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  1. RITelectric

    Google Lunar X Prize

    At present, Odyssey Moon is the only fully registered team (read: $10,000 paid in full). Google and the X Prize Foundation actually have to approve a team's application after reviewing detailed preliminary project plans, budget plans, etc. Even they don't think there will be any more than a...
  2. RITelectric

    Emergency or extreme braking lights

    Rod, That's a new one on me... I've never heard about pulsing headlights - I imagine seeing that would distract me from the road more than anything else. Carnage: great point... something I never thought of when I first read about that. Everyone would have to have these lights to reduce risk...
  3. RITelectric

    Emergency or extreme braking lights

    I recently read about experiments to create 'psychological' brake lights - designed to more quickly stimulate drivers' reactions to hard-braking in front of them. The idea is that once a brake force is applied beyond some predetermined threshold, the brake lights pulse in a pattern which...
  4. RITelectric

    high-voltage, current-limiting diodes?

    Every CLD I come across tends to be capable of very low voltage at best. Anyone know of a manufacturer of high power CLDs? (in the neighborhood of 100v for a 300ma CLD)
  5. RITelectric

    Refueling fires Why?

    carnage, Reading #1 of your post, if we assume static is the problem, shouldn't summer be the safest time of the year? low humidity = static problem, high humidity = summer? If the incidents happen more frequently in the drier, colder months of fall-winter-spring, then that's in support of...
  6. RITelectric

    Specialists vs. Generalists

    namdac, Let me start by saying that I have tremendous respect for anyone who's been in their field as long as you have, and even more respect for the skills they learn by such extensive experience. I believe that experience defeats classroom knowledge hands-down... ...but in defense of the...
  7. RITelectric

    radar or laser

    Upon further thought... have you seen any aftermarket companies that employ sonar range detection? Most vehicle manufacturers that I've kept up to date with use sonar for parking assistance systems, and I think I read that a few are modifying it for use in the adaptive cruise control. It...
  8. RITelectric

    Specialists vs. Generalists

    My humor is often subtle.
  9. RITelectric

    Specialists vs. Generalists

    Thanks for the link, owg, I jsut downloaded it and it works well!
  10. RITelectric

    Car Navigation Display

    -10 C is about 10 F, right? You could probably expect a warm-up period when turning on the LCD in cold conditions (the contrast/brightness will seem very poor)... but it should only take a few minutes to recover as your cabin heats up. I don't think it will adversely affect the life of the...
  11. RITelectric

    radar or laser

    My $0.02 - The first thing I'd worry about is if either implementation will scare the crap out of the poor sap in front of you that has a radar/laser detector in his car. Radar experiences significant dispersion compared to laser... so I think there would be better luck with laser directing a...
  12. RITelectric

    Specialists vs. Generalists

    I'm a generalist at heart, though... in 21 years of life, all I've left for myself is to learn how to plan an invasion, butcher a hog, and set a bone before I can die happy. LOL
  13. RITelectric

    Specialists vs. Generalists

    PSE, I agree, and would like to think that in this day and age, we have increased our capacity to learn to the extent that becoming a "jack of all trades" does not prevent someone from achieving mastery of one or more other subjects. I'm preparing to become a "jack of all...
  14. RITelectric

    "Murphy's Laws"

    You know, maybe we lend Murphy's Laws too much credence. After all, if the Laws hold true, then Murphy inevitably screwed up somewhere along the line when defining the laws themselves. Paradox, anyone?
  15. RITelectric

    Determining Cruise Speed by Mach Angle

    IRstuff, you piqued my curiosity and I was wondering if you could elaborate on your last post - by "signature of the plane", were you talking about heat signature as a means to track the plane in supersonic flight? Is current IR detection technology capable of doing so at any...
  16. RITelectric

    METRIC !

    Another thought about the last sentence of my previous thread: If an engineer was presented with two possible solutions to a problem, one complicated and one simple, and there was no solid proof that one solution was more complete than the other... which would he choose to implement if he was a...
  17. RITelectric

    METRIC !

    In truth, practicality and feasibility will determine our future course with this matter, as they should. There will not be a need to switch the U.S. to metric until it can be incontrovertibly shown that the benefits of such a change will outweigh the costs (nickels per slug?). Speaking of...
  18. RITelectric

    Hopefully simple question (BJT switch)

    IRstuff: Oops! Sorry I didn't address your response earlier - At first I missed a couple points, but after drawing out what you described I see how your answer works, and thank you for your response. Since Lewish and melone were still asking me questions about my circuit, I got the...
  19. RITelectric

    Hopefully simple question (BJT switch)

    Operational concept: As long as the unit is plugged in, there will *always* be power fed to *exactly one* sub circuit. Power diodes are placed at critical points throughout the entire system to ensure proper current flow / isolation. All other factors are going to be designed around the...
  20. RITelectric

    Hopefully simple question (BJT switch)

    there is no 'both supplys' There is one supply. There are two sub-circuits. Power from the supply needs to be fed to one sub-circuit at a time, switched by a power transistor (or two, or whatever number of transistors it takes to accomplish the task as simply as possible). Switching time...
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