My Smart Sprinkler System Part 2.

Introduction
You might be aware that I have been frustrated about forgetting to switch off appliances before leaving home. I guess its a sign of old age, my forgetfulness is becoming fairly pronounced. but instead of grumbling, as a technological determinist, I decided to create a smart home.

I have been tinkering with microcontrollers for some years, but creating a smart home got me jumping into the deep end of Internet of Things IOT. I have short listed several projects that I will need to create to have a smart home, and you can find them from looking through my blog for IOT and my smart home. here -

As you can see I have a whole lot of projects to keep me busy for a long long time. but not to worry, they are all simple modular systems that latch unto each other to create a smart system. I usually, will share them here with you. you can follow the steps and recreate them for yourself if you have the basic skills of soldiering and following simple instructions. I will also share Gerber files, circuit diagrams and a whole lot of information to help you build these circuit systems on your own.

To Sprinkle Or not to Sprinkle
for today, I will focus on the plants in my compound. I want to be able to automatically water the lawn, plants around the compound at preset times every single day of the year without much manual intervention. Yes one can easily buy a working water sprinkler off the shelve in any hardware store. but there is no fun in that. Plus, we can build a smarter system that takes cognizance of the weather to decided if it should give the plants their usual dose of water, or not water at all if it has rained in the last 24 hours. We could also throw on a Big Bank effect that brings in the watering sequence to a crescendo as part of the Christmas Lighting experience.

Examples of making of the Project Circuit Boards PCB abound on the internet. 1. Transfer a circuit trace from a Laser Printer to a paper and unto a PCB board. and 2. Rule traces manually by hand. 3. etch in an acid bath and 4. Solder on the components. etc.

Feel free to look them up and choose which one to use. For the 1st step - there are basically only two methods open to you, One, to carefully draw it with your hand using a permanent maker like a fine point sharpie, or two, to use a purpose built application to design the circuit and print it out using a Laser printer (not a bubble jet ink based printer). I have written an article on how to make a a PCB using the manual process. If you don't want to use that method, I will explain here how to follow another more precise method.

Laser Heat Transfer Method
If you desire a more professional end product, you can create professional PCB files using purpose built applications - there are a lot of applications that take away the stress of sweaty and shaky hands to deliver crisp looking products. See a list of the top 9 free PCB softwares. I have tried my hands on a couple of these, they all have their pros and cons, but I especially like Fritzing software. Its intuitive features allow you  make professional looking double sided PCB. Below is the image of the PCB I designed for the water Sprinkler. Along with its Gerber files if you wish to print it out and transfer it to the board.

Here are the Gerber files from my Fritzing design, for the sprinkler system.

After the traces have been printed on paper, they are ironed with high heat to melt the Laser Toner onto the board. As you may have noticed, this design was done on two sides - two sided boards are very difficult to make, the main problem is ensuring that the vias (the points where current passes from one side to the other side of the board. If the vias are not precisely placed, the PCB will not work.

Note: To esure that the vias line up, I utilize a light box to ensure that both sides of the mirrored print out match. I tape it on three sides before sliding in the measured fresh PCB. This way, when the PCB is etched and the holes are drilled, each trace matches. If the VIAS don't match point to point, all the vias will fail and your two sided board will fail.

After both sides are held in place, I iron both sides with a pressing iron until I can clearly see all the traces melted onto the board - most websites tell you to do this for about 5 mins, but I iron mine for longer periods than that. At the end you can clearly see that the traces have melted unto the PCB.

After allowing the PCB to cool down, I leave it in a bowl of water to soften the paper. softly rob off paper to reveal a perfect work of art...

Gloves On!!!
Handling or even inhaling chemicals is very dangerous. Please be careful with the following steps.

Choosing the etchant is very important. Boric chloride, off the shelve etchants, etc. are easily obtained in the west, but in the south, its not easy to come by. but not to worry, finding a chemical that corrodes copper is not very difficult. I use Hydrochloric Acid (easily obtained from any swimming pool shed) and Hydrogen Peroxide (From any pharmacy). One part peroxide, and two parts Hydrochloric Acid.

Please note that you should not dispose of the etchant in the drain - it could potentially corrode the pipes and sink. do not also throw it out indiscriminately as it could kill plants and pollute the earth. I use mine to clean concrete of moss. and water it down afterwards.


By now the PCB is looking very good. but we need to mark the points to drill each hole. I use a carbide score to nick the points for my pilot holes. these points are important to ensure the drill doesn't "runaway" and end up in the wrong place. scoring the PCB, only to make a dent, not to make a hole. Remember each via on the topside must match its corresponding via on the bottom. After the scoring, its time to drill the holes.

