The "Power Pot" Energy Harvesting Thermoelectric Generator

The Power Pot at Campsite

Advances in materials science and semiconductor engineering have given us powerful computing, communications, and sensing devices that require relatively little energy to operate. Consequently, it has recently become practical to harvest small but useful amounts of energy from the environment around us and put it to use powering our gadgets.

For example, piezoelectric devices that convert mechanical motion (e.g., vibration) to electricity are being used now to power sensors that monitor the health of structures or machinery. The vibrations of the system the sensor is attached to our embedded in, such as a bridge or an industrial motor, provide the mechanical energy that the piezoelectric transducer converts to electricity. If the sensor detects a problem or pending failure, the user can be alerted over a wireless connection.

Solar cells are another, more obvious example but have the disadvantage of generating power only during daylight hours, of course, and work best on sunny days. On yet another front, some scientists and engineers are developing commercial products that capture the ambient radio frequency energy of broadcast television, radio stations, and cellular phone systems and convert it to direct current for powering ultra-low power electronics.

The engineers at Power Practical are harvesting environmental energy by exploiting yet another energy conversion process called the Seebeck Effect, in which a current flows across the junctions of two joined, dissimilar metals when they experience a temperature differential. We've just learned about Power Practical's Power Pot, which generates electricity for recharging phones, GPS receivers, and so on by converting the thermal energy of heated water. Pack a Power Pot along with you on a camping trip and you can keep your mobile devices working even without access to an electrical outlet.

The Power Pot consists of an aluminum pot with a Seebeck Effect module built into it, and a voltage regulator module that functions as the battery charger. The voltage regulator is connected to the output of the Seebeck module with a high-temperature cable. The voltage regulator's output is a standard USB power connection at 5Volts supplying up to 1Amp; i.e., 5Watts. Fill the pot with water, heat it over a campfire or campstove, plug your mobile device into the charger with a USB cable, and it'll be good to go in awhile.

A technical explanation of the Power Pot's operation is given here.

The Power Pot is yet another innovative product funded through a Kickstarter campaign. It retails for $149. We will be watching to see how it fares in the marketplace in the months to come.

Solidoodle 3D Printer Breaks $500 Price Barrier

Solidoodle 3D Printer

MakerBot's former COO, Samuel Cervantes, left the company last year to launch another 3D printer company, Solidoodle. At $499, the Solidoodle 2 printer breaks the $500 barrier.

The build material is ABS in filament form, available from the Solidoodle store in natural, red, green, blue, and black. The build volume is 6"x6"x6".

Unlike some other small, low-cost 3D printers, the Solidoodle is strong and robust; the Solidoodle people claim that a 200lb. person can stand on the chassis without damaging it, even while it is printing.

See the Solidoodle in action below.

Wind Turbine Produces 1,500 Liters of Water a Day from the Atmosphere

WMS1000 Turbine Cross Section Drawing

"Give us wind, we give you water."

That's the slogan of  Eole Water, the French company that has developed a wind turbine able to condense up to 1,500 liters of clean water a day right out of thin air. The WMS1000 system is self-contained: the water condenser unit is powered by an internal wind-driven generator. In addition to water, it produces 30kW of electricity.  


A prototype in Dubai is currently producing 62 liters of water an hour. The highest output is obtained in humid environments, such as coastal areas. 

The system is designed to be highly reliable in harsh environments, with a service life of twenty years. The hydraulic mast on which it is mounted is easily raised and lowered for maintenance operations, so there is no need for heavy lifting equipment. Individual system installations will cost between $660,000 to $790,000. Deployments of the WMS1000 will begin later this year.

There is a desperate, crying need  in many places around the world  for economical, reliable technologies that will give people access to clean water: It is estimated that 1.1Billion people do not have access to clean drinking water, and that as many as 2Million die each year from diseases contracted from contaminated water. Ironically, the earth's atmosphere is a huge reservoir of water vapor. What we've lacked is a means of tapping into it... Eole Water may have solved the problem, though the jury is still out, and perhaps it will be several years before we will know if the WMS1000 is at least one viable answer to the clean water crisis.

Note: The minimum average human requirement for drinking water is estimated at three liters per day. So, a system providing 1,500 liters a day could meet the drinking water needs of up to 500 people. Additional water is needed for various sanitation purposes, of course, so the total human need for water is more on the order of fifty liters per day.

Peter Diamandis and Steve Kotler have some interesting information on this subject in their new book, Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think.

Mojo 3D Professional Printer from Stratasys, Under $10K

Mojo 3D Printer Pack from Stratasys

Stratasys has released their new Mojo 3D Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printer, and they are promoting it heavily. With this model at $9,900, Stratasys has pushed the price point for professional 3D printers below the $10K barrier.

The build volume of this desktop unit is 5x5x5 inches. The build material is a form of ABS that Stratasys calls ABSplus. Stratasys claims it is very tough and durable. It can be drilled and painted, or even plated.

