DebateGate
General Category => 3DHS => Topic started by: Henny on January 13, 2008, 05:33:16 PM
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Help!
I have tried to use 3 different cordless mice with my notebook running Vista. None are recognized. I've used Microsoft and Logitech models, all Vista certified. Currently, I'm trying the Logitech V200 Notebook Mouse.
I know how to install a cordless mouse and about reset buttons, etc. The problem is definitely related to either the notebook or Vista. Any suggestions on how I can get a cordless mouse to work?
(As a side note, I have had no problem with other cordless devices such as a cordless number pad.)
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I looked at some help forums and they're having the same problem.
I googled "how to get a cordless mouse to work with Vista" and many people were asking the same question.
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My Bluetooth mouse worked right out of the box with Vista.
One question: which version of Vista are you using? Some versions don't have all the software.
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vista tain`t doing well
I can`t load flash on mine
I have to use mozilla to run any streaming
and I can`t even use dvix encoder which says it`s vista compatable
I kinda window shop at tigerdirect and when I see a computer on sale and if it says vista i don`t look any further and I skip it.
I hear some companies are making xp computers now.
I only know one person who likes it
but she kinda don`t count ,because she`s a programmer and she know how to disable all the annoying stuff to the point it`s a great OS.
I`m nowhere good enough to even try to do that.
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I have previously sworn NEVER to buy any Microsoft product until it is into the second edition.
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seriously XO
good policy
vista despite the news is not doing well
vista is very limiting to alot of people
p.s. defraging takes longer and it has no progress display .
but the media software is pretty good though
I can actually see movies
xp tend to be hit or miss.
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One problem is that there are far too many versions of Vista, each with its own price. It seems as though that they made an ideal Super Professional Corporate Droid version for $499, and then dumbed then others down by removing features. If you buy Vista installed, you don't actually get a disk to reinstall, and lots of companies stuff bloatware thet I would not want under any circumstances, like a 30-day trial version of Symantic or McAffee. I do not need the "gift that keeps on taking."
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If you buy Vista installed, you don't actually get a disk to reinstall,
They install a "recovery" partition. You can use this partition to rebuild the system, or if you're paranoid enough, you can make a disk from the recovery partition and use THAT to rebuild the system.
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They install a "recovery" partition. You can use this partition to rebuild the system, or if you're paranoid enough, you can make a disk from the recovery partition and use THAT to rebuild the system.
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If your HD is toast, so is the partition. Maybe one in 50 users will know how to make that DVD disk and use it.
A disk could not cost more than a couple of bucks more. You need the pass code to reload Windows disk. They deliberately don't ship it out of a desire to profit from the nearly inevitable screw-ups than can happen for hundreds of reasons.
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If your HD is toast, so is the partition.
Depends on what the problem is.
Maybe one in 50 users will know how to make that DVD disk and use it.
I like how you assume most of the people around you are idiots.
Of course, I've always been of the opinion that if you don't understand a machine, you shouldn't be using it.
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Of course, I've always been of the opinion that if you don't understand a machine, you shouldn't be using it.
you got no idea how many people break that rule.
I hear a decent percent of ipod owners never take it out of the box,because they got no idea how to use it.
this goes with alot of devices.
I can`t describe how hard it is to explain to people that all media devices ,blank media(cd,dvd) measure storage in bytes not time like tape does
it doesn`t help the disc actualy has the minutes on it
700mb=80min.
remember there is no real manuel for computers
it`s all implied you have prior knowledge.
and the reality of the ratio people with tech knowledge in the general population is a whole lot smaller than we think
in my family located near frikkin silicon valley.
you would think we would have alot of techies in our family.
I`m the only one in the whole batch
I built 3 and maintained pretty much everybody
I never finished my A+
I still don`t understand how I`m the tech guy.
even at work,which has a IT dept. people go to me for help.
but back to the subject,people are way less tech savy than we think
we assume that kids are good with it
not really
they are good are operating it,but lousy at understanding how it works.
my nephew is a wiz at operating any device,but if it breaks it`s in the trash he got no idea how to get it working again
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Of course, I've always been of the opinion that if you don't understand a machine, you shouldn't be using it.