My Smart Sprinkler System Part 1.

Introduction
You might be aware that I have been frustrated about forgetting to switch off appliances before leaving home. I guess its a sign of old age, my forgetfulness is becoming fairly pronounced. but instead of grumbling, as a technological determinist, I decided to create a smart home.

I have been tinkering with microcontrollers for some years, but creating a smart home got me jumping into the deep end of Internet of Things IOT. I have short listed several projects that I will need to create to have a smart home, and you can find them from looking through my blog for IOT and my smart home. here -

As you can see I have a whole lot of projects to keep me busy for a long long time. but not to worry, they are all simple modular systems that latch unto each other to create a smart system. I usual, I will share them here with you. you can follow the steps and recreate them for yourself if you have the basic skills of soldiering and following simple instructions. I will also share Gerber files, circuit diagrams and a whole lot of information to help you build these systems on your own.

To Sprinkle Or not to Sprinkle
for today, I will focus on the plants in my compound. I want to be able to automatically water the lawn, plants around the compound at preset times every single day of the year without much manual intervention. Yes one can easily buy a working water sprinkler of the shelve in any hardware store. but there is no fun in that. Plus, we can build a smarter system that takes cognizant of the weather to decided if it should give the plants their usual dose of water, or not water at all if it has rained in the last 24 hours.



The making of the Project Circuit Boards PCB
Examples abound on the internet on how to create a PCB.

1. Transfer a circuit trace from a Laser Printer to a paper and unto a PCB board.
2. Rule traces manually by hand.

feel free to look them up and choose which one to use. but there are basically only two methods open to you, One, to carefully draw it with your hand using a permanent maker like a fine point sharpie, or two, to use a purpose built application to design the circuit and print it out using a Laser printer (not a bubble jet ink based printer).

1. Manual Trace
I typically use the manual tracing method only when the design is simple or I don't have access to a Laser Printer and time is of the essence. Though this would typically give a rough amateurish outcome, but as usual, I put a little method to the madness. As expected, this manual process, though fast, creates a not so professional outcome. but there are a whole lot of lessons to learn from this method, so I will show you how to make a PCB using the manual writing method.

1st step is to clean the PCB with steel wool and use 4 pins to sandwich the dotted project board, the two sided board against a piece of paper.

I usually pull out a dotted project PCB as a guide to help me mark the necessary points from studying my circuit on the bread board, I experiment with where each component will fit by placing them on the paper, punching a tiny hole through the doted project board.

 At the end I get a fair idea of where things would end up and I rule the lines on the paper.

I then manually rule the necessary traces with a sharpie (permanent marker). If I make mistakes, I wipe them off with cotton wool dipped in acetone and touchup with a fine tipped sharpie or any permanent marker after it dries.

These markings are actually thin plastic traces protecting the copper upon which they are written. the protection prevents corrosion by the chemicals when dropped in an etching bathe. Spend all the time you need reviewing the traces, make sure there are not shorts and that each pad connects to a matching hole that way when drilled the components will easily fall in place. this is particularly important if they are surface mounted components - I avoid  them cos they are very difficult to solder, but they are cheaper and also small, ideal for compact designs.

If you are able to follw these steps you will have something similar to the image above and ready for the next phase - etching the copper plate in an acid bathe. I will show you just how in another article. until then cheers.

Internet Of Things IOT

Hello Thinkers, Its been quite a while since I hooked up, but believe me, I have been very busy doing so many many things. I can only sum them up as my deep dive into the rave of the moment - Internet of Things (IoT). We have all had our share of that sad moment after driving hours into town only to realize that you didn't switch off the air conditioner at home. Or perhaps, there was no power when you left, but you know you left several appliances running before the power cut - meaning that you will be running (wasting) energy with no one around to enjoy them. In the 3rd world where these are scares resources, no body wants anything to go to waste. It could be anything;-

you forgot to close the garage door. you forgot to switch the generator to manual to prevent it from kicking in when there is a power cut. You forgot to switch off the TV, Fan, AC, etc. depending on where you are, your problem might be different.

The Problem
My problem was how to create a smart home, that allows me the freedom of switching these things off even after I have left home. Yes! without coming home, or calling in the neighbors. Literally from anywhere I am in the world. My plan is to create a smart home, capable of doing the following;-

1. Open & Close the gate (electric gate already exist)
2. Arm Electric fence
3. Let the Dogs out of their kennel 
4. Monitor the weather to ascertain steps to take for air-conditioning, watering plants, letting out dogs, switching on lights, notifying the pool maintenance guy,
5. Switch off / on several equipment's
1. Generator
2. Air Conditioners
3. Fence / Outside Lights
4. Borehole pump
5. Swimming pool pump
6. Swimming pool lights
6. Monitor the battery level of the inverter
7. Monitor the temperature of the deep freezer
8. Water the lawn and the plants at home
9. Monitor the security alarm
10. Track motion after hours
11. etc.

