Whenever I talk to engineers about Smart Grid they get a cynical look on their face. A lot of people feel that the name is marketing gimmick that doesn't hold any weight on actual products being produced. And to be quite honest, I often agreed. If we are not working in the smart grid space it became difficult to see the progress that has been made because we don't see the effects on our everyday lives. One of the marketing stories we were told was that we were going to have energy readouts on all of our appliances in our homes. While this has not happened for most of us, I did spend some time in California this week learning more about where it does apply.
First off, I learned about the US power distribution systems and we looked at the various age of distribution equipment. On average most of the infrastructure is 30-40 years old and only has a lifetime of about 40 years. In addition to aged equipment there also has been a rise in demand and complications in dealing with smart energy sources like wind and solar farms. The 40 year old power grid was generally constructed in a star topology and we have learned a lot in the past 10 years about how to handle external generation sources besides a typical power plant.
Secondly, I learned where we are seeing innovation for a smarter grid. The most obvious is in the energy meters outside our house. These have been getting more accurate and have been able to communicate demand response in a more effective way to the distribution centers. You can learn more about demand response and the impacts that this provided here. In addition to smarter meters we have also seen smart grid applications at commercial installations and server farms. In large server farms like Google and Facebook they realize that their business is not only founded on their programmers but also how efficiently they use power. Energy measurement has been growing in these industries to get to a higher page hit / watt ratio. Finally the third area that we may not realize smart grid is taking hold is in the distribution of power. From re-closers, to power pole fault indicators, we are seeing applications where it is important to measure the energy and do something with that information. As our grid gets more complicated these preventative indication measurement devices become even more important.
So the final question is how does the smart grid affect you? Any other good examples I missed? After getting to see some of these designs and installations up close and personal in California I definitely see that there is reality behind the smart grid.
Great Lakes
Friday, December 7, 2012
Monday, December 3, 2012
A Day Made of Glass
I saw this futuristic video on YouTube and thought I should share. Corning did a video explaining how they see glass fitting in our lives. One of the great aspects of this video was that there was a lot of technology integrated into the glass. Check out the YouTube:
Friday, November 30, 2012
Bluetooth Low Energy
I was told this week that the Bluetooth Low Energy Developers Handbook has been published. You can buy the book now on Amazon at the following link: LINK.
So what's the big deal with Bluetooth Low Energy? Well, from my perspective, it enables deeply embedded devices a way to expand their processing powers by taking advantage of someones smart phone processing power. It is the first standard that allows us to have data exchange with the newer Apple mobile devices. Data exchange was possible with Bluetooth Classic in the past but you had to have a Made for iOS (MFi) chip in order to be granted licensing with Apple. Well with the Bluetooth Low Energy devices this is no longer the case.
Other suppliers of consumer software and hardware are jumping on board as well, but there seems to be some controversy. I know a lot of people are frustrated with Google and not saying if/when a unified standard will be coming out for Bluetooth Low Energy. I love checking out the post on this subject, it gets more and more hits every day. The OEMs are also struggling to find out how to incorporate Bluetooth Low Energy. Motorola seems to understand that there customers want this and so they created an API to support devices but it is not a unified API that can be used by the Android community.
In my opinion we need Bluetooth Low Energy support on all mobile devices. It makes it very valuable for the embedded devices I work in on a daily basis. We can then use the mobile smart phones that have this technology in them to offload the processor, data management, and network routing. Most new smart phones coming out have the hardware to support Bluetooth Low Energy, but yet it appears the software on both the Android and Windows platforms that seems late to the party. Hopefully they can catch up.
Do you see Bluetooth Low Energy as useful for your applications?
So what's the big deal with Bluetooth Low Energy? Well, from my perspective, it enables deeply embedded devices a way to expand their processing powers by taking advantage of someones smart phone processing power. It is the first standard that allows us to have data exchange with the newer Apple mobile devices. Data exchange was possible with Bluetooth Classic in the past but you had to have a Made for iOS (MFi) chip in order to be granted licensing with Apple. Well with the Bluetooth Low Energy devices this is no longer the case.
