Reddit mentions: The best terminal blocks

Looks very nice. I'm an electrician, put in a lot of lights, and I think your frame within a frame idea is spot on; it's a great way to design a light so it can be installed or taken down without juggling the entire fixture on the top of a ladder.

Your use of the wagos to make a "busbar" was a very creative way of making neat wiring. An alternative would be to use terminal strips with jumpers and if you want to make the wiring super neat, use sticky backs and zip ties.

Great stuff!

I actually didn't know what I wanted to build first, I'm a software engineer so I was exited to actually write some software and see an object moving hahaha, so eventually a Car came to mind, since it's fun to see it go and move around.

So, to start I looked in amazon for a chassis and wheels and I found this kit that looked pretty simple and functional, so I got that, and then since it only brings 1 motor, I got this to be able to move to the sides, at this point I had no idea how to make that work, but I just figured stuff up on the go, I didn't know how to move the motor so I searched for youtube videos and found out that I needed a motor controller again, amazon was my best friend haha, I also got this battery.

After that I was able to make the Car run, the problem was, I needed some kind of way to guide it, because randomly moving around wasn't that fun, so I came out with the design of the robot looking around I found this module and it was just what I needed, I had a few servos and other components from a mix kit that I got with the Arduino, and I used that (and my girlfriend's help with deciding where to put the pices to make them look nicer) to build the robot that you saw on my first post and then I used this BT module to build the manual mode that you can see in my second post and you know the rest of the story, I'm not sure if I missed something, but let me know and I can answer any question :)

Buy a cheap thermocouple wire probe and secure it to the inside or outside of the case. Some thin but strong tape would probably be best. Anything else might throw off the results. You just need something strong enough to keep the tip of the probe touching the case without an air gap for concrete to get into. You also want it to not affect the conductivity between the plastic and the concrete so you want it to be thin and cover as little surface area as possible.

Plug the probe into any type-K thermometer and take readings over a few charge cycles. Then encase the whole thing in concrete with the end of the probe exposed and do a few more charge cycles, again recording the temperatures.

That should get you results for cheap.

I got this cheap OLED screen for $10.99. The text looks nice and it's able to display plenty of information for only being 0.96" diagonal. I got the blue colored one just because it was first available, but they have different colors.

It comes pre-soldered and you just need four jumper wires. Easy.

Only UAT, ES, CPU temp, and towers displayed for now. It can easily be extended to show more information.

I wrote this Python script to display the information and update once per second. It gets the data from Stratux via webinterface, parses the JSON, and draws the information on the screen.

Set the script to start up on boot, and now don't have to look at the iPad to get reception stats. Neat.

And just for fun, the startup screen: http://i.imgur.com/qIUOzkK.jpg

Just an arduino with a smoke/flammable gas detection module and ssr. I think it took like 5 lines of code. All you need to do is loop and read a value off a pin. When it hits your threshold you set the ssr pin to false and save a Boolean to make sure you don't turn it back on until the unit is reset.

Only issue I've had thus far is hairspray will sometimes set it off.

Edit: here is the smoke detection module: Uxcell MQ-2 LM393 Chip Smoke Gas Sensor Module for MCU, DC 5V https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GYUSP4S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_DiHizbTC7PCY4

The ssr will need to be sized based off your hardware. Just make sure the trigger is dc and between 3-5 volts. Make sure it is large enough to easily handle the current draw (remember it is at 120v so the current will be different than the draw of your hotend a (less). )

Edit 2: Just in case you decide to do this and look back - lesson I learned is that it's worth including an external reset switch. I have to reach to the back of my enclosure and unplug/plug back in the arduino each time it triggers (which hair spray and I recently discovered Denature Alcohol will both sometimes trigger it). At some point I'll run a wire off the reset switch and put a small microswitch near the front of the enclosure so I can just press that.

No worries! It's exciting to me that you're so excited lol.

