Captain Obvious

That's awesome! I love the simplicity of the solution and I'm thrilled that the easiest solution actually worked! Of course, they usually don't, The bulb is glowing a little brighter than I think it should, so you might burn it out sooner than it would in normal application, but unless you purposely leave your headlights on, it probably won't matter. And even if it does go south, it cost what... fifty cents? If you find you're popping bulbs like gumdrops, then just use the flashy bulb to drive a transistor. Similar to what you drew for using the self-blinking LED to drive the transistor. You can use a resistor or two to adjust the current down a little and also to generate a base voltage for a transistor switch. Just remember, that the dimmer it glows, the shorter the off cycle, and the longer the on cycle will be. I love it when a plan comes together!

Timely question as I was just looking at some datasheets yesterday, but the end result is that I think you're going to have to buy one. I went looking for details because I was thinking about your idea of using the self blinking LED as a device to switch a transistor off-n-on and I was wondering if that would actually work. Problem is that I don't know how the self blinking LEDs work inside and I don't know what the current draw is through them when they are dark vs when they are lit. It would make sense that the current draw through the device would be higher when the LED is lit, but I'm not sure if that's really the case. They may simply shunt the current around the emitter die when they want it dark (think "short across the LED die portion") and the overall current might not change that much. So, I went looking for some info on datasheets and it's extremely vague. I didn't spend a whole lot of time searching out datasheets, but the two I found give absolutely no data on current draw ON vs OFF. Here's the two I turned up: http://www.kingbrightusa.com/images/catalog/SPEC/WP36BHD.pdf http://www.sunledusa.com/products/spec/XLUR50C.pdf So there is some info on the blink rate, but there's no spec for duty cycle or current draw in the different states. Two pages on solder temp profile and lead bending though! If you buy one and take some measurements, make sure you post your findings.

Awesome. I'll hook you up with a healthy home cooked meal and a lathe lesson! You ever been to the Jersey shore in winter before? It's very different than the shore during the warm months.

Haha! That's better than the piece of crap I would show up in! You gonna swing by and pick me up?

Awwww man, that sucks!! You can console yourself in the knowledge that it would have cracked eventually no matter what though!

We'll see... So would it be a travesty for me to show up sans Z and just be a "spectator"?

My current dash is in pretty good shape, but I know it's a ticking time bomb like they all are. So what does the other side of the leather cover look like? Is it all "baseball wrap" stitching everywhere, or is it pretty plain? I've seen some other leather covers that have stitched seams all over the place and I don't like the look. Looks like I'm staring at the back pockets of a pair of designer jeans from the 70'.

I've not taken one from a Miata apart, but I suspect all of the knob dimmers from every manufacturer uses some sort of a PWM concept by this time. It's way cheaper to build something like that than to do it the brute force and ignorance method they used in our Z's. Cheaper, smaller, lighter, more reliable, and more efficient since it doesn't burn up all that energy as heat. Nobody's going to use a big honkin' ceramic core pot anymore. And speaking of such... Since the original Z "pot design" is already ground based controlled (low side), it should be a breeze to convert the Z over to one of the newer PWM controllers instead of the original pot design for the dash lights if you're so inclined. You would need to run one additional wire (hot at all times" to a controller and you're done. There are lots of the newer styles that have twist knobs instead of roller wheels.

Thanks for the concrete input guys. This change is on my wish list for upgrades and I appreciate the input. I currently don't use my blower much at all. I suspect however, that if I had A/C (which I currently don't) I'd use it a lot more.

But.... (before I forget again). The self flashing xmas bulb would certainly be the easiest and simplest approach of all. So if you can get that to work, it'd be perfect. I'd explore that a little more before delving into other more elaborate means.

Man I would love to go to this. I'd remark about the long distance, but how can I complain in the face of a bunch of Canucks that are driving way farther than I would.

Adding that second transistor to elongate the pulse would probably help with driving the armature, but I'm still worried about repeatedly avalanching a junction that was never designed for that. I mean it's cheap and easy enough to just try, but I just don't know what the long term (or temperature) performance would be like. You want me to send you one of the PWM dimmers modified to something that would drive your ding-dong? BTW - I went digging online for pics and I believe I have identified the other dimmer module in my pic above to be from a Mazda Protégé or 626. Not only is it a little more sophisticated than the Civic dimmer, but it's also more compact even though it's got two output stage driver transistors in parallel (don't know why). One transistor is larger and heatsinked, and the other is a little smaller and is soldered right to the PCB (you can see it in my pic above). I bet for intermittent use, like for your ding-dong, you could get away with the smaller output transistor and could completely remove the other transistor and heat sink to make small like watch.

