Capacitance touch switch

A capacitance touch switch works using body capacitance, a property of the human body that gives it great electrical characteristics. The lamp keeps charging and discharging its metal exterior to detect changes in capacitance. When a person touches it, it increases the capacitance and triggers the switch.

Capacitance switches are available commercially as integrated circuits from for example:

• Omron: Model B6TS04LT (4 channel) and B6TS08LT (8 channel).
• Quantum Research Group: Model QT 113.

the problem is these parts cost 120 bucks and are made by a japanese company .... we can always temporarily use a manual switch which can be l8tr replaced by a proximity sensor .. the only problem being if any bee or leaf or something comes too close to it it will still acticvate ... barring that proximity sensors are commonly used like in line followers ... something which makes our job easier ... what say.... ?.. I've even got a circuit for this..

FOUNTAIN REPORT - discussion on 20.3.2008

firstly, we all went through the design and finalized it. the waterfall looks as it is in bulla's prev post...
we then discussed on the positives and negatives abt the design...
damroo n i will be going to the zoo asap n collect info abt the solutions to the monkey problem..
2 way n moddey will go to the construction site to find out the construction cost (of the structure above the pathway)
hawaa is supposed to gather info abt the lighting...all the stuff nada talked off
patel will find abt the acoustic repellant (soln to monkey problem) n more abt the tap n material to be used
nada has to calculate the water input available, output required n ways to increase the water output....
dats it 4 now........
next meeting on sunday...9 pm...our usual time...

cheers
capacity...

The Quiz week update

From what was discussed n decided in the previous meeting, there's a slight bit of finishing touch given to the design by a few of us.

The design appears something like this:


the structure



top view of our pond


- We'll be having an arc shaped pathway right at the middle of the pool, over which only homo sapiens would walk/occupy space. A rectangular surface will be placed above the pathway, say, at a height of 2.2 metres - this height is to allow our dear Fishy to walk as well.

- The rectangular surface is designed such that water has flow in the form of thin sheets, but with discontinuity at 4 places - 1 for the human entry, 1 for the human exit and 2 breaks on either side, at the middle of the longer side of the rectangular sheet.

- Water is supposed to be pumped up through a pipe(s) which would actually be concealed by makin them pass through within the hollow supports we plan to use for holding the rectangular surface at the required height. This water would then be goin to the centre of the surface n from there up - the tap idea.

- Water wud now fall down from the tap into a small vessel. This collection of water is to bring the flow to zero velocity. So, at zero initial velocity (...nearly), we hav water flowing to the 4 openings of teh surface.

- We plan to hav a rough edge at the surface tip. This is to create tiny lines of flow so as to ensure that the sheet does not converge from top to bottom. Meet in person in case further details on this funda is required.

- Width of the pathway is decided to be 3ft approx.

- For the monkey problem, the pond part can be fitted with thorn-like metallic projections at the bottom. This wud prevent monkeys from jumping inside the pond. Ideas on preventing them from spoiling the tap structure in this design, are needed. Protection from volleyball/football strikes are also to be implemented

Rough calculations on the amount of water required and other parameters were done. More depth in terms of these are needed.

The above was Phase-I i.e., this part is to be finished by Hostel-Nite. Details on Phase-II will be discussed n decided in forthcoming meetings.


So, this was the update.

Awaiting comments n cribs.


Cheers
Bulla

fountain report

hey guys sr y for the delay .... so here's wat we did on 13/3/2008... We inched closer to a design .... saw some gr8 designs on the net too .... cheked out the ahmedabad tap waterfall whose tap we plan to use, stone pathway in the middle tht people can walk on and cascading water towards the center where we plan to have a disc or a rectangular fall of water surrounding a place tht sum1 can stand to have the experience of their lives...., liner required for sticking stones etc. , filters ...and most of all thot abt monkey problems for a long time n d had gud ideas.. rite nw tarun's building up on his acoustic monkey repellent , capacity goes to the zoo, ... next meet on friday the 20th of march 2008

lighting - ambience

this is one of the most important aspects in the design of a waterfall. since we thought of a design which includes both waterfall and fountain, proper lighting can make the fountain part look amazing. one idea is to make the fountain outlet part big with the nozzles placed quite far apart and lights of different colours can be placed near each nozzle. after accomplishing this, the water jets coming out from each nozzle will have different colours at their base. this is shown pictorially:lighting a cascade waterfall looks brilliant compared to other kinds of waterfalls. a cascade waterfall is one in which water flows over a series of steps. in that case, each step can be lighted using lights of different colour as shown :
and of course, submersible lights like halogen lights can be used inside the reservoir/pond. various colour lights can be used there too.

we can make some fascinating things out of fountains like hydraulophone. this can be kept besides the waterfall and an attract huge crowds for sure.

