engineer/electrician

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vsny2k5

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Mar 3, 2005
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are there any engineers or electrians in here?

this is for a school project, and i need to make a golfball bounce 3 times inside a hat. i was thinking of using a timer commonly used, but i have no idea how to connect or what to connect it to in order for the golfball to spring up. any sugguestions?

i looked into solenoids, and so far i've hooked it up to a chime doorbell mechanism. but the golfball is way too heavy and it just weighs the plunger down. it's powered by a 24v transformer but it's just not strong enough to bounce it up, or to even sustain the golfball.

is there anything stronger out there that won't be pushed down by a golfball and will definitely push it up? an engineer at home depot suggested a plunger that is used in waching machines, would that work?

i'm desperate for a solution here, any suggestions are apprecieated.
 
Electrician is the guy that puts wiring in your house. To do that shit, you don't even need to know V=IR.
 
Whatsisname said:
Electrician is the guy that puts wiring in your house. To do that shit, you don't even need to know V=IR.
Click to expand...

Dood, you try figuring voltage drop without knowing that! A good electrician will know it.

On topic: The solenoid out of a washer machine has some wicked punch, we used to use them to launch stuff.
 
Whatsisname said:
Electrician is the guy that puts wiring in your house. To do that shit, you don't even need to know V=IR.
Click to expand...

Ok, from now on everything you say holds absolutely no water, Whatsoever. I take great insult to that, as a former Local 3 member. All the equations in the world couldn't save you from 220.

I would definitely tackle this project with a lever/solenoid based solution. Get a really stiff spring for that lever. Or you can try and dismantle a gun. I'm sure that would be strong enough.
 
concentrating on the washing machine part... which parts do i need to exactly look for? and is it costly?
 
The selonoid is located at the back of the unit where the water lines come into the washer machine. You proabably can get one for free if you can find an old washer lying around or at a repair shop. The seloniod itself doesnt go bad to often, it is ususally the water valve part that fails. If not, you should be able to pick on up at an appliance parts shop for under $20.
 
vsny2k5 said:
are there any engineers or electrians in here?

this is for a school project, and i need to make a golfball bounce 3 times inside a hat. i was thinking of using a timer commonly used, but i have no idea how to connect or what to connect it to in order for the golfball to spring up. any sugguestions?

i looked into solenoids, and so far i've hooked it up to a chime doorbell mechanism. but the golfball is way too heavy and it just weighs the plunger down. it's powered by a 24v transformer but it's just not strong enough to bounce it up, or to even sustain the golfball.

is there anything stronger out there that won't be pushed down by a golfball and will definitely push it up? an engineer at home depot suggested a plunger that is used in waching machines, would that work?

i'm desperate for a solution here, any suggestions are apprecieated.
Click to expand...

did i just see engineer and home depot? 0_o.

We just threw away a washing machine that had leaks all over :-/.
 
lol..i'm not entirely sure what the guy was at home depot, but he was an old guy who graduated from u. of chicago...he seemed to know his stuff.
 
would i have to attach the solenoids into something that will project objects? or does it already have a plunger mechanism?
 
On the one I had the plunger pulled in iirc. But it may have projected out of the other side. You may be able to slide a small alluminum cylinder inside the open end of the solonoid to get the thrust you need. This will depend on the model. What voltage you working at with your controller?

If you are using 12 volts, you may be able to modify the solonoid for the ignition of an older ford vehicle. They are cheap, $10 and may be able to be opened to get to the mechanism. The solonoid is not exposed like onthe washer machine, but it is powerful. I have never broken one open but I suspect it could work.

Also the solonoid on a chevy starter could do the job. It already has an arm that comes out and could be mounted to a hinge point with a spring. After thinking about it, this may be the easiest type to use.

Im just offering a few ideas, never know what you might have laying around. If you ever saw one of my projects, you would understand that is how my mind works.
 
The word engineer came from ingenuity, and originally meant a "master of the sciences". An electrician does not fit this definition. Too bad I had to piss in your cereal but thats how it goes.

joecool234 said:
Ok, from now on everything you say holds absolutely no water, Whatsoever. I take great insult to that, as a former Local 3 member. All the equations in the world couldn't save you from 220.

I would definitely tackle this project with a lever/solenoid based solution. Get a really stiff spring for that lever. Or you can try and dismantle a gun. I'm sure that would be strong enough.
Click to expand...
 
Since when do you have to worry about voltage drop putting a lightswitch in the wall?

