March 13th Meeting

We have made drastic changes to the device since our prototype failed so miserably. It leaked, released air, and overall did not accomplish its purpose, its meaning, its raison d'etre. We rebuilt it, as scientists do, from scratch, making a new device of ABS pipe and a spicy new container. It worked all right. We got perhaps 1/8 oz in the tank. Considering now different and reliable our device is, 1/8 oz is pretty darn good, thank you very much

I LIKE TURTLES TOO

Looking to the big picture, this design is closer to the final in that we can regulate the flow, get air in the tubes and get water in the village. Kudos, team, on a job well done!

Websites about Pumps!

Here are websites all about different kinds of pumps:

http://journeytoforever.org/at_waterpump.html

http://www.electronicpeasant.com/projects/rampump/rampump.html

http://www.instructables.com/id/Pulser-pump-Model.-A-substitute-for-lots-of-fossel/

Here is the kind of pump (a pulser pump) that we liked the best and are going to try to make ourselves during our next meeting:

http://www.animatedsoftware.com/pumpglos/glpulser.htm

And here is a YouTube video all about pulser pumps:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOn7Zu3CCxo

March 7th Meeting

We settled on the pulser pump idea because of its originality, reliability, simplicity, and adaptability. Our prototype looks a bit like an octopus. It consists of an orange juice container with three holes, and a thin tube extending from each hole. Cassie and Ashwin were nearly defeated by the difficulty of making holes, but they are scientists, and scientists never give up. So on they went, armed with Exacto-knives and pure testosterone (in Ashwin's case) and adrenaline. They holed the orange juice container. Unfortunately, we are skeptical about its viability. We will see how it works at the trial.
When we tried it out on the lawn, the water flow was inferior, and the container leaked. We need to tighten the container and have something bigger than the tubes. We absolutely must increase the waterflow and thus the airflow.

First blog post

We have an idea! Yes, impressive, we know, and only the first month of the challenge. Well, here goes. I mean, I'm not the type to dither, stall, or try to flesh out an incredibly short blog post. So, like I said before, approximately one line ago, or possibly more if the blog spaces this out more, here is the idea.
The village is above a stream, right? So we have a lever, anchored to the base of the village, that catches the streamwater and catapults it into the village. But you're probably wondering how this lever operates. Well, we have 2 ideas. First, we have a bucket attached to the catapult with a pulley. The bucket fills, and at the bottom of the tank, hits a stick thing that knocks the bottom out. You kinda have to see it. The other idea is that we divert the flow from the spigot, arcing it more so that the bucket won't fill when it gets close to the bottom. Again...you kinda have to see it.
The ideas are good. We know they are. But for the uninformed, clearly unintelligent reader, we will explain why. There is no electricity, so if this thing goes wrong in Africa, it's easy to fix without having to teach every African village how. Also, the parts are easily replaceable. This device is very adaptable, both for the purposes of the challenge and in real life. We can alter the height of the lever or size of the bottom, allowing each village to determine its own needs. This is just an idea, but we hope to go ahead with it, and fine-tune it as we go.