|
If you live in a house that has more people than washrooms you have probably come across the situation where you are waiting for one to free up. Sven has come up with a solution, use a microcontroller to capture usage information and graph it so that you can see what the typical usage patten is like! Have a look at the recent graphs for some additional details. "This project is about nearly daily statistical analysis and reporting of loo usage. Ever wanted to know when is the best time to go to the bathroom?
|
|
I need one of these robots to make me some coffee in the morning! Even though I a sure there was lots of prep prior to each mini scene this robot is actually very strong and flexible! Thanks for sending it in Alex. |
|
The Nevada Lightning Laboratory were recently trying many experiments, such as what would happen if you flew a small radio controlled helicopter between two Tesla coils, could a small vehicle big enough for one person be powered using a Tesla coil. Watch the videos below for the cool answers. "We’ve done a number of things using Tesla’s original schematic, and have been able to transmit and receive considerable amounts of power. The 1:12 Scale Prototype Towers. These twin prototypes serve as an accurate scale model of the proposed full-scale 12-story Lightning Lab design, allowing detailed study the complex dynamics between two phased, coupled, high voltage resonators. The twins have already revealed many interesting abilities, including a unexpectedly strong tendency to couple power wirelessly, over sizable distances. We studied this peculiar ability in greater detail, and published a paper at the 2008 North American Power Symposium." |
|
Justin Cole, Kris Williams, Chad Dickman, and Todd Sanderson of West Virginia University Institute of Technology just completed their Suzuki GT 750 Electric Motorcycle Conversion. Looks like it turned out real good. Even though the power of the motor that was removed would have been much more powerful the new 8 HP electric motor does get this thing moving at a nice speed. "Motor Briggs and Stratton Etek-R Model EMC-R 8 HP - Continous 15 HP - Peak 160 In-lb Torque The electric motor kit selected for the design was a Briggs and Stratton E-Tek R. The E-Tek R is a 48 volt electric motor. It delivers a peak horsepower of 15 HP and 8 continuous HP. Also, a Magura twist grip throttle, wire kit, and a 250 amp fuse were purchased. The cost of the motor kit was $1075 and was ordered from electricmotorsport.com.
Controller Alltrax 4834 Input: 24-48 volt Current: 300 Continous amps
Batteries 48 Volt System 4 - BB Batteries Model EB50-12 The desired specifications for the battery were as follows: Four EB50-12 batteries, manufactured by B.B. Batteries, were selected for the power source. The batteries are 12 V batteries and weigh in at 36.4 lbs each. The EB50-12 has an amp hour (Ah) rating of 50 Ah. The EB50-12 battery is lighter and smaller than a typical 12 V car battery that was originally considered. The cost for one battery was $145. The battery charger purchased for the project was a 48 V, 4 amp charger produced by Soneil. This charging system will charge fully discharged batteries in eleven hours.
Contactor White Rogers 12-4T Coil Voltage: 12 VDC Rated Voltage: 12 VDC Continuous Current: 200 amps Fault Current: 1000 amps
Throttle Magura Twist Grip 0-5k"
|
|
I have seen some big RC model planes before but this one is huge! I can just imagine the time and money invested into this thing. I would hate to even attempt to take it up for its first flight since I would be terrified of crashing it into a million pieces. My hat goes off to the workmanship that went into this marvelous machine.
|
|
This DIY Electronic Meat Thermometer project will not only have you end up with a cooking thermometer in the end bit you will also learn some signal processing techniques. "To passionate chefs, cooking is an art. Knowing exactly when a cut of meat is cooked to perfection requires knowing your meat and your grill. But with a little bit of technology, we can build a digital meat thermometer, and use digital signal processing techniques to get a much faster response. This video explains how we can use the predictably slow heat transfer inside the temperature probe to mathematically model the sensor, and ultimately get a much faster response, with a little bit microcontroller computing power!" |
|
You may remember the Hexapod Robot that Matt Denton built. I think this new Chiara Robot could give Matt a run for his money as far as features and power. Chiara was developed at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tekkotsu lab, best of all it will be manufactured and sold by RoPro Design, Inc. David Touretzky, Gaku Sato, Ethan Tira-Thompson, and David Rice have done a great job on this system. I can’t wait till it gets released to see what its full potential is! "Chiara Features:
|
The goal of this project is to get an overview of the bathroom usage and to get an idea of the loo usage patterns. With the help of statistical analysis it should be possible to get the desired information on a mathematical foundation. For that purpose an electrical switch is attached to the bathroom’s door’s lock. When the door is locked the switch is closed thus closing a circuit and igniting "occupied" lights in the rooms. This information also flows to a microcontroller that registers the status change and writes this information together with a timestamp that comes from a radio controlled DCF77 clock module into a file on a USB storage. This file is being read into a database a web application server is connected with. A CherryPy web application server contains all the the logic to evaluate and report the desired information as flash charts."
