard, and PSupply. I spent an evening writing a GWBasic program that provided all the exact wash cycles we desired. It was great. The better-half suggested a diaper recipe that I was able to provide.

Long story short - we loved it. It worked flawlessly for 3 more years. Then the transmission lunched. :hmm3:

We did get a lot of razzing because we had to "boot-up" our washing machine.

Now I want my dishwasher to choke so I can fix the lame controls. (imagine, you can't change the Heated Dry / No Heat Dry setting without canceling the wash that is underway and starting over!! :furious


But I digress!:spin2:





I tried getting into the tank today..

It was a cake walk! Those three inches made all the difference between, "will I get trapped and make national news?", and trivial.



Anyway, once lying on the bottom, I was able to file the two reinforcement blocks until they fit tight with no corner rocking or bottom kick out. I then glued them both in and held them in place one at a time for an agonizing length of time. A slow count to 300. I then laid a bead around their seams. I'll let them dry until Sunday then try another fill up.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

You don't know how much I wish I had the skillset (and time) to replace appliance controls. Some time I will tell you how frustrated I am with the "automatic" fan in Mom's combo vent hood/overhead microwave.

Fingers crossed on your fix working. Good luck!

 

[canesfan44]

You don't know how much I wish I had the skillset (and time) to replace appliance controls. Some time I will tell you how frustrated I am with the "automatic" fan in Mom's combo vent hood/overhead microwave.

Fingers crossed on your fix working. Good luck!

I completely agree. If I had half your skillset, I would have a lot more money to spend on my tanks.

 

[kcress]

Wetness!


I brought the serpent in. Dealing with our hose which has 1-1/2" pipe from the meter to this hose bib and 100PSI backing it up is a lot like wrestling with a Boa. Of course the result is a lot of water fast and RO units that put out more than listed rates! :celeb1:

Starting the fill.

Proceeding with lots of nervous worry.

Almost full. There is something about admitting hundreds of gallons into one's living room thru a hard hose that is a bit unnerving.

Fullness of being.

A lot of checking going on. I also made sure the overflow bay filled. It is slowly draining into the tub below because the one un-valved stand pipe is only plugged into the bulkhead. I am quite surprised by how slowly it is leaking out. It's about 2" into that sump bin in 8 hrs. It will stop once the overflow space empties.


Now for some flow fun.

Using the VFD Adam so generously donated and the 240Vac line that was feeding my previously retired VFD I fired up the pump, but not before carefully and slowly starting the motor to confirm rotation direction.

If you run these pumps at full speed in reverse the impeller will back off the shaft. Worse, as it backs off it collides with the volute chamber. This stops it and causes it to fully unscrew instantly, thus acting like a screw press. Generally the pump housing will explode or split open. That would be a Bad Thing.. :thumbdown

Here you can see I have it running at about 92%.

Because I have no outlet restriction and upped the impeller size I'm getting cavitation. This is because the pump can expel water faster than it can draw in water and the water starts to boil at the impeller face. Once I put some restriction in in the form of eductors, that won't be a problem, because the head pressure will go up reducing the flow thru the pump. I'll still be delivering 1/2 hp into the water column though, and the eductors will also amplify that flow.

You can see here that the water being shot out the right outlet is causing the surface to rise to the top of the tank.

Here's a shot from below. You can't see it in a still photo but that outlet pipe is shaking like a constipated dog.


After running the pump for an hour the motor was about 90F. I'm happy about that as it's not going to heat the air a bunch.

I will say that VFD really made the motor sing.. in X sharp. The dog bailed post haste and the daughter asked, "is that how it's always going to sound?!" The 8kHz modulation freq is just too low.


So now I wait to see what transpires.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Glad to see some progress here


I just retrofitted my drill press with a baldor 3ph motor and Teco sensorless vector drive VFD. I am not to impressed with the noise the motor makes, though it is not an inverter duty motor.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Progress! This part of build threads are always a bit nerve wracking to me. Will it leak...

Good luck!

 

[adddo]

LoL great thread!

 

[kcress]

Tanks guys! Good news! No leaks so far.

Glad to see some progress here

Aint that the truth!

I just retrofitted my drill press with a baldor 3ph motor and Teco sensorless vector drive VFD. I am not to impressed with the noise the motor makes, though it is not an inverter duty motor.

Bean; You have 15 different modulation frequencies to choose from. I would expect at least two of them to reduce the noise down to barely audible.

When checking make sure you take the time to try each value as it's both interesting to hear the different sounds and because there is no predicting which setting is quieter. For instance, you might find 11kHz silent and 12kHz much louder and then 13kHz silent again. It probably has something to do with the harmonics and the motor resonances. I can say that any setting under 10kHz will probably be 'loud'.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

You have 15 different modulation frequencies to choose from. I would expect at least two of them to reduce the noise down to barely audible.

When checking make sure you take the time to try each value as it's both interesting to hear the different sounds and because there is no predicting which setting is quieter. For instance, you might find 11kHz silent and 12kHz much louder and then 13kHz silent again. It probably has something to do with the harmonics and the motor resonances. I can say that any setting under 10kHz will probably be 'loud'.

By "modulation frequency" could you mean "carrier frequency?" I'm looking at the specs for my VFD (the FM50 from factorymation.com) and it lists a "carrier" frequency range of 4 - 16 kHz. There's no "modulation" frequency listed.

I haven't tried this thing yet, but based on stu's results with (I think?) the same unit, I'm hoping I can get it pretty silent.