The Ware for June 2009 is pictured below. Click on the image for a much larger version.
I’m hoping this month’s ware will be a little bit harder to guess than last month’s. Some of the case details are cropped out so as to make it more challenging. I think this image of the “pointy end” of the ware should be enough for people to at least identify the purpose of this ware, if not the exact make/model.
Microwave laser ?
That toshiba tube needs to be googled …
But thats not a magnetron …
so I’ll guess some sort of radiation detector.
I think its a RGB video projector, of the old school CRT type
UPS
The toshiba component looks like SCR. So, switchable HV. And lots of ribbon cable, presumably to various brains. I wonder about some kind of science or medical device.
I suspect there’s a good hint in the black cylinder.
I guess the black cylinder is a current transformer
i think its inner portion of ups..
total guess, but SPU-6 = ‘sample processing unit’? in which case, I don’t know, maybe a high voltage electrophoresis machine?
X-Ray tube? The ribbon cables suggest digital radiography or CT.
oops, s/tube/module/
I don’t know what it is, but those are some seriously nice capacitors. HV caps rated for 220C are not cheap these days, now that nobody builds small-to-medium scale vacuum tube transmitting gear anymore.
The ribbon cables routed near the high-current conductor(s) are somewhat incongruous. It’s gotta be some kind of pulsed device, given the driving hardware, but geez, if you sent a high-current spike through that triac(?) lead, you’d cook everything attached to those ribbon cables, even if they’re mostly orthogonal. That suggests the large solid state device is either a linear part (in which case I’ve never seen anything like it) or a protective crowbar.
I have no idea what the three cylinders under the high-voltage housing are. A multiphase pulse transformer of some kind?
Going to guess it’s a laser flashlamp driver designed by people who are ‘leet enough to route digital buses near high-current pulse circuitry.
You’re the second person to say SCR/TRIAC … but unless my eyes are deceiving me, the connector on the Toshiba device looks coaxial ?
I assumed it was the heater of a vacuum tube because it looked coaxial to me.
No, it’s definitely a large-diameter stranded conductor. Look near the bottom of the photo and you’ll see it terminates in a solder lug. But the body of the part looks unfamiliar, and I got nowhere trying to search for references to Toshiba SF8* components.
Whether it’s an SCR or triac or something else, I have no idea, but the only semiconductors I’ve seen with a single massive braided lead are power rectifiers of various sorts, gate-controlled and otherwise.
Edit: I tried searching again and found a reference that suggests it’s an 8-amp SCR: http://www.empiresheen.com/TOSHIBA/Thyristor/Triac%20(SM4LZ47,8LZ47,10LZ47).pdf
The thyristors in the linked guide don’t seem to physically match the monster in the photo.
Wrong package.
But I just noticed the PCB is marked “TH1(G)” where the lead joins it.
So, I think Triac is the right guess.
So its some device that builds up a charge in those huge capacitors and then discharges it into those 3 yellow tubes.
It looks like both the anode and gate leads are coming out of the same end of the part. The gate would be the smaller black wire. Both triacs and thyristors (aka SCRs) have gates, so I’m inclined to think that “TH” refers to “thyristor” in this case. Some more examination of the .PDF would probably clear things up, but not give any further clues as to what the actual ware is.
That plus the pink beryllium ceramic.
I think the 220C on the cap is the tail end of the part number, not the temp rating.
I also thought photoflash at first, but what’s with all the ribbon cable?
I wouldn’t think a SEM or FIB would need that many coulombs.
I thought it might be a variable frequency AC motor drive, but those generally have three phase outputs, and I’m not seeing the triples. Maybe a DC or servo drive, but I’d still expect to see more silicon.
Laser power supply, maybe a smaller industrial CO2 model?
Might be some kind of HV surge testing equipment. At least it would explain that huge capacitor bank and the SCR in the middle. No clue about those tubes though.
Digital phase converter?
I think it is a portion of a UPS.
When you’re thinking high-energy particles and bunnie, your first guess has to be a scanning electron microscope.
http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=67
However, since it is much newer than the model in the Oct 2005 NTW, it must be some other test equipment. Perhaps a FIB?
No, there’s no way this is a UPS. You don’t need monster capacitors to power your 400W machine. Unless your machine is a rail gun.
