justapeon Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 We are pretty much on a $0 computer budget right now, but we have lots of old computers. Thanx to the people who are coming out with linux for older hardware, we are still continuing to reuse what we have. ar430w(with web server) + hp jet direct = home automation controller. P1 (plus mirror and glass) has become a tele-prompter. p3 + old wifi router are becoming a wifi robot. (stepper motors from old 5 1/4 inch drives will power it and do the steering.) i486 laptop is used to fire air cannons and air bottle rockets. Pt/p2's used to control Halloween and holiday animations I have a p2 that is used as a web server for web pages we create and as a mt-daapd music server. It also hold files when we are moving data from one computer too another. Someone just gave me an old dryer. I will probably pull the motor and use wire to build a vawt (wind generator) to power the computers. Plan to turn the backyard into an earth battery to power things also. I am just an amateur at all this and have no engineering experience at all, but the internet is a wonderful place to do research. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
okiwan Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 (edited) i used an empty cracker box as a garbage can. it was a big box. it was from sams club. Edited September 21, 2010 by okiwan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trip Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 would love to hear how this goes been wanting my own windmill for some time :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justapeon Posted September 21, 2010 Author Share Posted September 21, 2010 would love to hear how this goes been wanting my own windmill for some time :) Will do. There are a zillion sites with details and videos on how to do it. It is a shame how much people discard that can be reused. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walom Posted September 24, 2010 Share Posted September 24, 2010 Turning your backyard into and Earth Battery would be awesome! Is their a way to do Earth Batteries on a large scale, like a backyard? I've only seen tiny experiments and getting something like 12V off it. With the wind and backyard batteries would they be reliable enough to run something steadily off it or would you want a backup power system? Just incase the wind dies down in the middle of streaming a movie from your NAS. I haven't re-purposed anything lately. But, I've been fixing broken electronics like 360's and I got a 52" DLP tv from the dump that almost works. Still not sure what's wrong with it. But if I can fix it for under $400 I'll save myself $600 ^_^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justapeon Posted September 26, 2010 Author Share Posted September 26, 2010 Thank god my old Commodore monitor still works. I now use it with mythtv. s/b a picture attached. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
okiwan Posted September 26, 2010 Share Posted September 26, 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h960rR3mfvc i made this clock today from an old HD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infiltrator Posted September 26, 2010 Share Posted September 26, 2010 Will do. There are a zillion sites with details and videos on how to do it. It is a shame how much people discard that can be reused. Re-usable energy I like the sound of that. Would be interesting to see, how you are going to be building a wind generator with that motor. I also plan on building an off grid solar battery system. To power up my stuffs at home, I just bought a power meter to measure how much watts my electronics are consuming, the power bill has been too expense and if I can put this system operational, than it will shave a few $100.00 dollars off the bill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justapeon Posted September 28, 2010 Author Share Posted September 28, 2010 (edited) Re-usable energy I like the sound of that. Would be interesting to see, how you are going to be building a wind generator with that motor. I also plan on building an off grid solar battery system. To power up my stuffs at home, I just bought a power meter to measure how much watts my electronics are consuming, the power bill has been too expense and if I can put this system operational, than it will shave a few $100.00 dollars off the bill. We are collecting silicon diodes from old electronics to make solar cells, but not sure that is practical. http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-Sol...l-using-Diodes/ We plan to take wire from old ac motors and and make stator coils. Hard drive magnets will drive create the electricity in the coils. We probably use a vertical axis wind turbine to rotate the magnets. Right now we are working on a mini prototype. I have wired the coils, but need to put it all together. As for the earth battery, we have tested different metals to see what gives the best voltage. It does make a difference. Wind generator > ac-dc converter > voltage regulator > battery > load to use the electricity (i.e. dc-dc ps > computer.) Led lighting can become very valuable here. No wind then Mirrors to concentrate sunlight > stiriling engines > etc etc. If it rains then A downward spout with waterwheel > etc etc.. last resort Bicycle > etc etc... Edited September 28, 2010 by inventoman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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