A hydraulophone is a fountain that can be played as a musical instrument. These fountains are like woodwind instruments, but using water instead of air. The embochure of the instrument occurs at the finger holes (referred to as "mouths"). Hydraulophones often have multiple "mouths", so that a player can put each finger into a different mouth at the same time, in order to play chords, while independently manipulating each finger for separate and individual control of the embouchure of each note in a chord. A skilled hydraulist can slightly "bend" each note in order to play just intonation in any desired key, or to gently and fluidly vary intonation or temperament as a piece of music changes from one key to another.

The idea this pic has i think is really gud...wud prevent monkeys from destroying anything...we can like make it look gud sumhow..like dats our job..seems a lil bit boring now...but i think itll be much more efficient and last long...

gen aspects about design...

Above shows the basic design of the waterfall. Its not clearly visible and i couldn't help.. :(
Some important things i found out are :
1. Since water circulation is important, the pump has to be positioned as far as possible from water inlet.
2. A GFCI ( Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) protected electric outlet would be better. It protects people from fatal electric shocks.
3. If a liner is being planned, EPDM liners are best. flexible plastic liners can also be used which are made of PVC and HDPE.
4. One more interesting thing I found out is that some species of monkeys are afraid of their own images....can this be used to save the fountain from the nocturnal monkeys?????
5. In the image above, the height of the waterfall is less.....that can be made higher and different kinds of waterfalls can be used....like punchbowl waterfall, horsetail waterfall etc...
6. To avoid the stones at the bottom move from their position, they can be sealed to the liner using (black) expanding foam sealant.

cmon guyz put enthu n lets make it awesome......

something abt carps

(i will keep on adding to it)

they are simplest of all fishes. eg:-goldfish, koi...
they will be very effective in control of weeds in our waterfall, as they can eat upto 200% of their body-weight, decreasing to 75% as they grow older. also they will eat insects and other arbit things for sure, thus keeping the place clean. but yes, we won't be able to use carnivores with them.

also it would be better if we build a bio-filter for them, so as to avoid them the insult od swimming in their own toilet.

tap thing

this is that tap thing i talked about.

pirahnas

i have read abt piranas and come to one conclusion.
they will be a problem. : )

firstly they seem to be able to grow very big, as big as even 1-2 foot, making our pond nearly redunctant for them. secondly once they are inside u can't allow people to sit inside without having their legs chopped off. : ). then their is this huge problem of what to feed them. u just can't feed pellets to them like u do to goldfishes. they require feeder fishes every 4-6 hours, and these feeder fishes are goldfish, guppies and brine shrimps.

also we won't be able to use aquarium lights with them as they don't have eye-lids, so we will need a whole lot of plants for them.........

basically they are a problem.

Pump configuration

Type: Centrifugal Regenerative Pump
Power output: 0.48kW
Cap: 10 microFarad/440V
Rot Speed: 2800 rpm
Size: 25 X 25 mm
Head: 20 metres
Dis(Q) : 1080 lph
H.R.: 25/15m
Cost: Rs. 3000

So, as per decided, Naada has to get info on each of the above terms and post them here

Dats it for now


Cheers

Bulla

2days work(10/03)

10/3

Firstly ill come up with the points brought up today,

1 is damroos domb like structure wala idea. he wanted to have two two dombs in between which water would flow.

2 is the information bulla gave on the motor. some metrics that motor had.

Then there was a long discussion on the domb.

Problems were that

-cost

-ambi( good qualities of a fountain would die like sound due to stones, sight of fountain itself actually)

-cooling effect

-no clarity about which material to use(tarun suggesting fibre glass.)

-no transperancy left

Good points were

-no MONKEYS

-light effects could be added()

Finally what we felt is to keep the domb as last idea and think of new better ones…has more –ves.

As we were discussing about this and came down to fountain area, the monkey problem came in.. n screwed up us all.

Few ideas that came up were

-Purvals sound idea…not audible to us but to them which wud screw dem if them came close by,

-Taruns idea of light which would flash at them if they came near.

-insulate the pipes etc which would be most likely destroyed by monkeys.(this meant monkeys could enter in which was a big no no.)

-nada said that we could change the taste of water so that fishes can live but monkeys cant drink.

Fish was another point we discussed…carp and piranhas.

Tarun was spsed to find more details.

Rats was another issue, unsolved.

drainage issue was another topic not given much relevance.


what is

We discussed about a seating arrangement and fencing around the pool.(just struck me now that wudnt the fencing disturb view of sum1 watching from outside..)

Anyways,

That's all I cud rem so far.

Next meeting Thursday at 9

All come up with a design

Dumroo solution to monkey prob.

Tarun with fishes

Myself report all this.

Chalo..put enthu machas..lets make it big!!