As expected, I had to do some research, and I found several projects I could latch unto - one of the is My Sensors Project. MySensors is an open source hardware and software community focusing on do-it-yourself home automation and Internet of Things IOT. They provide easy to follow build instructions, ready to use code examples and adaptable open source hardware designs. All of this runs on the MySensors software library for secure communication that has been battle-tested with more than 20 of the leading home automation controllers on the market.

MyController?
Controllers as the name suggests are the brain behind an IOT architecture. The controller is the unit like a CPU is to a computer, that does the processing of data fed in by sensors like temperature sensor on a node circuit tucked away somewhere in the compound. The controller uses this data to make rule based decisions (as created by me) to set switches on or off as desired. For example, I could use the rain gage data that shows that it rained today to tell the water sprinkler not to come on as scheduled every 4:00pm. In addition, the controller can tell, the node that controls the fence light to come on as soon as it gets dark, this could be set at a specific time, or just based on day light, the latter being the preferred as it will switch on the lights both in summer or winter when day light is delays or even during a storm when it could get dark even at noon.

My choice of controller was stressful. I was looking for a neat easy to use (and understand) controller with an active community to help when I get stock. I settled on MyController another open source project by JKandasa. The system is based on pure java (back end) and angularJS (front end) it can run it in any platform supporting Java SE 1.8. I liked its look and feel. and as expected JKandasa himself was readily on hand to support newbies like me. but after a difficult start and several huddles I faced with frustration, I went back to the square one to look for an alternative... my research lead me to Domoticz.

Domoticz is a free/open-source Home Automation System that lets you monitor and configure various devices such as lights, switches, temperature, rain, wind, UV and meters (electric, gas, water). It appeared quite powerful and intuitive as it promised. In less than an hour after I downloaded and installed it, it had latched on to the flimsy MySensors Gateway that I had arranged on my breadboard. with that, my journey has begun.

IOT here we come1

3D Printed Fidget Spinners

As the yuletide season approaches, you may have already started making plans to start shopping against Santa's list; What are the exciting toys of the season? What are all the kids looking for? 

This is exactly what I have been think about these past few days. After a few minutes on Google… presto! Fidget Spinners are probably one of the most desired toys for kids of all ages this year. But where does one find Fidget spinners in Abuja without spending more than necessary? Well don’t even bother.

So out with Google and in with my Google Sketchup. I am going to design my own working Fidget Spinner – then PRINT it on my 3D printer.

Here is what we are going to needs

1.       Ball Bearings – the smallest I could find were 11mm radius (22mm diameter) and they cost N400 (about $1.00c USD) and you need only one for a fidget spinner.

2.       Ring Washers – I calculated that I would need about nine washers for a spinner. At N50 for one, that would be a total N450.00 (About $1.20c USD)

       they come in varying sizes, I just chose one that was almost 22mm in diameters. They are needed to load the spinners. The heavier the spinning parts, the longer it will spin. But care must be taken not to make it too heavy for the kids.

With caliper in hand and the above materials, work commenced on the computer with a 3D software. 3D applications abound, every tinkerer has a handle on one of many 3D modeling software – Blender, Solid works, Fusion 360, Maya, AutoCAD, etc.

I prefer SketchUp because its really simple and stress free. Designing two circles in two axis is not that difficult, you can get creative and design a complex set of gears or Ninja like three – five pointed stars. I kept mine simple and below is a link to the final .stl file for printing.

1.       The 2 thumb knobs

2.       The 6 covers for each set of washers (male and female)

3.       The spinner body

Presto!!!! The final result.

For full details, please watch video at https://youtu.be/KKfAX0huBaI

Jack of All Trade - Master of Non!

While several of my friends knew what their calling way back when we were toddlers - I am yet to find out where I belong. I have always thought this was due to the fact that I am multi talented. But my friend Amalaye Oyakes comments about me on Facebook got me thinking...



By the way, Amalaye settled for exploring the celestial bodies ever since we left secondary school. So when I heard he was one of the big boys at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Huston, I wasnt too surprised. But, why am I so confused? Whats my calling? Why haven't I settled down yet and focused on one career path? Am I a Jack of all trade... and master...? This comment made we think about my diverse interest, and how I came to be where I am.

