Raise the bridge or lower the water?

Relax in southern comfort on the east bank of the Mississippi. You're just around the corner from Beale Street and Sun Records. Watch the ducks, throw back a few and tell us what's on your mind.
Post Reply
User avatar
JR.
Posts: 3700
Joined: Sat May 24, 2008 7:21 pm
Contact:

Raise the bridge or lower the water?

Post by JR. »

I have an old vacuum cleaner with a beater brush that I had to rebuild about two years ago. (a plastic on plastic bushing wore out from a couple decades of use).. It works fine now and no cyclones or v6 electric motors are involved. It has a feature that i almost forgot about, red and green lamps that indicate if the vacuum is still picking up dirt even if carpet looks clean... kind of slick feature, that I rediscovered when I put a battery in it a couple months ago,,, IIRC I put a new battery in my smoke alarm, and put the used battery in my dirt detector, but now it is dead as a door nail (3V).

Oddly this line cord vacuum uses a 9V battery for this feature, I was suspicious that the circuit may leak current when off.. but no, however when turned on it draws about 20mA from a fresh 9V battery... that is a bunch of current from a 250mAh battery.

So do I re-engineer the detector and display to reduce current draw, or add an AC-DC supply to the vacuum. Even if i reduce the current draw in half that is still not great battery life...these generally use a lamp and optical sensor and latch the lamp output when any dirt blocks and perturbs the light pickup. This is surprisingly sensitive.

I found a 300ma DC PS on the WWW for $2.79 :D but with $6.50 shipping :roll: :roll: :roll: (I probably have an old charger sitting around somewhere that puts out enough power,,, I can add a diode and cap if charger is AC.)

Probably a little Rube Goldberg to tap into the vacuum cleaners line cord, but I can kluge the PS on the outside of the vacuum or inside by the bag compartment if it doesn't get too hot... It doesn't need to look pretty...

I just put a new battery in it so I don't have to make a decisions for a while.

JR
Cancel the "cancel culture", do not support mob hatred.
Post Reply