The Electronics Test

[JW Insider]

After my father died during but not from COVID, my mother moved from their house to a two bedroom apartment then to a one bedroom and now to a smaller one-bedroom. Even THAT won’t always keep your housing costs level, this being California. 
So I am out here in California helping her “keep her eye simple” tossing out stuff she wishes she could keep. There is a stack of electronics magazines in which my dad wrote articles which I already got for her a year ago in PDF and she has never looked at any of them anyway, not even the physical copies. My father also has a couple inventions to his name (via Univ of Missouri) and I was hoping to find prototypes at least. 
I’ll talk about two things I did find. One is shown in a video next.  IMG_3282.MOV  

 

[JW Insider]

With reference to the above video I just took I remember that my father made this same circuit on transparent plexiglass so that students could look at all the wires and switch and bulb from underneath and from all sides. It’s not as impressive on a wooden board but the idea is still there. It should represent the most simple circuit possible but very few electronics lab students could figure out why this one doesn’t work as expected. You break the circuit and the light goes on instead of off. 

Any guesses?

[JW Insider]

The other one is in bad shape and doesn’t work any more. The university of Missouri at Columbia and Chicago University might still have one. 
it is a ball (a 6 inch steel globe penny bank) that I had painted to be like way the Apollo astronauts photographed the earth from space. 
It hangs in mid air and you can take a stick or ruler to all sides and above and below and show that it is not attached to anything. You can even spin it and it keeps spinning on its North Pole / South Pole axis. Below the display is a sign that says “He hangs the earth upon nothing.” — Job 26:7. 
 

My dad often told the story of how some students would see it and wonder what the job number referred to.

it’s a little easier to guess how this one works. 

[Thinking]

5 hours ago, JW Insider said:

After my father died during but not from COVID, my mother moved from their house to a two bedroom apartment then to a one bedroom and now to a smaller one-bedroom. Even THAT won’t always keep your housing costs level, this being California. 
So I am out here in California helping her “keep her eye simple” tossing out stuff she wishes she could keep. There is a stack of electronics magazines in which my dad wrote articles which I already got for her a year ago in PDF and she has never looked at any of them anyway, not even the physical copies. My father also has a couple inventions to his name (via Univ of Missouri) and I was hoping to find prototypes at least. 
I’ll talk about two things I did find. One is shown in a video next. 

IMG_3282.MOV 15.69 MB · 0 downloads

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking forward to your next post on this and I’m Terribly sorry about your dad. also feel awfully sorry for your mum..so many losses on all fronts …too sad too sad….

[TrueTomHarley]

7 hours ago, JW Insider said:

My dad often told the story of how many students would see it and wonder what the job number referred to.

Now I see where that Mission Impossible line came from.

[Anna]

8 hours ago, JW Insider said:

this same circuit on transparent plexiglass so that students could look at all the wires and switch and bulb from underneath and from all sides. It’s not as impressive on a wooden board

So I am assuming there were no wires running underneath that when the switch was raised closed the circuit...? and the top wires were made of non conducting material just to throw you off? I suppose not. I am completely  confused and puzzled 🤪

[JW Insider]

56 minutes ago, Anna said:

So I am assuming there were no wires running underneath that when the switch was raised closed the circuit...? and the top wires were made of non conducting material just to throw you off? I suppose not. I am completely  confused and puzzled 🤪

No wires under the switch or going through the switch, and the switch is completely replaceable with any other switch. The light and power source are also replaceable with any standard light or power source. He just used this one because it looks the most like the way a switch is drawn in a schematic circuit diagram.

But even if there were, it might still be difficult to explain how closing the switch turns the light off and opening it turns it on.

[Pudgy]

…. my guess is the white wire has two conductors which takes the electricity to and from the light bulb, and the black wire from the bulb to the switch shorts out the circuit back to the step down transformer, and the light goes dark.

The transformer looks hefty enough with enough radiative surface to take an intermittant short circuit heat overload.

That looks like 12v automotive light bulb with a bayonet pin, and a 120v to 12v step down doorbell transformer.

I cannot tell if the light has one filament, or two. If it has two, there will be two contacts on the base and two circuits for (+) and (+), sometimes as two buttons, and sometimes as concentric conductors, separated by an insulating ceramic,  and a common (-), or “ground”.

A photo of the connections to the light bulb, sharp and clear, would be helpful. Also the connections on the primary and secondary side (4 wires) of the transformer.

I have other theories that would depend on the transformer being 6v instead of 12v.

 

[JW Insider]

That's close enough. The trick is done pretty much per your idea, but with a hidden diode, maybe two diodes on one of the designs.

Ours is not to wonder why. Ours is but to duo-diode.

-- famous old expression my dad used to say

 

I'm going to try to take this one home, although I'm sure I'll have to leae early to explain to the security at the airport that a step-down trnsformer isn't a bomb.

[Pudgy]

Ok, i thought about a diode, but I assumed the circuit was completely identified, with no hidden components. Was the diode in the AC taped connection on the primary side of the transformer?

WERE there two conductors in the white wire to the light?

[Pudgy]

When you get home, if you could sketch a circuit diagram of what is really going on here, and photograph it with your smartphone, and attach it with an explanation, it would really help me. 

I have several theories that I need to dismiss.

One involves a mutiny proving mathmatically there was definitely  a second key to the refrigerator by counting scoops of strawberries.

[Pudgy]

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