• My first love is music - I am a prolific entertainer - I once lead a brass band in my secondary school. I even went as far as playing on the same stage with world renowned Dizzy Gilespie (twice at the Port Harcourt Jazz festivals. Femi Anikulapo Kuti, Eddie Okonta, Gerald Opino, etc. I was given a scholarship to study music by the Nigerian Navy, but my father would have nothing of it. The only thing that kept me away from being a musician was education. I play (well I think I still can) all brass music instruments, from the Beagle, Trumpet, Trombone, to the almighty Tuba. I also play the guitar, and most wind instruments like the Clarinet. I have written several songs, but havent mustered the courage to enter a studio... yet.



Add caption

•  I have always been an artist. I recall attempting my first drawing at five after watching my Dad draw a human head - I guess its in the blood, I picked up a pencil and tried to do just what I saw and the rest as the say is history. I exhibited my first art piece at the tender age of 15 at the United Nations sponsored art exhibition in New York.
•  Being a science student in secondary school, I applied for Electrical Engineering & Architecture when I left secondary school. I got an offer to study Electrical Engineering at the Federal University of Technology Owerri FUTO. But that was not to be, cos my family thought I could do better to study art and be my own boss - I wish I didn't listen. I went on to study Graphic Arts at University of Nigeria. I recall my name was on the notice board when I resumed - my head of department wanted to meet this "Mad man" - I must have been mad to enroll for Fine & Applied Arts with Physics, Mathematics, English & Arts. I got an A in all with Arts been the lowest score. I guess I must have made an impression as Prof. Chike Aniako, Prof. Obiora Udechukwu and Prof. Ola Oloidi would become life time mentors.
• Computer Graphics was a budding career path by the time I left University. In advert agencies of the time, studio heads had to depend on the skills of their "glorified" secretaries to bring their art creations into the digital world. As you may have imagined, this practice did not produce the finest results. With my love for computers, an inquisitive mind and a wealth of creative ability, I thrived in Ad Agency work. After a stink at three advert agencies - Dawn Functions, New Generation & Media Plus International, I realized that I felt like I was being used, while the products I churned out (calendars, Annual reports, Desk Diaries, Product advert, etc) were sold for millions, I got stipends. So I wrote a private proposal to Banks who were the major clients in the industry and voila, Afri Bank (now Main Street Bank) & NAL Merchant Bank Plc. (now Sterling Bank) took the bait. That's how I went to work as the in house Graphic Artist for NAL Merchant Bank.
• One little known secret is that Graphic Artist helped make the internet what it is today. After Sir Tim Bernes Lee created the hyper-text protocol in 1993 (the http:// you find before the www web url) that changed the aparnet (as it used to be known) to what we now call the internet, Graphic artist were the first group of professionals to apply their visual creations... I consider myself one of Nigeria pioneers having built my first website in 1994.I also designed NALs website in the early 1990s when very few Nigerians knew what the internet was.
• As the internet grew in complexity, I grew with it. My simple HTML pages designed with WYSIWYG applications gave way to more mature web programming languages like ASP.net, SharePoint, etc. With several web development and other professional certifications under my belt, I gracefully transited to being called a web developer. Even went on to design the nations Central Bank of Nigeria internet, intranet and extranet websites.
• As you can imagine, web development is not a core function for banking - so the promotions were not coming as fast, and after 10 years of creating the web communications office and administering an army of content managers, one think stuck out like a sore thumb. "But... you are an artist" was becoming a derogatory statement I couldn't bear anymore. and so even-though I really wanted to study Human Computer Interaction HCI to prepare myself to join the now thriving Nollywood movie industry, I was forced to study Information Systems in Manchester University, United Kingdom.
• On my return from studies, along with my Project Management PM skills and certification, I jumped into the deep end of project management pool. The PM skills was to see me working on the banks Cashless Nigeria initiative. I had reinvented myself once more.

So while I am sitting here thinking I have derailed a million times already - Amalayes comments clearly shows that my electronics and inventing talents has taken a back seat. If the climate was right, I should be an industrialist and inventor.Its always reassuring to hear your friends describe you in ways you never imagined. I recalled Amalaye near fatal electrocution at my house in the late 1980's when he tried to test my Door Zapper! a device I put in place to detar buglars who had hit my room a few weeks prior to his visit. His recent visit to Nigeria last month may have well Zapped me back to life - I should make plans to attend the exhibition, perhaps, this time, I may have finally settled down cos a rolling stone gathers no moss.

How to Cold Cast a plastic Part in Your Kitchen

Part 1 – Making the Wax Mold

Have you every cried over throwing away a functional device or toy just because you lost or broke one small plastic part? 

I recently visited my mechanic to find out what was wrong with my AC, and in the process, they broke one of the plastic slide for the air vent. The knob is  a one off part, not something one can order a replacement part for – there are only two possible ways to find another – 1) Visit the local junk yard and hope to God that you will find a matching part from an accidented vehicle.  2) Make one. Yes make another one in my kitchen.