Just a heads up, I'm gonna try and set up a different type of sensor for the water level reading, as the current water sensor gets some false readings when a pine needle floats onto it.

So if you want to have one on hand if it turns out to work better, here's the type of distance sensor I'll be trying out: https://www.amazon.com/HC-SR04-Ranging-Detector-Ultrasonic-Distance/dp/B01GNEHJNC?ref_=fsclp_pl_

Even if it doesn't work out for this application, it's a great sensor to have on hand.

You need to size this via power rather than ampacity (which is a common mistake).

Pdc=(Amps)*(Volts) => P = 1.2 * 12 = 14.4W per motor * 8 motors = 115.2W * 1.5 = 172.8W

So you want to size this array for whatever psu you can get right around that wattage. Get something with a bit of adjustment. As far as getting power to the system, just get you a set of terminal blocks with some din rail and a PSU, or some kind of enclosure/box. For wire use any old 2 conductor cable. You could even use ethernet cable between them and be fine. 18-2 wire like on garage door openers would work well.

You can go to the supply house and get the terminals, but you could just as easily screw a piece of this to plywood:

https://www.amazon.com/Erayco-Terminal-Brackets-UK-2-5BG-Aluminum/dp/B07KWSZVR9/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=35mm+din+terminal+blocks&qid=1569294295&s=industrial&sr=1-10

Screw something like this to plywood:

https://www.amazon.com/LRS-200-12-Switching-Supply-Single-Output/dp/B0131UU9E2/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=12v+psu&qid=1569294116&s=industrial&sr=1-4

And go to town. I was going to source out the parts, but that kit has pretty much all you need.

That's what they did. I was asking my old man they did it, he said it was to maintain the ground if the meter were to be taken out. What he told me, and this is the part I'd love for you to confirm, is that I could run a ground wire from any of the cold (not hot) water feeds. I followed the copper line from where it is grounded (pic #2) and it does go over to near where I would want to put the equipment.

Could I put one of these on that cold water pipe near where I am interested:
https://www.amazon.com/Morris-Products-90629-Ground-Direct/dp/B005GDFXJ4/ref=pd_bxgy_60_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B005GDFXJ4&pd_rd_r=5F1GVGENDDQ6MJS4NRCT&pd_rd_w=wWUpc&pd_rd_wg=uV3uB&psc=1&refRID=5F1GVGENDDQ6MJS4NRCT

And use some 10 gauge AWG Green Ground Wire to get ofter to that block you linked? Does this bridge work as well as actual copper? Thanks for the feedback!

Just got through talking to him about these: http://www.amazon.com/Panduit-CJ5E88TGBU-Category-5E-8-Wire-TG-Style/dp/B001JKGGBC/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1405098017&sr=8-10&keywords=panduit+tg#productDetails

We argued for weeks because I didn't understand that those basically served the function of an upgraded patch panel. Those snap into a faceplate, and if you want to change the order of ports on the patch panel you can, but you can connect into them as well from the switch, like you have your patch panel set up. There are probably other benefits I haven't figured out yet (soon I'm going to be running my own network drops for the first time in my life, and I'll get to see what all this fuss is about).

I recommend a four position so you have enough space for both grounds, 5v, and 12v. Also, a cover over the terminals is always a good idea. I'm picking up some of these, should fit just fine inside my power supply shroud. In my experience, all the brands are about the same.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015VY0X38/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_6EJczbZGP516R

Barrier terminal strip would be your best bet. Anything with a quick connect is rated for low-voltage (banana plugs like the one you listed are rated for 30V @ 15A for a quality one), whereas line voltage requires a cord and plug assembly.

Another option would be something like this: https://www.amazon.com/30pcs-Connector-Terminal-Spring-Connecting/dp/B01GB7J8C6.

Just some cheap plastic spacers. Works perfectly. Links:

Spacers: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B013G1Q300/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Nuts:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B009EFSE32/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Washers:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B013GA116M/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Also worth noting:
Power supply (40A version):
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HTM53W6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Used with these terminal strips:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B010UDG6NG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Way better than USBs.

