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Flambeau Brake Control Demo Kit

Flambeau Brake Control Demo Kit

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This is a nice item that I found today at Princess Auto… A grey box hiding on the bottom of a grey shelf. The phrase “Demo Kit” caught my eye, and I had to take a peek inside. I was blown away by the beautiful innards, and I just had to have it. It appears to be made by Flambeau (judging from the company name stamped into the front of the case) and the sticker on the lid says it is a “Brake Control Demonstration Kit”

A metal front panel (as seen in the picture) holds a set of terminals, a voltmeter, large Brake and Overload buttons along with various assisting components, such as Output and Stop lights, Battery test button, power switch, 30A removable fuse, and a panel-mount power plug that fits with the included wallwart.

Underneath the panel (picture attached below), reside a 12 Volt, 5 Amp-Hour SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) battery for powering the kit, and some type of coil or capacitor for powering the ‘overload’ button.

Bonus points for the Output and Stop Light lamps: They’re actually incandescent bulbs, not LEDs. (The power light is an LED though, presumably so you can still see that the unit is not DOA even with a near-flat battery.)

Possible uses: (besides requisite attempts to blow various electrical components up with the Overload button)

  • Portable bench power supply (With an adjustable voltage regulator, and maybe an LCD display for kicks?)
  • (Have any suggestions to add? Sound off in the comments!)

(NB, this doesn’t show up on Princess Auto’s website, as it’s probably a new item. It is SKU #8339715 and $19.99 at the time of posting unfortunately, no longer a stocked item.)

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QuahogCon 2010: My Freeduino (From AlphaOne)

QuahogCon 2010: My Freeduino (From AlphaOne)

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This is my new Freeduino, which I purchased as a kit from the fine folks at the AlphaOne Hackerspace table at QuahogCon 2010.

I assembled the kit together at the Hardware Hacking Lounge with some super-sweet soldering irons, then spent the next hour and a half trying to figure out why it wouldn’t work. Turns out that it needed a jumper on the USB/External power selector. Thanks to Mr. Jimmie Rodgers for the eagle-eye lack-of-jumper spotting.

I already have an Arduino (the original); however, it doesn’t have a pin for the reset line or 3.3V line on the headers, so I guess it will just be relegated to different tasks.

I had planned to submit an entry into the Alpha One Labs Hackerspace’s Arduino Hacking Contest, though I ended up spending every waking moment trying to hack the Humans vs Zombies game. Apparently, I was not the only one with not enough time; there were unfortunately no entries into the contest 🙁 I ended up receiving honorable mention (consisting of a T-shirt) for constructing my Freeduino.

Hopefully, there will be an Arduino Hacking contest next year… Start building those Arduino projects!

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