CRX Rotary - 6th Annual BLF/ Old Lumens Contest Winner

To impress us mere mortals with amazing wood working skills. :heart_eyes:

awesome as usual.
I missed the BooBoo pic :smiley:

Cant believe its contest time already, Another year passed too fast

That switch work alone is just crazy… :open_mouth:

By now, you surely have copper, brass, & lead poisoning at the least…. :stuck_out_tongue:

Quite possible, might explain a few things.. :D

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Redesigned rotary switch contact board.

So, after thinking about the contact board further I realized it had a design flaw so I made a new board :FACEPALM:
The contact points should have minimal space between them to minimize LED flashing effect when changing modes.
Start again, I cut out & drilled a board from the FR4 same as before.

The red circle shows where the sprung brass contact corresponds.

This time I decided to make a small wedged shaped copper piece to help me mark out the contact points on the board, the little hook catches in the centre hole.

Works like this.

Holding the copper marker in place I score the kapton tape with a scalpel blade, move it to the next section leaving a thin gap and repeat then take out the unwanted trace lines and place the board in the ferric chloride solution again.

After a few minutes the board is removed from the solution, cleaned and the remaining kapton removed.

This is a far superior design to the original, I think ;)

Soldered the contact enclosure posts in place and filed down, sanded & polished the brass centre bolt.

Soldered the brass bolt in place using the M4 nut tightened on the other side to keep it straight then soldered on a 10mm x 8mm x 2mm neodymium ring magnet which fits around the head of the bolt, this will be the negative cell contact.

Anti-surge 1% tolerance resistors soldered onto contact board and holes drilled for vias.

The resistor values are: 1R, 3R3, 15R, 180R, 820R to give five main modes, there will also be another direct drive connection which will double as the neutral charging unit connection.

First test of the rotary switch :-) :THUMBS-UP:

The switch can start from the highest mode or lowest depending on which way it is turned.

Way cool!!! :+1: :slight_smile: :smiley: :beer:

I love this rotary switch! I guess the contact rods are round enough to not connect 2 pads at the same time?

It’s just one contact rod, the other is only there to balance, has a piece of plastic on the end of the spring.
I did round the end of the brass post slightly but don’t think it matters as the least resistive path will be taken, I’m sure both pads are connected momentarily during rotation, this was partly the reason for remaking the board with larger pads/ minimal gaps, the transition is a lot smoother although doesn’t show that well in the gif.
Still some tweaking to be done on it too but it’s working pretty well as intended.

You are right, with the given steps from resistor to resistor you probably won’t even see when 2 of them are connected at the same time.

I’ll make a better video when it’s more together.

That is super slick CRX! Very nice.

Maybe I’ll have to join in on MtnDon’s earlier comment. :+1:

Yep, just as I suspected. Definate poisioning… :confounded:

:+1: :beer:

CRX never ceases to amaze! :open_mouth:

I would call the contest yours just for that switch. :partying_face:

Very good idea as always and a perfect implementation, I always wonder where you get these many and unbelievably good ideas from. But what comes to my mind right now, a Novatac Rotary, a HDS Rotary Killer :wink: :smiley:

;)

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Magnetic pill contact board & wiring.

I decided to use some copper dual sided 1.5mm thick FR4 board here for the pill contact plate.

Marked out, cut the board with snips, filed and smoothed the edges with sharpening stones until made good into a circle.

This disc fits nicely into the brass ring of the pill but protrudes enough to keep the top copper layer clear of contact.

Marked centre circle in pill contact board, drilled a 1.5mm hole and removed some copper from the reverse side to avoid electrical shorts.

20 AWG silicone positive wire end stripped and put through board hole, this will be soldered to the side of the positive contact magnet.
Showing how the pill goes together.

Three 2mm diameter holes drilled in the pill for wires, the negative wire will come out through the side of the pill and be soldered there.
Soldering of a 6mm x 2mm neodymium magnet onto board next to wire for positive contact point.
I used more magnets stacked on the board to keep the ones on front in place and take away some heat as too much heat will demagnetize the delicate rare earth magnets, you got to be quick soldering these!

Wires poked through pill holes, contact board JB welded in place, 20 AWG negative soldered to pill and unit cleaned up.

JB weld applied around positive contact magnet and test :THUMBS-UP:

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INCREDIBLE!!!*

Brilliant!:wink:

reminds me of an HDS… except they dont come in copper (they only come in Bronze or Brass) LOL

Just awesome.

Okay, I have to admit I’m lost have been for a while. I have absolute faith that CRX knows what he’s doing. But I sure don’t! :person_facepalming:

+2