Mother making

My dearest mother Sue has been undertaking a course in stained glass near her home town Polegate, on the south coast. This is something she has spoken about this since the day I first toddled towards her open arms as a nipper in my jumpsuit. I have always looked up to her creative approach and am so pleased she is finally indulging her creative path. I watched with wide eyes her decorate and re-decorate the 4 bedroom house my brothers, sister and I were brought up in; wallpapering, tiling, woodworking (having built a chicken house from a pencil drawing she made whilst camping at a farm in Edale), painting, staining etc. Each task was done with such intuition, lack of fear and pure creativity. She would always encourage us kids to make and create; cards, gifts, outfits, drawing and paintings. I recall holidays where we were to take sketchbooks and draw scenes from the English campsites we visited. However she never seemed to have the time (bringing up 4 children, taking in students, working full time etc.) to persue her personal artwork, until now...

Retirement and a move further along the coast has been a revelation. She is free from the endless phone calls at all hours where she would switch on to work like a light. Her one person bungalow with small picturesque garden is positioned across from three duck ponds with the final one at her garden doorstep. She has a wier running down the side of her home which is a joy to hear the minute you pull up outside the house and switch the car engine off. It is wonderful to see from the garden, wildlife coming and going with the seasons. She has recently undertaken home improvements having a woodburning stove installed into the lounge which has proved very beneficial in this weather!

Mum has also built and erected her own wood stores at the gate to the duck pond and alongside the house with a sheltered roof in place. She tells me that she is taking advantage of the government initiative providing grants to reduce carbon footprints and she is having solar panels fitted to the roof to generate electricity and hopefully sell back to the grid energy she produces see here for more info.

From my position on the boat and interest in sustainability, I look at her with awe. Going back to the stained glass. She recently sent me these images of the two pieces she constructed during her evening class. As with most tasks she approaches, she seeks advice, reads up and always has a go and these are classic examples of her ambition. For a first time at this fine art, I was blown away. The colours and compositions are wonderfully appealing. I recall her telling me through laughter on the phone the time it took to cut a curve in glass and now I look at these photos and what I see is perfectly formed arcs and organic shapes. Her patience ceases to amaze me. Like the kind samaritan she truely is, Stanley Charlwood an old neighbour who taught me and mum a thing or two about gardening as he was a regular winner at showing homegrown veg years before it got trendy, is sadly unable to get outside to his garden so giving him the butterfly stained galss piece he is able to bring the outdoors indoors.


Mum is already planning the next piece to go between the lounge and conservatory at her bungalow. I am putting in a request for a piece to go on the boat without a doubt!

Atmospheric Electricity 2

One little google search and I have discovered Hermann Plauson, engineer and inventor of the 1920's who developed an electrostatic generator. There is a book available in the British Library of his work 'Production and Utilization of the Atmospheric Electricity'. His idea uses collector balloons of thin aluminium leaf with stays and wires for rigidity, filled with helium and covered in amalgamated zinc pins to ionize the surrounding air. 1 balloon 300 yards high gives a current of 400 volts of 1.8 amps, in 24hours 17kilowatts. 100 balloons set 100 yards from each other gives a minimum of 200 horsepower and up to 400 horsepower in winter due to the atmospheric changes. My oh my. By using batteries of condensers and high tension transformers etc, this power can be converted for any means. A rotary transformer in the mix works even better eliminating the need for condensers etc.

What about electrocution from storms etc? Well, apparently 'the inventor points out, no devastating thunder storms occur near such aerial power plants, because the balloons act not only as lightning arresters, but they quickly discharge the biggest thunder cloud, safely and noiselessly through their grounded spark gap'. My goodness this is all very clever stuff. I will continue my research.

A collecting balloon and connection to earth


see more fascinating energy alternatives not widely available at rexresearch.com

Atmospheric Electricity

On this day off work, unwell in bed, I have been wondering about the possibilities of converting atmospheric electricity into energy to power stuff, for example, on the boat charging the batteries to run the electrical system.

