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| Things I learned working on my bot | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 24 2015, 09:11 PM (806 Views) | |
| 80sgirl | Aug 24 2015, 09:11 PM Post #1 |
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Electroidal Animal Doctor
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Thought it would be a good idea to start a separate thread sharing restoration tips, ideas and things I discovered while working on Chuck. If you're working on a bot and you stumble across anything helpful, feel free to add it here. 1.) CRC Mass Air Flow Sensor Cleaner is like magic for cleaning sluggish or stuck valves: ![]() I used it on Chuck's solenoid valves and stuck mouth valve. It's intended to clean the mass air flow sensor in cars. MAF sensors experience the same type of contaminates as pneumatic valves like dirt, vaporized oil and moisture. It's available at just about any auto parts or large hardware store for about $7 a can. I think even Wal-Mart carries it. Disassemble the valve as much as you can, spray it on the parts, let them dry for a few minutes and reassemble. It's that easy. Dries with no residue and doesn't harm metal, rubber or plastic. Also works great on inaccessible areas of the valve manifold. 2.) Gunk engine cleaner is good for removing those years of nasty grease buildup. Also safe on rubber and plastics. I used the spray bottle rather than the foam because it's easier to control indoors and you don't need to hose off the bot afterward. Spay it on a rag or paper towel and let it sit for a few minutes. Plus it smells nice. He smelled like oranges for days! 3.) Flyback diodes are good to have when using a 3rd party controller. I was having a problem with Chuck's controller locking up randomly. Turned out the issue was caused by a voltage spike that travels back to the controller when the electromagnetic field in the solenoid collapses. A flyback diode provides an alternate path for the spike and only allows electricity to travel one way, preventing it from reaching the controller. I presume the original computers have flyback protection built into the character cards, but if you're using a modern controller without protection it's a good idea to have these. I used 1N4007 diodes I bought off ebay: ![]() Notice the silver band on the right side in the image? That side MUST go to the POSITIVE connection. POLARITY IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! I put one in backward and it damaged the controller! I had to send it in for repairs! They are wired in parallel to the solenoids. Here is how I wired them to Chuck's board: ![]() This is the right way to do it. No more freezing. |
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| ConnorL | Aug 24 2015, 11:42 PM Post #2 |
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Very interesting, will it affect Mac Valves? I haven't thought about the solenoid spiking back. Could the amps be too high or low? |
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| 80sgirl | Aug 25 2015, 03:00 AM Post #3 |
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Electroidal Animal Doctor
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Flyback affects all solenoids because it is inherent in their design as electromagnets but some solenoids have diodes built-in to handle the voltage spike. These don't and in the original computer system the problem was either accounted for or handled somewhere else. Not sure about Mac valves. If you want to know more about why the problem occurs, this is a good source of information that's easy to understand: http://www.douglaskrantz.com/Flyback_Diode.html |
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4:49 AM Jul 11
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4:49 AM Jul 11
