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clayrichardson

122 karma · joined January 21, 2012

https://clayrichardson.me

Email: yo at my domain

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clayrichardson··on Illnesses from Mosquito, Tick, and Flea Bites Increasing in the US
I'm spinning up a lab in Santa Cruz to research the local tick population. We could use extra skilled hands to help obtain the distribution of pathogens, and in developing treatment protocols. Plus, who doesn't enjoy a good tick hunt?

Get at me if you're 'bout it: eng at clayrichardson.me

clayrichardson··on After Bitcoin Futures, Watch Out for Crypto Repos
Getting liquidity to short or long on margin is as easy as clicking a button and getting liquidated.

Poloniex, Bitfinex and BitMex are some of the places you can play that game. You can even become a BTC lender on some of those exchanges and get around 20% APR since loans can be compounded every 1-2 days or even shorter depending on the duration of positions people open.

clayrichardson··on After Bitcoin Futures, Watch Out for Crypto Repos
BitMex
clayrichardson··on BeagleBone Blue – A complete, Linux-enabled robotics computer
Sorry, order should be reversed: Power up via USB and connect VDD_5V.
clayrichardson··on BeagleBone Blue – A complete, Linux-enabled robotics computer
I hope they fixed the Easter Egg that blows the CPU if you power up via VDD_5V and plug the USB cable in.
clayrichardson··on Ant species cultivates coffee for accommodation
Non mobile linque: http://www.dw.com/en/ant-species-cultivates-coffee-for-accom...
clayrichardson··on Mount Improbable: Play With Evolution
Playing around with the wheel friction and letting it run for days was interesting: https://github.com/red42/HTML5_Genetic_Cars/blob/master/cawr...
clayrichardson··on Show HN: First test chamber constructed, experiment data available
I'm around to answer any questions you might have :)
clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
Interesting. How often is the groundwater potable during an emergency situation?
clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
> but this whole project seems like a total waste of time

Are you talking about just the water generator, or the "civilization-in-a-box" collection of modules?

clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
> This isn't a new or novel technology, and it's already available for public use.

Can you point me in the direction of this project? I'd like to see what the current implementation looks like.

> (or even ice cubes and a glass) you can achieve the same thing.

We're trying to do it at scale and improve on the technology.

> real issues behind water scarcity, which has nothing to do with a shortage of liquid water

Can you elaborate on this point?

clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
Where should we spend our time instead?

Definitely not novel at this stage, but once we modify the AWG to achieve water reclamation from urine, would that be considered novel?

The next milestone is to create open source designs for larger-scale, commercially available machines that are prohibitively expensive, and improve upon them. The machines exist and there is a market for them. Is it not worth the time and effort to increase access to technologies like this?

Not just knowledge of chemistry, but actively developing eyedrops to cure cataracts :)

http://www.viewpointtherapeutics.com/team/

EDIT: Wording. Added question.

clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
I will definitely look into that, and probably test a commercially available model or two.

If you end up beating me to it: https://github.com/openawg/openawg/pulls

clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
Ah, that makes sense, thank you for the feedback.

When I was drafting it in Google Docs, I was using footnote annotations, and I just copypasta'd it over.

clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
Our current approach is to get the AWG module working, then add a module which boils urine and feeds the vapor into the AWG module for distillation and filtration.

Ideally, we'd like to use a gasifier for carbon negative power generation, as local biomass can be utilized.

Does this make sense, or do you have a more effective approach?

clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
Thank you for the feedback, this is awesome!

There is always more to read up on and calculate :)

EDIT: The current dehumidifier does accumulate ice on the evaporator coils, depending on the ambient conditions. Once enough ice has accumulated, the compressor turns off and the ice melts into the collection tray. I'm assuming we have to depose the ice out of the dry atmosphere at BRC, since the dew point is below the freezing point of water. Is this not the case?

clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
Right? I was thinking that was quite odd as well.

