Getting cold...

'bout week ago we were riding around northern Arkansas with some pals. It was not exactly freezing but it sure was freaking cold in the morning(s).

Ok, it was below freezing but not much.

One of us had electrically heated clothes so he was the only one feeling warm and cozy no matter how cold the weather got.

Now when I checked the prices of such clothing, it made me think "How hard could it be"...
I definitely will not pay $1k for socks, gloves, vest and pants. No way!

Google found me some DIYers who have made heated clothes out of 30gauge hook up wire. I formed a plan to make heated insoles for my boots with such wire.

I told about this idea to fellow tinkerer Esko and he found one company, in internet of course (http://www.ec-securehost.com/PelicanWireCo.Inc./Insulated_Resistance_Wire.html), who sells heater wire (or resistance wire).
I just ordered 50ft spool of "33 Gauge 3/38 Stranded Midohm/Alloy 180 w/8 Mils Tefzel"

In plain English that is 0.18mm diameter teflon (PTFE) insulated nickel+copper wire with nominal resistance of 3.572ohm per foot. Thin enough to me sewn into jacket liner etc. with a needle.

For controlling the heat I already have, from my flight simulator project, a pcb board with Microchip PIC 18F2580. That combined with logic level mosfets and some pwm-code will do a nice heat controller.



Stay tuned...

Popular posts from this blog

Yeah!

Smoke on the wat....

Hiljaista tällä rintamalla...