> I use a RTC break-out chip for keeping track of time

As I mentioned in my other post, I first tried this route and gave up. I just let the "real" home automation controller do the scheduling as it was significantly easier to make schedule changes.

One other thing I should have mentioned that you might want to include just because why not.... Get a one-wire temperature probe like this one and wire it up to a display like this. If you do go the home automation route, you can "broadcast it" so to speak using a plugin like this.

BTW, if you don't want to live in the apple ecosystem, there is also HomeAssistant (/r/homeassistant). You can run it on a raspberry pi. I'm pretty sure there is also equivalents for whatever google's home automation solution is but I can't speak to that...

Running it through your home wiring may be your best option. It is not too complicated, but does depend on your current setup.

In most cases you have a point where your coax cable in your home is originally split. In most cases it is outside and in a small gray box. It will have a single input jack, and multiple output jacks.

Scenario 1. Your cable internet needs coax. You would need to directly connect the coax coming off the splitter that goes to your modem to the line coming in from the street. You would need to ensure the ground stays in place. something like this. There are cheaper ones out there but this is what you would need.

If you don't have cable internet then you can ignore the part about direct connecting a modem, and just focus on making your antenna the IN port.

Next you would find an unused coax jack on your second level. Plug your antenna into it. Then connect the other end of that cable to the IN on the splitter (it would have previously been connected to one of the out ports, and hopefully your cables are labeled). Now every other connected outlet has OTA coming through. Signal will degrade over long cable runs and splits, but it is worth a shot. If you end up with unused jacks on your splitter, consider getting one that is split fewer ways or get some 75ohm Terminators

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O2LKEW2/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This screen is pretty great, there's a python library for it too

depending what you're doing you're might need/want fuses or circuit breakers. The "correct" way, granted the rather pricey way is the use DIN rail mounted terminals with jumpers. It'll end up looking something like this:

https://i.imgur.com/h30BlK6.png

Although these look reasonably affordable. https://www.amazon.ca/Dinkle-Terminal-DK4N-PE-DSS4N-10P-Brackets/dp/B01IDL6OW0/ref=asc_df_B01IDL6OW0/

Alternatively you can use a terminal strip like you've identified like this: https://i.imgur.com/UQVeGRU.png

The trick with those is securely fixing the strip down so that wires don't pop out. That's what the rail accomplishes with the first option.

Alternatively I suppose you could use something like these, but that's really just a newer way of "twisting" the wires together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZyGqCssdCU

Thanks for the ideas!

I've been thinking and looking for a way to be able to use at least one extra button for years. So far no success, since I can't move my legs or any other body parts enough for the devices you described above, but I'll keep searching. (I found lately that there are muscle sensors, and if they can be set to extremely sensitive to muscle activities, I could use them for many ways.)

I understand only half of what you wrote in the autohotkey part (sorry, I'm Hungarian), but yes, the virtual keyboard can be toggled via a hotkey, so this might work.

Although, I got an idea while I was writing this comment. Is it possible to do the following? If I click and hold a button on the virtual keyboard, the in-game camera will rotate (by mouse moving), and when I release that button it won't. This way it wouldn't be necessary to toggle the virtual keyboard, it could be turned on all the time.

Not sure what type of electronics you would be using, but if you have a microcontroller (Arduino, etc.), I suggest something like this ranger.

It uses a high frequency pitch (not audible) to time out the distance to an object. I have used them before with my Arduino Uno and they work very well. Fairly accurate too. Just a suggestion.

Ninja EDIT: Link issue fixed.

> At a glance it doesn't look like hobbyist stuff. Looks like you brought it off shelf.

It is called knowing people with good tooling that can help me make stuff :-) Thanks!

> I would suggest your original approach of serving html/JS as control interface. I think that LCD/keypad adds way too much bulk to the overall package.