I don't have a need (yet) to do anything with my blower as it thankfully still works just fine. I know that could change in a moments notice however, so I've kept an eye on the concept of the Honda blower motor conversion. But since you mentioned impeller design... One thing I've always wondered about is people say the Honda blower moves more air, but WHY does it move more air? Is it simply consuming more energy and spinning faster for a given selector switch position, or is it a more efficient impeller design that moves more air at the same speed? Is it a more efficient motor design that spins faster for the same amount of current? I don't understand why people even care if it moves more air, Were all you guys who have done this conversion running their OEM blowers on the highest speed all the time and STILL wishing they had more airflow? Because if you're wishing you had more air and you're NOT running on the highest speed, then just move the lever to a higher speed. Or was it simply that the motors are failing and this is the cheapest and easiest replacement for NLA parts? I assume nobody has measured current draw have they?

Here's some pics of the kind of stuff I'm thinking about. Here are two modules. 96-00 Civic on the left and something else on the right. Don't remember what... Prelude maybe? Anyway, they're basically the same in the way they work: Pop the cases open and you're looking at the guts: They've already got an output transistor built into the module which is an open collector or open drain and all you need to do is connect one side of your load to +12 and the other side to the output pin of the dimmer module. You can't see it, but the output transistor is a TO-220 device on a heat sink on the other side of the board: The Civic module originally flip-flopped around 100Hz. I took a couple minutes messing around with changing the original component values to change the frequency until I got something roughly around 1Hz and something a little off from 50/50 duty cycle: Finalize the values, solder them into permanent position, wrap with electrical tape (or snap back into the original plastic shell) and hot glue gun to the top of your ding-dong. I'm a little pressed for time right now, but maybe that can get you started?

Oh yeah... I completely forgot about Mumbly Peg!! I've got a buddy that did the acetylene in the trash bag. Strung it up on his Ham radio antenna and set it off with a ignitor coil from an oil burner. I myself wasn't there, but I am aware of that trick. I intend to do the dry ice in a soda bottle. The last time something very cold got shipped to the house I was going to mess with that the next morning, but by that time the dry ice had sublimated. I still intend to show that one to the kids though. My one kid was positive he could get the cap on the bottle of Diet Coke before the Mentos geyser started. (He didn't. ) So tell me you're not familiar with the little match rockets made with tinfoil or making a firecracker out of an accordioned roll of caps?? If not, I'll hook you up. This thread is about ash trays, right?

In it's original configuration (with the original values as supplied by Honda) it flip-flops much faster than 1Hz. But the point is that by changing a couple resistor values and maybe the caps, you can configure it for whatever frequency you desire. And yes, 1Hz is easily achievable. Also in it's typical configuration, it's setup for 50/50 duty cycle, but by using different resistors on each side (instead of the same values on both sides), you can imbalance the charging rates and change the duty cycle as well. There's lots of info on the web, but here's one site that also includes a some scope photos and videos. http://rayshobby.net/?p=1079 Been a long time since I was messing with the module, but I believe there is also one additional "output driver" transistor hanging off one of the collectors so the bulb current doesn't go through either of the oscillator transistors. I have to find my notes... I took a quick look and couldn't find them, but hopefully in the light of day tomorrow they'll turn up. I'm envisioning this: Pull a dimmer module from a Civic. Pop the circuit PCB out of the plastic shell. Change a couple resistor values and maybe the caps to get an appropriate frequency and a pleasant sounding duty-cycle. (For example, maybe 1Hz and 70/30 duty cycle for ding..dong............ding..dong..........ding..dong) (Or 50/50 duty cycle for ding......dong......ding......dong......ding......dong......) Run +12 and ground to the module. Connect the module output to your ding-dong. Pics and notes tomorrow hopefully.

Ummm... Why does it seem like so many of my stupid kid tricks involved fire or explosions?

