Posted: 03:47am 03 Sep 2024 Copy link to clipboard
phil99 Guru
It depends on how much spare time you can afford. If the outer winding has been wrapped in a few layers of plastic film the it may be possible to break the potting mix away in chunks. First use a hacksaw to cut through the plastic container every few cm and peel it away.
Then an exploratory cut to see how deeply buried the windings are. Make a couple of parallel cuts to that depth 1 cm apart and another pair of cuts at a right angle to them and test how hard it is to lever that block out. If that isn't too hard larger blocks may be possible.
If the outer winding isn't wrapped you may have to sacrifice it.
About 4 decades ago we reverse engineered epoxy potted modules by soaking them in a chemical solvent for a week. Unfortunately I don't remember the name. Anyway it may well be banned now, it was very aggressive stuff, had to be used outdoors and could only be kept in a glass bottle. It ate every thing else.
Posted: 12:13am 04 Sep 2024 Copy link to clipboard
Gizmo Admin Group
I took to it with a sharp chisel, gently taking off thin layers. Struck coper. No plastic wrap unfortunately.
All good, I'll put it aside and strip it down one day for a few bucks of copper and the iron core.
Posted: 09:26pm 19 Apr 2025 Copy link to clipboard
mab1 Senior Member
OK, I keep doing bits on my build on other folk's threads - perhaps it's time to resurrect my own
I've completed assembly of WG39, made a board for the front panel leds and reset button, and assembled WG30 power board onto a heatsink in an aerosharp box (there's no room for the Transformer in there, but i'm hoping i can squeeze in the other bits).
I've started working through Wiseguy's testing manual - so far so good:
I've managed to salvage Ten sendust(?) rings from a Solis GTI. 58mm od, 26mm id and 16m tall. sadly the writing on them had run when they were varnished, so i can't read much.
four turns on five rings gives me about 20uH; 5 turns about 25uH. My inductor test setup won't go much over 200A so i tried winding lots of turns of small wire to find the upward curve of saturation, then multiplied amps x turns to give me 2150 amp-turns for the start of saturation. if i'm not over simplifying, that should mean they're good for about 500A with 4 turns, or 400A with 5 turns.
I'm still working on winding the transformer - i chose NOT to follow keepis's advice to stack the two cores without fully unwinding them . luckily i did reserve the right to regret my decision to fully unwind and re-wind
Posted: 10:08pm 24 Apr 2025 Copy link to clipboard
mab1 Senior Member
I still seem to be stuck on getting the hex code into the nano
I think i may need the assistance of someone more computer savvy than me - shouldn't be hard to find someone meeting that description
I tried Avrdudess in win xp, but it gave me an error: not a valid win32 application - so i'm guessing it won't work on an old 32bit OS?
Following Revlacs Github link, it loooks possible to get the portable version to run on an older mac using "mono" which seems to be an open source .net framework thingy. As i'm not sure what .net framework actually is, i did a bit of reading, and it seems to allow 'cross platform' (i.e. OS) use of applications.
so i installed mono and tried to run avrdudess in it - it does work if you select the arch=32 option.
I couldn't get anything to appear in the 'Port' select window (com1 /usb/ etc), so waited until the USBasp arrived (today): still nothing showing in the Port, but it does show up under the USB hardware (apparently you don't need to install drivers on a mac):
Thought about running Arduino and seeing if it shows up there, but whilst i can set the programmer as USBasp, i cant see it under 'port', so comms' port cannot be selected; but some googling suggests this is a common issue with usbasp on mac, and if you select "sketch/upload using programmer", it will program using the usbasp.
So tried the basic "blink" prog: it didn't work, but arduino does seem to be seeing the usbasp, but fails to program because it thinks the nano is a 328pb, not the 328p it was expecting.
OK, i think, maybe avrdude will work with usbasp even if comms port is unselected too, but no, it doesn't appear to (if you check the above pic of avrdude, pressing 'program' results in the 1st long blue message and that's it (tried 57600 and 115200). The 2nd blue line is from pressing 'Detect' button under MCU (both baud rates tried).
edit: the details under fuses&lock bits i typed in manually, along with baud rate, to match keepis's settings.
I've run out of idea's, but then i don't know what i'm doing, i'm just muddling along
help, please! Edited 2025-04-25 08:13 by mab1
Posted: 11:06pm 24 Apr 2025 Copy link to clipboard
KeepIS Guru
I need to see everything in the AvrDudess output window. Sometimes the errors are not a true reflection of the cause.