I am going to do a spot of research on this and see what there is out there on this.

The Kite Experiment

A bit of an update from this end of the ether. I have finally set up The Kite Experiment a blog to reflect my habits and interests in the world we live in. It is a creative path running back to the day my first internet blogging started and one that will progress into the future from now.

The origins of this blog name comes from the kite experiment a scientific theoretical experiment undertaken by Benjamin Franklin (1705-1790) proving that lightening was indeed electrical. It is a mad notion to dodge electrocution whilst proving a theory and it appears that Franklin never actually under took the task but used it as an explanation in his ideas. Today we know that the atmosphere is full of electricity and we tap into this through electronic means, namely radio.

My creative undertakings are to do with exploiting electrical current through assembled components and any other means. They evolve into sound boxes and fx pedals and become one of the objects we have that interact with magic that is electricity. I use the term magic, as there is something other-worldly about how we communicate and interact through the means of connecting with the phenomena of electricity.


Not only is this path full of electric current but there will also be updates from my life afloat on our narrow boat. Speaking of which, we have been moving some furniture aboard over the weekend and getting rid of boxes of stuff from the flat. Thanks to Geoff Blore bookshop in Nottingham we managed to offload 3 boxes of books for a tenner. It all helps! Sadly I'm back to work tomorrow for a 12 hour day (these do seem to be the usual) so nothing will be done until later in the week. Still I have got Christmas time off so who knows we might manage to move everything onboard whilst you and yours are sinking into a feast full of Turkey.

I also look forward to getting underway with other creative shenanigans, finishing off the penniless peggy project and carrying my A5 book around for off the cuff poetry again and who knows I might even pull out a pencil and sketch book. All good things to look forward to.

Anyway, here is to the days ahead from The Kite Experiment.

Room with a view

Oh such a brisk windy day! The river was full-flow with waves breezing by our boat. Leigh and I have spent the afternoon painting, from pink to purple, the internal walls.


Delia has been nowhere but curled up on the woolen blanked inside.


Winter days on our life afloat are beginning.

QPR convention - Buildathon

Here I am at the Rishworth Radio Rally, in the process of the Buildathon in October (see earlier posting), constructing the 40mtr radio receiver ugly style.


As this was geared to beginners in construction, participants were given the circuit diagram as well as a scanned image of the finished circuit to copy from.


Under the guidance of the pro's i.e. John, my radio started to come together.


This is the finished article, wired up and tuned in!



Lovely stuff!

Pontoon on the river

Our boat is set alongside a pontoon which runs the length of several fields and has about 9 narrow boats floating along side it nose to nose. Fortunately we are sheltered from the power station by trees one side and face an expanse of low lying fields the other, ideal for watching the sun set in the evening.





We have an access point at the end of our boat but mind you it is rather slippery stepping down a muddy bank to it!

We are in the process of 'breaking in' the woodburner with small regular fires to allow the material to expand and set into place. Ooh it is so magic.

Bitumen Live at Chameleon

Bitumen at work



Jude strutting her stuff



and so it goes on...

Getting set

Bitumen are getting themselves ready for the event tonight.

8.30pm The Chameleon, map £5advance £6doors, 4 bands, aural delight.

Rishworth Radio Convention

The radio convention yesterday was wonderful! Along with all the usual suspects around the market tables there were folks from further afield. Namely Rex Harper who delivered a fascinating lecture about PICaxes and their programming, see http://qrpme.com/. This really does seem like a rich area for electronics.

I participated in the Buildathon on the day, which involved constructing a 40metre radio receiver, ugly style under the guidance of pro's! (This project is publicised in Practical Wireless this month) :)

The build took about 3.5 hours in total and was working by the end of the session, receiving morse! I was well pleased.