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This is rather a silly proposition. Most people shouldn't be driving a car or playing CD's by that criteria. Most people have only a smattering of knowledge about how electricity works.
You can verify this by asking them why it is a flashlight won't work at all when you turn the batteries around backwards, but you can make an electric motor spin backwards by reversing the wires.
Perhaps you can explain this, but I doubt if one in 500 average Americans can.
I suppose you, maximum genius that you are, can somehow reveal the source code for Windows and rewrite it to suit you, hence justifying your ability to use it.
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A genius is always a step ahead.
For instance, when applying for Mensa membership, a genius will already have the attitude.
Once, in amidst study of a particular type, I was surrounded by a lot of pre-legal types.
One used to tell me that his uncle, a top Baltimore lawyer, told him to get into discussions and practice arguing either side.
Republican pre-science types work along the same mein--they practice arguing on the absurd side, hoping that will prepare them when they get to be a scientist with a stamped degree, and can make the big bucks writings papers absurdly denying global warming.
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The reason to debate the 'absurd side' of an issue is to develop skills at debating. But it also causes the person doing it to see the issue in a broader perspective. The Roman Catholic Church probably came up with this technique when hammering out a philosophical dogma for Christianity, which was somewhat necessary because Jesus was no philosopher, and would have been quite offended to have been accused of being one.
Debating skills are the same thing as sophistry, which is what Socrates (who disliked Sophists) called 'the ability to make the lesser cause seem to be the greater cause.'
Tobacco farming has allowed thousands of poor Carolina and Kentucky farmers to send their kids to college, for example. If they had been growing rutabagas or pole beans, they could have probably not even been able to buy a tractor or feed the mule.
Of course, if they grew poppies or marijuana, they could have sent the little buggers on to medical school as well.
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This is rather a silly proposition. Most people shouldn't be driving a car or playing CD's by that criteria. Most people have only a smattering of knowledge about how electricity works.
OK. That doesn't change my opinion; if you don't understand (in basic principal) how a car works, you shouldn't operate one. I made sure my daughter knew the basics of how a car operates (she can change the oil, tires, replace brake shoes and pads, and diagnose many common car problems, and identify all major components, what they do, and explain in principle how internal combustion engines and several transmissions work) before she got her license. Same for any other machinery.
You can verify this by asking them why it is a flashlight won't work at all when you turn the batteries around backwards, but you can make an electric motor spin backwards by reversing the wires.
Perhaps you can explain this, but I doubt if one in 500 average Americans can.
Well, you'll have to explain about the flashlight one, because in principle it should work, and in actuality it works fine on all of my flashlights around the house (I just tested 'em, they all work with the batteries reversed). Well, I didn't test the rechargeables, because I didn't want to break into their battery cases, though I would understand why they would no longer *charge* if the battery were reversed.
A DC motor usually works backwards when you reverse the wires, however, it can be designed to turn the same way regardless of the polarity - indeed, that is how an AC motor works.
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Well, you'll have to explain about the flashlight one, because in principle it should work, and in actuality it works fine on all of my flashlights around the house (I just tested 'em, they all work with the batteries reversed).
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You have some unusual flashlights. None of mine will do this. I suspect you are making up trying this out.
Put the batteries in your TV remote upside down, or your MR3 player, or any portable radio.
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You have some unusual flashlights. None of mine will do this. I suspect you are making up trying this out.
Gee, how did I know you were gonna say this? I even recorded myself doing it with one of my "el cheapo" flashlights, just to prove I did it for you. Youtube video (http://youtube.com/watch?v=zrE8SHvBVoc) - pardon the graininess, I just used the webcam on my computer.
Put the batteries in your TV remote upside down, or your MR3 player, or any portable radio.
Well, that's a completely different situation. None of those are only incandescent bulbs and switches. Those all have devices in them that require specific polarity (the chips).