I know any wise guy would have chosen the easy way out, but trust me, I rather stay indoors and engage myself in a small DIY project than to venture out doors – with planes falling out of the skies, and Boko Haram incessant bombings, I have made the tough choice of making it myself. I took the one weekend out to make a replacement part for the AC vent and the account below is how I went about it.

What do you need for this project?

• Candles
• Paper Box
• Sticky Tape
• Large syringe
• Empty tin can
• Epoxy

            Steps

• Depending on size of the item to be replaced, find an appropriate box that will hold the mold
• Make sure the box is big enough to hold the item and still leave enough space on the edge. The space will ensure that the wax does not break off. The rule of thumb is making sure that the item will sit in about 50% of the space.
• Decide the part of to cast. From experience, it is better to cast in two parts – top and bottom, is a way that allows you to remove both molds without breaking the molds as such. It is often easy to make this choice by looking at the lines on the original piece to be cast – most plastic objects bear the tell tail sign of how they were cast – often in two parts. – we will call that line the “Cast Line”.
• Cut up the candles and put it in the tin can and set the can on low heat on the cooker.
• The following process might be very messy, so make sure you are wearing gloves and mask off the working area to prevent greasy stains.

• After the wax melts… pour the wax into the box and allow it to cool off.  From experience, I noticed that the very first time I poured wax into a box, the wax leaked out (of course, it is liquid). I found it quite handy to tape the entire corners of the box with cello tape (sticky tape) to prevent any leakages. 

• Wait until it is cool enough to leave your finger prints on. Not too hot, not too cold. After a few experiments you will know when the time is right. 
• With a steady hand push the part into the molten wax to get the first mold. Don’t be tempted to pull it out or jiggle it. Just let it sit deep, allow the wax to rise above the Cast Line where you would like the second mold to start from.

Post picture of the two replicas sitting in the molten wax

• Wait for the wax to solidify – To speed things up, I placed the mold in the freezer, and then the fridge, but it always resulted in cracks, as the wax cooled too fast. It is best to allow the mold to cool at room temperature.

• With the original piece still in place and using a sharp blade, carve out the Cast line – make the surface of the mold flat. Enough angle to ensure that the 1^st and second molds will meet on a some worth flat surface. Drill out holes to ensure that there will be no air pockets when both molds meet.

• Set the first mold aside and prepare the box for 2^nd mold – follow steps 1 – 4 above.
• When the second mold has reached the right temperature, slowly lower mold 1 into the second mold, press hard until wax is dripping out of the drilled holes in mold 1

• Leave it to harden overnight. Don’t be afraid that they will bind together, Wax is actually has its own oils, as long as two drops are not the same temperature, chances are that they will come apart with a minimal effort.
• Make sure to wait for the wax in the middle of the mold to set before continuing this procedure
• Make guide marks across the two sides of the mold – this will help you align the two parts properly. From experience, I put a scratch mark on all sides of the mold. Magic marker lines will eventually rub off so avoid them, unless you have already secured a masking tape.
• Pry the two parts apart, make sure you are gentle and avoid breaking the mold
• Slowly bring out the original part from the two molds. If the mold breaks, it is just a temporary setback, just cutup the wax and smelt it down again. From experience, some waxy residue remain on the original part after each attempt. Washing it off or cleaning it off did not work – The best way to get rid of the extra wax was dipping the part in Hot water (you risk melting the part if you dip it into Very hot water).
• Examine the two molds. You should notice every small detail; even part numbers will show up clearly in a good mold.
• If you successfully get to this part without any problems, Shout Hurray! – you are half way there.

Hobbyist: Workspace

I can’t write a line today without saying that every hobbyist deserves a dedicated workspace/place. I once had a study but as soon as the baby came after marriage, Titi turned it to the baby room. I have been running my projects from a desk in our bedroom. This has always been a subject of concern to Titi. My projects lay in the balcony, the guest bedroom, the walkway the guest bedroom and sometimes our bedroom.

With Titi away on a one week break to United States, I moved into the room permanently. I must confess it was a sorry sight by the time she returned to find that the door of her wardrobe was a prop for my make-shift spray booth. That the entire floor was littered with metal fillings from drilling multiple holes in the rotor hub. Half the space on the king-size bed was covered with tools, and other equipment. I moved the jig from the balcony to the bedroom.

To cut a long story short – the pressure was on to hook up the turbine and hoist it on the roof, while I start the second phase and test the turbine.