I might think about it because I agree about the bulk. In retrospect, I kinda wish I went with those tiny little 0.96" I2C OLED displays you see floating around on amazon. They are much higher quality than those bulky 20x4 displays My original thought was they'd be too bright and there would be times I'd be fucking around with this thing at night with a flashlight (while intoxicated after sitting around a campfire). I might go with the small display anyway because that 20x4 display is pretty god damn heavy and is already looking to have some kind of display issues...

With JS I could do a lot of the computations on the phone (eg: let the javascript compute the estimated runtime). Plus the web already has a very nice way of doing input-- it comes with all the forum elements you need :-). Doing it with the keypad meant I had to write the interface from scratch with zero support from a framework (no event library, no "text box" library, not even a system-wide way to make delete work....) .

In my head the trade off was battery life, which might get sucked up by the WiFi chip (which is a joke because the stepper motor draws 10x->100x more power than the MCU and it does so constantly). A design goal for this is to hike up an abandoned logging road in the middle of the cascade mountain range, set this up in the daytime and have a timer that activates the whole thing so it can shoot a starfield timelapse over an 8hr period at night. Think "30->40 degree temps at night" (which makes lipo batteries hard to use).... The power supply for this is a 4 or 5 pound 12v lead acid battery that I have to lug up with me... This fucker has to be rock solid and absolutely has to work because I do not want to wake up in the morning, hike back up and find out that it fucked up. You only get a handfull of moon-free, clear skies with the milky way out every year to work with...

I absolutely agree about a co-processor--it would make this stuff way smoother. I keep plotting how I might modify my stepper motor board to add one... I'd have 3 pins to play with, which should be enough for I2C or SPI...

> If I am doing things like this I would not use a belt driven mechanism.

I started to consider this after I got the slider dolly. I am almost thinking you could get away with just having the camera mount hang down from a long copper pipe or something. "Train track" would work too for some use cases but it might not be smooth motion.

The big constraint about my use case is stability. You have a camera shutter open for 30 seconds. Any wind or vibration will fuck up your crystal clear shot of the milky way.

The other constraint is that I have to hike that shit in, sometimes via bushwhacking -- so a long slider track would make for a cool shot but very hard to put on my back and scramble up a steep hill with.

I would say about $25-$30 with parts and everything. Once you have the code for one, putting it on others would be quick and simple. It would be a good option for future projects as well since you could just add other things to the board.

Screen

Temp sensor

Yeah, certainly that seems to be the way industry works these days (going straight to PCB).

On the plus side... Since I first posted I've at least figured out that they were called "turret terminals". I've also found comments to the effect of, "very good, but fallen out of favor due to cost of assembly" (pretty much what I figured). In any event, for the young'uns.... I haven't found a bag of 'em for sale, but here's an idea of what the old guys did...

limit/home switches if you want them (you should)

an e-stop - you probably have this

fan for the electronics case

power switch/plug for the power supply - you probably have this

connectors for wires (eg to get e-stop and limit switch wires into the case and connected. I use xlr plugs like These and these.

I also use these to help with wiring the limit/home switches in the case, but you may not need them, depending on what you use.

I was under the impression that the one I was using could handle 5v? The original test on a breadboard was from 5v... I can change and hopefully didnt fry it yet if I a wrong.

Get started by prototyping with an arduino.

I would imagine you would want to use a screen like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Diymall-Yellow-Arduino-Display-Raspberry/dp/B00O2LLT30/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1550895612&sr=8-6&keywords=arduino+screen

Well, you could connect something like this. It's not an active buzzer, so you would use PWM to drive it at your chosen frequency.

this appears to be [the ultimate.](
http://www.amazon.com/Generic-DYP-ME007Y-Ultrasonic-Sensor-Module/dp/B00CXKKO6U)
Water proof with detachable sensor. crossing my fingers they ship to germany :)

I'm using a diymall 128x64 oled in that setup. should be a few bucks through some place like aliexpress [amazon link]

My thought would be to move the hunter up about a foot. I have opened mine once since i installed it..

