Has anyone on here played with pummer circuits?

[mle_online@social.afront.org]

@ai6yr I built it on perfboard because I wanted this to be non-permanent in case I messed something up. I might go ahead and try building it dead bug style to see if I can get it working that way

[tankgrrl@hachyderm.io]

@MLE_online
Nothing pummer-related to add.

Just favoriting this just for the 2nd part. :chefkiss:

[mle_online@social.afront.org]

@ai6yr it's not completely kaput. It does turn on when the lights go out. It just stays on instead of slowly pulsing. If i knew more about electronics, this would be an important clue

[ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org]

@MLE_online YAY! Glad the chips did not get smashed into tiny pieces!

[ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org]

@Legit_Spaghetti @MLE_online That's not punny, she worked really hard on that circuit.

[mle_online@social.afront.org]

@ai6yr me too! Now i just need to figure out how ali built a solar powered nightlight instead of a pummer

[zl2tod@mastodon.online]

@MLE_online

Is the LM3909 still a thing?

They, with an alkaline D cell, will flash an LED for years, but without the groovy fade.

http://solarbotics.net/library/datasheets/LM3909.pdf

[mle_online@social.afront.org]

@zl2tod cool, but that's not what I'm going for in this instance

[bytex64@awesome.garden]

@MLE_online @ai6yr Sounds like the charging side is working, at least. I bet the problem will be frustratingly simple.

[ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org]

@bytex64 @MLE_online Typically something that turns on and off will do so by charging/discharging (resistor and capacitor). But, I haven't look at these kind of circuits. (it probably suffers, like many circuits do, on bad Internet schematics! On the plus side, AI has ingested a lot of bad Internet schematics, lol)

[bytex64@awesome.garden]

@MLE_online @ai6yr Yeah that sounds right to me. I only glanced at the circuit in Make magazine but it definitely looked like a traditional inverter oscillator, just tuned very slow.

[mle_online@social.afront.org]

@bytex64 @ai6yr touching pins in the right places partially makes it behave like it should

[ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org]

@MLE_online @bytex64 AHA!

It's the capacitance ratio which sets the blinking

[bytex64@awesome.garden]

@ai6yr @MLE_online Oh that’s interesting. I wonder if that’s a missing connection or if you’re acting like a capacitor.

[ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org]

@bytex64 @MLE_online Looks like you're going to have to put your finger on there all night LOL

(yes, that sounds right -- human capacitor!)

[mle_online@social.afront.org]

@ai6yr @bytex64 the thing is it never decays. The brightness fades up like it should, but then it just stays bright unless i poke around. I will have to inspect more tomorrow

[ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org]

@MLE_online @bytex64

I have my doubts on that capacitor there. I have never seen one with the two colors... looks questionable to me.

Also, diodes are pretty heat sensitive, I used to destroy a lot of them by overheating them while soldering (until someone told me to use hemostats to heat sink between the diode and the solder).

Anyway, good luck! I'm sure the circuit works (if it's in MAKE), just something cross wired. If I get inspired I will try building one here, although I will have to poke around for a solar cell...

[ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org]

@MLE_online @bytex64 "Never decays" also would make me check R3, as that is what drains the LED charge to make it fade. Also R2 as it is draining charge off the timing capacitors...

R1 is just used to flip the pummer into "on" when the solar panel is off.

Ah heck, going to have to check it all anyway lol. Good luck.

[roseen@mastodon.nu]

@MLE_online If anyone else was just as confused as i regarding BEAM and pummers, here's a nice writeup:
https://sp4ee.github.io/build-log/fell-in-love-with-pummers/

[mle_online@social.afront.org]

@ai6yr this second pummer was much easier to build because i did it deadbug style. Unfortunately it also doesn't work! In fact, it works even less than the last one