Today we finished the fabrication of the hydro-electricity generator which is made from a converted ceiling fan we purchased for $30.
Below are some pictures of the final product including a photograph showing the voltage output from a manual spin.
NETWORKS. Hydro-electricity generator
NETWORKS. Locations
Finding a suitable location is vital for the success of our trip.
Some of the qualities of the location we’re looking for are:
- Have a source of fresh, running water either from a stream or a river. Used for drinking and as a source of energy for hydroelectricity.
- Have abundant wildlife for hunting, fish in the river or stream and small animals which can be hunted.
-Be isolated from civilisation with very little chance of outsiders disturbance.
- Have a supply of driftwood or dry, deadwood which can be used for firewood.
The amount of supplies that we will bring is a factor related to where we will camp. We may have to do successive trips to our location bringing supplies back and forth.
Our first trip to find a suitable location we aimed for the Rainbow Falls near Kerikeri on the West coast. I had previously been here and followed the stream up to find secluded areas with a river running alongside.
Photo’s from the KeriKeri rainbow falls expedition
We didn’t find the Kerikeri Rainbow Fall location suitable because of the dense and heavy bush. There were no visible forms of wildlife and had a road running parallel to the river not far away which had a chance of exposure to the public during our experiment.
The next location that we investigated was the Pararaha Valley, just south of Kerikeri. The first attempt to reach the valley we didn’t make it because we took a bad route along the beach and we were blocked off from the land due to dense marshland.
The second attempt we hiked along the Gibbons track which took about 2.5 hours to reach the Pararaha valley. This is a perfect location for our project with the only negative being that the track is well maintained by rangers and used regularly by hikers. There is a fireban at all times and we must apply for permits if we want to camp there.
to avoid all of this we will follow the valley further up away from the trail and find a secluded spot. Below are some pictures from recent trip.
NETWORKS
The first studio project of 2012 is related to networks. The new brief is to explore the idea of networks and to answer the question; “What flows are constrained and possibilities enabled by the your project’s network?”
The group that I’m working in includes Corey and Tom. We are tackling this project with the idea that to understand the impact of networks on our lives, we must attempt to fully abandon them from our lives. Doing this will provide a different perspective and insight into what impact networks really have in our lives.
To do this we will be disappearing for a week in an isolated part of New Zealand and attempt to build a self-sustainable and eco-friendly camp. Each of us will be equip with a videocamera and we will document our journey as well as our thoughts on the experience. The final product of this will be a short documentary encompassing our adventure.
The two other guys that are involved with this are both very ambitious and with the same dedication that I share for this project. I feel that this is quite a mammoth and testing project but has the potential to pay off..!
(woo, we’re going camping!)
I gave my slot car a paint job, making it a fast red colour with blue racing stripes.
I also found a suitable driver for this babe mobile ;)
Here are some photos of my progress with my arduino slot car. I built a working test circuit on a breadboard then progressed to soldering onto a veroboard.
The electronics in this circuit are very volatile, having successfully got the circuit working one day, the next day it doesn’t work and after many tedious hours of trouble shooting I still cant work out the problem! Gah.
