tried in-house electrowetting with a ribbon cable, and 30v. it didn’t work.
spoke with deqing-sun about it. he recommended i get a boost-converter, and try it with a copper pcb.
milled a small set of electrodes; checked that they weren’t shorting. ordered the converter & teflon-plumbers-tape to act as a hydrophobic surface.
got boost converter to work:
with teflon tape, the water sparked because of micro-holes.
got it to work! more voltage, cling wrap & olive oil as dielectric layers.
conversation with matt-griffin (260918):
discussed dielectric layers, and possibilities to get a smooth finish on the bottom layer. he recommended kapton tape (which i later got from phil), mineral spirits or mineral oil (to suspend liquid in; and kindly gave me a petri dish too), glycerin, baby shampoo. and brain slides — although expensive — might be a good dielectric layer (and very regular surface).
understanding electrowetting:
watched this lecture by iit-kharagpur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCxPy8wI_lk
my notes (i think i understood enough to not have to write it down again):
limitations:
- if you break the dielectric layer, and current passes, then the ewod is gone (i wonder if that’ll destroy my circuit too). might have to add a fuse.
spoke with phil; who also introduced me to greg-shakar.
phil worked with me to break down my build. for the first prototype, we discussed buying a solid copper rod, cutting it & then putting it on tiny pedestals (either 3-d printed or resin-printed).
- micromark to buy copper.
- lens coat material / thor labs. he told me to think of the dielectric layer as a coating rather than something i paste (like a spray or something).
spoke about using the roller or laminator in the design lab.
260923:
failed with all of these settings:
260925:
found this paper, which shows actuation with saran wrap, peanut oil & a 20-30ul droplet. tried finding peanut oil near 370 jay; no luck. i assume i can do the same with olive (that we have in the kitchen).
burnt my 253v boost converter because i was trying to rush through the experiment.
