It’s looking like a proper bag end in the shire of hobbiton
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So inhave been up there planting trees and while taking a wander looking for trees to transplant. I found a stream about 100 years away from camp and I plan to steal it and atempt to route it through camp… in the mean time ive designed a tiny little water turbine from off the shelf parts and some printed components to spin a stepper.. and acourning to YouTube tutorials this should produce enuff juice power our our door lighting indefinitely…
So i saw this 50 dollar turbine on YouTube that uses a hover board motor and a pc fan… and generates quite a bit of power considering the set up. This is over kill for our needs and id very happy with 10w .. so I scaled it all down to gutter pipe components. And ill used a stepper and ill print the prop…
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Are you familiar with a hydraulic ram pump?
its a water pump that uses the energy from flowing water to lift water without electricity or fuel.
Simple, effective and you can probably 
print most of the components
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Indeed I am. I made one with the hopes of pumping water up hill to the camp befor I found the stream above camp… u waste alot of water to get a dribble up hill. But if your patient thats all you need…
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Today im gona finish the mechanical bits for the turbine… bearings seals runners. All that boring shit… then I should have something to plonk into some moving water and test how torquey this bitch is…
Spoke to donfire about the electronical side. Hes confident I wont explode… we should be able to fit something nice on there and cover it all with a nice waterproof hat…
Just put on the new lid on to print it now houses the bearings seals and mountain points for the stepper…
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So from an electrical standpoint the use case is to idealy charge a lead acid car battery for on demand power for typical outdoor lighting. Comprised of those shitty garden solar lights. Maybe a 5v usb charge point. And some sort of fail safe energy dump for when everything is full. And a nice switch to turn on the outdoor lighting. It was dark camping there the other night but these small led bulbs do really well
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Don’t forget to screen your inlet, otherwise you’ll have dead lights and a turbine full of leaves. And use a large surface area so the debris doen’t suck onto it.
Try finding a string of outdoor christmas lights with the big bulbs in clear/amber. Then pull bulbs so you’ve only got every 3rd one left. It makes a nice subtle glow without attracting every bug in the county, while leaving everything feeling “campy”.
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So thats all that done ready for testing… ill order a coupler and a stepper in a few days.. but over all im impressed. Its small and compact. And im keen to see how it preforms…
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What’s Chimpo up to this time?
I love you man. It seems every time I visit my RL friend the topic comes up, “So you remember that guy I mentioned from the cyborg forums who built the electric skateboard? And the NFC tamagotchi? And the Halbach array? And the underground cabin? Yeah, guess what he’s doing now…”
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Hahaha I live for those kinds of comments. You should see the shit i do day to day… that I dont post..
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This looks like some shit you might do 
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That reminded me of another thing that Chimpo might do… Or at least would do if he was into rollerblades… Buggy rollin:
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W.W.C.D??? Could be a whole new thread category.
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That was the original intention of this thread:
And well, it did take us a long while:
I can only speak for myself, but I needed to know more about Chimpo’s fabrication capabilities and interests. I didn’t know that he could make complex fiberglass and curved wood parts back then for example… I also didn’t know much about skateboards. Ok, I still don’t know much about those… But I’ve learned a thing or two reading his posts.
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Did that aged 8 with 2 skateboards and a ladder… 
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I pride my self on the ability… williness to learn new skills. I get alot of help from really clever people… the key take away is … im super cheap. And spent my life making things I cant afford. In those days it was out of necessity these days I enjoy the challenge… and looking down helps me not look forward…
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Anyway im back in work for a few days. Ill be back up there Thursday hopefully to start moving the river over… then ill install the pipes… ill keep you posted..
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Any chance of a waterfall?
Minnow pond?
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There will be a waterfall next to the generator… and as there will be constant water coming into camp. A swimming pool may be in order…
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