Other suppliers of consumer software and hardware are jumping on board as well, but there seems to be some controversy. I know a lot of people are frustrated with Google and not saying if/when a unified standard will be coming out for Bluetooth Low Energy. I love checking out the post on this subject, it gets more and more hits every day. The OEMs are also struggling to find out how to incorporate Bluetooth Low Energy. Motorola seems to understand that there customers want this and so they created an API to support devices but it is not a unified API that can be used by the Android community.
In my opinion we need Bluetooth Low Energy support on all mobile devices. It makes it very valuable for the embedded devices I work in on a daily basis. We can then use the mobile smart phones that have this technology in them to offload the processor, data management, and network routing. Most new smart phones coming out have the hardware to support Bluetooth Low Energy, but yet it appears the software on both the Android and Windows platforms that seems late to the party. Hopefully they can catch up.
Do you see Bluetooth Low Energy as useful for your applications?
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
A Challenging Design Project
What if you could design, build, and then drive away in your own car? I was intrigued by a company in Arizona doing just that. They are called Local Motors and I thought I would share a video outlining how the company works. It sounds like building your own car can range upwards of $75k but the experience is worthwhile in the knowledge that you learn. Thanks Dave for the post suggestion:
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Build a yeast stir plate
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I had family over and was able to spend a lot of time with them. No one in my family practices engineering so we used our extra time to build a hobby project for my brother. My brother brews his own beer, and unlike my small operation, he is getting more and involved in the art of beer. He saw a stir plate to mix his yeast online and said that he wishes he could build something like that. As soon as I saw what he was trying to build, I said, we can do that.
It was a lot of fun to build a project with my brother. In fact, I built most of the device with spare parts from around my house. Here is the article on how to build a stir plate from stirstarter.com :
It was a lot of fun to build a project with my brother. In fact, I built most of the device with spare parts from around my house. Here is the article on how to build a stir plate from stirstarter.com :
Instructions
Interested in building your own stir plate? It's a tinkerer's dream
and easily accomplished as a weekend project. Using parts accessible to most, a
functional stir plate can be constructed in just a few hours. The parts you'll
need to gather are:
Tips and hints for construction and operation:
* It's important for the drive magnets be as close to the stir bar as possible for good coupling. This is where the PVC spacer serves as a useful way to stand off the magnets from the fan hub and get them as close to the lid of the enclosure as possible. Measure and cut the spacer carefully, and you'll get the drive magnets up close where they belong.
* You don't need to develop a “Wizard of Oz” vortex in your starter to get good results. A 1" or 2" dimple in the liquid is all that's needed. The deep vortex you see in some of the YouTube videos is fun to watch, but not necessary.
* The distance between the poles of the drive magnets should be as close to the dimensions of the stir bar as possible. If you are using a 1" stir bar, the poles of the drive magnets should be about 1" apart. This is easy if you use two button magnets like I do. You can adjust the distance between the two button magnets for best stir bar stability.
* Don't fill your flask all the way up to the neck with starter wort. Aeration is important for yeast propagation, so try to keep the surface area of the starter wort high. Fill a 2-liter flask with no more than 1.5 liters of wort, for a 1-liter flask, use no more than 750 mL of wort.
* Don't use a stopper and airlock on your flask as you stir. This defeats the whole purpose of aeration. Just keep a loose foil cap over the neck of the flask to keep dust borne bacteria out as much as possible.
