Tuesday, 12 May 2015

2 easy DIY projects – make a orange candle & cassette tape wallet !

Lets start with how to make a candle with orange.
Thing needed :
  • an orange
  • any type of oil like vegetable or olive oil
Remove /eat the middle portion of the orange but be careful to leave the middle stem like portion intact. Easy way to remove the middle portion can be done by a sharp knife and digging out the middle starting with the closest edge outside the orange .Fill the empty/cavity with oil just below the center stem like wick. Light the center stem like wick . This orange can be burned for most of the day.

Now head towards the making of cassette tape wallet
Cassette tapes may be outdated and a bit obsolete, but you can still enjoy your favorites or some kitschy titles with this easy cassette tape wallet. Whip this baby out at the checkout and reap the conversational rewards.
Thing needed
  • An old cassette tape
  • A scrap of fabric (At least as wide as your cassette and twice as tall.)
  • Scissors
  • chalk
  • Hot glue gun
  • Sewing needle and thread .
First, you’ll need to take apart the cassette tape. Depending on how old it is, this can prove to be a difficult task. My tape is a little old, so I needed to fetch a screwdriver to remove five screws that held the tape together.

More recent tapes will require you to pop a few plastic prongs that hold the tape together. To do this, slip a dull butter knife or flathead screwdriver in the center crack of the cassette. Pry it up until you’ve popped apart the glue holding it together. Be careful that you don’t crack the tape in the process… lots of tapes die this way.

Pick a felt or fabric lining that will complement the color of your tape or zipper. You won’t need much fabric at all for this, so dive into that scrap pile for some old favorites.Lay the sides of the cassette top to bottom and use your chalk to trace around them on the fabric.Cut it out and put your fabric aside for now.
We are going to attach the top of the zipper first, where the head of the zipper is. Don’t worry about trimming the extra zipper length right now.
Use your hot glue gun to lay down a line of glue inside one edge of a cassette half.
Very carefully press the side of the zipper into the glue, as shown. You need to be careful because if that glue gets into your zipper teeth, you’ll be spending some time picking it out.

Gluing the top of the zipper means you’ll have to negotiate the corner. To do this, make a little fold in the edge of the zipper, as shown.
Lay a strip of glue all along the top of the cassette, then carefully press on the zipper. After this is dry, dab a dot of glue under that corner flap and hold it down until the glue cools.

For the last side, you’ll need to make that folded corner again and glue just as you did in the last step.
Lay down the glue right to the end, and press on the zipper even if it is too long and hangs over the edge of the tape.
Give the zipper a snip right at the bottom edge of the cassette. Now you’ll need to sew up the end of the zipper to keep the zipper head from slipping right off.

In this step, you need to be careful not to glue your cassette so that the halves of the tape are uneven. To do this, we’ll zip it up as we glue.
Unzip the zipper. Lay a strip of hot glue along the edge of the next cassette half that will be at the bottom of the zipper, as shown. Press the edge of the zipper into the glue, being very careful not to let the glue bubble over onto the teeth of the zipper.
When the glue is dry, zip up that part of the zipper. Glue along the top of the cassette, folding the corner over just as you learned to do in the last step. Again, watch that the glue doesn’t get on the zipper teeth! When the glue is dry, zip up the top zipper.
Finally, put a strip of glue on the last side and press on the remaining length of zipper, folding the corner as before. Add dabs of glue on those folded corners and press until the glue has cooled.

Trace a line of hot glue along the inside of the zipper. Lay your cut fabric to match the hot glue.
If you have extra fabric around the glue, clip it after the glue dries. You need to clip the extra fabric to prevent it from getting stuck in the zipper.
Repeat with the other side, carefully folding up the fabric to stick on the other side. Clip extra fabric as needed.

The side of the wallet with the tail of the zipper will have a wide opening when it’s unzipped. When it’s closed, it will be a hole that your change can slip out of. Nobody wants that.
Use a simple overcast stitch to close up this edge. Now your cassette tape wallet should becomplete.
No matter what, be sure you keep the hot glue off of the zipper teeth. Even residual glue will give you trouble when you’re zipping. Try finding cassettes of your friend’s favorite bands. This is a great gift for someone on your list.

Mini UPS System For Router/Mobile Charger – DIY Project


If you are tired of load shedding problems and want to have a mini UPS system which can power up your home router for internet purposes and also charge your mobile phone then here is a circuit for you to do it yourself and get along with the load shedding problems.
The circuit provides an un-interrupted power supply (UPS) to operate 12V,9V and 5V DC-powered instruments at up to 1A current. Its not a pretty difficult circuit to make and the only expensive component in the whole circuit is the 12V battery.

