thedatastream

campfire flower technology rock carving

t h e d a t a s t r e a m

Welcome :-)

My name is James Pawson and I live in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK with my wife, son and daughter. I am an Electronics Engineer by training and occupation.

My main interests are spending time with my family, DIY, pottering in the garden, Tesla coils, electronics and general tinkering. I enjoy running and playing squash to keep fit and I also play chess online, drink real ale, watch birds and generally enjoy being outdoors.

This website serves to record the details of the projects I have tinkered with as well as providing links to other sites I like. I hope you find this information useful in some way.

Slightly boring but important safety notice: Some of the projects detailed on this website involve working with dangerous voltages. You should not use the information on this website without understanding the risks involved and I am not responsible for what you do with the information on this website. Recommend that you read this safety guide on working on mains powered equipment and this guide to Tesla Coil safety before you start. Do not look into power supply with remaining eye!

Electronics & Other Projects

[ ? ]	Arduino Based Project I'm working on an Arduino based interactive project in the background - more details to follow. I'm very impressed with the usability of the Arduino development system.
	Peter's Phantom Powered Condenser Microphone Pre-Amplifier A colleague designed this for his church's sound system and also used it as the basis of some training at work on SPICE simulation.
[ ? ]	DIY Homebrew Heater With Temperature Controller A project for my brother to help keep his brewing homebrew at the right temperature for yeast to work it's magic. Heater elements made from power resistors and copper pipe, run from a PC power supply with temperature sensing and regulation.
	Nixie Tube Clock I've always loved the soft orange glow and attractive digit style of Nixie tubes so it was only fitting that I made a Nixie Tube Clock. Inspired by Mike Harrsion's designs, this clock re-uses a spare digital set top box plastic chassis and XN-11 Nixie tubes.
	Automatic Tomato Plant Watering System My efforts to automate the watering of the tomato plants in the greenhouse with a solar powered, automatic, plant watering system. Currently in the first prototype stage.
	How to modify an AT type PC power supply ...to give a variable output of up to 48V DC.
	9-Gallon Beer Cask Cooler A fine project by my brother-in-law Ian. Peltier element based cooling system for real ale beer casks - essential holiday equipment!
	Running Linux on an Xbox This is a collection of the rather fragmented information available on the interweb about running Xbox on a Linux. I dropped the project before completion and converted my old Windows desktop machine instead.

Tesla Coils & High Voltage

	SSTC Gate Drive Transformer Design Guidelines This is now more condensed than the original with better organised information. Essential information for designing your GDT.
	"Stubby" SSTC A Solid State Tesla Coil has been finally completed to a reasonable standard after a few years of on-and-off (mostly off) work.
	"Inazuma" Mk. 1 DRSSTC A mid sized Dual Resonant SSTC, currently shelved pending more free time and equipment to debug the drive circuit.
	"Inazuma" Mk. 2 SISGTC Based on the secondary of the Mk. 1 Inazuma, an old MOT and 6 stages of SISG. Mostly constructed, currently shelved pending some more free time. Details to follow.
	A small Marx generator built from scrounged parts.

Other Stuff

	Steve Conner's OLTC II at the 2004 Derby Teslathon
	Photos from our visit to Nepal in 2005
	Lindley Clock Tower, Huddersfield taken during its opening as part of the 2007 Heritage Open Days

Links

A selection of other sites that I like...

Electronics Related Links

An interview with the man who designed the 555 timer - he wins my God-like genius award for services to electronics! Plenty more where that came from on Google
Bertrik's Bat Detector Page - I've built his NE612 superheterodyne detector (the one at the bottom of the page) with an Ole Wolff electret microphone and it works a treat although the range isn't great (not the best microphone). I can now sit in my garden and watch the Common and Soprano Pipistrelle bats flying around. They still haven't found the bat box I put up for them :-| obviously comfortable somewhere else.
Simetrix is a really good evaluation SPICE package
Discover Circuits and ePanorama (bloody popups) both have loads of good links to electronic circuits
Matthias Weingart has written a very handy parallel port I2C tool
This is a good page that is positively stuffed with 555 timer circuits. There are also plenty of other good circuits on his site too.
GIICM Logic IC Pinouts

Tesla Coil Links

Richie Burnett has possibly the best theory website going - essential reading
Derek Woodroffe is a prolific TC builder, building big, small, smaller and even smaller coils. There's plenty of inspiration to be had.
Steve Conner's site also has some very well designed circuits as well as the monster OLTC II - one of the best designed coils I've seen.
Steve Ward has some great coils and circuits
Jan Wagner has some good theory, especially on SSTCs
Dan produces some professional looking coils, and has some design information on his site (scroll down)
The forums on 4hv.org are a good place to ask questions and bounce ideas of people.
The Tesla Coil Builders Of the UK (TCBOUK) have regular Teslathons and Gaussfests in Nottingham, Derby, Cambridge and other locations. There is also a mailing list too.
Mike Harrison's Electric Stuff website has tons of high energy, high voltage and other great stuff including a nixie clock circuit
This bloke's a nutter