Brendan's Heliostat Project

Brendan from heliostats.org has been making some progress with his heliostat project. The gears you see in the above picture were printed out with his Makerbot. Pretty neat idea. A printable heliostat for solar power. The future looks very cool indeed. (8/22/10)

Switches for Changing Heliostat Targets

Here is a quick update to the page which shows how I have the switches for changing heliostat targets wired to the Arduino. I added some pictures and a program for double checking that the switches are working correctly. (8/22/10)

Arduino Sun Tracking / Heliostat Control Program

Now that took a lot of work to document. As promised, the Arduino Sun Tracking / Heliostat Program has been uploaded, documented, and is ready for beta testers. Next, I need to update the heliostat plans to the new design I'm using. (8/16/10)

Arduino Sun Tracking / Heliostat Electronics Control System

The rat nest of wires and electronics you see in the picture above is what I use to control my new heliostats. (Click picture for larger image) This page will give you an overview on how it all works and information for putting together your own heliostat / sun tracking control system.

 I'm still working hard to document everything and am also still testing out the new Arduino Sun Tracker program. The electronics portion of the documentation is largely finished, so I decided to go ahead and upload it. I still have to do more testing on the program itself though before I deem it worthy of being uploaded. It takes a long time to this since it essentially takes the entire day to test each of the different features. Add on the fact that it has been cloudy lately and you see how tedious the waiting can be. Hopefully it shouldn't be too much longer though. (8/03/10)

DIY Arduino Angle Finder / Tilt Sensor / Rotation Sensor

On this page you will find a quick experiment I did to test to see if it is possible to turn a regular potentiometer into a rotation sensor by using the analog pins on an Arduino.

This technique could also be applied to make a DIY tilt sensor of sorts or perhaps for making a device that is able to measure angles. (8/01/10)

Homemade Netting Fence for Keeping out Deer and other Garden Pests

Netting Fence for Garden

Here is a simple "fence" I put up to keep garden pests from eating my plants by using the type of netting you see in the Amazon link below.

The stuff is fairly cheap considering what it does. You could spend thousands of dollars building a fencing barrier that still doesn't keep out everything. I have a neighbor who has had trouble with raccoons climbing right over top of his metal fence or even opening the fence door to make a convenient exit! (7/23/10)

 

Simple DIY Arduino Whole House Kilowatt Meter

Arduino LDR Schematic

Here is a simple way to turn an Arduino into a whole house power usage logger. The collected data can be graphed using either Excel or another similar program to give you an idea of how much energy your house uses during different times of the day.

The above graph shows how much the dryer costs minute by minute as it goes through its cycle.

It has been pretty enlightening as to how much energy my household uses. (7/14/10)

How to Find Your Latitude Longitude Values and Convert them into Decimal Degrees

This page will show you how to find your latitude and longitude and also how to convert the values into decimal degree form if needed.

A DMS to decimal degree converter program has also been provided on this page to make the conversions easier. (7/10/10)

Heliostat Range of Movement for Chosen Target Simulation

Heliostat target validation

Before using a target, it's a good idea to double check to see if your heliostat is physically capable of tracking it throughout the day. To make this task easier, I have uploaded a simulator for you to try out.

This program will also help you check to see whether or not the math which calculates the angles of the heliostat breaks down for certain target altitudes and azimuths. (6/29/10)

 

Heliostat Target Efficiency Simulator

Heliostat Target Efficiency Simulator

To make it easier for people to check whether or not their chosen target is the best one, I uploaded a program to this site which first simulates the angles between the sun and the target and then calculates the percentage of light that hits the heliostat based on those angles.

Make sure that you check out the page "How to Maximize Your Heliostat's Efficiency by Choosing Good Targets" before using the program so that you have a good idea of what it is showing you. (6/27/10)

 

Rotate to Altitude and Azimuth Plugin for Sketchup

 

Here is a Sketchup plugin which will rotate either an object or a face to match the user's selected altitude and azimuth. It works by first turning the altitude and azimuth into a vector and then doing a rotation transformation on the selected face so that the normal of the face matches the vector.