Disarray said:
Dood, you try figuring voltage drop without knowing that! A good
electrician will know it.

On topic: The solenoid out of a washer machine has some wicked punch, we used to use them to launch stuff.
Click to expand...
 
Whatsisname said:
The word engineer came from ingenuity, and originally meant a "master of the sciences". An electrician does not fit this definition. Too bad I had to piss in your cereal but thats how it goes.
Click to expand...
I completely agree.
 
Whatsisname... show some respect. Electricians do far more than wire up light switches in new homes, they wire up entire factories. Most houses aren't even wired by electricians anyway - they're wired by contractor henchmen, and later inspected by electricians before the drywall goes up.

When you're running long wires when you have a big load on the other end of a wire, you'll need to know what the voltage drop is and wire up an electrical system which is capable of supplying a load with a known amount of voltage drop. Deciding "oh, 600V delta comes into the factory here, it's split this many ways, we need a delta-to-wye over here to handle this particular 380V load, etc" is done by electricians. Sure, electrical engineers can do that, but they can't sign off on it and certify it safe.

And besides, most electrical engineers freak out when they see aluminum wire :D
 
Whatsisname, engineering is a fine profession, but it does take all types to make a world. Now that I'm taking classes with other EE majors, I'm surprised to see how many engineers don't get that. It's disappointing really. Voltage drop is quite important in electrical wiring. It's the reason why I shouldn't try running my 20A air compressor on a 50ft 18awg extension cord. Furthermore, do you have to split everything you say into two one-line posts created a minute apart? VBulletin comes with an edit button. Use it. Non-engineers can do it, and so can you.

vsny: I'm curious what this "bounce a golf ball in a hat" contraption is actually for. Perhaps you could enlighten us?
 
How about putting a motor on a rubber-band gun?

Remember those wooden guns that wind up and then release a rubber-band to launch off the end of the barrel? Can you use servos in this project?

If you live the north bay, come take the solenoids off our washing machines (if they have any), so we can get new ones.

Fast solenoids can get pretty expensive, IIRC.
 
mattg2k4 said:
Whatsisname, engineering is a fine profession, but it does take all types to make a world. Now that I'm taking classes with other EE majors, I'm surprised to see how many engineers don't get that. It's disappointing really.
Click to expand...
Full agreement here. When I was going through engineering in university, and was surrounded by assholes wearing ERTW sweaters and denouncing the "artsy fags" and "bookies" doing any program other than engineering, I was almost ashamed to be in the faculty.

Then one time at the campus bar, a chick walked away from me the moment I mentioned I was doing engineering... :D

There's no reason you can't take pride in the university program you're doing. But please don't be proud to the point where you make everyone else hate you and hate the program you're in... because when you finally get yourself a job, you'll find that the place you're working at isn't much different from the university anyway - you'll suddenly find yourself surrounded by people of all sorts of different backgrounds and specialties, and if you're gonna be an arrogant asshole then you won't be all that surprised when all your co-workers hate you too.

At my job, I'm one of a few engineers that's surrounded by electrical technicians, electricians, draftsmen, secretaries, 'artsy industrial design faggots', you name it.

Everyone has their own role and their own specialties. I design electrical hardware and write software and HDL. A tech or two might have a look at my work to see if I haven't done anything obviously stupid. The draftsmen lay the PCB out and give feedback as well. Other draftsmen take the mechanical plans from the 'artsy industrial design faggots' and create the enclosure for the board, a template for the user interface which i'm coding, and so forth. Then technicians construct the prototype and test it, and if everything's OK, the electricians prepare the CE/UL/etc testing so we can legally sell it.

When all is said and done, we have a completely kickass product. If the product was done entirely by engineers, it'd probably be an uninteresting square box with a user interface that nobody could comprehend, and half the english would be misspelled :D
 
As we haven't heard from the OP in a while, i guess this thread has been officially hijacked.

