EEVblog #101 Thermal Chamber - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: TheWelly888
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2010, 12:26:11 pm
content: Your comment on the temperature reading not being in Faharenheit - well engineers and scientists have been using SI metric units for decades so Celsius is perfect!A neat piece of gear that will come in handy for RF oscillator development as these are very sensitive to temperature change!

author: DJPhil
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2010, 05:45:41 pm
content: Point of note, the 'Herp Nursery' bit refers toHerpetology(I assume).But yeah, I giggled a bit.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 25, 2010, 06:01:27 pm
content: I've got a cheap and chearful cooler like that but not as big, I pcked it up for £2 at a car boot sale and use it for when we go on club outings, mine will take 15C off the ambient, but I've never tested it for heating up

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2010, 10:49:32 pm
content: Polycarb window ? Polystyrene more like. Can't see why they would use the more expensive material for a cheap product like this.I wonder how much harder you could crank the Peltier to get faster warm/cool times..?..and of course it doubles as a beer fridge, or somewhere to keep your solder paste...

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 26, 2010, 12:49:42 am
content: Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on July 25, 2010, 10:49:32 pmMaybe, poly something anyway. Fact is it does a pretty good job at the insulation which is all that matters.Won't be firing bullets at the thing!Dave.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2010, 02:19:32 am
content: That reminds me of the time when I put a wireless router (and other network hardware) into a styrofoam container in order to test its high temperature endurance. The heat from the device itself was not enough to get the temperature I wanted, so I pointed a hair dryer at the container, adjusting distances and angles to regulate temperature. I tested them at about 130F for 7 hours to simulate a hot attic. All of the devices passed since I did a lot of work to add heatsinking. (In the end, the devices never saw more than 85F in real world use as they ended up in a wiring closet...) The most interesting part was the popularity I got telling others how I rigged up a test lab in a dorm room...And then there was the time, less than a year ago, when I had to build a good MOSFET amplifier for ECEN 325 class. It was a pretty cold day when I had to test it, so I decided to do a little socializing outside. In the process, the amplifier was cooling down to roughly 45F or so. I then held the unit using my jacket to avoid heating it up. I immediately did the performance tests once I got inside and the instructor said that he never saw a SNR as good as mine in the course - 52dB. (The requirement was just 30dB, and several of my classmates were having difficulty getting there!) When someone asked me how I got it that high, I told him that careful design (including a TI NEXFET for the final output) got me about 50dB of it, and chatting with some pretty females just before running the tests got me another 2dB... (Oh, I should mention that I was the only one to run the output stage at 2.5V instead of 5V to cut the output power dissipation in half and get some extra points. Easy A...)

author: saturation
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2010, 11:27:42 am
content: A very good project, simple, direct and works. After watching this show together with other non-Dave shows, its clear Dave is far superior as a presenter, videographer, editor, etc.,In a pinch, I normally test for cold performance by putting smaller things in the fridge. Currently, for hot weather, I simply put it outside to ambient which is running near 95F in the Northeast USA.Putting the Rigol 1052E and the DMMs was a great show of their stability under ambient conditions. Very convincing!