pic: Secret part of my newest vexbot

[Tytus Gerrish]

loading photo ...

[Michelle Celio]

if anyone can accurately guess what it's for, you are one smart cookie.

Isn't it a part of a microwave. We had things that looked very similar in room last year (like 10?) and they told me it was part of a microwave.

[Jeff Rodriguez]

Yeah, that's a magnetron.
His new robot won't just retrieve your food, it will heat it up on the way.

[thegathering]

Looks like a microwave magnetron.

*edit* oops someone he beat me to it *edit*

[Tristan Lall]

She's absolutely right. It's a magnetron.

So, what do you need that for?

[thegathering]

Originally Posted by Tristan Lall

So, what do you need that for?

Cooking enemy robots... perhaps soldering on the fly?

[Bill_Hancoc]

Originally Posted by thegathering

Cooking enemy robots... perhaps soldering on the fly?

A microwave works by exciting the h20 particles in the food creating heat.... so soldering is out.....thats why you cant heat a potato chip in the mircowave

[Andrew Blair]

Microwaves also excite silicon carbide, thats how microwave crucibles work. A portable metal casting robot?

[Cody Carey]

A death-ray?

[Dylan]

Microwaves are built so that the magnetrons will not turn on with the door open, because the radiation is harmful to humans.

That being said, I'm going with Cody's death ray guess.

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by Dylan

Microwaves are built so that the magnetrons will not turn on with the door open, because the radiation is harmful to humans.

Actually, we've been using microwaves for line-of-sight radio relay communications for quite some time now. Any time you see a radio tower that looks like the picture below, it's actually a microwave radio relay tower. Usually they are painted red and white.

(Actually, it was a technician who was servicing a magnetron that noticed that microwaves "cook" things, as his peanut candy bar became the first microwaved food. )



So here's the question: is Tytus developing the world's first Vex space satellite?

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Before we get too crazy here, the microwave used for communication is a relatively low power device connected to some high gain, directional antennas. Most are not harmful unless you choose to climb the tower and stand in front of it. Radar installations create more power than these in the picture. For those of you who are RF inclined, the brass cylinder sticking out the top of the magnetron is actually a 1/4 wave antenna used to couple energy into the cavity of the microwave.

Please Tytus, tell me you were careful when you extracted the device from an oven. There is some really high voltage capacitors that can hold a charge for quite a while that are connected to the magnetron.

[thegathering]

Originally Posted by Bill_Hancoc

A microwave works by exciting the h20 particles in the food creating heat.... so soldering is out.....thats why you cant heat a potato chip in the mircowave

Not enough H2O in the air

There still should be enough water in the battery soln. to cook the robots...

[Alekat]

Originally Posted by Bill_Hancoc

A microwave works by exciting the h20 particles in the food creating heat.... so soldering is out.....thats why you cant heat a potato chip in the mircowave

First, I gotta try that. Second, if microwaves excite H20 then why the reaction with metal?

It seems like any bot safely using a magnetron would be rather large for a vex bot. Unless it's not made to move, but make you're existing microwave more awesome.

[Tytus Gerrish]

Originally Posted by Alekat

First, I gotta try that. Second, if microwaves excite H20 then why the reaction with metal?

It seems like any bot safely using a magnetron would be rather large for a vex bot. Unless it's not made to move, but make you're existing microwave more awesome.

metals reflect microwave and raido waves a microwave oven produces a frequincy of 2.45GHZ the wavelegnth is between 12cm and 13cm. thats why your microwave oven at home has a perforated peice of metal in its window. becasue microwaves can't pass through it.