Short Term Power Production Goals

     After doing some personal research on the subject, I've come to find out that higher yield solar panels have become much more affordable than they once were.  With all total combined equipment, it will be much more reasonably within Digital Fruit's price range to start taking us off the non-renewable power grid, and start building a renewable power grid of our own.  We're shooting for the range of about five hundred dollars to take our first computer off-grid, and we will start from there.  So, know that our hard earned tech dollars aren't just going into fancier hardware, but into making sure that we will always be around to run that hardware, and that plan to make a impact on how technology is used.
     On that note, Digital Fruit just participated in the third annual Power IT Down day.  On August 27, Digital Fruit shut down all computers, and in fact went so far to ensure that all computers could not be drawing power by shutting down the power strips and surge suppressors.  This effort has been made to help cut down on power consumption, but also to help out others who may be suffering.  Though Digital Fruit's electronic footprint was not large enough to track for donations yet, all the extra savings from the project were donated to the Wounded Warrior Project, an organization trying to help severely wounded service men and women.
     Overall the greening efforts put on by Digital Fruit will not only benefit our customers in terms of environmental friendliness, but because it will help Digital Fruit become a self sufficient company, something that has been forgotten as of late.

Power Outage Opportunity

     So, we had a power outage here the other day, something about a car hitting a pole, and it left me with some time to work on alternative power methods.  I've really enjoyed tinkering with the different components that I'm learning about, and that power outage was the first test.  Sadly, I was only able to work with candles, so the amount of energy I was producing was minimal, but I was able to produce 1.89V of power stably, and was using that to charge a 1.5V battery.  It was fun, but I've learned that my knowledge of power production has a long way to go before I can apply any of it to the business of Digital Fruit.

Safty is a Priority

     Just thought I would drop a note in here about how safety is a priority within Digital Fruit.  Not just safety in terms of human life and well being, but the safety of the information and equipment of customers and staff as well (the staff being something of a goal for the future, seeing as we have no other staff than my wife and I).  So today I made a purchase that was something sudden but not rash.  I picked up some 120VAC varistors.
     How this ties into safety is simple.  As Digital Fruit moves more into the realm of power production, securities are going to need to be made about how to control and manipulate the power we generate.  Varistors will help to prevent spikes in the electrical systems by leveling them out and redistributing the energy a spike would waste.  This will help us to be more energy efficient and to keep things safe, as fewer spikes mean less damage to people, property, and data.

Um, Wow, Its Been a While

     If the title of this post is not enough explanation, I don't know what is.  The progress of Digital Fruit as a company is coming along great, which is why I haven't been able to get online and type up new blog posts.  It is kind of nice to get back on and just address the people that are reading the blog, instead of trying to recommend something or write a tutorial.  I'm just here today to give a quick update.
     Well, on the power production front, we've successfully generated enough power to start charging batteries, and we are still working on building a proper controller circuit.  We are also working on building a three phase alternating current windmill that will produce a much larger amount of power.
     On the software front, I've regressed back to study after a run in with some design problems with the Epic video game.  I've no idea why my current running model is failing, (and causing my computer to crash), so its back to study for a little while, then probably back to the drawing board.  Humbling experiences like this are always good for building skill as a programmer.  If you learn how to fix it now, you'll know how to fix it later.
     And on the tech support front, things are going swimmingly.  This has been our busiest month to-date, and it seems the tech support idea will be the driving financial part of Digital Fruit until the software section can really take off.
     Digital Fruit is also jumping on-board as a participant in the Ubuntu development community.  I personally am not a capable enough programmer yet to really contribute code, but we are helping with documentation and artwork until there is enough coding skill in the company to provide code.  And with my personal experiences with Ubuntu 10.4, as owner of Digital Fruit, I've decided we will make all of our software cross compatible between Windows, Mac, and Linux as far as that is possible. (Games written for Windows in DirectX will pose problems until I have a better development team behind me, then we can work on multiple versions at the same time.)
    And so, that is the state of Digital Fruit for the month of May, 2010.  Until I get more news, talk to you later!  ~ Andrew Petersen

