Archives for April 2017
Touchscreen-toddlers’ sleep less, researchers say
Should children be given touchscreens to play with? This is one area where studies are lagging behind the technology.
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-39588453
Toddlers who spend time playing on smartphones and tablets seem to get slightly less sleep than those who do not, say researchers.
Now there is a high chance we are going to find life outside earth
Fascinating time we are living now.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/04/nasa-confirms-two-moons-in-the-solar-system-are-venting-oceans-into-space/
The prospects for life existing in our Solar System beyond Earth and finding it within a decade or two improved with two scientific findings announced Thursday by NASA. The space agency confirmed the presence of hydrogen in plumes emanating from Saturn’s small moon Enceladus, and it also reported that plumes are very likely to exist on Jupiter’s moon Europa.
AI brings automation to healthcare
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/07/vinod-khosla-radiologists-obsolete-five-years.html
Never one to shy away from controversy, the venture capitalist went a step further when I interviewed him last month for a podcast hosted by Silicon Valley biotechnology startup Color Genomics. “The role of the radiologist will be obsolete in five years,” he said.
Soon humans will choose to live in computer simulations
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/3317538/tech-firm-amd-says-virtual-reality-will-soon-be-so-advanced-that-humans-will-choose-to-live-in-computer-simulations/
Royal Belum XPDC 4 – Day 6/6
Royal Belum XPDC 4 – Day 5/6
This day was the ultimate day. The day electricity was supplied to Orang asli village. Two major issues need to be settled. One was to increase the water flow rate and two was to repair the connection between the HDPE pipes and the turbine house.
The increase in the water flow rate partly can be achieved by modifying the weir so that more water goes into the weir. For the connection to the turbine we decided to forego the PVC bends where we connected the HDPE pipes straight to the turbine house.
Day 5 atmosphere.
HDPE pipes were connected straight to the turbine.
Weir modification
Finally we got the flow rate we needed and the voltage we targeted.
220 voltage output
Royal Belum XPDC 4 – Day 4/6
Day 4 was the day we were supposed to do a trial run of our pipes and turbine. However there were several issues that need to be settled. First was the connection between PVC pipes and HDPE pipes which was our weakest link in the system. The connection really needs to be water tight and anchored to the ground. Second the weir was still not completed at this time. Third the turbine house still needed some final touch-up where we need to do some concriting and drain building. Fourth is the connection between the HDPE pipes and the turbine. So, we were split into several groups to settle all these issues.
Sands need to be transfeered from waterfall site which is about 100m from the turbine house
Final connection from HDPE pipes to turbine house
Finishing of the turbine house.
Our orang asli friends having a rest.
We also realised that some of the wires in the generator and controller unit had been bitten by a mouse. Luckily they were still can be repaired and used.
Connection between PVC and HDPE pipes.
Finishing of weir construction
Air valve were installed at several locations
Finally at the end of the day we decided to open the dam at the weir to run our turbine.
Water coming out from an air valve
The turbine in operation
We got around 2V of electricity which was considerably less than what was targeted.
Air was still in the pipes.
By this time we realised that the water flow rate need to be increased. Several reasons were suggested for the slow flow rate. We were thinking that there was still a lot of air in the pipes. So we need to let the water flows until no air is left – by checking the air valve. Also it was suggested to let the pipe be full first before opening the check valve so that we get a full body of water flowing through the pipes. And finally we need to modify the weir so that the percentage of water going into the weir can be increased.
However not long after the turbine was in operation disaster strucked. The connection between the HDPE pipes and the turbine which consist of a couple of PVC bends broke. So we were forced to postpone the project to the next day until this setback can be settled.
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