This week, I focused more on the wind powered section of the project.
Tech
Ok so that was partially a lie; for tech, I finished up the water testing from last weeks biofilter test. Unfortunately, either I didnt run the filter for long enough or the filter was too small, because it seems that the cleaning was minimal at best. However most all particulate was captured, so it’s a start. I think making a larger filter and running it longer could make this work, but we’ll have to see.
Look/Feel
For L/F, I drew up some exploaded models in the hope of finding the easiest to assemble yet smallest storage backpage I could. I would like this project to be assembled and disassembled with as few tools as possible, but I’m running into issues with the best way to store the drum. Something collapsible may be worth looking in to
Role
For Role, I tried a few different windmill styles. I found a vertical pinwheel-style is the most versatile since it can potentially pick wind up from multiple directions. A turbine style blade could be directly attached to the drum with drive belts or anything, but since it’s fixed it will pick wind up from really only 2 directions: forward and back. Finally, a vertical turbine is a stupid idea, because I would need to transfer power from a vertical to a horizontal orientation, which is waaaay too much work