I've been using this quote in my email for about seven or eight years;
"Art without engineering is dreaming; engineering without art is calculating." Previously I only had th initials; SKR
Today I found out that SKR is none other than Steven K. Roberts. Yes the creator of the Winnebiko and BEHEMOTH!
I started using that quote because it appealed to my inner geek. Especially after I saw a series illustrations from Janet Reid entitled; 'Renaissance Geek'
See the posts on the Make blog; Make it anywhere with a mobile lab;
Showing posts with label maker blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label maker blog. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Monday, June 08, 2009
mashup ideas: solar powered radio
From the maker blog a while back they ran a series of posts on joule theif.
Bill on the SolderSmoke blog ran a couple of articles on mechanically keyed transmitters, like the ET phone home rig, also a rew ideas around clock powered keying.
So my brain was buzzing away recently and it wasn't until I spotted the solar powered garden lights, that ceased to work a couple of months ago, that I thought about re-using them. The little solar cells only put out 0.8-1.1 volts. Three in series put out around 3.2 volts in full sun light. I need to go back and see what kind of current they can sink though...
To power something like an arduino keyed tx or a DC receiver with NE612, I would need a solid and regulated 5 volts.
It wasn't until this morning, on the irc channel of our local homebrewers, that I thought about mashing up the joule theif and the 80 meter DC receiver to make a solar powered radio =) It would make it limited to day light hours, but its certainly workable. Still have some other things to work on first, but certainly the next project on the list =)
Bill on the SolderSmoke blog ran a couple of articles on mechanically keyed transmitters, like the ET phone home rig, also a rew ideas around clock powered keying.
So my brain was buzzing away recently and it wasn't until I spotted the solar powered garden lights, that ceased to work a couple of months ago, that I thought about re-using them. The little solar cells only put out 0.8-1.1 volts. Three in series put out around 3.2 volts in full sun light. I need to go back and see what kind of current they can sink though...
To power something like an arduino keyed tx or a DC receiver with NE612, I would need a solid and regulated 5 volts.
It wasn't until this morning, on the irc channel of our local homebrewers, that I thought about mashing up the joule theif and the 80 meter DC receiver to make a solar powered radio =) It would make it limited to day light hours, but its certainly workable. Still have some other things to work on first, but certainly the next project on the list =)
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