This can be useful for astronomy, archaeoastronomy, and solar energy designing.

A big thanks to Construsol for helping with this plugin's development. (6/26/10)

 

How to Turn Altitude and Azimuth into a Vector

I recently needed to find the math required to turn altitude and azimuth angles into a vector so that I could do rotation transformations in Sketchup based off of them.

A quick Google search yielded nothing I could use, so I had to take the time to sit down and figure it out. It's not too terrible complicated if you're good at trig, but it does take a few minutes out of your day which could be spent on other things. Click here for more. (6/26/10)

 

One Semester of Calculus with Analytical Geometry Homework

If you ever wondered why this site gets so quiet during the winter months, here's the explanation. This is one semesters worth of the homework from the Calculus with Analytical Geometry class (5 credits) I took last year laid out with a guitar on the bottom right for scale.

What's scary is that it often takes 20 minutes or more to fill out just one of those pages. I estimate that there is somewhere around 130 pieces of paper in the picture. Most of the problems were done more than once too, so you could almost double that number. I sometimes did the even numbered problems too, but I didn't save them, so you can imagine several more pages laid out. (6/25/10)

How to Maximize Your Heliostat's Efficiency by Choosing Good Targets

One of my goals for the summer has been to make some decent progress on my heliostat project. I've recently had great success in getting the Sun Tracker program to fit on an Arduino, but at the moment it's on hold until a few things I need to finish it arrive in the mail.

In the mean time though, I have been putting some thought into how to best optimize the amount of energy you can get from a heliostat. As it turns out, it is possible to increase its efficiency considerably by following a few simple guidelines. (6/24/10)

80+ CNC Machine Build Logs

These pages contain a collection of CNC machine builds that are scattered far and wide across the web. This collection was compiled over several months and consists of over 80 different CNC builds.

The last page of this CNC build log collection is especially interesting. The pages linked there go to not one CNC build but several. Between the 82 CNC builds that I have found and the approximately 150 CNC builds available from the links on the last page, you are within just 4 clicks from accessing roughly 230 different CNC builds! Have fun!

(5/16/10)

Update to: How to Make a Parabola with a CNC Machine

Someone e-mailed me recently to give me a heads up about a potential problem with my parabola. Basically, Sketchup's arc tool doesn't draw parabolas so much as it draws sections of circles. The shape is parabola-ish, but not a true parabola. This is something that I had half realized on my own sometime after I wrote this tutorial, but never got around to correcting. Since somebody finally called me out on it though, so I decided it was time to add to the tutorial. :)

Scroll down towards the bottom of the page to find the new stuff. (4/11/10)

Brian's CNC Build

Here is a CNC build done by Brian in California. This one is based off of the design from buildyourcnc.com. The build itself is very well documented with a lot of attention to detail. I particularly like the Sketchup models. :) (4/07/10)

 

Inverse Kinematics / Math for a Robotic Arm

This page covers a set of inverse kinematics which can be used to calculate the angles for a four degrees of freedom robot arm.

Since I have recently begun my epic journey to design and build a robot arm, it only makes since that I get the math under control before I get too far.

It turns out that it wasn't as complicated as thought it was going to be. I plan on making the calculations more sophisticated in the future once the arm is actually finished, but, for now, its a pretty decent start. (3/18/10)

Robot Arm Version 0.0000000001

Version number 0.0000000001 of my robotic arm design. Muah-ha-ha-ha-ha!!! (3/17/10)

More CNC Machine Builds

I decided that it was time to empty out my ever growing favorites folder, so here is another page filled with CNC builds that are scattered across the web.

In case you missed it, the first CNC builds page is here. (3/17/10)

Gear Template Generator

This video was originally shared by Jon on this site's forums. Once I saw it, I knew that I should pass it along. The program presented in the video looks like it would make it easy to design and build high quality wooden gears very quickly, especially if you have a CNC machine.

