catch23

I know this isn't exactly a motors question, but related since it'll be attached to a bldc motor.

It seems like most places that sell planetary gear reducers are built for stepper motors or small-time robotics. Are there places that would sell planetary gearboxes for bike or go kart applications? I don't care too much about shaft sizes since I can always use a lovejoy jaw coupler adapter.

The house is pretty old and it's unlikely I could locate a new register similar to the ones around the house. Is there a new register or enclosure that could work here without significantly modifying everything?

This is what the baseboard register looks like: http://i.imgur.com/k2lXQlj.jpg

As a newcomer to stoicism, are there techniques to help visualize negative scenarios? I wonder if it is better to visualize a situation that has a chance of happening, or to visualize a significantly worse scenario that has a very very small chance of happening? For example, when stuck in traffic, should I visualize that someone rear-ends my car, or should I visualize that a log falls off a truck adjacent to mine crushing my car and rendering me a cripple?

Is there a chip that does zero cross detection for AC circuits? I'm looking for a chip that does essentially this: http://www.dextrel.net/diyzerocrosser.htm but in the simplicity of a package so that it's easier to use if I need a bunch of them.

I've been looking for a simple way to control the speed of an ac motor. Many circuits I've looked at have a simple triac & diac to control the pulses. Why couldn't I use something like a solid state relay which already contains a triac inside? If I quickly switch the SSR on & off, does that cause wear that is different than switching the triac on/off?

How would I ground my ESD mat if I live in an old apartment complex that doesn't have an AC ground? I only have hot & neutral wires in my electrical sockets.

Is there something like mouser, but for motors? On mouser there isn't a very large selection of dc motors. There are some hobby shops that sell that stuff, but it's really hard to search by a specific spec, like torque or power requirement etc. I really like the power search on mouser/digikey for other discrete components, but they don't have a good selection of motors.

I'm wondering why all the 240V high amperage relays are all solid state relays? It seems like it would be a lot cheaper to make those electromechanical relays instead. Also, could someone recommend a good relay for switching around 240V @ 50A of power? It would also be nice if the switching pole can be done at 5V.

This is in reference to the "new" power adapter from MIT:

http://phys.org/news/2013-12-circuit-laptop-charger-brick.html

Paper: http://www.rle.mit.edu/per/JournalPapers/JPtpejun09p1654.pdf

How does this brick work differently than our usual dc-dc converters? Will this work its way down to smaller discrete components that we can buy on mouser/digikey that can be used in our own designs?

Rather than build my own switching regulator all the time, are there cheap modules that do this? I feel like I could hack up one of those chinese wall warts for less than it costs for me to build one myself. Those things regularly go for $5-10 on ebay. I'd rather have a little module I can just solder on to my stripboard when I do A/C projects. It's somewhat costly buying transformers, bridge diodes ICs, and switching reg ICs individually on mouser; not to mention the amount of work to solder that stuff just to get a 12V output.