DIYbio:Notebook/Open Gel Box 2.0/2009/01/30

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 * style="background-color: #EEE"|[[Image:owwnotebook_icon.png|128px]] Gel Box/Accessory Power Supply Conference Call
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 * style="background-color: #F2F2F2" align="center"|  |Main project page


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Open Gel Box 2.0 conference call 2009-01-30

 * notes by *jcline@ieee.org 16:54, 30 January 2009 (EST)

Discussion on gel box and p/s design:

Goals for gel box & related: --- "ease of use for hobbyist"; professional equip is meant to run 1000's of times;  hobby equipment may run 100 times; different cost model. May want lower up front with higher run rate cost, if it makes sense.
 * 1) standardization; pick what we want, have everyone use it; get everyone on the same page for experimental results, etc.
 * 2) safety; pick the best reagents & components for safety
 * 3) Compare up front costs -vs- run rate costs


 * (Norman) Result of gel box are going into biz plan competition
 * (Norman) standardizing the power supply to power multiple components (gel box, thermocycler, etc.)
 * (Mac) http://www.ponoko.com/ - open source manufacturing
 * (Jonathan) Look at discovery channel dna explorer for business target volumes and costs

Reasons for building a custom supply:
 * 1) (norman) wants to supply the illuminator, etc as well; peripheral support (LEDs, peltier device)
 * 2) presumed lower cost?  TBD.
 * 3) (tito) experimenting with different voltages for those designing the gel box (however end user won't need variable voltages?)

Power requirement:
 * 1) Norman's results show 60v, 90v, 120v
 * 2) Norman's results show 100mA is sufficient

Why use a variable supply? Fixed supply is OK.
 * 1)  (Norman) fixed supply anywhere in the range 90-120 for "FAST RUN"
 * 2)  (Norman) fixed supply anywhere in the range 60v for "SLOW RUN"
 * 3)  (Tito) would like to test "better faster gels" (would need 300v)  -- wait on the results on this; this will "gel system 3.0", not now


 * (Jonathan) philip is building the experimenter-supply for ~300VDC variable output; coming soon
 * (Jonathan) try the nixie supply for ~150V-180VDC for experimenting


 * (Tito) Where can I buy a supply right now w/o any electronics construction that does this? Only found this one: http://educationalscience.com/merchant.ihtml?merchantid=4&pid=3178&step=4&passwordstatus=:passwordstatus
 * (Jonathan) At $100 seems cheap. Price makes sense because of manufacturing volume.  Not a lot of volume for this voltage range ~100v supply.
 * (Jonathan) closest other method is to use +12V supply into off-the-shelf inverter to 120VAC then use a bridge+RC to filter to ~90VDC.

What other peripherals might need to be connected?


 * (Jonathan) Also see, the DIY spectrophotometer; possible "peripheral" to "gel system".

http://www.rsc.org/Education/EiC/issues/2007Sept/BuildYourOwnSpectrophotometer.asp
 * (Jonathan) customer wants a full set of equipment to use in the lab


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