Clever, not smart
After one incredibly flawed — but highly informative — attempt, the Arc is working. I finished the Arc last week to present the technical findings for my Sustainable Energy class. For that class there has been less focus on the mechanical aspects of the Arc and more focus on the actual energy harnessing qualities so I am happy I get a chance to talk about what it took to construct it.
More detail photos to come!
It worked!
We won’t be powering any homes any time soon but the project is one step (of many,many, other steps) closer to a final, electricity generating sculpture.
For the technical side of the “Arc” presentation I went through the Energy Conversation Worksheet — with the help of Chris — to actually quantify the amount of electricity that the project actually produced. Was really pretty exciting to see real-world, applicable results from my little masonite masterpiece. See worksheet results below:
Some observations:
It became immediately clear to me that the DC motor that I chose was not nearly a high enough RPM motor. There is a lot resistance. I could get a higher RPM motor but it dawned on me that I should not have used a geared motor at all. Am I right? The efficiency of the electromagnetic induction is only lessened by the gearing. I am going to have to revisit this to push the idea more.
Mechanically, there are more things I could do to prevent as much friction on the structure. For starters, there are nylon bearings for the shafts. In the future it would be a good idea to use a set of metal, ball-bearings to help spin of the shafts.
The rocking momentum could be helped along if there were more weight to the arc itself. The masonite is far too light and the lighter weight makes it difficult for the arc to capitalize on the potential energy.
Because my first Arc attempt went so well I decided to take another stab at it. I know exactly went wrong with the last design so I am keeping my fingers crossed that I made all the right design decisions and the construction of the Arc will go smoothly. It had better … I already dropped off all the materials and files for laser cutting at the AMS.
In the above drawing you’ll notice that there are many, many screw holes. That is because the last time I had a hard time drilling accurately into the thin masonite. The stuff would just dissolve if I made more than one pass at a hole. The fist design had no holes in the plan at all. Considering where all the screws, bolts, washers, and holes go made the drawings for this Arc a lot more complicated. I suppose if I was a lot more comfortable with a 3D rendering program this whole process would be a lot easier. Often times during the development of the drawings I would just stare at the screen for minutes at a time trying to see all the angles.
The one big change to this deign versus the last one is that there will be NO GLUING! I may use a little for reinforcement but this structure will be held together with nuts and bolts. To build up the thickness of the structure I am going to be using the material itself layered up and nylon spacers.
The one part of the old Arc that I plan on using again (with some modifications) is the base. The newly designed Arc still uses the same base design and placement of the wheels except I will have to place the two pieces of masonite closer together so that the wheels can be placed on the outside rather than in between. Additionally, rather than there being only the one larger wheel there will now be two. The one major change may be the introduction of some sort of suspension on the larger wheels. I am considering placing a spring on the axle for the larger wheels to apply some downward pressure to increase contact with the Arc. It will cause a little friction and will slow the rocking momentum a bit but I want to be sure that there is enough torque to turn the motor that is attached to the Arc via two sprockets and a chain.
An audible “reset.” We have all experienced it at one time or another. Take our experiences in NYC for example. The city is loud. The throngs of chatty pedestrians, the roaring traffic and even the Mr. Softee truck loudly idling. Our brains are in full throttle consuming and processing all these sound waves whether we are aware of them or not. But you round a corner or step into a building and you are equally engulfed by silence. Or is it silence? Your ears are tingling and every hushed conversation or shuffling of feet rings in your ears. What is that? Is your brain still functioning on overdrive to accommodate all the sounds that attacked you just moments ago?
The goal of “Reset” is to intentionally calibrate your brain to function in a high-noise environment and abruptly return you to your setting but with different ears and a new awareness.
The experiment
The setup is really easy … but you may annoy your neighbors for a few moments. Go ahead and find yourself a power strip and some noisy appliances. They don’t all have to be the exceptionally loud type but it is important that they have a on/off state. While unplugged we want to make sure they are placed on the “on” state.
Got everything? Ok, so lets make some noise.
1.) Take a moment — 1 minute — and sit in silence and observe your surroundings.
2.) Take another minute and make note of what you hear.
3.) With your power strip in the “off” position begin plugging your appliances in. Make sure all of your selected appliances are in the “on” position.
4.) With everything plugged in turn the power strip on.
5.) Listen for 5 minutes. Yeah, seems like a long time but you really want it to sink in and get your brain working hard to process the sounds. Ignore your neighbors banging on the wall.
6.) Turn the power strip off.
7.) Take a minute — or longer — to write what you hear now. Is it different? do things stand out more. Is something there that you didn’t hear before.? Why do you think it is different?
Notation and video
“Reset” is an extension of our earlier assignment to create a notation of our sounds piece. The concept and idea for the experiment came before the notation so that is what you are seeing here. An instruction manual on how to “perform” the experiment. Unless I can come up with some other way of creating a notation for “Reset” it will more than likely be read as instructions very similar to what I have shown above … but aren’t instructions and notation one and the same? Anyway, I am going to give it a shot and post the notation along with a video of someone performing “Reset” along with their written response.
The idea for this project came from an earlier project I did for this class. In that class we were to make a “random” and I decided on making a random sculpture. The end result was a group of three geometric shapes that could connect to one another to create one larger sculpture. They were able to stick to each other because of 15 very strong rare-earth metal magnets placed just beneath the surface of the forms. The randomness came from the random way different classmates combined the shapes to construct the sculpture. I really like the piece and people seemed to really have a good time playing with it. (Still looking for pictures to post!)