My dad has been an IBEW\Local 3 journeyman for 20+ years now. He has worked on all sorts of jobs: office renovation, power stations, subway power, backup power, u name it. His union has a program for members with college kids...these kids can be employed as apprentices for the summer. This is exactly what I did for 2 summers...and let me tell you...I learned more in two months than I did in 4 years of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

My first summer was spent at the Reuters building in NYC. Has anyone ever seen that monstrosity? Well when I was working, they had just barely put the windows in...the floors were completely barren. My company was responsible for installing the backup power for the entire building. This involved installing two MASSIVE generators on the roof, running wire from the roof to the 4th floor (can't remember the AWE, but this stuff was like a pound a foot), and then wiring up the battery system. There was an entire room of 2V batteries that weighed 200 pounds a piece...several parallel banks of 240 batteries in series. My job was to assist in pipe bending (ok, electricians aren't the greatest mathematicians) and wire pulling. We then had to hook everything up to the UPS and switchgear systems. Man, those UPS systems were AWESOME...each unit was 8' tall x 10' wide x 4' deep. Each easily had 50 1F caps inside. All in all, this job cost Reuters about $20 million...just for backup power.

I agree that the "average" general contractor electrician is incredibly amatuer. You really have to be licensed to know where its at. Its not fair to make such a generalization for ALL electricians. Its like comparing Jiffy Lube techs to BMW mechanics.

P.S. How many engineers do you know that make $120k/yr? At apprentice rates, I made my 4 month engineering salary in 2 months.
 
gee said:
When all is said and done, we have a completely kickass product. If the product was done entirely by engineers, it'd probably be an uninteresting square box with a user interface that nobody could comprehend, and half the english would be misspelled :D
Click to expand...

LMAO :D :D :D
 
I've seen both sides, the engineering side and the henchman side...

I work in the power protection industry, I test test software, hardware and embedded firmware.

I have the equivalent to an associates in EE, a Diploma in Industrial Electronics and Process Control (think pulp, paper, brewery, refinery & sewage treatment), & I also have the equivalent of 3rd year apprenticeship as an industrial electrician, 25kv splice anyone...

The one thing I hate is when people hear "electronics" they ask if I can fix their VCR or microwave...

In response to fixing their consumer electronics

How about I shove your VCR up your ass, wire up a variable frequency drive on a thermo-mechanical-pulper unit at a kraft mill and then program a PLC controlled overhead crane to knock your sorry ass into the TMP, VCR and all... :eek:

LOL...

MD

:D
 
I was just dropping in the electronics forums, and god damn. It's like you guys use a completely different language :x

Take MD for example
MD said:
How about I shove your VCR up your ass, wire up a variable frequency drive on a thermo-mechanical-pulper unit at a kraft mill and then program a PLC controlled overhead crane to knock your sorry ass into the TMP, VCR and all...
Click to expand...

About the only thing I understood was 'How about I shove your VCR up your ass'. I just wanted to say I definately respect what you guys do. That and I'd like MD to fix my TV :D
 
Variable frequency drive is a speed controller for an electrical motor.

In Thermo Mechanical Pulping (TMP), metallic plates rub steam heated chips at high speeds, separating fibers

Kraft mill is a mill that makes bulk pulp for use elswhere, uses the Kraft cycle to do this...

A PLC is a Programmable Logic Controller, a rudimemtary computer of sorts that is a digital controller used for applications such as on/off control, timing, logic, counting and sequencing.

It's really not all that complicated...

Here's the universal TV fixer:

Remington%20870%20Marine%20Magnum.jpg


:D

MD
 
lol... i hate it when people want me to fix there cell phones. how the hell... is ANYONE supposed to fix that... outside of the tech at the cell phone factory. and even then, there probably is no fixing involved... just replacing what seems to not be working and throwing the old away.

i paid 300$ for a samsung phone (ok, that's a lie, there was 300$ worth of rebates from amazon.com so really it was free), and a month later it broke... i called up tmobile and they told me they'd send me a new phone (just the phone, i kept my battery and everything else), and they said that it'd be a 60$ restocking fee if i didn't return my old phone. so that 300$ phone, costs them 60$ (without battery, packaging, blah blah blah)... you really think these types of things are meant to be fixed?

same with TV's, the big huge TV's that people pay to get fixed... more likely then not, an entire board inside the TV is swapped out. never seen a tech go through finding out which capacitor, diode, whatever else went bad on the board then replacing it. simply not cost effective... and if i dont work for a tv repair shop with access to those boards, wtf am i supposed to do?

... not to mention if the problem is a uC died... well, nothing at all a person can do there then unless for some reason they have a spare uC, a programmer, and the code that's supposed to on it laying around somewhere. then there's the whole surface mount thing they'll probably be dealing with when desoldering/soldering...

ok... /end rant
.
back on topic:
i have a washing machine in my basement that's broken, whenever i get time it looks like i'll be ripping it apart to see what fun i can have with this solenoid.
 
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