Stir plate voltage regulator boards

I have seen a lot of people building stir plates lately and it seems that there are a fair number of people who really aren't very comfortable with electronics. Would there be any interest in printed circuit boards for a stir plate voltage regulator? (bare boards you can add your own parts to, and/or board with parts kit, and/or preassembled ready-to-go boards) It'd probably be the common LM317 variable voltage regulator circuit that's commonly used, so nothing very complicated. Considering the Radioshack prices many people pay for the parts to build one on perfboard, it'd most likely be even cheaper this way.

This isn't a "for sale" thread, I'm just looking to gauge interest at this point.

I'm interested

I bet you'll get some interest. As a guy who sometimes sells complete DIY stir plates to forum members, I can tell you that the interest pretty much overwhelmed my production capability.

Personally, I found that commercially available fan speed controllers were the way to go when making stir plates for the masses.

Yuri_Rage said:

I bet you'll get some interest. As a guy who sometimes sells complete DIY stir plates to forum members, I can tell you that the interest pretty much overwhelmed my production capability.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I can see how that could happen - but for just PCB's, if there's low demand I can fab them myself pretty easily, if there's too much demand for me to keep up with I can get them made in larger batches commercially, with even less effort, and without costing all that much.

Yuri_Rage said:

Personally, I found that commercially available fan speed controllers were the way to go when making stir plates for the masses.

Click to expand...

That's a pretty good point, I suppose I'd better look into what's available to see if this would even be worthwhile.

Also, I never thought about it, but simply supplying the speed controller is a pretty good idea. I found one (can't remember the brand name) that I modified slightly by increasing the resistance across a couple of pins, and it worked really well for a 12VDC computer fan.

I'm also working on one for my own use, using a microcontroller with the third (tachometer) wire present on many computer fans for closed-loop RPM control so it'll spin the same speed at a given setting regardless of how much wort it's stirring. And, I can do a soft-start feature where it will slowly ramp up the speed on power up, to avoid throwing the stir bar. Probably complete overkill, but it keeps me entertained.

Just curious what kind of pocessor are you using?

I've been developing some performance automotive stuff, a radiator efan controller and a multi-stage progressive nitrous controller. I've jumped from board house to board house and finally settled on PCBFabExpress. I have quit doing home etching for my protos cause it just isnt worth the hassle since they are very affordable. Plus if you have to desolder something you are almost garaunteed to lift a trace or pad with home etched clad.

Virtuous said:

Just curious what kind of pocessor are you using?

Click to expand...

I'll be using a PIC of some sort (probably a 12F683), don't really need much power for so simple a task.

*Off topic* Cool, I've been using those and 8051s, thinking about trying some AVRs.
The 16F917 has a built in PWM channel that you can use in conjunction with a small FET, major overkill but they are so cheap.