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Intel Experience Store – Day 16 Recap: Vacuum cleaners are more clever than I thought.

by Carlyn Maw on January 15, 2014, 2 comments

TL;DR: Tuesday I was very excited to turn a Dust Buster into a blow gun. Turns out they can’t be modded that way so easily. Something about centrifugal fans. So I made a literal “suction cup” instead. While waiting for the battery to charge I started munching on a Dell laptop. Looking forward to seeing what is in that DVD drive since it is so so so tiny.

Black and Decker Cordless Vacum

Black and Decker cordless vacuum CHV1568

The first this is to get access to a hand-held vacuum cleaner. This one is a Black And Decker CHV1568.

Screws out

Dismantled Dust Buster

Then take it apart. I found a more complete tutorial with more pictures on how to take this one apart and replace the battery cells when they run out of oomph.

The motor

The motor in this hand-held vacuum is from Johnson Electric

The motor appears to be from Johnson Electric. Johnson Electric has written up a pretty thorough guide on how to spec a motor for your design.

Charge indicator light still attached to contacts

Charge indicator light still attached to contacts

This vacuum has a charge indicator light that illuminates while charging. That black lead is only attached to power when the battery is in the charger. I learned later that power can only flow through this circuit when the vacuum’s switch is in the off position.

Inside the battery

Inside the battery

I poked around the battery pack, too. There are more pictures in the Flickr set for the vacuum take apart as usual. What all the exploring added up to is the following schematic:

Handheld vacuum schematic

Air channels always push air out to the side

Air channels always push air out to the side

Then things got confusing. I hooked up the motor to the variable power supply both normally and reversed and the motor drew air in during both tests.  Even more taking apart had to happen to discover why. This is when the air centrifuge revealed itself. This baby is just never going to push air forwards. No blow gun for me.

Battery powered suction cup made from a Dust Buster

Battery powered suction cup made from a Dust Buster, video still

Two cups, some gaffers tape, and a bit of battery charging time helped the cup based suction lifter seen in the video at the top of the post come to life. It is much stronger with the battery pack than when it is run of the power supply because the battery pack can source way more current.

2 thoughts on “Intel Experience Store – Day 16 Recap: Vacuum cleaners are more clever than I thought.

  1. Pingback: Hackaday Links: February 16, 2014 | Hack The Planet

  2. Pingback: Hackaday Links: February 16, 2014

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