Archive Page 2
story time
it went a little something like this:
“there is an old story about Thomas Edison.
Henry Ford was visiting Edison one day,
and found it hard to push open the front gate at Edison’s yard.
When Ford chided the world’s greatest inventor about his rusty gate,
Edison replied Ford had just pumped a gallon of water out of the well!”
- no new ideas, just new implementations.
When visitors came to his house, they passed through a turnstile that had to do enough work to raise a gallon of water to Edison’s roof holding tank.
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I’ve just put together a php page that allows the user to quickly get an idea of what is happening real time as the inDoor Harvester prototype is operating. The left side has a table showing the data collected from a micro – controller attached to the harvester measuring the electricity storage in a capacitor (battery icon) as SI units of Joules. The Arduino stamp micro-controller is connected to the internet via a Lantronix Xport Ethernet port, which it uses to call a php script and pass it the values through the url. The script inserts the values into a mySQL database, provides it an id and a time stamp. The user can choose to sort the data by id, joule values (high to low) and by the date/time it was recorded.
On the right side is a Flash animation showing graphically what is happening. Programed with actionScript 2.0, the animation calls a third php script that grabs the last value posted every 10 seconds. The script controls two movie clips and two dynamic text fields to represent the electricity stored over time, battery level, as well as the amount produced the last time the door was opened and closed, light bulb icon. If the value has not changed, and it may not since the prototype is not installed yet and not constantly running, it will show the same thing over and over.
This is a work in progress and will change as the left and right side get their own pages and expand to include user log-in and multiple graphical representations of the data with resolution control.
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Energy Graph
The available ambient power is the energy produced by the generator as the door opens and closes. Basic testing on the prototype with a dc-gear head motor with a 10:1 gear box and a 1″ spur gear running 12″ along a rack produces approximately 2.5v @ 184mA charging a 1F 5.5v capacitor.
The system power usage is the load on the circuit, which in this prototype is a small LED display pulling 3.3v.
The stored energy is the electrons stored with in a capacitor. The stored energy goes up as the generator is rotated from the door opening and closing. As the door remains either open or closed, the energy in the capacitor is slowly drawn and thus the amount lowers. Therefore, if the door is not moved over an extended period of time the energy stored will eventually be depleted, thus a voltage trigger is crucial.
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here’s a little exercise i did integrating php with a mySQL database. I chose something helpful to the community at ITP – a user generated list of electronic part suppliers. The user can vote for their favorite as well as add something thats not already listed. I hope to expand this to add more detailed notes about for each, shipping info & pricing and make it look better.
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A prototype is born
I built the first rough mock up of the door electricity harvester yesterday to start testing potential output and mechanical issues – and yes, there are some issues to work out. first, the motor needs to be mounted far more securely. Second, the pinion needs to be smaller to provide more revolutions, and the slide needs to be studier – im looking at the rail system with rack from Bosch Rexroth AG.
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testing: 1,2,…18″
- testing my behind door prototype with a pencil attached to an arm marking the linear travel as the door is opened and closed. With the arm attached 9″ out perpendicularly from the door, the arm travels 18″. This is the distance the gear motor could travel along a gear rack (see the flash animation bellow).
From these tests, a basic 2:1 ratio began to emerge from the geometry of the linear travel, arm and perpendicular placement of the base of the arm, (bracket) from the plane of the door. Having paced the arm 3, 6 and 9 inches out from the door, the linear travel increased from 8, to 12 and then to 18″, or until the angle of the arm, hypotenuse of the triangle, in relation to the door became obtuse – such that it resisted the door opening well and linear glide and usability became strained. This was tested with 16, 12 and 8″ arms and the ratio remained consistent. I am now looking at ways that this ratio can be pushed and create a lower profile arm and bracket with maximum travel.
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√ your expectations at the door
this gives a general idea of what is involved, yummy…
a few problems here:
1. conversions and equations: E=1/2MV2 relates to work done on an object linearly through space, where M=mass and V=velocity, without friction/resistance. What I need to look at is rotational kinetic energy, Er=1/2Iw2, where I=moment of inertia and w=angular velocity.
