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Triac Blender

Blender with Triac v1, Build Notes. Part of the Open Science Framework repository OpenLPE

Image of all three blenders in order

From right to left, Triac-Blender v1, Triac-Blender v2, PID-Blender.

Background & Motivation

This is part of the OpenLPE labware project.

There are no reasonably priced commercial blenders with adequate speed control for practical experiments. The closest is the Waring LB20ES, being over £1000. This left us feeling priced out, so we had to come up with an alternative, which is this Triac modification, enabling for great power selectivity. Speed is unreliable at low speeds (< $2000$ $rpm$), but stays pretty constant at higher speeds ($\pm;1000;rpm$).

The blenders I have been controlling range between $600$ $W$ to $2$ $kW$ peak power, which they can sustain for a maximum of $\approx 1$ $min$ before they get dangerously hot (and melt-y). Some come with automatic sensors to detect when they are overheating and shut-off automatically to save the motor. From my testing, I recommend following the manufacturer's recommendations alternating running it for $1$ $min$ ON with a subsequent minimum of $1$ $min$ OFF to allow it to cool down.

Disclaimer!

Playing with AC is incredibly dangerous. Make sure to take all precautions when making modifications and ensure everything is unplugged and grounded.

Potential Changes

List of changes and whether they have been implemented.

  • The box is not the perfect size, needs to be a little wider to fit the dimmer, probably would be nice to add a different
  • Could end up making our own circuit for arduino as there are some well documented methods.