Hey, you were the one that came up with the suggestion, and then never explained it. Why does a flashlight not work if you reverse the batteries? Are you not going to explain yourself?
(BTW, I can explain why *some* flashlights might not work if you do this, but it's really a design flaw.)
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Hey, you were the one that came up with the suggestion, and then never explained it. Why does a flashlight not work if you reverse the batteries? Are you not going to explain yourself?
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It was your contention that no one should use a device that they did not understand.
It is my contention that if this were indeed true, almost no one would use any device.
Look, if you just take a couple of wires, a battery and a bulb, you will see that the bottom of the bulb must be connected to the + or the top nipple-thing of the battery and the side of the bulb must be connected to the - terminal of the battery (that is the bottom of the battery) for the bulb to produce light.
Flashlights work in the same exact way, and I suspect for the same reason, but they use the sides of the flashlight rather than wires and have a simple switch.
Your car won't start if you connect the battery backwards, but don't try this, as you will fry the computer of any modern car. It wasn't good for cars back in the days of 6-volt systems and generators, either, but it is a lot worse on alternator syates, as it destroyed the diode in the alternator as a rule.
The bulb will not be damaged of you use the wrong polarity, but it will not glow at all.
Why is this? I am not sure, but it is a fact, and we all use flashlights and I have never heard anyone explain why this is so. Which, I think proves my point: namely that we all use devices without a complete knowledge of why they work.
Electrical engineers I have known, when asked this question have generally given the following answer: "I am not a hardware man", an answer I consider to be unsatisfactory.
I continue to believe that you did not try reversing any batteries in any of your flashlights. Had you done so, you would not be saying that only defectively designed ones fail to work with the batteries reversed.
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Look, if you just take a couple of wires, a battery and a bulb, you will see that the bottom of the bulb must be connected to the + or the top nipple-thing of the battery and the side of the bulb must be connected to the - terminal of the battery (that is the bottom of the battery) for the bulb to produce light.
Actually, that's not true. An incandescent bulb has no polarity, you can connect either terminal to positive, and the other to negative, and it will glow. That's why they work with AC, which has a reversing polarity.
Perhaps you SHOULDN'T be using a flashlight?
I continue to believe that you did not try reversing any batteries in any of your flashlights. Had you done so, you would not be saying that only defectively designed ones fail to work with the batteries reversed.
Did you watch the video of me doing it?
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Did you watch the video of me doing it?
And another video, this one with sound -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIoGAXolNE0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIoGAXolNE0)
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And, from a electrical primer:
For many purposes polarity is unimportant. Conventional light bulbs, for example, work by the heat generated when electricity is passed through a resistance and as such the direction of current flow is irrelevant.
There are other items however where the polarity matters. Some electric motors, for example, will turn in the wrong direction if the supply is reversed.
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Look, if you just take a couple of wires, a battery and a bulb, you will see that the bottom of the bulb must be connected to the + or the top nipple-thing of the battery and the side of the bulb must be connected to the - terminal of the battery (that is the bottom of the battery) for the bulb to produce light.
That is not necessarily true - it is just the easiest way to provide a positive and negative terminal for use in the flashlight. The bulb itself, if it is a plain incandescent bulb, could care less which way you connect it, and will work either way. An LED (light emitting diode - see below) will not, as they must have the polarity correct; also, the small xenon bulbs used in Maglites may be polarity sensitive (I don't remember, and I'm too lazy to pull my Maglite apart to check it - I do know the bulb you are supposed to use in the flashlight is supposed to correespond to the number of cells [batteries] used in the flashlight). But a regular, incandescent bulb will work both ways.
Your car won't start if you connect the battery backwards, but don't try this, as you will fry the computer of any modern car. It wasn't good for cars back in the days of 6-volt systems and generators, either, but it is a lot worse on alternator syates, as it destroyed the diode in the alternator as a rule.
That is because diodes and computer chips are polarity sensitive devices. They are supposed to only work one way.
The bulb will not be damaged of you use the wrong polarity, but it will not glow at all.