You can buy the program at http://woodgears.ca/gear/

The video has a lot of tips for making gears, so, even if you have no intention of buying the program, it is still worth a watch. (2/13/10)

Transferring Files from your Main Computer to your Shop Computer

If you're like me, the computer you use for the design process is not the same as the computer you use in your shop. Typically, the computer that ends up in the shop is one or two generations behind in processing power because it isn't smart to put anything newer in a place where it will get dirty or possibly even damaged.

This means that the CAD files designed on your more capable computer will have to somehow be transferred to the antiquated shop computer.

That's no big deal though right? All you have to do is plug in a USB drive, wait for it to be detected, find the files, drag them over, wait for them to transfer, safely remove the flash drive (maybe), carry the flash drive... more (2/09/10)

 

How to Make a Terrain Model with a CNC Machine

Here is a relatively simple project I did which involves making a terrain model with a CNC machine. This was done using Google Earth, Sketchup, and CamBam+.

What you see in the picture above is a scaled down model of Mount Everest. Pretty cool huh. :)

Here's a quick video of it being cut out too. (1/16/10)

101 Books for the CNC Hobbyist

Here is a collection of 101 books for the CNC hobbyist. Many of the books on this page are to help you think outside of the box when planning your next CNC project. There is a lot here, and it is definitely worth a look. And yes, there really are 101 books on this page, I counted. (1/03/10)

Making a Rotational Casting Machine with a CNC

Here is a rotational casting machine that I made with my CNC. A rotational casting machine, in case you didn't know, is a device which can be used to make hollow casts. I made mine by first designing it in Google Sketchup and then cutting out the parts with my CNC machine. All I had to do then was just put it together. 

This page documents the build and will hopefully be of use should you want to build your own. (12/31/09)

How to Make a 3D Sign with a CNC Machine

Making a sign seems to be almost a write of passage among CNCists. I decided to share some of my own sign making ideas and tribulations in the hopes that someone might find them useful.

Once again, I managed to make this tutorial a lot longer than I meant to when I first started. And you know what, it still only just barely scratches the surface of what I have left to put up.

I swear, I must have a very specific type of OCD. (12/24/09)

LED Grow Light Experiments and Review

Several months ago, I did a few experiments with a LED grow light that I bought off of EBay. I decided to put up some pictures that I took of the plants as they were growing to give people an idea as to how well they work. (12/22/09)

CNC Machine Builds

This page contains a collection of CNC machine builds which are scattered across the net. If you know of a CNC build that isn't here, send me an email, and I'll put it up.

Also, don't forget to check out the "Links to Free CNC Plans" page for more CNC builds. (12/22/09)

 VB 2008 Program for Testing your Parallel Port

Here is a Visual Basic program that can be used for testing whether or not your parallel port is ready for hacking.

Using inpout32.dll, it is possible to write programs in Visual Basic that control your parallel port. The parallel port can then, in turn, be used to control devices in the physical world. (12/21/09)

VB 2008: Lever Arm Leadscrew Length Calculator and Tutorial

Here is a program I wrote which will calculate the length of the leadscrew that pushes a lever arm. This may sound like an obscure thing to do, but it can be quite useful when you need a lever arm to move a precise distance. (12/21/09)

Ruby Code for Calculating the Julian Day

Here is a simple ruby script which can be used for calculating the Julian day. I figured that this would be a nice and quick way to introducing the new "programming projects" section of the site. (12/20/09)

Printable Solar Assessment Tool

It is oftentimes difficult to predict exactly where the sun will be during each of the four seasons. To help make things easier, here is a simple Sun Finder tool which will do exactly that, find the sun. This tool can show you where the sun will be in the winter even though it is summer.

Essentially, the sun finder is used for making simple solar assessments. For example, let's pretend that I want to plant a tomato plant in a particular spot which is shaded at this time of the year. Now, I know that planting a tomato plant in the shade isn't really optimal... cont. (12/20/09)