Week of December 18-21

Hello everyone,

This week, my objectives were:

1. Finish the prototype minus the solar panel

2. If time, add the solar panel.

I did not complete either of these objectives, and here's why:

As I was working on the prototype, the top tube kept filling up with water and flooding. I kept making the hole bigger until I accidentally broke my pipe, popping part of the end out. I decided to roll with it and cut that part off entirely, but that did not make it any better.

Eventually, I realized that it would be better to start over, new top pipe, new design. The old one had a gro cube, a basket filled with hydrotin, a pouch of hydrotin, and a hole for growing. I also put in gutter foam between all of these.

This new prototype tube has four baskets filled with gutter foam. The problems with hydrotin is that it floats, making it unstable for the plant roots, and since there's many individual pellets, it's easy to lose track of them when you're cleaning the system or trying to remove a part for repair.

This prototype also has no gutter foam between the baskets, so water should flow quicker.

Hopefully, this prototype will work out better than the last time.

Thank you for reading, and happy holidays,
-Ben

Objectives for Week of December 18-21

Hello everyone,

This week, my objectives are:

1. Finish the prototype minus the solar panel

2. If time, add the solar panel, though I doubt this will happen.

I'll let you know what happens at the end of this week.
-Ben

The Week of December 11-15

Hello everyone,

This week, my objectives were:

1. Collect more data for my solar panel.

2. Getting my prototype working in terms of water.

I have met objective number 1. I collected sufficient data for my solar panel and found that it worked best in bright sun to slightly cloudy weather. It had up to 18.5-19.5/20 volts in sunny weather, and 19-21/200 volts in slightly cloudy weather. If I clock the power just right, I think I can make the pump work for at least ten minutes a day.

I did not meet objective 2, but I am close. 

Aligning and getting water to flow exactly right is very difficult. My main problems are leaking at the end of the top tube, the bottom one not filling up, and overflowing on the top tube. I am not entirely sure what I will do to fix it in the future, but so far I have made a much bigger draining hole on the top tube, eliminated suction from the pump, removed my peat moss experiment, unclogged the drain, added an ending onto the drain to make it more precise, and even drilled a hole into the pump's tube to make it output less water.

All of this has gotten me so close, but not exactly to where I want to be. Luckily, since this is a prototype, once I fix this, I can apply what I learn to the final.

Thank you for reading,
Ben

Objectives for Week of December 11-15

Hello everyone,

This week, my objectives are:

1. Collect more data for my solar panel. Hopefully, there will be a cloudy day or two so that I can get sufficient results.

2. Getting my prototype working in terms of water. I need to align and make sure my water is flowing at an efficient rate before anything else can be added onto the system.

See you later,
Ben

The Week of December 4-8

Hello everyone,

This week, my objective was to finish the prototype, minus the solar panels. I ran into two obstacles.

The first is that I was unaware at the time that Thursday was a short day, so there was no Greengineering. As a result, I had less working time.

The second is that getting my system to align is very hard. This is the prototype so far:

I am having difficulty getting the top pipe to drain directly into the bottom one without going off to the side. I plan to solve this by drilling a hole in the bottom of sufficient size so that it can drain right into the larger one below.

I have made the pump part of the system, and it runs smoothly.

I also am still measuring the solar panel's output under different weather conditions. So far, there have not been any cloudy days with class, so I have not gotten sufficient data. Though I will try to measure it when cloudy days come.

Thanks for reading,
Ben 

Objectives for Week of December 4-8

Hello everyone,

First off, I would like to apologize for not posting last week at the end of the week for what I accomplished. I will not forget this week.

This week, my objective is to finish the prototype, minus the solar panels. I have been recording the voltage output for my panels, and I have been getting pretty good results, which I will be writing about more later this week. I am continuing to focus on just the non-electrical part of this prototype.

Thanks for reading,
Ben