To ionize those gallium atoms, you need a very high voltage field. This board is probably part of that generator.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focused_ion_beam
Hmm… the smaller transformer is identified.
“NEC SF 2A” is a 60μS pulse transformer.
So the device is something that delivers a fast high power pulse of energy.
Laser anyone ?
I got it! I got it!!
This is the inside of the Death Star!!!
Not unless the Death Star had a flux capacitor that needed testing.
What everyone failed to see is what the toshiba device is mounted onto.
A power device like that mounted on a flimsy bracket, suggesting this circuit has very short duty cycle, or more likely pulsed.
The 3 yellow cylinders are clearly inductors/transformer of somesort.
Judging by the thick wire used, current is high.
Looks like an ignition circuit for an HID lamp.
Or, again, it’s a crowbar switch that’s never intended to fire more than once, if at all. :)
A properly (fast) switched Triac doesn’t dissipate significant power, I wouldn’t expect it to get hot or need a heatsink if it was being switched fast enough.
Device to polarize rare earth permanent magnets with a high current pulse? But again, why all the ribbon cables.
Would you need all that stored energy to drive a piezo? (Thinking sonar, ultrasonic welding, maybe something like that.)
Could it be the inside of a RFID reader or maybe radar? Some of the larger ones put out quite a bit of power to excite the tags. That would explain the ribbon cables (though note that the control wires for the supply are differential pairs – twisted yellow wire).
I kinda doubt it’s an RFID reader, those voltages seem a bit too high. Could definitely be radar or xray though.
I take all that back, no indication there’s any RF on the board.
Could it be part of a beastly insulation tester? Course the voltages are still probably too low for that…
Or rather an EMC compliance test set like
http://www.hvtechnologies.com/products.asp?prod=38&cat=38&hierarchy=
Seems like it matches all the specs, high voltages, moderate powers, digital stuff (the ribbon cables).
Oh, there’s RF on the board all right, as soon as you dump the charge in those capacitors.
Looks very much like a defibrillator..
Bunnie, how ’bout a hint? What’s the capacitance of those electrolytics, and how many are there?
4x 220uF, 450 WV capacitors, connected in series…
Hmm, OK, so it’s not a defibrillator…
The big SCR with the braided connection should be able to handle hundreds of amps.
The capacitors also look like they can store a huge amount of energy.
The yellow things behind the SCR, under the metal shield, look like air-core inductors for current limiting/pulse shaping.
It’s clearly a high-power capacitive discharge device, with some parameters of the discharge under digital control. Heavy-duty metal cutter/welder? Magnetizer?
I can’t imagine its really one of these:
http://www.schleuniger.com/DesktopDefault.aspx/tabid-340/508_read-12799
but, I’ll make it a guess anyways.
I wonder if it’s a lamp driver from a copier or scanner that acquires a whole image at once.
Could it be a Bovie (or some other Mfg) electrosurgical generator? I originally thought of a welder, but there seemed to be a lot of control lines for that application. Modern Bovie (IDS-200) systems are microprocessor driven and have tight feedback and control and could fit this application.
Is it an N64?? :p
How about a spot welder??
I think a welder would have the capacitors connected in parallel, for higher peak current, rather than in series, for higher peak voltage.
-Wang-Lo.
What could it be:
1. Radar
2. Camera Flash (would need to be a large studio strobe)
3. Laser driver
A welder is unlikely- it’s far too clean and open. Welders (even small home ones) are industrialized: potted in epoxy and otherwise protected from manufacturing contamination. A motor controller is also unlike for the same reason.
That item is _very_ clean. It’s either meant to be used in a clean laboratory, or it’s mean to be housed in a very weather tight enclosure. I still think welder and motor controller are unlikely even if it was meant to be housed in a sealed environment.
Another thing that bothers me is the clear plastic shield over the whole thing- why? I didn’t notice it at first but it just seems like this thing is meant to be on display. That brings me back to laboratory equipment of some sort.
is it the inside of the laser cutter/engraver in your lab, bunnie? :)
The plastic shield is only over the high voltage portion.
Understood- but the fact that it’s clear and not opaque just makes me think it’s meant to be on display. Could be just a coincidence.
The high voltage metal cover over the three coils(?) appears to be separate from the Toshiba part.