I wonder how the current primary and secondary drinking water regulations came to be.

clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
That is awesome! We'd love to have a chat with you to better understand your thinking process, perspective, and sources.

The pump were using right now consumes 104 W intermittently. For our next prototype, we're going to use a condenser unit from a walk-in freezer (1168W), a split A/C unit to pretreat the air (560W) MinnowBoardMax (15W), duct fan (208W), etc.

clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
Thank you! I hope it does too.
clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
It would, but it would most likely be less efficient than filtering the water you're floating in :)

A good way to increase the efficiency of this machine would be to increase the relative humidity by adding moisture. This is the reasoning behind our next planned experiments of reclaiming water from urine!

You might be able to get away with using the reverse osmosis system we have, [0] but send the water to a lab to test influent (intake) and effluent (output) before consuming :D

[0]: http://123filter.com/catalog/ispring-7-stage-75-gpd-reverse-...

clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
Interesting. I haven't thought about combining it with the mechanical refrigeration process! I'll run the numbers on that, thanks.

The initial proof-of-concept I threw together with spare parts actually used a spare TEC (19911-5L31-15CQ) [0] I had laying around. [1]

[0]: http://www.customthermoelectric.com/tecs/pdf/19911-5L31-15CQ... [1]: https://openawg.github.io/2016/01/27/blueice-alpha.html

clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
Indeed. Ideally, we'd like to include a mini-datacenter module, allowing for data storage, streaming, and processing.

We'd like to be able to gather metrics from these machines all over the world, and identify trends in things such as the weather, water production and consumption, efficiency, power generation and carbon sequestration, as well as identify opportunities to improve the operation of the machines through software updates.

clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
Oops, thanks for the feedback. Fixed :)
clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
Whoa. That is cool. Where can I read more about this, and are there any designs available to peruse?
clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
The only difference is the addition of a filtration system to render potable water.

Dehumidifiers are not designed to produce potable water.

Adding a filtration system removes the contaminants from the non-food grade components and anything else which was once floating in the air.

clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
I would like to see that comparison as well!

I'm not sure how to determine the practicality of well excavation, but my intuition tells me it largely depends on geographically influenced factors. I'll look into that.

clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
Interesting.

  With 32.2C ambient, 14% RH, 1.35C DWP, the absolute humidity is 4.78 g/m^3
  With 24.4C ambient, 14% RH, -4.80C DWP, the absolute humidity is 3.12 g/m^3
Absolute humidity here is specified as grams of water per cubic meter of air.

This is similar to the AH at BRC. Our current model assumes a DWP of -10C — 10C, so we can predict similar performance. We're not taking into account volumetric capacity and the thermal interface of the heat exchangers. If you know anyone able to help point us in the right direction with those calculations, it would be much appreciated!

Our current understanding is the enthalpy of vaporization + fusion for water is (2257 + 333.55) = 2590.55 J/g we want to pull out of the air. This is assuming we can process enough air, since the dew point is below freezing a fair amount of the time.

This is by using this equation specified in the NASA technical note [0]:

  =((0.21668*((TMPC+273)^-1))*((DWPC+273)^-4.9283)*(10^(23.5518+(-2937.4/(DWPC+273)))))*1000
[0]: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/pdf/87878main_H-937.pdf

EDIT: Formatting is hard. Added source. Clarification.

clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
It's also going to be the centerpiece for a water-conscious art installation addressing the global water crisis at Burning Man, pulling water out of some of the driest air on the planet :)
clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
For simplicity and adoption, we're utilizing mechanical refrigeration since parts and HVAC(R) skills have been widespread over the past several decades.

EDIT: Spelling is hard. Clarification is hard.

clayrichardson··on Show HN: Open-source atmospheric water generator – first lab reports
Indeed, it is energy intensive. That can be addressed with the implementation of the power supply module. Ideally, we'd like to use gasifiers and build upon the open source work by http://www.allpowerlabs.com/

If it takes a lot of energy, and we implement carbon-negative power generation, then we increase the rate of carbon sequestration :)

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