FYI There is a Force(-F) tick box in AvrDudess. And you can select Atmega328PB in the MCU(-p) drop down, that is unlikely to make any difference as that may not be the real error.
Port(-P) drop-down box should show a USB option if it's really seeing the device, Not an USB port number, just USB.
For a test, open AvrDudess and press Detect (top RH side) this will likely give an error but with less unneeded information in the lower output window.
Then right-click in the output window, from the pop up menu, click "Select all", right click again and select "Copy", then paste that into the Forum reply box.
I get this error with NO programmer plugged in !
>>>: avrdude.exe -c usbasp-clone -P usb -b 57600 -v -v -p m8 WARNING: Unable to detect MCU
avrdude: Version 7.3 Copyright the AVRDUDE authors; see https://github.com/avrdudes/avrdude/blob/main/AUTHORS
System wide configuration file is D:\A_Varoius Backup Folders\__NANO\Avrdudess Loader\avrdude.conf
Using port : usb Using programmer : usbasp-clone Setting baud rate : 57600 avrdude usbasp_open() error: cannot find USB device with vid=0x16c0 pid=0x5dc avrdude main() error: unable to open port usb for programmer usbasp-clone
avrdude done. Thank you.
Avrdude is a command line programmer interface.
The thing to realize is this: When you use the Arduino IDE, it's using a different version or Avrdude, more precisely it's using the global version installed with the IDE as the IDE also uses this.
The AvrDudess application, like the IDE, presents a graphical interface to Avrdude.
The Stand alone version of AvrDudess I included in the Download, uses a later version of Avrdude and has everything needed to run from the folder that it's placed in, if you look in the folder you will see avrdude.exe, the IDE has it's own version. . Edited 2025-04-25 09:09 by KeepIS
Posted: 11:14pm 24 Apr 2025 Copy link to clipboard
Revlac Guru
At the bottom of the screen in AVRDUDESS It says Unable to detect MCU? Wonder if you need the CH340 Driver so it will show up on a port?
Posted: 12:02am 25 Apr 2025 Copy link to clipboard
KeepIS Guru
Is looks a bit like that at first but both the IDE and AvrDudess have more information that is scrolled off the output windows, the OS is showing a USbasp device, and the avrdude command will report that error for a number of configuration errors.
The programmer does not normally show as USB port in Device manager (win11) but rather as a USBasp device under Universal Bus services, much as it's shown in the iMac OS he's using
Edit actually I miss read your post Yes it's possible that it can't find the USB interface port on the Nano, so indeed it may need the that Driver for the Nano USB. . Edited 2025-04-25 10:06 by KeepIS
Posted: 12:06am 25 Apr 2025 Copy link to clipboard
mab1 Senior Member
The Port -P box doesn't show any options at all - that i guess is my problem.
OK, restarting Avrdudess, and pressing detect (with the usbasp and nano plugged in) gives:-
without the programmer:-
(sorry - the copy text from window doesn't seem to work)
so it's not seeing the usbasp
Posted: 12:07am 25 Apr 2025 Copy link to clipboard
KeepIS Guru
See previous post, Revlac could be correct, you should see a USB port when the NANO is plugged. Are you seeing that in the iMac USB hardware . Edited 2025-04-25 10:09 by KeepIS
Posted: 12:09am 25 Apr 2025 Copy link to clipboard
Sketch uses 924 bytes (3%) of program storage space. Maximum is 30720 bytes. Global variables use 9 bytes (0%) of dynamic memory, leaving 2039 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 2048 bytes. /Users/marcus/Downloads/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/tools/avr/bin/avrdude -C/Users/marcus/Downloads/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/tools/avr/etc/avrdude.conf -v -patmega328p -cusbasp -Pusb -Uflash:w:/var/folders/2s/n4lnvcqs55g0zlsbjg2tlsl80000gp/T/arduino_build_174515/Blink.ino.hex:i
avrdude: Version 6.3-20190619 Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/ Copyright (c) 2007-2014 Joerg Wunsch
System wide configuration file is "/Users/marcus/Downloads/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/tools/avr/etc/avrdude.conf" User configuration file is "/Users/marcus/.avrduderc" User configuration file does not exist or is not a regular file, skipping
Using Port : usb Using Programmer : usbasp AVR Part : ATmega328P Chip Erase delay : 9000 us PAGEL : PD7 BS2 : PC2 RESET disposition : dedicated RETRY pulse : SCK serial program mode : yes parallel program mode : yes Timeout : 200 StabDelay : 100 CmdexeDelay : 25 SyncLoops : 32 ByteDelay : 0 PollIndex : 3 PollValue : 0x53 Memory Detail :
Programmer Type : usbasp Description : USBasp, http://www.fischl.de/usbasp/
avrdude: auto set sck period (because given equals null) avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions
An error occurred while uploading the sketch Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.01s
avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e9516 (probably m328pb) avrdude: Expected signature for ATmega328P is 1E 95 0F Double check chip, or use -F to override this check.
avrdude done. Thank you.