Putting it on the roof was exciting…. I couldn’t help but wonder if it would spin or not. Though I could feel the cool breeze, I knew it was not as fast or focused like the electric fan I used to test the turbine in the house. I ran the line down to my flat 2 floors down allowing enough slack to ensure I can cut (if the wire twist around its axis) the wire to fix a plug to routinely unwind the twist.

Just as the final bolts where being tightened, the turbine caught the wind and like they say the rest is history…

I will put up a video of the turbine flying as soon as I can upload one on u-tube. But I was such a pleasure to watch people stare at the alian object on my roof as the walked by. I gave me so much satisfaction to see the smile on their faces - that suggested this house hold has gone "green". Eventhough I was yet to rig it up to the grid, I was humbled that with the help of the internet, I too could cut down on use fossil fuel and save the ozone.

As soon as I finish the volts up option to boost the output current, I can officially say - Phase 2 over!

“Gear Up” or “Volt Up” Part 2

Volts Up
While testing the turbine on a jig, I realized that there was a need to boost the voltage, I identified two different approaches to solve the problem. the first one, Incorporating gears to speed up the turbine did not come up to scratch as it was crude, noisy and would require strong winds to turn the blades. So I was left with the second option - The electronic voltage boost.

A simple DC – DC conversion should be able to boost my 8 Volts to about 16 Volts. I saw circuit diagrams from numerous hobby sites – but they all had some unique integrated circuits (ICs) like Max (http://para.maxim-ic.com/en/search.mvp?fam=stepup&tree=powersupplies), y, z, that local electronics component stores did not stock. I had almost given up on this option (planning to return to perfect the gears option above) when I stumbled on a power boost circuit that used a simple 555 timer. The 555 series of ICs is one of the most versatile IC in the whole world – and yes, we do have plenty of them in Nigeria.

http://www.elecfree.com/electronic/voltage-doubler-with-ic-555/ posts a simple 555 voltage doubler circuit. See google result - http://www.google.com.ng/search?hl=en&q=555+voltage+doubler+circuit&btnG=Search&meta=

The components are:-

• NE555 timer IC
• 2.2k ohm resistor
• 15k ohm resistor
• 0.01 uF ceramic capacitor
• C2, C3 220 uF electrolytic capacitor
• C4 470 uF electrolytic capacitor
• D1, D2 1N4002 diode

This circuit will now increase the output voltage from 8Volts to about 16volts. Optionally, I can throw in a regulated 14Volts at the end of this to ensure the output never exceeds 14Volts. One problem though is current. Will this circuit provide enough current? I will cross that bridge when I get there. For now, this will no doubt charge a flat battery.

“Gear Up” or “Volt Up”

While testing the motor on a bench, I soon realized that the motor outputs an average of about 9 volts. 3 volts shy of the recommended charge voltage. To my mind, there were two solutions I could employ. One mechanical and the other electronic. The two options were bound to work, but one was easy, and the other wasn’t.

Gear Up
The first option, the mechanical one was to employ gears to speed the motor. Reading up the topic showed that gears were not recommended for small turbines. It was crude at best, and when it worked, it was noisy and heavy. These were problems I was willing to live with as long as it worked. In its simplest form, it required two gears. I found a motor cycle clutch gear for a measly N800 ($5). And put them to work.

I assembled the two gears on a sheet of white paper. I pressed this against a platform to create an impression on the paper. I then proceeded to design my assembly around this trace.

A trip to the “Turner” (metal works ) resulted in the complete assembly below. All that is left now is to grease it up and bolt it on the motor.

But that was not to be, as I realized that the gear was much too stiff, and required a significant amount of force to set it rolling. I doubt that the cool breeze of Garki could force that hard. I should have employed ball bearings to ensure that everything was at the right angles, perhaps, I might have been able to pull of the mechanical option.

The Mount and Brackets

I have been writing about the epileptic power distribution and generation in Nigeria and how I built my home made wind turbine to supply 3500watts (>2 horse power) to my home in Abuja. I stumbled on a note on the internet about a government project (http://www.windfair.net/press/4068.html) in Katsina aimed at harnessing wind energy for local communities. Nice to know that Government has caught on – I have also noticed uncountable solar street lights in various Nigerian towns and wish them luck on their project. We have seen how to make the blades, also how I put the motor together. Now, we will see how I built the mount, mast and brackets.

The Mount and Brackets
One of the questions on ….. blog was how he managed the line. I came up with a brilliant design that would ensure that the line did not tangle or obstruct the swinging of tail boom. The design employed the use of a small ball bearing on which a tube was sandwiched between the alternator mount and the horizontal pole.

