I love to apply my knowledge and common
sense to get "things"
work. I am an experimentalist and love to tinker with laboratory
equipments. I also repair my own bike and car.
Tantalum Capacitor Research
- Funded by KEMET Electronics Corp.
I work at the Micro
Electronics Characterization Lab at Clemson University with Dr.
William R Harrell.
Research
Goals
- Understanding the Dielectric Breakdown Mechanism in Tantalum -
Tantalum pentoxide
- Polymer based capacitors.
- Measuring leakage currents and modeling leakage currents at the
Dielectric-Polymer interface.
Hydrogeology Research
- Funded by National Science Foundation
I work with Dr. Lawrence Murdoch on
this project.
Research
Goals
- Analyze noise in Displacement Measurement systems - LVDTs, DVRTs
etc.
- Build Lightning Protection for systems on the fields/wells.
- Design capacitive high resolution displacement/pressure sensors.
Using an old thrown away car stereo as an amplifier
Total cost < $10. Basically you want to use the amplifier in the car
stereo to amplify signals from your computer's audio port. Newer models
have a built-in "AUX" plug which is great. Earlier steroes did not have
it. Here is how to feed in your signals in to the earlier stereos.
Disclaimer:
This might not work with all models.
Car stereo was the factory supplied model in a Nissan.
Sharp Speakers with built in woofer and tweeter. Rated power - 50W each.
Here is how to do it (very
briefly)
- Remove the cassette playing box from the stereo set carefully.
- On the "tape box connector" on the main board find - Left, Right
and Ground. Or check the data sheet of the amplifier IC - the one with
a big heat sink and see which pins go where.
- Adjust internal pots on the main board which are shown as "FM
Vol" or "FM SD" to mute the FM signals that are picked up by the FM -
RF section.
- Use required power supplies to power the stereo set - there are
pins behind the radio to which you can connect.
- Turn ON the stereo and hit the FM button. The device will amplify
the signals that you feed in from your computer because you killed the
FM signal.
- If you hear signal from your computer and an FM channel or noise,
it probably means you have not adjusted the right pot on the main board.
- You mgith want to attach a small fan to cool the amplifier chip.
For me, its been working great for 8 months now!