FastMHz.com

Induction Heating from Jonathan

FastMHz — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:11:46 +0000

If you could spare just a few minutes I was hoping you could give me
a rundown on induction heaters. Everything I find on the net has
terminology I’m not familiar with. I’m new to electronics. Very new.
But I’m amazed with induction heating and it is bordering on
obsession. If you could help me find a way to make a simple heater I
would be very apreciative

Do NOT Defrag your Thumb Drives / Flash Devices / SSDs

FastMHz — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:00:22 +0000

A flash memory device has no moving parts, therefore it does not suffer from increased access times with a fragmented file-system as a mechanical hard drive does.

A common argument in favor of defragmenting a thumb drive is that it makes data recovery easier, since files are contiguous. If you *really* want to “defrag” your flash drive, do so by copying all the files to a temporary location, format the flash drive, and then copy them back. This way, the files are written consecutively, without fragmentation, and only costs your flash device one write per used block. Using a program like Windows defrag would cause thousands upon thousands of writes, reducing the device’s lifespan, and worse, wouldn’t do nearly as good a job as a copy/format/recopy procedure would.

This also applies to so called SSDs, or Solid State Disks. These are also flash memory, and defragmenting them is destructive. Windows XP and on up tend to defragment automatically by default. Windows Vista and 7 do a full defrag on a schedule. THIS IS BAD!! If you are running Windows on an SSD, disable automatic defragmentation via the control panel on these OSes.

I’m building a railgun…

FastMHz — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 10:49:33 +0000

Hi,
I’m building a railgun and I have 2 questions for you:
fiest I’m using compressed air and I want to buy a cheap compressor
like yours,but how much pressure can they give?Most of them are rated
300 or 250 psi but is that true?how much yours really give?

And second to charge the caps do you use a variac?If so wont do you
limit the current,big resistor?
thanks
Sebastien
ps:Where are you from?

I basically build go-karts…

FastMHz — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 15:28:10 +0000

Hello, I was able to get registered now. I was wondering if
you had any ideas or input on my thoughts for the projects I’m
working on. I basically build go-karts with a friend of mine and we
usually use either salvaged motors or the cheap 6hp engines from harbor
freight. He builds the frames and I work on the rest. The dilemma
we’ve been having lately is we want to set up a lighting system to the
go-karts. I ran across a source for some cheap 450v rated capacitors
that are about the size of a 20oz soda bottle. I cant remember the
uf rating at the moment as I haven’t bought any yet. Do you think
capacitors or a capacitor bank of perhaps 4-6 of these with a resistor on
the discharge wiring would be a sufficient lighting power
source for say a 12v type headlamp? How long do you think it would run
without a charge? LED type lighting more efficient? Another thing is
charging them. we were thinking of hooking up some sort of charging
system with magnets, copper wire around the axle. This would produce
alternating current tho right? Capacitors would charge on DC only? If
it gets too complex we may have to scrap that or come up with something
else. Also along the lines of the charging via the axle while go-kart
is moving… having two different sprockets on the back (not a
live axle) and hooking up an electric motor powered by say a 12v car
battery or a bank of capacitors charged while driving on gas power would
you think it would be worth the extra weight to have a secondary
power boost via the electric motor ? Thanks in advance for any input you
may have and merry christmas.

~Elektro

‘Microwave Fun’ Video Released!

FastMHz — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:00:31 +0000

FastMHz presents ‘Fun With a Microwave’. See a computer card, light bulbs, and a powered up cell phone get nuked!

Stories of microwave ovens blowing up because of objects put into them are purely myth, however, you should not try this at home lest your microwave gets burned up or worse yet, your house catches fire! Not to mention the poisonous fumes that are produced…my garage smelled like burnt electronics for over a week afterwards, even with ample ventilation.

The microwave still worked after this video, if you can believe that! This means that a sequel is forthcoming. Leave comments suggesting what to nuke in the next video….currently planned objects include steel wool, marshmallows and a bar of soap.