Why is this? I am not sure, but it is a fact, and we all use flashlights and I have never heard anyone explain why this is so. Which, I think proves my point: namely that we all use devices without a complete knowledge of why they work.
Wrong. See above.
Electrical engineers I have known, when asked this question have generally given the following answer: "I am not a hardware man", an answer I consider to be unsatisfactory.
Then they are either not electrical engineers, or they are the stupidest electrical engineers in the world.
I continue to believe that you did not try reversing any batteries in any of your flashlights. Had you done so, you would not be saying that only defectively designed ones fail to work with the batteries reversed.
Ami was right. I spent over 25 years working in electronics. If you're still having trouble getting it to work, you may be defective.
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By the way, you can't normally get the batteries to work backwards inside a normal flashlight - the raised tip on the + side of the battery fits into a cup on the base of the reflector assembly, so if you try to put the flat base of the battery (the - side) against it, the raised edges of the cup will keep the battery from making contact.
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also, the small xenon bulbs used in Maglites may be polarity sensitive
No, they're not.
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By the way, you can't normally get the batteries to work backwards inside a normal flashlight - the raised tip on the + side of the battery fits into a cup on the base of the reflector assembly, so if you try to put the flat base of the battery (the - side) against it, the raised edges of the cup will keep the battery from making contact.
Some flashlights are designed this way, but many more are not - they will either just use the base of the bulb as the contact (which is a little nub) or the contact area at the bottom of the reflector is just flat.
I've pulled many batteries out of flashlights over the years where the nub at the top was dented in by the nub at the base of the bulb, when the battery was in the flashlight for an extended period of time.
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By incandescent bulb, I mean the sort of DC bulb one finds in a flashlight, not an AC bulb in a 110 V lamp. AC current will work either way, but DC won't.
Alas, I am at the Univ., and I cannot access YouTube here. I shall have to go home before I can watch your amazing demo.
I know that LED's will not work with reversed polarity, but again, I do not know why this is. I still, however, feel eminently qualified to continue to use my LED flashlights with impunity.
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Your car won't start if you connect the battery backwards, but don't try this, as you will fry the computer of any modern car. It wasn't good for cars back in the days of 6-volt systems and generators, either, but it is a lot worse on alternator syates, as it destroyed the diode in the alternator as a rule.
That is because diodes and computer chips are polarity sensitive devices. They are supposed to only work one way.
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In agree that this is true with modern cars. But my 1951 Chevy Master Deluxe had nary a diode nor a computer chip nor even a transitor in it, and would not start with the battery in backwards. As I recall, when I purchased a new battery once, the yokel at the station stuck the battery in wrong, and all that was produced was the smell of burning insulation, which continued until the battery was turned around the right way.\
This car had a generator, not an alternator.
A logical mind might have assumed that this would have caused the starter to turn backwards, and yet nothing like this occurred. I have no ancient vehicles upon which to repeat this lame experiment.
Again, my original contention is that most people use equipment every day that they do not understand.
If one were to interview all 600 passengers of a huge airbus, I wager that not one would be likely to explain how it was that this heavy thing could possibly fly. I would think that the Pilot wand Copilot and Navigator might have a clue as to how an airfoil works, though.
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By incandescent bulb, I mean the sort of DC bulb one finds in a flashlight, not an AC bulb in a 110 V lamp. AC current will work either way, but DC won't.
Incandescent bulbs will work with either AC or DC. You just gotta match up the voltage and current correctly. Notice that Christmas tree bulbs sold will work on either the regular AC type string, or the fancier strings that flash the lights in varying patterns that run on DC or batteries. Same bulb, works with both AC and DC. Because, polarity does not matter with incandescent light bulbs.
I know that LED's will not work with reversed polarity, but again, I do not know why this is. I still, however, feel eminently qualified to continue to use my LED flashlights with impunity.
Because they're "light emitting DIODES" and as a solid state circuit, they are polarity dependent.
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If one were to interview all 600 passengers of a huge airbus, I wager that not one would be likely to explain how it was that this heavy thing could possibly fly. I would think that the Pilot wand Copilot and Navigator might have a clue as to how an airfoil works, though.