Since I have no metal work skills or experience, I had to turn to the experts. Again, nomenclature would rare its ugly head. I asked everyone to refer me to competent metal workers that could machine parts; no handy man in Nigeria knew what I meant. I tried welders, black smiths to no avail. Then just by share luck, I stumbled upon a mechanic who had just fabricated a vehicle AC bracket. He was the one who gave me the local name for metal workers – they are called “Turners” (because of their spinning tools like bench drills, CNC, etc). So if you need to fabricate any metal, be sure to ask for a “Turner”.

The drawing above shows how my turbine is mounted and this mount cleverly conceals the wires from the turbine inside the mast to the house.

If you are interested in making professional looking 3D drawings like this, use Google Sketch - quite intuitive.

The Alternator and Hub

I have been writing about the epileptic power distribution and generation in Nigeria and how I built my home made wind turbine to supply 3500watts (>2 horse power) to my home in Abuja. I stumbled on a note on the internet about a government project (http://www.windfair.net/press/4068.html) in Katsina aimed at harnessing wind energy for local communities. Nice to know that Government has caught on – I have also noticed uncountable solar street lights in various Nigerian towns and wish them luck on their project. We have seen how to make the blades, so I will go to the motor:-
The Alternator
I spent days on end at Deide (a suburb of Abuja) Pantaka looking for PMC Alternators that were light enough to haul up in the air, and most importantly drive at least 12 volts on a low RPM. Due the poor electric power generation in the country, there were large alternators to be found everywhere, these would serve well for a large wind turbines but not the tiny one I plan to build. I checked on ebay for turbine generators, but considered my rules, I decided against importing a wind generator on eBay. I eventually found a 2.5 Horse Power 230 Volts, 4000 RPM motor that looked like it seen better days. After cleaning it up, and changing the carbon brushes, it was good enough to use.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t find a hub to fit the motor when I bought it, so that meant I had to machine a new hub to fight the motor and also hold the wings.



(Update)
My old friends from university all came to visit me over a “private matter”, while we were drinking out, I happened upon a broken down machinery and lo and behold, in it sat a light weight Treadmill motor. Though the motor was not rated, it compared better than the 90 volts one I bought earlier. Luckily this time, there was a fly wheel with a pulley for a 6 track belt drive. Just what I have been looking for.

Picture of the new motor
The Hub
I had initially fabricated a pulley for the first motor, but it rattled and vibrated dangerously when I fitted the blades and ran the motor with the aid of an electric fan.

The vibration was due to miscalculated angles for the blades. The three blades were meant to be at a 120 degree intervals, but my over enthusiastic “Turners” drilled the hole by sight. I guess nobody taught them the rule – measure twice and cut once! From now on, I must be present while all my job is done.

I also noticed that the blades weighted significantly different from each other. So i had to plane-off each blade to bring them all to the same weight. They now all weigh a little over 7kg each.



At first I didn’t want to start from scratch, so I tried to fill and drill the six holes at the right angle again. But after buying the second motor with a flywheel, I went ahead to drill the new hub.



(Update)
Show picture of the new hub with holes

Phase 2 - Buying and Fabricating the Parts

Phase 2 – Buying and Fabricating the Parts
If you have been following my post on how to building a cheap wind turbine to support an existing power inverter, you would know that though an off the shelve model will set you back over $3,000 but with locally assessable materials and not so much DIY skills you can build one for yourself.
I have written about the design and concept at http://tantiblo.blogspot.com/2009/08/phase-1-designing-turbine.html Lets now focus on buying the stuff we need. In the west, one could have walked into Home depot, Curries, or other local DIY or hubby shops, but in Naija – I had to go to the open market.

The Blades
The first and perhaps easiest parts to fabricate are the blades. Following the blueprint I saw at http://www.yourgreendream.com/diy_pvc_blades.php,









Since the pipe wasn’t brand new, the rim was not cut at the right angle - nut tied to a string from the rim, like a plumb and traced the string to get a perfect vertical straight line. Positioning a laser level at the right angle (90 degree) to get my bearings. I cut the four blades with a jigsaw.








I then sanded each blade down with a belt sander and extra smoth sand paper. I sprayed on a matte white finish to make them more presentable.

After cutting the parts out I shaped it with a belt sander, flat file and smooth sand papers, ensuring that all blades not only look alike, but weight the same. This will ensure that the turbine does not vibrate itself to smithereens.

Phase 1 – Designing the Turbine

The Concept Holistically, my plan was to harness the energy of the wind to generate between 10 – 15volts DC to charge two 12volts 200m Amps Deep cycle batteries which will in turn power my inverter. On a more detailed level, the logic of the entire system would be to regulate the erratic current supplied by an alternator to a more tolerable band, and feed the current to a bank of batteries, ensuring that as soon as the battery is topped up, the current is diverted to prevent the batteries from frying. Simple as this plan sounds, it will be fraught with challenges that I hope to share with you on my blog http://tantiblo.blogspot.com/ .

