• Enter the TVWB 27th Anniversary Prize Drawing for a chance to win a Weber Traveler Portable Gas Grill! Click here to enter!

Brand New Damper Design - "The Micro Damper"


 
DanielA said:
I just got a BGE and install a micro damper on it. Everything is working correctly.

Do you manually open a hole at the bottom as well as using the micro damper? I cant see to get it hot enough / bring it up to temp sometimes when it closed and only using the damper + fan at 100%.

Do I need to go the blower route? Confused why it has a hard time increasing temp.
Click to expand...

The MD is plenty of power on a BGE or the like. Check your settings and make sure everything is functioning as it should
 
The webstore at www.microdamper.com is now open. Sorry for the delays guys I've had all sorts of problems in the last few months that have hindered my ability to get back to this. Not sure if and when I'll get back to printing cases, but DIY MicroDamper kits will be available.
 
Hey Begg! Things seem to be doing a bit better right now. I still have to finish building that drone we were talking about a year ago!
 
I'll be taking the webstore down about midday on Wednesday as I'll be out of town for about 10 days. But the store will be back up on the 26th.
 
Had to close the webstore early due to a number of orders coming in depleting my stock. Store will be back up on the 26th. Sorry for the inconvenience
 
Store is back up.

TedK, you're most certainly welcome. That's a good looking graph for your first cook. If you have a chance I'd encourage you to share your settings for others.
 
Getting called out of town on business. Store will be down for about a week, hopefully not more but possible. Sorry yall
 
Okay, I gotta ask..

How the heck do you manage to get the connector soldered & crammed in there in one piece and still function?

I soldered two and got them eventually inside two Microdampers, but after all the physical abuse there is a short or something else wrong with them..

The connector is right up against the servo and I really have to abuse it to fit in there.

Should i bend the connector's solder tabs outwards to get a little room for it?
 
I wired mine up last night and found it was a much easier fit if you removed the "wings" off the servo. I soldered everything outside of the enclosure and then was able to fit it all in. I did a test fitting before soldering.
 
Riku Naskali said:
Should i bend the connector's solder tabs outwards to get a little room for it?
Click to expand...

I just completed my micro damper assembly and had to do exactly this to make things fit.

TimCorrin said:
I wired mine up last night and found it was a much easier fit if you removed the "wings" off the servo
Click to expand...

I removed the tab on the side facing the wire/mounting hole. I left the other intact as it allowed the servo to snap very securely into place. I was surprised at needing to do this as I was under the impression that the servos sold through microdamper.com came pre-trimmed.

Fan wires:
Don't cut the fan wires too short. You'll have less to have to coil out of the way but it's not worth the hassle. Do the soldering with the two halves next to each other and deal with the resulting length.

And my biggest tip:
Don't solder a TRRS plug onto cat5, crimp an RJ45 plug onto a 4-pole cable.
After being frustrated soldering the 3.5mm plug onto a piece of cat5, I realized I could more easily solve the problem from the other direction. I bought a coiled 3.5mm TRRS extension cable, cut off the appropriate end, and then crimped an RJ45 plug onto it. Only takes a minute with a multimeter to identify which wire corresponds to which position on the plug -- and then just a few seconds to insert the wires into the RJ45 and crimp. Far easier and quicker than soldering the other end, provided you already own a crimp tool.
Bonus - the coiled cable is far more compact (partly because it's only 4-wire, partly from being coiled like phone cords used to be) and easier to store.
 
Last edited:
PSA: Make sure you don't mix up the servo power and position signal wires (red and orange) within the connectors! I fried a pi last night, and not in a good way.

Also, is the 3mm plug not ment to be taken in/out when the HM is powered up? Because doing so was causing the arduino to reboot... maybe that's what fried the pi?
 
Last edited:
KennyDado said:
PSA: Make sure you don't mix up the servo power and position signal wires (red and orange) within the connectors! I fried a pi last night, and not in a good way.

Also, is the 3mm plug not ment to be taken in/out when the HM is powered up? Because doing so was causing the arduino to reboot... maybe that's what fried the pi?
Click to expand...

I rather like Fried Pies!
 
I would say there is a possibility depending on the order of the pins soldered to the plug. If you think about how they mate, the contacts pass through all the rings before the plug is fully seated. Is there an official order to solder them? There might be a combination where as you insert it, it connects the 12V to the 5V which is directly connected to the Pi. Or having 12V touch GND would also be bad but I think the power supply would just shutdown for that.
 
Are the MicroDampers still available? I bought one a while ago and thought I had wired it wrong. Turns out the fan was pushed in too far and physically stops from blowing.
I would like to buy 2. My son just got a heatermeter.
Thanks,
Joe Widmayer
 
Brian,
I ordered the 3 D printer parts from 3 D Hubs. They should come in a few days. I was not sure if the printer setting. I will let you know how it comes out if you would like. I ordered the other parts from Amazon and Ebay.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top