This report would have more information with "Show verbose output during compilation" option enabled in File -> Preferences.
Edited 2025-04-25 10:10 by mab1
Posted: 12:11am 25 Apr 2025 Copy link to clipboard
KeepIS Guru
[code] needs to be in upper case [/code]. as in:
needs to be in upper case
.
I see you found that already
It's looking like you don't have the driver for Nano USB installed. . Edited 2025-04-25 10:14 by KeepIS
Posted: 12:13am 25 Apr 2025 Copy link to clipboard
mab1 Senior Member
I don't seem to be getting as much error reporting as you do though (on the avrdudess)
Posted: 12:14am 25 Apr 2025 Copy link to clipboard
KeepIS Guru
Depends on the Version of avrdude. . Edited 2025-04-25 10:17 by KeepIS
Posted: 12:15am 25 Apr 2025 Copy link to clipboard
mab1 Senior Member
I think i must have the ch340 driver for the regular arduino? otherwise it wouldn't work with the clone nanos.
I can certainly program the nano by plugging into it's usb port , but the port (-p) is still blank in avrdudess Edited 2025-04-25 10:22 by mab1
Posted: 12:20am 25 Apr 2025 Copy link to clipboard
KeepIS Guru
There are two types of Nano USB controllers.
FT232RL USB controller 28 pins.
CH340 16 pins.
Posted: 12:22am 25 Apr 2025 Copy link to clipboard
KeepIS Guru
So you can get the IDE working with a Clone?
Posted: 12:27am 25 Apr 2025 Copy link to clipboard
mab1 Senior Member
Yes - I seem to recall I had to get the ch340 driver, but it was a while ago.
But I've just programmed it with 'blink' and it's blinking
And it's a ch340c
Posted: 12:31am 25 Apr 2025 Copy link to clipboard
KeepIS Guru
OK I'm replying to fast
Just focusing on the IDE:
Have you selected in Tools -> Programmer- USbasp ?
The IDE should then program without an error, it it does not, there might be an incompatibility with the USbasp iMac driver?
Posted: 12:37am 25 Apr 2025 Copy link to clipboard
phil99 Guru
Another way to to check that you have communication is to take the 328p out of the loop. Jumper the nano reset pin to ground to stop the 328p and bridge the Tx and Rx pins. Start a VT100 terminal program (on a Mac I think it is called Terminal). Anything you type should be echoed back by the USB/TTL chip.
If the VT100 terminal program can't find a port it will probably say so.
Edit. Typing too slow. Edited 2025-04-25 10:39 by phil99
Posted: 12:42am 25 Apr 2025 Copy link to clipboard
mab1 Senior Member
When i tried using the usbasp (posted error with the [code] 'error' ) i selected tools/programmer/usbasp, and arduino tools/board/arduino nano tools/processor/atmega328p (old bootloader) // the only other options are atmega328p and atmega168, so i couldn't select 328pb to make it happy.
Edit:
err.. i'm currently using terminal like a command prompt, where i'm running avrdudess.exe in mono... i'm not seeing a way to use it to talk to a 'comms port'...
Edit II:
with both the usbasp and the nano connected to the usb ports (asp has no nano connected, i can select what seems to be the usbasp 'port' in arduino IDE (described as "/dev/cu.bluetooth-incoming-port", as opposed to the nano's ch340 "/dev/cu.wchusbserialfd110"). and i can then open the IDE serial monitor, which is a terminal of sorts...
but I need to get off to bed TBH, got to work tomorrow :( ,so may try talking via the asp tomorrow evening.
Thanks very much for everyones help - frustrating, but i have a feeling it's not far off working - but somethings still not right yet Edited 2025-04-25 11:08 by mab1
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The Back Shed's forum code is written, and hosted, in Australia.
. luckily i did reserve the right to regret my decision to fully unwind and re-wind 
Yes it's possible that it can't find the USB interface port on the Nano, so indeed it may need the that Driver for the Nano USB. 
