Phantom power load

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Could the phantom electricity load provide enough power to actuate the system of polymer actuators? Can this system become a parasitic consumer of the phantom electricity and can its behavior reflect the intensity of the leaking electricity?

Phantom load, or leaking electricity (“phantom load” and “leaking electricity” are defined technical terms with other meanings, adopted for this different purpose), refers to the electric power consumed by electronic and electrical appliances while they are switched off (but are designed to draw some power) or in a standbymode. This only occurs because some devices claimed to be “switched off” on the electronic interface, but are in a different state from switching off from the plug, or disconnecting from the plug, which can solve the problem of standby power completely. In fact, switching off at the plug is effective enough, there is no need to disconnect all devices from the plug. Some such devices offer remote controls and digital clock features to the user, while other devices, such as power adapters for disconnected electronic devices, consume power without offering any features (sometimes called no-load power). All of the above examples, such as the remote control, digital clock functions and, in the case of adapters, no-load power, are switched off just by switching off at the plug.

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Sound sensor

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Simple preamplification of the electret microphone. Can be used as sound sensor for the arduino microcontroller. Electronic components needed: electret microphone, transistor 2N3904, two capacitors 0.1 uF, two resistors 10 kohm, one resistor 100 kohm. Input voltage is 3-9 Volts.

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Object geometry explorations

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An exercise for testing the spatial possibilities of an object which could be actuated with electroactive polymers. All main polygons are linked together with a wire in order to simulate its behavior when actuated.

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2-dimensional planes plastic forming the polygons
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D.I.Y. electroactive polymers / high voltage test circuit

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An electronic test circuit for electroactive polymer actuator. The aim of this circuit is to test the possibility of controlling the polymer actuator with a microcontroller (Arduino). The circuit consits of 3 blocks 1) Variable power supply – provides stable voltage 0-12V and current of 125 mA for the high voltage converter. 2) High voltage converter and polymer actuator – converter converts incoming voltage of 0-12V and transforms it to high voltage (0-6kV). High voltage is essential for actuation of polymer. Graphite cathode and anode start to actuate the polymer matter around 2 kV. Positive and negative output of the converter are directly connected to the anode and cathode of the actuator. Bleeder resistors discharge the electric charge after the circuit is off. 3) Arduino microcontroller and digital potentiometer MCP4131 – control the behaviour of the actuator. Digital potentiometer has a range of 128 values. It is possible to add sensors to this circuit.

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digital potentiometer MCP4131 test circuit                                     variable power supply test circuit
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D.I.Y. electroactive polymers / scissor mechanism

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Mechanism for prestretching the VHB films. Film is being applied to the mechanism, stretched in each direction and then fixed to the stable frame.

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