A leasing program is available in the US for $185/month. I have not been able to find any details about the program on the Web... looks like you've got to contact a sales representative to get that information. Stratasys offers a free sample part for evaluation.

B9Creator 3D Printer Fundraising on Kickstarter

A couple of weeks ago we posted a piece about the Bukobot 3D printer Kickstarter fundraiser, which has been quite successful, easily exceeding its maker's fundraising goal of $42K with more than a week left to go. Well, yesterday we found out about another 3D printer project at Kickstarter, the B9Creator fundraiser, which has done amazingly well: In less than a week, and with a month still to go, more than $123,000 has been pledged,  far exceeding owner Michael Joyce's original $50,000 project funding goal.

I think this one is so way-over-the-top successful because of its unique technical approach: Joyce uses a deformable mirror device to project a 1024x768 pixel image onto a layer of light-sensitive resin. The entire layer is immediately cured where the light hits it, so each layer of the printed object is created very rapidly. This is in contrast with Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) techniques, where the material is laid down in a raster pattern after the fashion of inkjet printing.

Joyce writes that each layer is typically calibrated to be .004" (.1mm) thick, but that the user can trade off speed for even greater resolution. Claimed printing rates are 12-20mm per hour. The resin used is said to be very inexpensive.

The B9Creator is an open source hardware project, so all of the CAD files and software source code files will be made available under an open source license.

On another fun note, check out Michael Joyce's life-sized models of the Lost In Space "Robot B9." (And now you know where the "B9Creator" name came from...)

Update 5/21: With three weeks to go at Kickstarter, pledged funds for the B9Creator total just under $170,000, well over three times the project goal. 

Bukobot 3D Printer Kickstarter Funding Drive

Bukobot 3D Printer

The Bukobot 3D printer from Deezmaker is derived from the RepRap open source hardware printer. Deezmaker is attempting to bring the Bukobot to market by raising funds at Kickstarter. The funding goal is to raise $42,000 by May 23; as of this writing, at $19,569 they are just about halfway there, with twenty days to go.

You can follow Bukobot news at their blog.

Update: The committed total is already up over $22,000 less than 24hours later!

Update May 11: The Bukobot is funded! As of this morning, $42,905 with 125 backers and still twelve days to go! 




         

The UP! Personal, Portable 3D Printer

UP! Personal 3D Printer

Another low-cost, 3D printer for the home, school, lab, and maker/DIY market has come to our attention: the UP! personal and portable printer from Delta Micro Factory Corporation in China. The research we've done so far indicates that the UP! printer has been on the market for about two years now. We have not been able to find a recent review of it, however, there are a number of Youtube videos uploaded by the company and by users.

The American distributor is UP! USA in Brooklyn, NY. Their listed price is $1,499 plus shipping and handling. (You may need to be patient when visiting their website... each page was annoyingly slow to load, at least for us this evening.)

The UP! has its own software environment for setting up the machine and running print jobs. It is claimed that the company is investing significant resources into software development, so that they are releasing frequent software updates that add new features. The software accepts the standard STL file format, so you can use a CAD program of your choice to create models. 

In our researches, we did find that ten UP! printers are being given away as prizes in the Instructables  "Make It Real Challenge" this year (we'll be doing a post about that soon... if you are a maker, take a look, you might want to enter). Meanwhile, check out the UP! demo video below.

"Making Things Move", an Excellent Book for the Maker

Making Things Move, by Dustyn Roberts

Making Things Move: DIY Mechanisms for the Inventors, Hobbyists, and Artists, by Dustyn Roberts

I found this excellent little book from prominent robotics engineer, consultant, and educator Dustyn Roberts on the new books shelf of our local library this past week. The Robby the Robot themed cover caught my attention right away, but after leafing through it for a few minutes, I found the content compelling and immediately tucked it onto our stack of the day's take-home selections.

This book teaches you how to apply basic mechanical engineering principles, and some basic knowledge of electronics, to your DIY projects without sending you back to school for an engineering degree. Perhaps you are an artist or graphics designer and don't consider yourself a "technical" person, or your technical experience is limited to the more abstract realms of software or chip design, but you'd like to get your hands dirty with a project using mechanical components, such as nuts and bolts, motors, gears, and solenoids. Maybe you have a great idea for a project that incorporates mechanical motion, but you just don't know how to get started. If so, this book can really help and guide you. From the introduction:

In this book, you will learn how to successfully build moving mechanisms through nontechnical explanations, examples, and do-it-yourself projects. Maybe you're a sculptor who wants a piece of art to come alive, a computer scientist who want to explore mechanics, or a product designer who wants to add function to complement the form of  your product. Maybe you've built projects in the past, but they fell apart easily. Or maybe you didn't grow up making things move but want to learn. The students in the class I teach at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program in the Tisch School of the Arts have been all of those things, and they gave me the inspiration to write this book. 

