Diagnosing a piece of gear today... Okay, there's no way i can make it sound like i'm not working on a garage door opener. So yeah, it's just a garage door opener.
Which makes this even more awesome in my opinion.
They actually put LED lights on the PCB to light it up. That way when you're 30' in the air, or in some dark shithole you can see what the hell your doing without a flashlight in your mouth.
Every manufacture that has equipment with a PCB that may end up in some dark pit needs these LEDs (which also swivel and move around). Why isn't everyone doing this? Maybe they are, it's the first i've seen it.




I don't know anything about EE or PCB design, but as an end user / dirty grunt who has to use it i really like this one. It's very thought out. Well labeled. Has literally all the information, switches, probe points, lights you will ever need plus the wiring diagram right next to it.

 

I've worked on a lot of industrial electronics. First I've seen that. Please tell me who makes that board.

Ive also designed PCBs, more as a hobby, and adding the text is as easy as typing it out in the PCB design software. The only reason it shouldn't be done is when the board is over populated. Ive always thought most PCB designer were lazy AF. The silk screen mask doesn't really cost more whether it consists of just the PCB pt no, or the entire boards component compliment listed on it, or were talking maybe pennies at most.

 

 

I've worked on a lot of industrial electronics, and that's only the second time I've seen internal service lighting of that kind. The other machine was an antenna controller, and the lights were along the inside of the chassis, rather than on the PCB itself. Very cool stuff.

And yeah, designers who don't hate people will put as much useful information onto the silkscreen as possible. That much, at least, is fairly common. When manufacturing PCBs on a production scale, adding additional info to the silkscreen costs nothing at all. Since it a photo process, manufacturing the screen itself is a fixed cost, regardless of how much detail is on it.

Also had a lovely afternoon up at the very top yesterday:

 

That puts a pit in my throat just thinking about how high that is.

We had a fancy dinner awhile back at place in downtown OKC, it's up on the 49th floor of the Devon tower. Even just the elevator ride up had me in a near panic.

 

I can almost feel all of the radiation from here.

 

It invigorates the blood.

 

You would have a hard time stopping me from climbing to the top

Related: I do not use my Fluke 87v in horrible places for fear of ruining it. So instead I use this, it's sufficient enough for what I do. Those probes cost more than the meter though. You can't have bad probes.

 

TrickerZ has it right.
Yes, the traditional method is carving so that it retains its round shape, but the new method allows for a more manageable "face" where you can carve nice sheets of meat as opposed to bits and pieces.
Also, a whole side of the square shape gets a chance to roast by the fire before it gets sliced.

 

Time for a wastegate question..

Is this too close to the turbo housing?
Do I have to make a heat shield between the WG and the turbo housing here?

Or, are WGs inherently resistant to heat since they are made to handle hot exhaust gases running through them?
I AM NEW AT THIS TURBO THING!











Turbo is partially assembled on the bench for illustration purposes.

 

The only thing I would worry about is the diaphragm seal. According to TIAL they do have a "high temperature silicone Nomex reinforced actuator diaphragm". THIS states it should be good for up to 900 deg. C. I would be adding a small heat shield, although I doubt it would do much.

 

Is the top cover aluminum? If so, I might be concerned about having it that close to the turbine housing.

--Ian

 

You might be ok based on what HarryB said, but you probably want to stick a probe on it and run it hard to see where it gets to. With such little space, a shield is useless. Shields rely on a decent air gap to be useful (read about radiant barriers) and it doesn't look like there's enough space for any kind of insulation. I'm guessing you don't have a whole lot of space to play with, so ducting some air through there is probably all you can really do. If there's any possibility of turning it more toward the cold side, it'd be better, but a probe will tell you for sure if you need to do anything.

 

Thank you guys..
Looks like it will have to be cut off and redone at a better angle.
Relocating it towards the back will definitely keep it cooler, AND I can make a decent heat shield for it.

 

Or run coolant through that TiAL gate like it has provisions for.

 

 

that's why they pay Tim the big wheelbarrows of money.

 

Cool, I was not aware that water-cooled wastegates were a thing!!!

 

I'm told that the primary reason they exist is so that your nice anodized EWG stays looking like this:



Instead of like this:



But it's also useful for situations like this!

--Ian

 

Wouldn't have that problem if cheap *** wastegate manufactures would pay the extra few bucks for hardcoat instead of anodize.