I'll take that bet. You do the interviews.
I'm not like you, who thinks that nearly everyone is much dumber than he is.
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I got a better one ask people at work how much music a blank cd can hold.
megabytes as I explained before is not easy to teach.
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...my 1951 Chevy Master Deluxe had nary a diode nor a computer chip nor even a transitor in it, and would not start with the battery in backwards. As I recall, when I purchased a new battery once, the yokel at the station stuck the battery in wrong, and all that was produced was the smell of burning insulation, which continued until the battery was turned around the right way.\
This car had a generator, not an alternator.
A logical mind might have assumed that this would have caused the starter to turn backwards, and yet nothing like this occurred. I have no ancient vehicles upon which to repeat this lame experiment.
The starter wouldn't need diodes, transistors or computer chips. They are simple electric motors. Put the juice to 'em, they turn. The starter is either wired to only go one way, or mechanically prevented from running backwards. That was probably the case with your old starter motor, because the engine it was supposed to turn would only start, and run, one way. If you connected the battery backwards, the current would be running through the motor, which was prevented from turning backwards; eventually it would get hot and, if left long enough, burn up the motor.
Once the engine was started and you let the key return to the 'run' position, the starter motor would shut off because it was no longer needed. Then the generator would take over to generate the power needed to run the lights, radio, etc., as well as provide power to the points and plugs to run the motor. It also provided AC power that was converted to DC, the voltage regulated back to about 12 volts DC, and used to recharge the battery. The conversion back to DC is where the diodes come in. They are used in bridge rectifiers, to convert AC to DC. Diodes, or rectifiers, have been around since before the turn of the century, so I'm not certain you could be so sure your old '51 DeSoto, or Edsel, or Studebaker, or whatever, didn't have one, or two, or several.
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It also provided AC power that was converted to DC,
Pretty good description. Only quibble is that the power produced was not AC, but pulsating DC. Both can be used to energize transformers.
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Look at the signal on an o'scope from a generator - it's a sine wave. AC.
A solid state DC/AC converter gives the 'square wave' I think you are referring to as 'pulsating DC', and yes, it can be used pretty much like regular 'sine wave' AC.
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Look at the signal on an o'scope from a generator - it's a sine wave. AC.
A generator produces DC. An alternator produces AC.
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You might want to grab a basic electrical theory book and check that. A generator, driven smoothly at a constant speed, produces a smooth sine wave - pure AC. That's what you've got coming into your house, once it's been stepped up and down a few times. Simply put, the voltage rises smoothly as the motor (belt, whatever) turns the windings on the shaft of the generator past the stationary coils until they reach the point where the voltage peaks, then begins to drop smoothly as the windings continue turning. The voltage will go 'negative' just as smoothly, until it reaches the maximum 'negative' peak, then begin to rise again. You get a smooth AC sine wave, something like this ~ (tilde, in case the forum won't print it right).
A DC/AC converter, whether solid state or vacuum tube, takes the DC voltage and chops it up into a square wave - hard to do that on a keyboard. Since it switches almost instantly, the leading and trailing edges of the wave are almost completely squared off. As you step it up or down to get the voltage you want, it will appear slightly less 'square', but will never be a perfect sine wave without more circuitry to refine it and shape it.
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Don't know why I didn't think of this earlier...
Sine wave
(http://www.aecs.net/images/product%20images/704%20sine%20wave%20zoom2.jpg)
Square wave
(http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9G_bDqLrI5HO04A9wqjzbkF/SIG=132op6372/EXP=1200619019/**http%3A//www.6moons.com/audioreviews/dartzeel2/Square%2520Wave%25201%2520kHz.gif)
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You might want to grab a basic electrical theory book and check that. A generator, driven smoothly at a constant speed, produces a smooth sine wave - pure AC.