· Computer fan
Most computer fans are of the 12 VDC variety. Any size will do, I use an 80 mm fan· Rare earth magnets
These can be harvested from dead hard disk drives. A good source if you need to purchase your own is www.magnet4less.com· Stir bar
You don't need a giant stir bar! A 1" bar works fine. Single bars are available on eBay or get bags of ten from www.stirbars.com· Flask
Get a 1- or 2-liter flask, a good place to buy is www.cynmar.com· Electronics for voltage control : potentiometer, 2,000 ohms ; LM317 voltage regulator ; resistor, 330 ohms ; capacitor, 0.1 mfd
Radio Shack is a good place to get single piece parts like this. Since I buy lots of these parts, I go to www.mouser.com. I have seen some designs that use just a pot for speed control. I don't recommend this. At low speeds, you are using the potentiometer to drop the full voltage from the power supply which could be several watts. Most pots are designed to dissipate ¼ to ½ watt. They won't last long operating like this.· Plug in power adaptor
This adaptor can be anywhere from 9 to 12 volts DC, capable of delivering at least 200 mA continuously. The stir plates I build draw about 100 mA. The current requirements of other fan motors may be larger, but 200 mA should do.· Stub of 1” PVC pipe
Use this as a spacer between the drive magnets and the hub of the fan. Attaching the drive magnets directly to the fan hub will interfere with fan operation and torque. A ¾” PVC coupler also works well.· Enclosure
Any non-metallic box will work but it should be around 2" deep so you can mount the fan to the bottom of the enclosure instead of trying to “hang” it from the cover with long machine screws.
Tips and hints for construction and operation:
* It's important for the drive magnets be as close to the stir bar as possible for good coupling. This is where the PVC spacer serves as a useful way to stand off the magnets from the fan hub and get them as close to the lid of the enclosure as possible. Measure and cut the spacer carefully, and you'll get the drive magnets up close where they belong.
* You don't need to develop a “Wizard of Oz” vortex in your starter to get good results. A 1" or 2" dimple in the liquid is all that's needed. The deep vortex you see in some of the YouTube videos is fun to watch, but not necessary.
* The distance between the poles of the drive magnets should be as close to the dimensions of the stir bar as possible. If you are using a 1" stir bar, the poles of the drive magnets should be about 1" apart. This is easy if you use two button magnets like I do. You can adjust the distance between the two button magnets for best stir bar stability.
* Don't fill your flask all the way up to the neck with starter wort. Aeration is important for yeast propagation, so try to keep the surface area of the starter wort high. Fill a 2-liter flask with no more than 1.5 liters of wort, for a 1-liter flask, use no more than 750 mL of wort.
* Don't use a stopper and airlock on your flask as you stir. This defeats the whole purpose of aeration. Just keep a loose foil cap over the neck of the flask to keep dust borne bacteria out as much as possible.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Get Involved in Milwaukee with Makerspace
Anyone want to attend a Milwaukee Makerspace meeting with me: http://milwaukeemakerspace.org/join/?
Join Us!
We are open to the public each Tues at 7PM and each Thurs at 7PM.
We’d love for you to drop by on one of those evenings and find out what
we are all about. If you get a good vibe, inquire about becoming a
member! Tues are our official meetings and Thurs is our “Builder’s Night
Out” where we all bring our own projects to work on in the company of
other builders.
Our street address:
3073 S Chase Ave, Bldg 34
Milwaukee, WI 53207
Of course there is no substitute for meeting us in person, but below are a number of videos we’ve made that will give you a pretty good feel for our space before you ever come down.
I was intrigued by the skills video:
Our street address:
3073 S Chase Ave, Bldg 34
Milwaukee, WI 53207
Of course there is no substitute for meeting us in person, but below are a number of videos we’ve made that will give you a pretty good feel for our space before you ever come down.
I was intrigued by the skills video:
Monday, November 19, 2012
Cultivating Creativity with Gener8tor
Milwaukee is encouraging innovation through the group Gener8tor. Look at some of the ideas coming from their launch party. This article is taken from the Milwaukee Journal. Nice work Milwaukee!
enlarge photo
Gener8tor holds launch party for 7 companies
Jeff Holtebeck photo
Before making presentations at the Gener8tor event Thursday at Discovery World, Carley Lanpher of Swapferit (from left), Josh Gross and Gregori Kanatzidis (of SpanDeX) and Tim Nott (right) of MobileIgniter relax by playing bocce ball.
enlarge photo
Jeff Holtebeck photo
Kanatzidis
makes his presentation for SpanDeX to potential investors Thursday.
