- #1
Brian in Victoria BC
- 3
- 5
- How did you find PF?
- I found PF on the physics.org website
I made the "pulser pump" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulser_pump (Specifically to pump water from a small stream to water my garden without any effort.) Following that, I emigrated from Ireland to Canada, and did some work on very low pressure airlift pumps. I currently use air at about 1 meter water pressure to drive airlift pumps that circulate water in my greenhouses, and raised bed planters. I have found that the combination of airlift pump and "boar scare" works best to distribute water and keep the plants happy.
I have also developed different reflector shapes for solar cooking and I have made solar tracking devices for solar panels and for solar cookers.
The emphasis has always been on simplicity. My current project is a compressed air "timer" that controls an airlift pumped solar tracker for a solar panel. It is on "equatorial mount" and it is working really well. I hope others take a mechatronic approach and develop it further.
I have my own certain set of skills, and I believe that parts of my working proof of concept can be replaced with an electronic equivalent and it will work well for a different set of "makers" with different skills. The photo is my proof of concept, The outside stuff is entirely mechanical, there are no electronic parts outside in the weather and the part that makes the slowly increasing air pressure is in a shed. The shed part consists of a low pressure pond air pump, a slow synchronous motor and a programable timer, and a float in a pipe.
I have also developed different reflector shapes for solar cooking and I have made solar tracking devices for solar panels and for solar cookers.
The emphasis has always been on simplicity. My current project is a compressed air "timer" that controls an airlift pumped solar tracker for a solar panel. It is on "equatorial mount" and it is working really well. I hope others take a mechatronic approach and develop it further.
I have my own certain set of skills, and I believe that parts of my working proof of concept can be replaced with an electronic equivalent and it will work well for a different set of "makers" with different skills. The photo is my proof of concept, The outside stuff is entirely mechanical, there are no electronic parts outside in the weather and the part that makes the slowly increasing air pressure is in a shed. The shed part consists of a low pressure pond air pump, a slow synchronous motor and a programable timer, and a float in a pipe.
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