Replace (or close up the knock outs) the HV box with a new one. Run flex out the bottom up to the hunter power.
https://imgur.com/a/iwK4rPp

Between the LV box and the hunter add another box (9x9). Splice via terminal strip in this box

Some thing like https://www.amazon.com/Position-Terminal-Postions-Insulated-Barrier/dp/B010UDG6NG

It looks like one of these.

It's a .96" oled display with an i2c interface. The underlying controller is an SSD1306 and by searching for that you can find lots of code for the ESP8266.

For the OLED

Check out the mini 05, the Pico, or even the Teensy.

Get a NodeMCU D1 mini. it's a tiny esp8266 with built in microusb port and many input/output pins. Costs $4-8. The screen is listing below requires only four pins two operate using i2c protocol with the Wire library. Costs $2-5

Diymall 0.96" Inch Yellow Blue I2c IIC Serial Oled LCD LED Module 12864 128X64 for Arduino Display 51 Msp420 Stim32 SCR https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00O2LLT30/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_AJxHyb8WHR49A

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00O2LKEW2/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_awd_x_AID7xb5PTG0ZH

Mine's blue; there are other colors too.

Thanks.

I have two cars and three 'projects'.

One underhood project:

1. Electronically-switched oil accumulator (accusump). Just ignition-hot.
   
2. Subtle under-hood lighting (no rice - subtle - will be playing around with it. Might decide it looks like shit, and not do it.) Might also install a switchable work light in case something needs to be done at night.
   
3. My own version of a lojack that I haven't gotten around to building. Also, if possible, have it control a secondary fuel pump relay to make the fuel pump die; basically an interlock that makes the car seem broken instead of locked.
   
   Two under-dash projects that are identical, one for each car:
   
   
4. Hard-wired radar detector
   
5. Hard-wired dash cam
   
6. Hard-wired USB outputs - one or two dual-12v-to-USB converters
   
7. Potentially the lojack-equivalent's battery charger (since it would have a separate small battery)
   
   The hard part is figuring out where to get a non-fused 12V supply under the dash. An add-a-fuse circuit is very appealing and I should find places where an extra 5-10A won't pop anything, so I may end up doing one 5-10A-add-a-fuse on an ignition-hot line, instead of a 12v-master-fuse + ignition-hot-relay, as the single master fuse for all these.
   
   Then it would just be a 15A strip terminal instead of a big fat 100A ground bar at the ground side, and a small fuse box at the positive side (with 1A or 2A fuses for each circuit, depending on their needs).
   
   ---
   
   I really appreciate your feedback. The only reason I haven't already built all this is because of worries of fucking up and coming back to a smoldering ash heap.
   
   ---
   
   I'm also figuring out how to mount all this securely under the hood... I figure these little wire clamps for the wires, and something like this velcro alternative to mount things like the fuse box, except it's hard to tell what temperature they're rated for (and it seems that the 3M stuff I linked will fall off due to heat.) Any ideas there? I want something that is 1) secure as fuck, but 2) that I could potentially remove without damage in the future, maybe using a heat gun or something. I would be mounting it mostly to plastic, but I don't want to drill any holes if possible.

i just got one of these they are dirt cheap https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O2LLT30/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'll try to get a diagram tonight, unfortunately my tinkering time for this morning has now expired, so I must go do other things. But in short:

It's a 4 pin OLED, doesn't SPI need 3 pins to communicate? CS, CLK, and Data? Or am I mistaken in this case? (It seems I might be, as I look now, someone on that amazon page is using spi. hmmm.)

I tried putting the resisters inline as you suggested, now it is as if the screen weren't connected at all.

I currently have:

A4 -> SCL
A5 -> SDA
GND -> GND
5V -> VCC