Carlitos’ Contraptions

Mainly inspired by the Chispito Wind Turbine and the Make Magazine version of the former (see the PDF), we decided to make a wind turbine for the Ecuadorians. Since all the turbines I mentioned have cool names, let us name our Ecuadorian turbine in a similar fashion: The IBee Turbine (the name might still need some work).

The General Idea

We wanted to make a wind turbine from easy-to-find materials and using simple tools. The rationale for this is that the generator should be easily reproducible by anyone. This also meant making sure the Ecuadorians could find all the materials locally so they could easily remake it, should they want to (and they should!). Finally, we are not experts and do not have access to a super advanced machine shop, so keeping it simple (stupid) was the way to go.

In the end, and almost by accident, we decided to use mainly PVC and steel pipes and fittings for the entire construction. Keep reading the upcoming posts to discover our design.

Turbine Design Sketch

Coming up: Part 2: Design and Materials

I think I can now safely say I am a Maker. I make things and that is what I like to do. Let me explain why I came to this conclusion.

Around five years ago when I was in CEGEP (an obscure educational stage in Quebec between high school and university), I went on an international cooperation trip to Ecuador with my fellow students, in which we mainly planted medicinal plants, trees, taught English and built two bunk beds from scratch. It lasted roughly two weeks and left me with the desire to go back and do more

Now, five years later, I went back. The only difference is that now I am an Engineer (Jr. I might add) and was responsible for two overly awesome projects: the construction of a wind turbine, and of a solar water heater.

I travelled with this year’s International Baccalaureate group. Needless to say, being back with an IB group brought me very good memories of my previous trip and all things IB (such as Cardiff).

As expected, the construction of both projects did not go without troubles. There where many unexpected obstacles and a lot of hard work was required in order to complete them. Luckily, I was with the best group of young people I have ever encountered. The Andre Laurendeau IB group of 2010 that travelled with me is remarkable and exceptional. Composed of Nicolas, Roxane, Tiberiu, Angelo, Geneviève and Adam, this is a hard-working, tenacious and dutiful team.

IB 2010 group in Quito, Ecuador

As you imagine, I loved this experience. So much so to be already toying with ideas on what to do next year for the next trip. Although I might not be able to go, I might still be able to imagine some cool projects.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the IB in entirety for all the hard work they put in this project, not only thinking about the design and building it, but also for all the fund raising activities that made it possible.

Also, I would like to thank Stephanie who donated many of the awesome tools I brought to Ecuador and that were crucial in making the projects. The single most important tool she gave me being the Leatherman Wave (for Christmas) which is responsible for achieving almost everything during the trip.

Leatherman Wave in Action

Forced Acknowledgement

The OQAJ founded part of this project and deserves my gratitude. If I say it is a forces acknowledgement, it is precisely because I am forced to publicly thank them. I am very grateful for their support, but I do not enjoy being coerced into doing anything. It would have been much more appropriate if they would have just kindly asked for a public acknowledgement. Or, even better, if they were confident enough that they are being helpful so to think people will thank them naturally.

What about the Projects?

I know, I started with all this Maker thing and so far there are no instructions, no pictures of things being built, etc.

The projects deserve a lot of writing, so I will dedicate one, if not several, posts to each one of them: the wind turbine, and the solar water heater.

Stay put for more!

Ever since the implementation of the new Opus Card system by the Montreal’s Public Transportation (STM), there have been lots of malfunctions and bugs.

Crashed STM Ticket Vending Machine

The malfunctions were mainly caused by the poor build quality of the smartcards, the poor wireless reader range, the easy demagnetization of the paper tickets, etc. Slowly (very slowly) these malfunctions are being addressed and (sometimes) solved. The unsolved bugs become a part of the daily routine and we Montrealers learn to accept them.

On last weekend, I witnessed a bug that I would have never thought possible in a professional widespread software application that involves so many money transactions: what I usually call a boundary condition bug.

The Bug

Quick note on the STM’s fares (for those who do not live it day-to-day):
There are mainly two transportation systems: the bus and the metro (subway) and the fare pricing is governed by a (somewhat) simple set of rules:

• There are monthly passes that allow unlimited fares within the month in both the metro and the bus. They are more expensive for adults than for students or elders.
• There are weekly cards that are similar to the monthly cards by work for a given week.
• There are tickets (either as a magnetic paper card or as some information on a smartcard) which allow for one fare that allow to take the metro, the bus, or both within a two-hour time limit. Should the time period be elapsed, or should you take the metro or the same bus more than once, you will need another ticket.

Since the Opus Card implementation, one of the first things that came into my mind was the attention required to compute the fare price when a month ends (i.e. at 12:00 on the 31th, 30th, 29th, or 28th), or when a week or a day ends. Everyone who has programed at least a little bit (like me) knows that these boundary conditions are usually exceptions to the normal behaviour of a program and need to be taken into account. I, of course, assumed that such mundane exceptions would be addressed by professional programmers swiftly and painlessly. I was wrong.

On last Saturday, my girlfriend and I took the metro after going to the movies and she swept her card (loaded with tickets) at exactly midnight (00:00 as reported by the STM records) at the metro reader. Around 20 minutes later, we walked into a bus and surprise! another ticket was charged instead of using a transfer from the previous ticket.

The conclusion to this is that when a day ends, there STM fare algorithm fails and defaults to charge you an extra ticket. Unfortunately, It is unlikely that this bug is noticed by the STM any time soon since they are not loosing any profit from it and they do not accept bug reports. Even the lady at the reclamations booth had a hard time to understand what the problem was.

In the end, instead of a full refund she got a “courtoisie” ticket which expires on next Sunday (instead of a regular ticket that which expires in around two years). So much for costumer service.

The poor programming quality is also reflected by the poor choice of OS for their vending machines. Let’s just say that using Windows Embedded is the equivalent to eating a faulty grenade: it will rather sooner than later get ugly.

Workshop wall

This is a very simple and quick hack that anybody can do. The objective is to build a holder that will keep all the precision screwdrivers in one place and facilitate the access to them (i.e. it should be easy to see which one is which and they should be easy to take).

Materials

• A plastic container cap (I love caps)
• That’s it, you do not need anything else

Tools

• Drill or strong scissors
• Precision screwdrivers
• A nail (maybe)

Doing it

Screwdriver Holder

1. Drill or cut a big hole on the top of the cap. This hole will be used to suspend the screwdriver holder.
2. Punch in the Screwdrivers in the rim of the cap. If you do not trust your screwdrivers to pierce your cap, you may use a nail. Keep in mind that the screwdrivers have to be very snug in the holes since they are only being held-in by friction.
3. Celebrate! you are done.

Google Wave

I finally got a Google Wave account and I decided to do something for the community. More precisely, the hacker/tinkerer/DIY community.

I think it would be rather interesting to have a place where to share, showcase and discuss projects and hacks with local people (from Montreal).

If you want to join the wave you can find it here.

I hope this will result in a stronger more connected Montreal Hacker community.

Cheers, and see you on the wave!

I have a few Wave invites left so if any geeky Montrealer would like one, please leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do.