Week+of+11-26-2012

11-26-2012 I came in today and put everything together in the box. I touched some things up from last week and sanded down the paint on the box a little more with the Dremel. I also connected the wires inside the box to their appropriate positions on the power supply. The bottom input is where the Line wire connects from the wall outlet to the power supply. The one just above that is the Neutral spot which is connected to the neutral line that comes in from the wall outlet. Then there is the ground slot which also has a wire coming in from the wall outlet. There are then two V- spots above the ground spot. The upper V- is connected to the closer one and that one is then connected to ground. Finally, there are two V+ slots. The lower of the two is connected to the upper and that one is then connected to the left pin on the rheostat. The middle pin on the rheostat is then connected to the BNC connector that will deliver power. The right pin on the rheostat is connected to ground. The BNC connector will connect to the Peltier and the other lead on the Peltier will go to the other BNC connector which goes to ground. When we finally tested the whole system, it initially did not work. This occurred because the middle pin on the rheostat had been connected to the right pin and was thus grounded when it should've just been connected to the BNC connector that will power the Peltier. I cut out this wire and it functioned properly. Tomorrow, we will test the system with the Peltier.

11-27-2012 I came in today and our goal was to get the Peltier to work. To test it, Matt got out a single BNC cable that split near the end so that it included a grounding cable inside of it. However, for this to work, I had to ground the flap on the BNC port inside the box. I did this by soldering a wire from that flap to the grounded pin on the rheostat so I did not have to mess with the ground spot on the power supply which was already cluttered. Then I used alligator clips to connect the BNC cable to the Peltier. The hot red BNC banana-clip like end connected to the other red cable on the Peltier and the black ground cable on the Peltier connected to the black BNC juncture. Both of these connected through the alligator clips. I then placed the side of the Peltier that is supposed to get hot facing down on top of a copper block. I connected everything else then flipped the switch and felt the Peltier to see if it would get cooler. It did indeed become cooler. The only thing left now is to build the scope. The machinist Kevin should have the metal Inbar by tomorrow that we will build the scope out of. I then finished up the day by searching the internet for baking dishes. I will research more extensively the Thermoelectric effect and the ways in which the Peltier works. Here is the Peltier which we will be using. A Peltier device heats/cools other materials through use of what is called the Thermoelectric effect. The thermoelectric effect is the conversion of temperature changes into voltage or applied voltages into temperature changes. More specifically, we will be using what is known as the Peltier effect. This states that when a current flows through a junction composed of two different materials stacked on each other, a heat will be generated on one surface that is absorbed by the other surface. The equation, Q=(∏B-∏A)I, relates the Peltier coefficients of the two different materials in the Peltier device. If ∏B-∏A is non-zero then there will be either an accumulation of heat or an overall decrease in temperature. I am not completely sure on the details surrounding how we will be able to heat with one side and cool with the other. I know that it will involve heat-sinking but I will continue to update as we move forward.