Updates Galour

     I realize that I've been all business and no heart.  So here is an update on the goals and workings of Digital Fruit's project list.
     Epic:  We are currently reworking the story line and working up more images for use in the actual game, not just promotional or conceptual.  I'll have some new colored frames up on Picasa soon, so make sure to check the blog.  I'm also trying to get some of the music started for this, but that might be a little premature, as not much of the game is done, and audio is usually the last thing applied to these projects.
     Eeble cartoon:  I'm still trying to figure out just what I'm going to do with this one.  Its a fun learning experience, but I'm not sure where to classify how far in development it is.
     Power Production:  Chugging right along.  I'm still working with the controller circuits so I don't blow something up, but everything is going fine.  And I've bumped up the voltage of the test model to nine volts, meaning at peak power it can power most standard, battery-operated devices in peoples homes, or at least charge the batteries of said devices.
     Computer Support:  We've had no complaints in this department so far.
     Web-Site Design:  I recently updated the Friendly Paws Grooming website.  It has a lot more presence now, not looking so visually simplistic, and I'm working up the javasript needed to make all of the working parts smooth and enjoyable.
     Well, that covers just about everything around the board.  If you have any questions or comments about any of this, feel free to leave a comment on the blog, or just drop me a line over e-mail.

Quick Note on Power

     Well, the word power means many things.  This time we are focusing on two of them.  First, the meaning as it applies to electricity.  Digital Fruit is taking steps to advance our production of power as I've stated before.  And the second meaning, as it applies to knowledge.  I've obtained material that will allow me to study basic and digital electronic circuits.  It's been fun getting to play with all sorts of new circuits, and that I can see new parts that I haven't gotten to work with before.  I'm hoping that this recent investment made in the name of progress for Digital Fruit really will yield fruit, and that I'll be able to use these experiences to help other people.  So for now, signing out.

Joy

     It's wonderful to be typing this again so soon, but today I'm working on more computers for customers.  Isn't wonderful to hear?  So, I'm setting to work setting things right.  I love this work, it keeps me so enthralled with all the possibilities of the things I'll have to do. It's great!
     I'm also working on a website, www.split-shot.com, for a fishing charter company out of BC Canada.  Its some really sophisticated work.  We're trying to boost the sites rating in Google, and I'm learning a lot about how to further my own websites and the company as a whole from this project. Its stands to help us along a great deal in the future.
    I'm trying to make a habit of this, so here is my item of the day again.  Today's item gets a lot of flack in the tech world, but that's because its looked at as a full scale computer.  That's right, its the acer aspire one.  This mini-notebook is on my personal wish list.  Not because I aspire (no pun intended) to make movies or edit world-class photographs with it, but because it would be really darn convenient to be able to have something to tote around with me that wasn't huge and bulky, that I could use to check my e-mail, update the blog, or just write some code, which, by-the-way, does not require a massive, uber processor, because it is just plan text.  With all of these things, the little Aspire one has a great record for reliability, and can cover all these needs easily.
     Past the product of the day, I've also got great news on the power front.  As pathetic as it may sound, we are almost at 9 volts of power, and at peak sun can generate a good 13 watts of power.  Also, I've been studying my pants off, and have nearly managed to create a regulator for making sure that the electricity is stable and clean.  There will be more updates on this later.

So, A Few Days In

     So, I'm now a few days into writing this blog, and I'm starting to see some actual traffic.  I'm surprised that it took off this quickly.  Its nice to see that people can connect to my company this way.  On the note of power production that has been so popular on this page recently, I'm thinking of investing in a couple more of those solar cells so that I can try some more things out with power production.  I'm also going to have to find where I can get magnetic wire and a deep cycle battery.  The wire is so that I can try and build a windmill of my own for producing electricity, and the battery is for storage.  I thought of using a car battery, but even a quick search on the net revealed that this is probably not the job for a car battery.  They are used mostly for quick starts and stops, not prolonged use.  So for cost effectiveness and safety, deep cycle it is.

Wow, Learned more than I thought

So, instead of sleeping like I should, I've been up tonight studying how to build a solar power system and how electricity works.  My brain is hurting, but I think I can successfully produce 7.125w of power at peak sun, which translates into like 8 batteries getting charged at once in an hour.  The only problem with this whole thing is that if I tried to charge that many batteries that fast, they would all die.  So now I have to research how to limit my awesome little amount of power so that I don't automatically kill my batteries.
     What all of this is really getting at though, is that I'm getting baby-steps closer to being able to produce one of Digital Fruits goals, that of power production.  I understand that there are a lot of other factors that I have to calculate in like the max voltage that my equipment can handle, along with the max voltage the wires I'm using can handle, and just how I'm going to store all of this energy I plan to harness, but it just feels great to be feeling like I'm starting to get a handle on this most crucial part of our company's success.
     With that, I'm hoping that it doesn't rain, at least not very hard, tomorrow, because I may have to walk all the way to Radio Shack in Hoquiam to be able to pick up some flux that I will probably need to be able to solder the last of the little solar cells I have together.  I also have to find some hardware to house the little things, because they're fragile.  Looks like I have a busy day ahead of me then, so I'm going to go and try and get some sleep now.