2. efficiency of conversion has many factors, such as motor type, gear ratio, rectification method, and storage type.
moral of the story –> keep your expectations low as to how much energy can be converted as usable.
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Harvester Prototype
here is a quick flash animation describing the first of my door harvesting mechanisms. The swf will be updated as i go along to show detailed shots as well as the circuit. Parts are in the mail right now to start building and testing the actual prototype. more later.
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Thesis Proposal
inDOOR Energy Harvesting
What if you could harvest electricity from the things that you do everyday? Imagine the lobby of a public building and what you and others do everyday moving in and out of it. I propose a universal add-on to traditional hinged doors that convert kinetic energy into usable electricity.
While energy is constantly being transfered from one form to another, deficits still occur where utility, cost and environmental impact intersect. I am interested in harvesting energy from routine indoor mechanical motion, such as doors in a public space, and applying it to existing low power applications such as illuminating LED based displays. As devises become capable of running on less and less power, energy harvesting becomes a feasible means of suppling needed power. I am also interested in creating a web based monitoring component as well as providing meaningful and immediate user feedback.
I will be utilizing caloric energy metabolized by people as they open and close doors and converting the rotational kinetic energy they exert as work on the doors via a geared dc generator. I am proposing prototyping a module that could be easily attached to a door, without creating significant resistance, where high frequency of door use is observed. The stored electricity will be used for an application suitable to the building’s needs, such as illuminating emergency signs, thus off grid power requirements.
Lastly, monitoring and user feedback is important. I would like to data-log and graph the output on-line for remote monitoring, which means having each send data wirelessly to a mySQL database graphed online via php and flash. I would then be able to track problems and compare results in different locations.
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Zojirushi rice cooker #NS-JCC10
The NS-JCC10 is a Japanese made and designed rice cooker. Overall it is extremely well designed, form and function, and makes a great pot of rice. What sets this cooker apart from the others i’ve used before is its digital interface giving the user multiple options and control based on the type of rice, white or brown for example, as well as softer or harder consistency, and reheat options. The “flaws” lie in the interface and have to do with economy of real estate as most buttons have multiple functions that do not provide adaquite user feedback as to which function or mode has been selected. The interface economy provides an aesthetic quality at the expense of user control and ease. Two more smaller buttons, isolating reset and reheat, would provide a more intuitive interaction without taking up that more place on the interface. In addition, splitting the minutes button into an up and down option would reduce the actions of the user drastically and provide for greater control, since as is, the minute and hour buttons are uni-directional and the minute button moves in 10 min increments. Lastly, an illuminated lcd screen would make for far easier reading regardless that its a rice cooker functioning in a kitchen that will get dirty from its own spewing of starchy liquid as well as other food stuffs around it (see well used cooker bellow).
Buttons:
1. Keep Warm/Reset = KR
2. Cooking/Reheating = CR
3. Timer = T
4. Extended Keep Warm = E
5. Clock = C
6. Hours = H
7. Minutes = M
8. Menu = MU
Notation:
v press
^ release
* repeat task
s- seconds to complete
Task 1:
- set cooker to pre-defined mode “softer” and set to cook
actions 1:
[MU v ^ * 6], [CR v ^] = 7 actions / 6 s
*user 1:
*user2:
Task 2:
- set timer to 30min from current time and set to cook
actions 2:
[T v ^], [H v ^ * 5], [M v ^ * 3], [CR v ^] = 10 actions / 8 s
*user 1:
*user 2:
The main problem observed was the user over shooting their intended time marker and having to press the minute button more times than should have been necessary. The next problem obversed from useres was the confusion with multiple function buttons as well an icon on the bottom left of the lcd, white/brown, that seems like a menu option, but isn’t – just a useless icon.
here is a paper prototype including my suggestions for improvements that would lead toward greater user ease.
more user videos to come…
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