Early motor vehicles tended to use DC generators with electromechanical regulators. These were not particularly reliable or efficient and have now been replaced by alternators with built-in rectifier circuits.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_generator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_generator)
An alternator is an electromechanical device that converts mechanical energy to alternating current electrical energy. Most alternators use a rotating magnetic field but linear alternators are occasionally used. In principle, any AC electrical generator can be called an alternator, but usually the word refers to small rotating machines driven by automotive and other internal combustion engines.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternator)
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http://www.howstuffworks.com/
A lightbulb of the type that Edison invented has a small coil of tungsten wire enclosed in an airless glass bulb, when current passes through it, it's resistance causes heat ,and when hot enough, light, this is called an incandescent light .
http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/promotions/change_light/downloads/Fact_Sheet_Mercury.pdf
A florescent light has a tubecoated with phosphorescent material and encloses a pure gas at a very low pressure and has a little coil of wire at each end , last but not least it has a tiny bit of mercury. A high voltage spark from the "ballast" is necessary to kick the bulb over from its cold unconductive state to a conductive plasma, once this is done a very small amperage at a rather lower voltage is sufficient to keep the gas an mercury vapor in the plasma state. The Plasma gives off ultraviolet very efficiently andvisible light inefficiently but the phosphor coating adzorbs ultraviolet and re-emits visible light .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode
An LED is a diode a simple P/N junction with the addition of doping with material that likes to shed photons when electrons are passing through.
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/diode1.htm
At a P/N junction the P materiel cannot give up electrons without huge voltage but the N type materiel can give up electons aplenty with a mere .7 volt jolt so electrons going from the P type materiel to the N type are going uphill and seem to be blocked , but electrons traveling to the P type from the N type are going downhill and meet little resistance.
Diodes can be arranged in sets that convert AC current to DC and this device is known as a rectifier.
A more complicated device that produce AC from DC is a inverter and are handy to have installed in your work truck.
A generator is generally wired to produce DC and an alternator is wired to produce AC but because an alternator can be made lighter in weight and can produce useable current at lower RPM it is often worthwile to use an alternator and rectifier set as a DC generator.
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There are several ways to wind a generator , but the key difference between a generator made to produce DC and one made for AC is whether it uses slip rings or a commutator.
An alternator is a certain class of generator,this type cannot be wound to produce DC .
The simple generator model is a coil of wire spun in a magnetic field. In the winding of the generator an AC sine wave is produced and if the takeoff is slip rings so is the output. If the takeoff is a comutator or split ring an otherwise identical machine will produce pulsed DC. Split rings convert the sine wave into a current that falls to zero and rises to maximum in sine shaped hills that are always the same polarity. A generator that uses a commutator generallycan be used as a motor when power is applied to it.
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You got a motor, or other drive source. It turns a shaft. The shaft turns a pulley attached to a belt that turns a shaft that is connected to a generator or the shaft from the motor turns the generator directly. The generator produces an AC sine wave.
When I bought one for hurricane season 'way back when, they called it a generator, not an alternator. We had a surplus 400-cycle one to run our emergency lightstands (and coffeepot) when I worked with a volunteer fire department. They called that a generator as well. Power plants use 'em, hooked up to steam turbines or whatever, to produce the power you use in your home. Last I looked, those were generators as well. I really don't care what you call them, but that is what I am talking about. If you want to play word games and 'I got to be right', go ahead. I'm not an auto mechanic, but with over 25 years experience working in the field as an electronics engineer, I'm comfortable I know what I'm talking about.
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You got a motor, or other drive source. It turns a shaft. The shaft turns a pulley attached to a belt that turns a shaft that is connected to a generator or the shaft from the motor turns the generator directly. The generator produces an AC sine wave.
When I bought one for hurricane season 'way back when, they called it a generator, not an alternator. We had a surplus 400-cycle one to run our emergency lightstands (and coffeepot) when I worked with a volunteer fire department. They called that a generator as well. Power plants use 'em, hooked up to steam turbines or whatever, to produce the power you use in your home. Last I looked, those were generators as well. I really don't care what you call them, but that is what I am talking about. If you want to play word games and 'I got to be right', go ahead. I'm not an auto mechanic, but with over 25 years experience working in the field as an electronics engineer, I'm comfortable I know what I'm talking about.