Initially, I was going to take this project and make it more of a polished piece but it needed something more. Light! I really wanted to incorporate light into the piece so that when a form was connected to another in a given way a light within one of the pieces would turn on. But it still wasn’t enough. So I started playing with the forms and eventually came to the conclusion that I should use two shapes. It became too confusing (for me) to have to determine the the different combination just to turn on a light and I think others would lose interest. So I paired the sculpture down to two forms: the light and a base. And what is a light and a base? A lamp. I am making a lamp. But a sculptural one that sill maintains the essence of the earlier random sculpture.
For the purpose of the prototype I built the base using masonite that is lined with metal on the inside to give the light form something to stick to. The base and the light form can sit anywhere on a surface while it is off. To turn the light on one simply needs to place it on any surface of the base. The base itself can rest on any of its surfaces. When the light makes contact with the form it sticks to it using a magnet. When the magnet catches a switch closes a circuit that turns on the light. Should the user want to turn the light up or dim it they simply need to turn the form to the left or right as they would any dimmer dial. To turn the light off they simply pull the light form off the base.
Next steps:
For the final piece I need to figure out the construction of the light form and decide on a shape for the base. The base needs to be rebuilt out of sheet metal in order to provide a direct connection to the magnet in the light form. I still have quite a bit of work to do to figure out how to construct the mechanism that turns the light on and how to actually create the dimmer function. For this prototype I did actually make a crude switch using two triple A batteries and 6 leds but the magnet used to attach the light element to the base was just barely strong enough to hold the light without the lighting inside. I think the base being made of metal and using a slightly stronger metal will solve that problem.
Additionally, I am going to figure out how to charge the light. I could create a docking station of some sort but like the wireless component of the piece. For the time being I may need to rely on replaceable batteries but should I ever want to actually market this I would have to come up with a solution. I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.
I mean failure in a good way.
These are the results of my proposed midterm project.
When you look at the photos you will notice that the arc and the base are separate from one another. Well, that’s because it did not fit. It dawned on me about 3/4 of the way through the construction of the contraption that in its current design it would not and could not be assembled the way I had planned. Let me highlight the reasons why this project was destined for the scrap pile. Not really. I plan to put it somewhere in the apartment where it will stay only briefly until the fiance notices it. At which time it will end up in storage. But it will have good company. There are a handful of my sculptures already in there.
Back to the highlights.
1) I had prepared the design of the arc for laser cutting with 3/4″ masonite board as the material. I did buy 3/4″ board but it was actually slightly thinner than that. Considering there were over 100 pieces used in the construction of this piece it did not take long for the dimensions to get screwed up. Lesson learned: know your materials. Measure, measure and re-measure.
2) For whatever reason, I completely failed on the design of the base and how it would fit into the arc. Initially, I thought I caught the problem in the beginning of the construction and thought I had a solution but in the end I was still wrong. The base does not allow for the rocking movement of the arc that sits on it. And when I say “does not allow” I mean it just does not fit at all. Lesson learned: When working with multiple complex shapes consider using a 3D program to really “see” how it all fits together.
3) It’s awesome that ITP will write a grant check to you to cover the costs laser cutting at AMS. What they don’t tell you is that it is not a check to you at all but some sort of funny-money arrangement between ITP and AMS as way of paying for services. Lesson learned: Don’t assume you can simply pay out of pocket for the AMS laser cutting and go to the bank and deposit the check. The bank teller thought I was giving her a fake check.
4) Masonite is great to work with. Cuts accurately and really holds its shape. The downside is that it really can’t be overworked. Drilling, for example, really does a number on the material. One drill and one shot at setting the screw is ideal. Anything after that and the stuff starts to fall apart. And I had the good stuff! Lesson learned: Really consider the drilling into the design. The AMS laser cutter can cut some pretty tiny (and very accurate) holes in places where there needs to be a screw.
All in all I was happy with the project simply because I learned some valuable lessons. I do plan to rebuild this and really get it working for the final. Using all that I learned from this go around I think the next will be much more successful.
Click on image below for visual explanation (words are so overrated).
My midterm project is a continuation of a project I did for my Sustainable Energy class. The original inspiration of the project came from a sculpture I did quite a few years ago. I had always envisioned the sculpture as a kinetic piece but it was only until now have I started to grapple with how to make it actually function. My goal is to create a kinetic sculpture that harnesses its own kinetic energy and uses it to generate its own movement. And so this is one small step in realizing my goal.
The “Rocking Arc” project is going to be used to generate electricity that will be stored in a capacitor. The rocking movement from the arc will turn a wheel that has a sprocket and chain attached to it. The chain is connected to yet another sprocket that is attached to a 71 rpm DC motor. In my previous project for my other class, I was able to generate a fair amount of voltage but used a pendulum motion to generate it. This project is closer to my original sculpture design in that there is a rocking motion used to generate electricity.
The majority of the hardware for this project was purchased from ServoCity.com. The larger arch and housing for all of the components will be created using laser-cut masonite. (I plan to use NYU’s Advanced Media Studio for the cutting).
Here it is in all its glory. This is a small step towards a larger sculpture that would be able to function using its own generated electricity. My goal is to combine this project with my Mechanisms That Move class project (still in the works). The sculpture that I have in mind is a piece I did several years ago. I had always envisioned the piece as a kinetic sculpture and even did a little animation of how it would work.
Still working on the data worksheet to show how much electricity was generated.