Seven new companies completed a class from the Milwaukee group
Gener8tor.
Mayor Tom
Barrett, state legislators, financiers and others were among more than
300 people who attended a launch party for seven new companies Thursday
night at Discovery World in Milwaukee.
The companies recently completed a 12-week class at Gener8tor, a for-profit Milwaukee group that works to help chosen start-up companies identify customers and accelerate their growth. Potential investors evaluated the companies' presentations and in coming weeks will make decisions about whether to invest in them, said Joe Kirgues, a Gener8tor co-founder.
"All of the companies were very well prepared," said Chris Schiffner, technology investment manager at the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. "Obviously the experience they had in the class prepared them for presenting to investors and helped them put together great business plans and models for moving forward."
The companies showcased at the launch party had potential - but even more important, the event showed that Milwaukee and other areas of the state are putting time and energy into young companies, which will be the job creators of the future, said Mark Ehrmann, a partner in Quarles & Brady's Madison office who works with emerging companies and their investors.
The state needs organizations like Gener8tor that support young companies in order to compete with other cities such as Chicago that have big accelerator programs, Ehrmann said. Many of the companies presenting at Gener8tor's launch party were run by younger entrepreneurs.
"If we can keep their companies in Wisconsin, it will help the state immensely and help stem the brain drain," Ehrmann said. "Some of these companies will create significant job growth."
The seven start-ups were: Uconnect; Mobile Igniter ; The Good Jobs; Subsidence; Swapferit; SpanDeX; and Date Check Pro.
This was the first launch party held by Gener8tor, which was formed in February by Dan Armbrust, president of Granite Microsystems, and other partners. Kir gues and Joel Abraham, both formerly of 94labs, are also founders.
Gener8tor provides seed investments of nearly $20,000 to start-ups selected from a competitive application process, plus its expertise, mentorship, community and network, Kirgues said.
It is modeled after Y Combinator, a start-up accelerator in the Silicon Valley that was started by Paul Graham in 2005. Gener8tor recently said American Family Insurance has become one of its partners.
The companies recently completed a 12-week class at Gener8tor, a for-profit Milwaukee group that works to help chosen start-up companies identify customers and accelerate their growth. Potential investors evaluated the companies' presentations and in coming weeks will make decisions about whether to invest in them, said Joe Kirgues, a Gener8tor co-founder.
"All of the companies were very well prepared," said Chris Schiffner, technology investment manager at the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. "Obviously the experience they had in the class prepared them for presenting to investors and helped them put together great business plans and models for moving forward."
The companies showcased at the launch party had potential - but even more important, the event showed that Milwaukee and other areas of the state are putting time and energy into young companies, which will be the job creators of the future, said Mark Ehrmann, a partner in Quarles & Brady's Madison office who works with emerging companies and their investors.
The state needs organizations like Gener8tor that support young companies in order to compete with other cities such as Chicago that have big accelerator programs, Ehrmann said. Many of the companies presenting at Gener8tor's launch party were run by younger entrepreneurs.
"If we can keep their companies in Wisconsin, it will help the state immensely and help stem the brain drain," Ehrmann said. "Some of these companies will create significant job growth."
The seven start-ups were: Uconnect; Mobile Igniter ; The Good Jobs; Subsidence; Swapferit; SpanDeX; and Date Check Pro.
This was the first launch party held by Gener8tor, which was formed in February by Dan Armbrust, president of Granite Microsystems, and other partners. Kir gues and Joel Abraham, both formerly of 94labs, are also founders.
Gener8tor provides seed investments of nearly $20,000 to start-ups selected from a competitive application process, plus its expertise, mentorship, community and network, Kirgues said.
It is modeled after Y Combinator, a start-up accelerator in the Silicon Valley that was started by Paul Graham in 2005. Gener8tor recently said American Family Insurance has become one of its partners.
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