Here is how it looks:



As I was browsing the isles of the market stalls in the rally I encountered a couple who were selling a book on crystal radio projects. Now I don't know if I have told you yet, but this is how I started getting into radio's. At least after breaking one or two when circuit bending and making music. I had encountered this easy radio to build on the internet. It uses only a crystal rock or a diode to rectify the signal of the electrical current, a tuning capaciter, and plenty of wire for ground, antenna and a coil. Oh and to hear you need a crystal ear piece.

So getting back to the rally. I had spent too long quite frankly looking through this book on crystal radio projects when the female of the couple said "you can have it for a pound" "oh, i guess i should buy it, I've spent so long looking at it!" Then the male counterpart joined in with questions about my job and then I suddenly developed into a "worthy cause". Very kind I think. And so for about £8 I ended up with a bundle of crystal radio parts to construct together and develop and share those skills.

So here is the crystal part.


This rock of galena is the detector. Using a piece of wire known as a "cat's whisker" to touch points on the crystal it is possible to pick up a radio signal.

Here is a suitable capacitor which is used to tune into the frequency of radio stations, this works along with the coil and crystal. Notice the fins that are carefully engineered not to touch each other as you turn the nob.


Then came these beauties


A real set of vintage headphones, 2000ohms (i think) that'll work wonders with a crystal set I am planning on building. They have a lovely leather strap and are in good working condition. The cord is fine for a vintage set of cans. Mmmm...


Once I am firmly on water I can get cracking with this project at my workstation. At the moment boxes lie upon boxes in the flat and there is no workstation to be seen - oh dear!

Redhill on the bill

We have settled our narrow boat on a three month mooring at Redhill boatyard, set amongst majestic chimney towers, cattle fields and the River Soar. With great links via the local rail station we can access the City no problemo.


We will have our own pontoon to float besides.

At a fair rate, this seems like a good place to start out our adventures, under the wings of experience and kindness.

Penniless Peggy Project *3

I have found the box full of pegs and continued with the preparation of the construction of the Penniless Peggy Project. All the holes have been drilled (as per previous entries to the blog) and then came the laborious task of sanding every hole and in-between the peg legs to remove any shards and splinters of wood. So this has all been completed.

Thus comes the threading of the pegs together using fine wire. Cut eleven pieces, 27inches long


Then one at a time thread the pegs together with them all facing the same way. Alternate the height of the pegs from line to line.


gradually this will build up. The aim is to have a rectangle of 16 pegs by 6 on the very outter edge.


As you start to come to the other end of the rectangle the penultimate line of pegs is where the 16 other pegs come in (the ones with a hole drilled 1inch from the bottom). They are inserted in the same way however facing in the opposite direction. So you will notice that this means the outer pegs have a continuous look, pointing head outwards.


It takes a while, but it was getting there


And there is the pegs all attached. As you can probably now guess, I am making a door mat.

Next step is to trim the wires, and thread them in to tighten... tbc.

Nocto Loco demo

This night time demonstration depicts the Nocto Loco FX pedal by 4ms pedals,hand-built by myself being sonically exploited by Leigh. The output sound is being filtered by the Sherman Filterbank and has Bugbrand's audio weevil as the input to the Nocto. Enjoy.

Beautiful Burner

Here she is, the lovely Morso squirrel woodburning stove fixed in place on our narrow boat. The builder, Andy Bailey from Redhill Marina has done a sterling job! Leigh and I are very pleased indeed.

We decided upon the Morso after much deliberation. It was a matter of going for a well recommended stove, quality built from iron and the knowledge that fuel would last not just burn up in an instant and provide a good glow through the self cleaning window. The size and heat output (5kw) we believe will successfully keep the 65foot narrow boat warm through out winter. We decided to not have a back boiler fitted (for heating water) as this dramatically reduces the heat output, so this stove is our main and only home heating source. The hearth is composed of a concrete slab with slate crazy paving on top. This is due to be varnished upon the cement drying to allow for ease of cleaning. Behind the burner is a large sheet of Masterboard used as fireproofing, on top of this is a sheet of aluminium which aims to reflect the heat from the chimney and finish off the look.

It is wonderful! Beam, beam, beam... Bring on winter time!

