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October, It has been an interesting month. This month hosts my birthday, fleet week and is also the very first time in my life that a piece of something I created was manufactured and delivered to me for testing. The charge circuit for the wind turbine was based on a tried and true board with a few changes for our specific needs. However, this does not make it any less special. It was the night of my birthday that Mike called to tell me the circuit was complete and had been mailed from the factory to us for testing. This was a real thrill. A few days later, I went to Mikes location to pick up the board and catch up so that we were on the same page. That night, my wife and I celebrated my birthday with a rare night out. With two small kids at home this is very difficult. We went and saw the One Man Star Wars show. This was a fun production and very fitting for my wife and I. We also enjoyed a very nice dinner that was a birthday gift for my wife that she had not used. In a way, we were celebrating 3 things, my birthday, her birthday and the first official piece of the wind turbine from the manufacturer. The next morning, Sunday October 11, I hooked up the circuit to my original prototype that had been working in my yard for a couple years. There were issues with my wiring, connectors, etc... However, there were no issues with the circuit board. I made all new soldered contacts and removed sections of wiring mess I had made over time. This was all working perfectly. We have a working circuit that operates exactly as we planned. I will continue to use the circuit. This will give us a longer running performance test. Since it is modeled from the basics of a very tried and true design, we know it to be very stable and predictable in behavior. I will continue to vary the battery status and shock the unit with random shorts, and any other anomolies I can create. So far it has not had a single issue, even with my abuse. |