Yeah Yeah Yeah!!! We (kids) did that too!! Awesome. It's those kind of tricks that you wonder if it was a regional phenomenon or if other people were doing the same thing. Clearly it wasn't that regional! Ahhhh.... The good old days. Stupid kid tricks. Popping the Styrofoam labels on the soda bottles. Popping leaves on your hand by slapping with the other hand? Building lighter fluid powered tennis ball cannons out of soda cans. Making little match rockets with tin foil over the match heads. Making firecrackers out of cap rolls with a needle and scotch tape. Had to be real careful when you pulled the pin out? Harvesting the black powder out of your dad's shotgun shells for... well... for whatever you needed gunpowder for, which could be anything!! Heating hot dogs through electrocution with an extension cord. Some of it was clearly Darwin in action.

You wouldn't have to do any PCB work for the Civic dimmer. The beauty of it is that it's already pre-packaged in a little module. PCB inside already and knob for adjusting the duty cycle. I reverse engineered the circuit so that's how I know what's inside. All you would have to do is change some of the passives to tune it to a more reasonable frequency (it's currently way too high because they don't want the incandescent lamps flickering) and maybe adjust the duty cycle as well. It's pretty small... Maybe inch by inch-n-a-half? I've got one in a box somewhere around here. I'll dig it out and snap a pic or two to show you what I'm talking about. Last time I used one I took just the PCB out of the plastic housing and replaced the brightness knob pot with a fixed resistor and wrapped the result in electrical tape instead of using the plastic housing. Gets way smaller when you do that. End result is maybe half inch by one inch? Glue that to the top of your ding-dong. A dollar at the junkyard. I couldn't build one from scratch for that.

Another alternative? The dimmer circuit knob on all the Honda Civics uses the ubiquitous astable multivibrator. You know... this one that's used absolutely everywhere: I've already harvested them for other applications. Change a couple passive component values and you should be able to tune it for whatever frequency and duty cycle sounds good. Not only that, but it comes with it's own build in pot for tuning on the fly.

The blinking Christmas tree bulb would be a very easy (and IMHO elegant) solution, but you'd have to make sure the bulb was designed to flash on the current drawn by the ding-dong. If it's not enough current, you could add a resistor in parallel with the ding-dong to supplement the draw, but if it's already too much, you're out of luck. The other circuit based on the Esaki effect on the transistor worries me a little. I'm not sure how many times a back biased junction that was never designed to be used as a Zener would fare over time. Maybe because the power in the whole thing is so limited it wouldn't be a problem, but I just wonder if the transistor could take it forever. Also, I'm not sure if the dump pulse would be long enough to get your ding-dong to ding. The ding-dong is driven by a coil (an inductor) which means that not only will resist the current dump, but it also takes a certain duration to establish enough of a field to swing the movable pole to ding before it springs back to dong. How about a turn signal flasher? Might not work because the ding-ding doesn't draw enough current (same potential issue as using the xmas light bulb), but one of them new fangled flashers for use with LED's should work. Just tossing out possible alternatives?

Yeah, I'm not surprised. I went back and re-read where I had seen that and the guy who had the problem left the part in half-submerged for days. Etched a line at the interface. Theory is that the solution is water based and enables rust right at the interface, which is then removed by the solution as it occurs. So the part is converted from steel to rust to gone over and over right at the interface. But it appears that it doesn't occur quickly. Sounds like if you spin it after a day, you'll be OK, but don't let your part sit half submerged for days?

Back when I was comparing the 240 and 280 trays, I didn't notice a difference in width: http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/45678-ash-tray-trivia I noticed depth, but not width. More ash tray trivia?

And I'll throw my opinions into the mix with the ashtray stuff.... I'm no paint expert, but I would expect powder coat would be the most durable (and yes, clear powder coat is not unusual). Catalyzed polyurethane would probably be the next most durable. Other solutions will be less durable, but anything is better than what you started with right? SteveJ, Don't know if you've messed with the stuff before, but if you're using Evapo-Rust, make sure your parts are completely submerged. Don't try to do top half and then spin the part around a day later to get the other half. I've heard that bad things happen at the steel/chemical/air boundary.

Mike, It appears to be a goofy search issue on their website. I found the dual washer versions the same way you did (by searching for "m8 sems") but they don't show up if you search only for "sems" and then choose bolts or screws. So there's just something weird with their search engine. Thanks for the help.