Toshiba has a few parts that make sense here:
Toshiba SF800* series appears to be Alloy-Free Thyristors rated for hundreds of Amps and thousands of Volts. Datasheets for example:
SF800U33 – http://www.ic-on-line.cn/IOL_SF800U33/PdfView/322743.htm
SF800GX24 – http://www.ic-on-line.cn/IOL_SF800GX24/PdfView/322741.htm
Wrong package. :(
Also, did you notice that the Toshiba is a 4 terminal device ?
Apart from the braided wire, the other lead on the top of it is a pair of wires (black+white).
LASER Supply?
Very reminiscent of laser power supplies such as the one on this page (“special power supply”, fullsize image here. All the elements are in place: digital control circuity, big-ass caps (albeit in parallel), solid-state power switching components. I’d guess it’s a YAG or other pulsed-laser supply, for spot-welding or even surgical applications. But the specific model is going to be tough to find unless someone has seen it before in person.
Interseting the mention of electronic flash. The supply is too big for any kind of big studio flash unit.. say 10K w/s. But, larger LASERS (I don’t know the current technology) use flash tubes to exite the laser?. I don’t know if the Caps are big enough or the frequency of the flash used in big LASERs. If the freuuency of the pulse is high, that supply would have some cooling. Big Caps explode now and then. I don’t see much shielding.
Hey Bunnie;
Are those Caps wired in series or parallel?
I can’t see the wiring in the (dark) back corner of the photo.
Looking at how the bridging wire runs between the topmost cap and the next one down, I’d think it’s wired in series.
If I was building a parallel cap bank, I’d probably orient all the caps in the same axis so that bridging the tabs would be a tidy affair.
@#%&$*@#%!!!!!
Don’t you guys read whats been posted before ? Bunnie has already answered that question.
It has SCR’s and deals with a lot of power. VFD?
Sorry pj; I missed the note. And, I’m the lower case pete, not to get the other Pete in dutch.
p.
You people must not read this site, I am willing to bet that it is a “Versalaser VL300 laser cutter” board!
It does very much look like it could be the power supply for a laser.
There was the video of Bunnie using a Versalaser laser engraver a while ago, but I’ve not had much luck finding pictures or a service manual.
If it is a laser power supply, I would say that it was designed to work with a specific tube in a specific application – there is really not much cooling and protection going on here. Most generic laser power supplies go totally overboard with cooling and protection because they can be connected to any tube, and be driven quite hard without any external duty cycle control. For that reason, I would say that it is matched to whatever it is driving.
The ribbon cables suggest that there is another device adjacent to this – possibly stepper motor controllers? Testra used to make the control electronics for ULS laser cutters but that may have changed now.
The build style is very much in line with low to medium volume production quantities. I’m not sure if that fits in with it being a Versalaser cutter or not.
*There was the video of Bunnie using a Versalaser laser engraver a while ago, but I’ve not had much luck finding pictures or a service manual.*
It’s amusing to try to find a service manual for it, in fact When you visit the vendor’s download page at http://engravingsys.com/download/default.htm , you’re presented with five links to .exe files. Running one of the .exe files apparently connects you, by means ominously left unstated, to your choice of Technician #1 through Technician #5.
It’s not clear exactly what happens when you run one of the .exe files, but apparently it costs $45, collected by means also ominously left unstated, every time you do. Since I didn’t think it was worth $45 to find out what happens when I gate Technicians #1, #2, #3, #4, or #5 to my laboratory by unspecified means, I will leave the task of verifying whether this is indeed a VersaLaser VL300 power supply to some braver soul.
X-Ray power supply?
Definitely a Versalaser VL300 laser
the big black thing is a trigger transformer usually used in lasers, ionizer and strobe lights, a strobe doesnt fir here.
i also thought its some sort of a surge equipment, google disagrees.
also by the physical size it fits the VL ive seen one live and its rather smaller than it looks, didnt have time to peek inside =(
*medical xray and so on equipment would have much more shielding being a very accurate device.
*same for a radar, seen a radar in the army, every component there was in a different box and all the cables also were heavily shielded.
The wire (marked “4”) is barely insulated.
If it were a trigger transformer, wouldn’t that wire be much more heavily insulated ?
Small Hadron Collider