Hold The Power For As Long As You Like (Part 3)

The Solution

Like most solutions, start by Googling up the topic. It wasn’t long before I realized that some people had had their hands on this already, and it looked like they all came away with a relative margin of success. But by and large, I learnt that there was no need to reinvent the wheel. They had already drawn up a blueprint of some of the major components to fabricate a wind turbine.

One of the first thing to consider when building a wind turbine is to ascertain how windy the target location is – for those in the west, there is a chart of average wind speed in different areas in the USA and even in the UK – I guess they use this for air navigation data (several private pilots, and wind-sports related enthusiasts) but in Naija where our past presidents insist that Nigeria has no business in space, no such chart exists. In the absence of this data, I used common sense - as a rule of thumb; coastal cities are generally windier than landlocked cities. Rural areas are generally windier than built up locations.

coastal cities are generally windier than landlocked cities. Rural areas are generally windier than built up locations.

This rule clearly put me at a disadvantage, Abuja is land locked, and built up – but I figured that if I put my turbine high up on the roof of a 3 – 4 storey building, I should catch the “Gulf Steam”. (or so I thought)

I started out with a short shopping list of a few items
• Motor Alternator
• Bicycle Speed Meter (wired)
• Hub for the rotor blades
• PVC Pipes
• 5 Core Wire (one roll)
• Mount Pipes and brackets
• Nuts, Screws, Washers and Bolts

The projects I saw on the internet had shopping list of items one could easily find at your local DIY, home improvement shop, but for three reasons I had to look elsewhere – My rules;
1. Here in Nigeria, there were no hobby shops to run to.
2. I was not willing to waste money. I was going to salvage items and make do with whatever I can find that fits the bill.
3. Will only resort to buying new of off-shore items if and only if, I am unable to get one locally

I turned to junk yard to find my parts – finding a junk yard was more difficult than I first thought. Until I learnt that our people had their own name for it. Its called “Panteka” (from the sentence “Pan Taker” – people who collect pans). Hilarious! Finding Pantakas was much easier.

... more tomorrow.

Hold The Power For As Long As You Like!!! Part 1

The Problem
Our sole power utility company has struggled over the years to provide constant electric power but have failed woefully. Nigeria Electric Power Authority (NEPA) generated and distributed electricity through few hydro-electric dams scattered around the country. Like most government run outfits, NEPA could hardly meet the demands of the people, with poor management, its dilapidated infrastructure and an ever increasing demand by the populace, all indices pointed southwards…and it came to be referred to as NEPA - Never Expect Power Always.

Government has recognized the fact that power (amongst others things) was the main problem that has hindered technological development in the country. Power accounts for a huge chunk of expenses of every business in the country and adds to the cost of the product or service. Even small scale businesses are not exempt from the problem. When communication service providers were asked to lower their tariff, they sighted power provision as the main reason why Nigerians pay the highest tariff in the world.

This problem is further compounded by the cost of refined petroleum products. Though Nigeria is the 5th largest oil producer in the world, we still import refined products. The cause of the problem suggests that no doubt a few people have enriched themselves in the importation of generators, refined oil products and the continued mismanagement of the relevant institutions that should correct these problems. That is a story for another day.

Only recently, NEPA was privatized, reborn and renamed PHCN (Power Holding Company of Nigeria) but like the proverbial old wine in new wine skin, the problems still persist.

Major multinationals like Michelin, Deawoo Motors & Phyzer, have relocated to neighboring countries, in search of more energy. Though government has sunk huge sums of money into the power sector, we are yet to see the results. The administration of Olusegun Obasanjo spent ……billions, with nothing to show for it. The present administration of Musa Yar-adua is prosecuting corrupt administrators of the fund – we are waiting to see the outcome.

CNN once aired “My Favorite Gadget” as a segment of their technology watch program, and their Nigerian bureau fielded their power generation set as their favorite. They spoke my mind, I wonder where we will be without our generators.



Like every other service in Nigeria, you have to solve it yourself. If the water taps don’t run, you sink a bore hole in your house. If the police won’t provide security, you create your own – or consult God or Babalawo (whichever you find more accessible). If the government won’t build your street, you pour gravel, periwinkle shells, stones etc to pave the road. To a large extent I think therein lies our problem as a nation, in the west, people come together (Class act) to force the local authorities to perform. But in Nigeria we say “Leave them!” “God will punish them!!” “Don’t mind them!!!” Our politicians know too well that nobody will stand up to hold them accountable – so the looting continues. You ask “what can we do? “

That’s a story for another day.