H2 Reactor Complete? Tile V2 Issues
More Then Barely Functional
I’ve put in a lot of invisible work to make this reactor safer and more useable
The last post was very exciting because I could finally show things I had been working on for a long time behind the scenes. This week I had to actually get everything working as expected. This required a whole power/sensor support system and a total refactor of the control code. I promise I got a lot done this week, most of it is just hard to showcase.
In the gallery below I show one of my ignition tests and the white mylar balloon I want to use floating with hydrogen. From the ignition tests the hydrogen seems to be surprisingly pure but that doesn’t matter because of the next issue. The hydrogen likes to diffuse through everything. Latex balloons filled with my hydrogen float for maybe 5hr. The mylar balloon is still going right now but it is all wrinkly because the hydrogen has found a way out. There is also probably too much moisture coming out of that reactor. I ordered some new balloons just in case my old balloon has a poor seal.
Trust Me, I'm an Engineer!
This system is two+ years old (and hasn’t exploded) so it needs some updates
The voltages are all over the place here but everything is through a 60A breaker and the BMS does a good job at protecting the battery. I had to add the fan because the reactor made the buck converter too hot (at 5V). I had to rework most of my electrical system because the battery ran my lab power supply which was an awful idea. I want to be able to test things even when my battery is flat so I switched to wall power for my lab supply. I also added a plastic sheet to the bottom of the case to better isolate the battery. I also made sure to install a smoke allar-.. just kidding (but I probably will eventually).
These old modem batteries are bad at supplying current so the voltage sags quickly and triggers the BMS early. The battery then recovers to 50V so it is really only good for small constant loads.
Circuit Design Woes
I’m getting closer but I’m still missing something
The Arduino had no issue lighting up all the LEDs but the Esp32 struggles. During my research I made sure these LEDs would work with 3.3V control but there are some quirks. I can only get the first few rings of LEDs to light properly. The issue could be with my code or the voltages. I’ll keep working on the LEDs but the motor transistors also have reliability issues. The PNP transistors are rated for as low as 1.8V logic so I must be going too fast or not grounding things properly. Now that the reactor is mostly done I’ll get to work on this issue.
In the gallery I show some of the testing I did with 5V level shifters. The cheap ones I bought might work for the transistors but they smooth over the small spikes in the led data.
This Week's Gallery:
Plans For Next Week:
Fall break! Time to work even more
The circuit not working is discouraging so I’ll prioritize figuring out its issue. The balloon letting out hydrogen also needs to be addressed but I’m hoping that the new balloons will seal better. I’m still waiting on the heatsink for my v100 so I’ll do the AI testing once that comes in. Lastly I want to try to automate my solar array with a bicycle chain/metal gears coupled to a 3d printed gearbox.
Todo List:
- Figure out the Esp32 issues
- Do some AI testing once the V100 heatsink comes in
- Possibly automate my solar array?