My brief was to provide electronic abuse - to see just how robust (electronically) the T1 was.
The proposal had 2 parts. The first was to flick the electronics on and off at various speeds to see if they would cope. The second was to subject the T1 to high voltage strikes from a Tesla Coil and to see if the high energy field around the coil would induce destructive voltages in the driver board.
First up the "on/off" test.
The batteries were replaced by a power supply that was turned on and off by a signal generator producing square waves.
The T1 was fed square waves and turned on and off 1,000,000 times. No problems at all. In case you're wondering it was in the high power mode and the on/off frequency was 30Hz.
While I was at it I thought I'd have a look at how the driver copes with different input voltages. I fed it a voltage that went from 2.5V to 9.0V. As you can see in the next photo it kept a constant light output over the range from 4 to 9 volts.
So far so good and the T1 was loving these voltage variations. Time to get serious with phase 2. Bring on the Tesla Coil.
Turn on the coil and stand back! As you can see I also left the T1 turned on for this test.
The next photo is a time exposure over 3 secs so you can see the number of strikes. All up it spent about 10 minutes exposed to the coil.
If you'd prefer a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBlEcr9EgiQ
Well it still wasn't dead so there was only one thing left to do. Sneak into the kitchen, turn on T1, place it in the microwave, select high power (you can see it in the top right hand corner of the opening frames) check that Wife wasnt around, start camera, hit "Start Oven".....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3INSmRqeh4Q
No explosion. Phew, I live again and so does the T1.
So now the T1 has been both BBQ'd and microwaved.
There had to be something to upset it. How about doubling the input voltage. I could build a battery extension tube and run it on higher voltages to increase the run times. Rather than do this I used my power supply. I'd already discovered it would run on 9 volts....How about 12 volts?
So there it is, happy on high power and 12 volts in. You might notice it's drawing 100MA at this voltage.
At that time I decided the T1 had earned it's freedom and I didn't increase the voltave until "something blew".
I'm sending it back to 4sevens in working order and hope he knows how much punishment this unit has taken and how much I appreciate the chance to have done this testing.
My final impression...A mighty fine unit and (electronically) "built like a tank". Thank you David.
The proposal had 2 parts. The first was to flick the electronics on and off at various speeds to see if they would cope. The second was to subject the T1 to high voltage strikes from a Tesla Coil and to see if the high energy field around the coil would induce destructive voltages in the driver board.
First up the "on/off" test.
The batteries were replaced by a power supply that was turned on and off by a signal generator producing square waves.
The T1 was fed square waves and turned on and off 1,000,000 times. No problems at all. In case you're wondering it was in the high power mode and the on/off frequency was 30Hz.
While I was at it I thought I'd have a look at how the driver copes with different input voltages. I fed it a voltage that went from 2.5V to 9.0V. As you can see in the next photo it kept a constant light output over the range from 4 to 9 volts.
So far so good and the T1 was loving these voltage variations. Time to get serious with phase 2. Bring on the Tesla Coil.
Turn on the coil and stand back! As you can see I also left the T1 turned on for this test.
The next photo is a time exposure over 3 secs so you can see the number of strikes. All up it spent about 10 minutes exposed to the coil.
If you'd prefer a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBlEcr9EgiQ
Well it still wasn't dead so there was only one thing left to do. Sneak into the kitchen, turn on T1, place it in the microwave, select high power (you can see it in the top right hand corner of the opening frames) check that Wife wasnt around, start camera, hit "Start Oven".....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3INSmRqeh4Q
No explosion. Phew, I live again and so does the T1.
So now the T1 has been both BBQ'd and microwaved.
There had to be something to upset it. How about doubling the input voltage. I could build a battery extension tube and run it on higher voltages to increase the run times. Rather than do this I used my power supply. I'd already discovered it would run on 9 volts....How about 12 volts?
So there it is, happy on high power and 12 volts in. You might notice it's drawing 100MA at this voltage.
At that time I decided the T1 had earned it's freedom and I didn't increase the voltave until "something blew".
I'm sending it back to 4sevens in working order and hope he knows how much punishment this unit has taken and how much I appreciate the chance to have done this testing.
My final impression...A mighty fine unit and (electronically) "built like a tank". Thank you David.
I wish I'd hung the T1 from a overhead rod and let the coil strike the tail and then get sparks discharging into the air from the stainless steel front of the torch. Visually it would have looked much better, but hey...I've never zapped a flashlight before let alone thought about getting the best photo angle.