Ms. Roberts deliberately goes light on the math throughout... you don't have to be a calculus or physics wiz to understand it, just some knowledge of very basic algebra and trigonometry is all that's required, and if you're rusty on those subjects, you can easily brush up with a little help from the many tutorials available on the Web.

The book begins with a presentation of six basic machines and mechanisms: levers, pulleys, wheels and axles, inclined planes and wedges, screws, and gears. The second chapter presents common project materials (metals, plastics, etc.), their basic properties, and how to choose the right materials for your applications. The third chapter outlines the basics of joining materials with screws, rivets, nails, adhesives, soldering, and so on. The next couple of chapters present some basic physics of mechanics, such as force, torque, friction, energy, work, and power, which lay the background for an understanding of the basic requirements --- strength, power, energy, and so on --- that a successful product will need to meet so that it won't fall apart or otherwise fail.

After these opening chapters concerning fundamentals, the real fun begins, with stepper motors, servos, bearings, bushings, springs, basic electronics, and how to combine them to make simple machines that are useful and fun. The final chapter details a handful of good projects that give you hands-on experience that complements the teachings of the book, such as a miniature wind turbine that powers an LED. Finally, the book closes with an appendix about the popular open source Arduino microcontroller board.

Dustyn Roberts has put together a website and blog for the book. Check it out, the website is very useful. I especially liked the "Resources" page set that is organized around the book's chapter, with videos and links to relevant external resources. Her professional website and blog is also interesting.

As indicated in the quote above, the book is an outgrowth of the author's real classroom experience with real students from diverse academic and professional backgrounds, many with very little or even no hands-on experience of technical work. In this book, she's showing you that you don't have to let this intimidate you and stop you from doing something cool that you really want to do. Study it, work the exercises, apply the principles and you'll get better results from your own DIY projects.

Meeblip Open Hardware Synthesizer

Meeblip Low-Cost, Open Hardware Synth

The Meeblip is an open hardware, open source monophonic music synthesizer with a MIDI interface.  It's ready to use as is, or, since it's an open, community-based technology initiative, you can hack it to suit yourself.  

The Meeblip is available in several configurations: a "quick build" kit with complete enclosure and an assembled printed circuit board for $149.95; a "build-it-yourself" kit for with enclosure but unassembled circuit board for $129.95; and a "micro" version for the experienced hacker, pictured below, which is a circuit board with MIDI interface but without the manual controls... think of the micro version as more of a software development board. It costs only $39.95.

Meeblip Micro Hacker's Kit

The Meeblip is open source hardware, so you are free to make your own version of the Meeblip and to sell them. You are also free to buy Meeblip kits, assemble and test them, then put them up for sale as finished units to buyers who don't want to go to the trouble of building the kit themselves. You are also free, of course, to modify the software, to add new features and functions to it.

The Meeblip hardware is based on the Atmel ATmega32 micro, so if you already have Arduino experience, you'll be up to speed on hacking and programming Meeblip to a great extent. 

To learn more about the Meeblip community, go to the Meeblip forum pages here at Noisepages.com. 

To find out more about the Open Source Hardware (OSHW) movement, check out their wiki.

Bienville Studios "Magnolia Special" CNG Powered Concept Car

Bienville Studios Magnolia Special

Bienville Studios is a small design company in the French Quarter in New Orleans. They've created this compressed natural gas (CNG) powered open cockpit, custom roadster, the Magnolia Special. She was designed to demonstrate the promise of CNG as a practical automobile fuel.

From the start of the project, lead designer J.T. Nesbitt intended to drive her coast-to-coast on a cannonball run to prove that she was more than just a beautiful piece of garage jewelry. Last November he drove her from New York to Los Angeles in 89 hours, averaging 30 to 35mpg.

 FYI: Nesbitt designed the famous Confederate Motorcycle Company's Wraith motorcycle.

   

Thames & Kosmos Science Project Kits

Thames & Kosmos Fuel Cell X7 Car Kit

We made a trip to our local Barnes & Noble bookstore today, hadn't been in there for a month or so, and saw something new they are doing: There was this substantial floorspace setup with aisles and open displays of all sorts of educational toys, science project kits, Lego kits, and high-tech model kits. It was very cool, lots of great, creative play stuff their for kids... well, plenty of stuff there that grownups would enjoy, too.

For example, they had a good stock of these amazing science project kits from a company called Thames & Kosmos. What really amazed me is the breadth of subjects covered: electronics, earth sciences, energy, chemistry.. there's even a kit for creating perfumes!
They've got kits in categories tailored to kids from the age of five and up. The first one on the shelf that really caught my eye was the fuel cell powered car kit you see pictured here. I would have died for educational science and technology stuff that was this good when I was a kid... check it out.