The Video

Real AHCI Hard Drive Access on Dell Inspiron 1501

FastMHz — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:00:39 +0000

Dell does not supply a proper AHCI SATA driver for the 1501 notebook. Instead, they expect you to run Windows using the standard IDE emulation driver. This is S…L…O…W…!!! I ran mine this way for years, until I booted an Ubuntu CD and discovered that there is in fact a real AHCI controller in there just waiting to be run with a proper driver.

My 1501 is now FLYING like it never had before in native SATA mode in XP SP3! Here is how:

1. Back your stuff up. Computers can be unpredictable, what worked on mine may not necessarily work on yours, and Windows may never boot again.

2. Download this driver:
ftp://213.61.92.194/pub/ASUS/misc/utils/AMD_RAIDAHCIController_V25154039.zip

3. Unzip it to a temporary location. I recommend 7-zip.

4. Open the location you unzipped to. Open the WinXP1\x86\ahcix86.inf file in notepad (or the x64 one if you run XP 64). Locate the [ATI] section. Insert the following line amongst the existing ones:

%NapaDesc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4380&SUBSYS_01F51028

This is my trick – it makes the driver installer realize that your 1501 has the correct AHCI controller

5. Save the file and close notepad. Now run the AsusSetup.exe file and let it install. Reboot. When new hardware is detected, let it automatically install it. Reboot again.

6. All done!! Look in device manager and you will now have a “SCSI and RAID controllers” section, and your hard drive will be seen as a SCSI disk device.

Don’t you just love free upgrades? Enjoy!

ElectroInsanity Vol2 Uploaded!!

FastMHz — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:00:25 +0000

ElectroInsanity Vol 2….showcasing the FastMHz 22kj capacitor discharge system being used for highly entertaining purposes. Computer cards, a pumpkin, hard drives, dell power supply, speakers and more detonate when faced with 16kj+ of electrical energy. The video ends with a MOT being fed 5kw of energy and being used to cook a laptop motherboard into oblivion.

Playing with electricity can be lethal. The amount we use in this video could kill a row of elephants. Do not try this at home!

The cap bank: http://fastmhz.com/?p=37

Regular Speed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFKRcWUPrQc

Slow Motion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGS4WYDnJ4k

FastMHz has gone HD!!

FastMHz — Thu, 21 May 2009 04:51:13 +0000

Visit the FastMHz YouTube channel to view the latest productions in YouTube’s version of Hi-Def – 1280×720 resolution!!

Playing With Electricity…Literally

FastMHz — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:08:10 +0000

It’s about 12kv @ a quarter amp!!! Elapsed time photo. Power source is 4 car batteries hooked to a 5kw inverter, ballasted to 3.3kw.

What happens when Ethernet wire is asked to carry 3.3kw @ 120v?

Chopping up a can with 3.3kw @ 30v…

And a nickel getting 3.3kw @ 30v…

Sorry Mr. Potatohead….3.3kw @ 480v

A penny getting 3.3kw @ 30v…

Rotary spark gap, fed the same 12kv @ a quarter amp.

Steel wool getting 3.3kw @ 30v…

Telephone Melodies!!

FastMHz — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:23:06 +0000

When I was a kid, I spent countless hours playing with an old telephone rigged up with a 9v battery, so it wouldn’t dial anything for real. I found that the DTMF tones approximated some musical notes, and figured out the series of numbers to press to actually make music. Keep in mind that I was not even a teenager yet when I figured these out, so most are children’s songs. Thankfully, I actually took the time to type them up on my 286 and still have all those files retrieved from 5 1/4 disks

Here’s the actual notes to play:
Phone Music PDF

And MP3s of some of the songs:
Birthday.mp3
JingleBells.mp3
Boat.mp3
Mary.mp3
London.mp3
Sleeping.mp3
Beethoven.mp3
Farm.mp3
Twinkle.mp3

ENJOY!!!