It isn't wrong to call any of them "generator" but " alternator " is a specific type.
400 Hertz is common on Aircraft because the generator and motors and wiring can all be lighter for the same power.
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When I bought one for hurricane season 'way back when, they called it a generator, not an alternator. We had a surplus 400-cycle one to run our emergency lightstands (and coffeepot) when I worked with a volunteer fire department. They called that a generator as well. Power plants use 'em, hooked up to steam turbines or whatever, to produce the power you use in your home. Last I looked, those were generators as well. I really don't care what you call them, but that is what I am talking about. If you want to play word games and 'I got to be right', go ahead. I'm not an auto mechanic, but with over 25 years experience working in the field as an electronics engineer, I'm comfortable I know what I'm talking about.
You were talking about cars, and specifically referenced cars from the 50s. In that situation, when you say "generator" it means DC, and "alternator" means AC. And you were even referencing old cars (pre 1960) which all pretty much had only DC generators. The 60s were a transition period, where some cars had DC generators and others had AC alternators. Pretty much all cars from the 70s on use alternators, because they're lighter and cheaper.
In general, nowadays MOST "generators" produce AC because nearly everything runs on AC. As Plane said, an alternator is a specific type of generator that ONLY produces AC. And since alternators are lighter and cheaper, even "DC generators" are typically alternators with rectifiers and filters for output conditioning.
However, my initial quibble was in regards to older cars with DC generators. In that case, the output is pulsed DC, and not AC. And that was the only thing I said.
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Are all alternators AC? My car runs on DC, I am pretty sure. At least the starter and other devices. It's a Diesel, so it doesn't require any electricity at all for the coil, condenser or spark plugs, because it has none.
Once started with the glow plugs, it will run until the fuel is gone even if the battery is dead.
I was of the opinion that since the starete and other devices in a car were DC, the alternator was DC.
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I was of the opinion that since the starete and other devices in a car were DC, the alternator was DC.
An "alternator" is always AC. You can convert the output to DC, as both Plane and I have said.
That's where it gets it's name - it produces "alternating current (AC)" so it's an "alternator".
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I saw your flashlight demo, and was amazed, because no flashlight I have owned would do this.
None of those I have in the house will, either.
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I saw your flashlight demo, and was amazed, because no flashlight I have owned would do this.
None of those I have in the house will, either.
Possibly ,in your particular flashlights the baterys fit poorly backwars and leave a gap where they need contact.
Or some of them may be LED which does require correct polarity.
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I saw your flashlight demo, and was amazed, because no flashlight I have owned would do this.
None of those I have in the house will, either.
I have 4 emergency kits scattered through the house. Each of them has a flashlight in it, with no batteries installed, but the batteries are stored in the kit with the flashlight (increases battery storage time and prevents corrosion of the contacts in the flashlight). Those flashlights will all work with the batteries installed either way. So, in an emergency, you just have to get the batteries both turned the same way, but it doesn't matter which way that is - simplifies things in an emergency situation.
Although I just thought of something that I'm gonna do now. I'm going to tape the batteries together, so you can just drop the pair in as one unit, but turned either way. Simplifies things even more.
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400 Hertz is common on Aircraft because the generator and motors and wiring can all be lighter for the same power.
The one we picked up at the surplus auction was for a radar unit. Since we were only using it for lights and a coffee pot, it worked out great; couldn't use it on anything that had a regular AC motor, though, because those are wired for 60 Hertz. We also got a small trailer to mount it on, and the lights. It worked great - we had a house fire a few weeks later, at night, and were able to use the floodlights for the recovery and to help the arson investigator (and keep warm with some hot coffee while we waited). The next summer, we had a tornado blow through the next town over and do considerable damage, again at night, and we put it to good use there to help clean up.
The cockpit simulators I worked on had to use 400 Hertz, because we used actual aircraft electronics. Sometimes there were slight modifications to work with our computers, but a lot of the stuff we used was right off the shelf from the military maintenance shop.