Frankenstein Update I

Just a quick update on the Frankenstein project.  It's been slow getting started, but this will be worth it. We wanted to do some proof of concept testing.  So we needed to get a peltier plate in to start working with it.  Well Digikey obliged and we now have this little guy to play with.

Peltier Plate for solid state cooling

This is a small guy, about the size of a stamp, but according to the stats on it, it can really move heat well.  So we will need good cold and hot side sinks to dissipate the thermal load.

Here's a picture of the beer (cold) side thermal conductor.  The hot side I'm just going to grab from the PC graveyard in my basement.

This has a lot of thermal mass.
Planning on cutting this in half and letting the beer cozy
pull the beer can or bottle into a tight fit with the aluminum

The plate we have optimally takes 8.6V and draws 3Amps to perform at it's peak.  Since the batteries we are talking about using are 12V or 18V we need to trim down the voltage reliably and still allow 3A to flow.  For starters, I expect we will experiment using my bench variable power supply, but I found the following power regulator ( Here ) pre-assembled and shipped for about $13.  So I have this on order and are waiting for it to arrive.  

DC to DC 4.5-30V to 0.8-30V 5A Step Down Converter Voltage Regulator

Finally, I've got these guys sitting around that I will start playing with for this project.

Tinyduinos!!  and my sock.

I'm thinking I need another voltage regulator that will drop the voltage to 5V for the tinyduino.  This power regulator looks like it should do the trick at input of up to 32V, 5V output at 500ma.  I'll add this to my shopping cart soon.

P7805-Q24-S5-S  Power Regulator

Well that's the update for today.  Not much progress, but just getting parts.  I'll post again after our session of testing out the plate.

Later,
Ben