Components Required:

  1. 12V (4.5 Ah) Battery
  2. 12-0-12 V , 1A Center Taped Transformer
  3. 4x 1N4007 Diode
  4. Zener Diode 10.5V (0.5W)
  5. Zener Diode 12V (1W)
  6. 3x LEDs (Red,White,White)
  7. 68 ohm Resistance (0.5W)
  8. 2x 1 Kohm Resistance
  9. 47 ohm Resistance (1W)
  10. 2x 390 ohm Resistance
  11. Pot 10 Kohm Variable Resistance
  12. Pot 22 Kohm Variable Resistance
  13. 470 uF Capacitor (25V)
  14. Transistor BC548
  15. Transistor TIP 127
  16. IC 7809
  17. IC 7805
  18. On/Off Switch

Circuit Diagram:


Working:

The backup battery takes up the load without spikes or delay when the mains power gets interrupted.It can also be used as a workbench power supply that provides 12V,9V and 5V operating voltages.The circuit immediately disconnects the load when the battery voltage reduces to 10.5V to prevent deep discharge of the battery.LED1 indication is provided to show the full charge voltage level of the battery. miniature white LEDs (LED2 and LED3) are used as emergency lamps during power failure at night.
A standard step-down transformer provides 12V of AC,which is rectified by diodes D1 and D2.Capacitor C1 provides ripple-free DC to charge the battery and to the remaining circuit.When the mains power is on,diode D3 gets forward biased to charge the battery.Resistor R1 limits the charging current.Potentiometer VR1 (10k) with transistor T1 acts as the voltage comparator to indicate the voltage level.VR1 is so adjusted that LED1 is in the ‘off’ mode when the battery is fully charged,LED1 glows indicating a full voltage level of 12V.
When the mains power fails,diode D3 gets reverse biased and D4 gets forward biased so that the battery can automatically take up the load without any delay.When the battery voltage or input voltage falls below 10.5V, a cut-off circuit is used to prevent deep discharging of the battery.Resistor R3, zener diode ZD1 (10.5V) and transistor T2 form the cut-off circuit. When the voltage level is above 10.5V,transistor T2 conducts and its base becomes negative (as set by R3, VR2 and ZD1).But when the voltage reduces below 10.5V,the zener diode stops conduction and the base voltage of transistor T2 becomes positive.It goes into the ‘cut-off’ mode and prevents the current in the output stage.Preset VR2 (22k) adjusts the voltage below 0.6V to make T2 work if the voltage is above 10.5V.
When power from the mains is available,all output voltages 12V,9V and 5V are ready to run the load.On the other hand,when the mains power is down,output voltages can run the load only when the battery is fully charged (as indicated by LED1).For the partially charged battery,only 9V and 5V are available.Also,no output is available when the voltage goes below 10.5V.If battery voltage varies between 10.5V and 13V,output at terminal A may also vary between 10.5V and 12V,when the UPS system is in battery mode.
Outputs at points B and C provide 9V and 5V,respectively,through regulator ICs (IC1 and IC2),while output A provides 12V through the zener diode.The emergency lamp uses two ultra-bright white LEDs (LED2 and LED3) with current limiting resistors R5 and R6.The lamp can be manually switched ‘on’ and ‘off’ by S1.

Precautions:

The circuit should be assembled on a general-purpose PCB or Vero Board.There must be adequate space between the components to avoid overlapping. Heat sinks for transistor T2 and regulator ICs (7809 and 7805) to dissipate heat must be used.
The positive and negative rails should be strong enough to handle high current. Before connecting the circuit to the battery and transformer,connect it to a variable power supply.Provide 12V DC and adjust VR1 till LED1 glows.After setting the high voltage level,reduce the voltage to 10.5V and adjust VR2 till the output trips off. After the settings are complete,remove the variable power supply and connect a fully-charged battery to the terminals and see that LED1 is on. After making all the adjustments connect the circuit to the battery and transformer.
You can now connect your internet router to the 12v supply and use the 5v output for charging your mobile phone.

Mobile Car Stereo Player – DIY Project


Using a mobile phone while driving is dangerous. It is also against the law. However, you can use your mobile phone as a powerful music player with the help of a stereo power amplifier. So here we would like to share a (do it yourself) “Mobile Car Stereo Player” circuit that you can make by yourself if you have enough knowledge about electronics and building circuits.
Most mobile phones have a music player that offers a number of features including preset/manual sound equalisers. They have standard 3.5mm stereo sockets that allow music to be played through standard stereo headphones/sound amplifiers. Nokia 2700 classic is an example.
A car audio amplifier with 3.5mm socket can be designed and simply connected to the mobile phone output via a shielded cable with suitable connectors/jacks (readymade 3.5mm male-to-male connector cable is a good alternative).

Circuit Design:


Working:

IC TDA1554Q contains four 11W identical amplifiers with differential input stages (two inverting and two non-inverting) and can be used for single-ended or bridge applications. The gain of each amplifier is fixed at 20 dB. Here it is configured as two 22W stereo bridge amplifiers.
The amplifier is powered from the 12V car battery through RCA socket J2. Diode D1 protects against wrong-polarity connection. LED1 indicates the power status.
Connect stereo sound signal from the 3.5mm headset socket of the mobile phone to audio input socket J1. When you play the music from your mobile, IC1 amplifies the input. The output of IC1 is fed to speakers LS1 and LS2 fitted at a suitable place in your car. Electrolytic capacitor C5 connected between pin 4 of IC1 and GND improves the supply-voltage ripple rejection. Components R2 and C4 connected at mute/standby pin (pin 14) of IC1 eliminate the switch on/off plop.
The circuit is quite compact. A good-quality heat-sink assembly is crucial for IC1. Fig. 2 shows the stereo socket and stereo jack.

Assemble the circuit on a general-purpose PCB and enclose in a suitable cabinet. Small dimensions of the power amplifier make it suitable for being enclosed in a plastic (ABS) case with vent holes. Signal input socket, speaker output terminals, on/off switch, indicator, fuse holder and power supply socket are best located on the front panel of the enclosure as shown in Fig. 3.