AVR-Chat

At 09:57 AM 12/15/2007 -0800, Steven Hodge wrote:
>Welcome to my world. It's a bit of an industry separator. In the EV
>industry relays are low current devices and solenoids are used to open and
>close hydraulic valves.
>
>Ø    I’ve encountered that use of “solenoid” as well.  (Does “EV” stand for
>Electric Vehicles?  I just bought a Prius.)

That's right.  I generally have worked with 'real' EVs rather than 
automobiles although at a previous employer we did some stuff with Feel 
Good Cars.  There are a lot more electric vehicle out there than most 
people realize.  One line at one OEM we worked with was probably running 
5-10K per year.  And then there are companies whose output is measured in 
low double digits per year.

The other usages aren't wrong but usage in the EV industry has generally 
developed a connotation to the various terms.

Every transport you see running down the highway probably had an EV 
involved in at least one of loading or unloading it.


>Speaking of which, remember these are open contactors. If you need to
>avoid sparks you may need to enclose them.
>
>Ø    Good point, but probably not necessary for 2 reasons.   First it is at
>the other end of the boat from the engine, propane, fuel, etc, but, more
>important, the contactor does not make/break the 400 A.  It only has to
>carry it.  Thus there should not be any sparks.  Nonetheless, I’ll mention
>it when I talk to Teknowledgey.

Well it might have to break 400A if something goes wrong down 
stream.  Hopefully that's unlikely but that's what the breaking current has 
to be specified to meet.

Note, if you are truly cold switching (no current, thus no arc) you can run 
into problems keeping the contactor tips clean.   That caused me a trip to 
a customer site one time (vehicle wouldn't move because the tips had a thin 
and non-visible layer of contaminants).

Robert

Another sign of the end of civilization, our technical magazines are 
getting chatty
 From an EETimes product descriptions 2006/08/09
".... systems that can sample gobs of inputs simultaneously"
Now just what is the technical definition for gobs again?
http://www.aeolusdevelopment.com/