Taming Lester 5

It's tempting to take another photo of today's work, but to the untrained eye it would just look like more wiring spaghetti. Suffice it to say, I integrated the phase control breadboard with the skeleton of the Lester, and managed to run the charger with the new controller chip. Starting with 12 volts and working my way up to 120, the circuit performed as designed and expected. I spent some time fine tuning component values so that I can begin construction of the permanent circuit board. I don't think I'll try the charger at 240 volts until I get rid of the clip lead hell that the setup is now. Too many chances to a tiny short circuit to turn into a big ball of plasma.

Amazingly, I haven't fried a single component. Usually, I cook a few things while breadboarding, which is why I usually purchase more than one of any IC's that I'm experimenting with.

Looks like I may have nailed down a source for some heavy cable for the charger output, more on that when it arrives.

Part 6