Bitumen gig in October!

Bitumen

On the move

We were heading down the majestic river Trent to the boat builder who will fit the woodburning stove this weekend. I am very excited. This will become the heart of the narrow boat.



This is how it looks before the fitting

Phantastron video

A teaser of the completed Phantastron FX pedal in action. Here we are using the CV input on the Phantastron unit controlled by a 9v battery running along the ribbon controller. The pitch tuning works wonders and the wave form selector switch works best at certain frequencies. This is a brilliant kit to learn a lot (particularly using the turret board) and a good introduction to tube effects. Overall a very unique synth.

www.electricwestern.com

Fantastic-tron

That's right, I have completed the Phantastron, the one and only tube synthesiser by Electric Western. This little gem of an art-invention works wonders when triggered using the ribbon controller supplied by said designer. Oooh! I can't wait until Leigh returns with the video to post... tbc.

One coat inside

This evening whilst the Bull was engulfed in the smoke, two wonderful folk stripped down and painted conker coloured gloss across the wooden floorboards of our narrow boat. Already they make home.

Nocto Go Go

A-Horrah! The nocto loco FX pedal is finally up and running! With the help of John at the club with his electronics knowledge, we discovered that the stomp switches I had wired up were in fact 90degrees round the wrong way. So after John patiently de-soldered and re-soldered each wire, we looked to be getting somewhere. Using a digital multimeter we were able to trace the path of current around the circuit checking for the correct voltage. So it seemed that only 9volts was required for the Voltage Regulator, and from then on the voltage is set to just under 5v through out the circuit

John came across some parts of the circuit which were not showing a decrease in value, in essence, we had 5v showing at one point but the ground (or 0v) was not appearing at all. Thus we came round to the idea that the track had a break in it. This was quickly solved with an insulated piece of wire being attached to link across the break. Then came the oh so exciting bit...

Looking at how the nocto loco acts using an oscilloscope made my heart sing! John had to do a bit of adjusting to get the waveform on the screen, brighten it up a little and make connections with the board using a couple of pointers. From the outset there was a nice small, tidy waveform flickering on the screen, however further explorations showed the curvy pattern switch to a choppy large square form (a rather sound shifting point) and then we discovered around the IC chips some very disjointed waveforms which appeared to be more like sanskrit than waveform. Oh they were brilliant!

And so knowing full well the box of tricks was working, it was time for me to pack up at the club and head for home. On arrival the soldering iron was plugged in and work began to finish off the loose ends.



The nocto loco was plugged in and given it's first test run by Leigh putting his BugBrand through it going then into the Sherman and out of the lovely sound system. It was very bendy and manic to say the least.

I was asked a question last night about what this pedal actually is, and here is some kind of explanation...

The Nocto Loco is some kind of pitch shifting FX pedal, with a jack input, you can put anything through it, though I am speculating that keys and guitars work best due to their hot sustained signal. The bypass switch means you have the ability to bypass the whole circuit to the output (so no loco) or where can switch to running through the maze of copper tracking. This then offers up the ability to move through three harmonic octaves, change waveform and the LFO (or what I believe to be LFO). There is a standard volume knob and a switch which still now I haven't quite worked out what it does. The Loco is self explanatory, it just pumps up the mania of the coarse sound.

The final result is magnificent. I am planning on getting a nifty little video on here in the near future, so keep them skins peeled!

Water pump done!

Here she is our lovely narrow boat at her new destination, with beautiful foliage in the background, including the odd willow tree. She is being looked after by lovely Lizzie who found herself without a roof and is really chuffed hanging out onbaord. We will be persuading her to purchase one and not go adrift to burn money in Brazil as she plans.

As you can see on the stern deck, we have decided that tarpaulin covering the rotten boards will suffice as a tempory brolly, as when it is peeing down and the tarp is suspended across from the roof to the rails it is a nightmare to get into the boat and we can stand there battling with bungies trying to get in for a good 5 minutes whilst gradually becoming soaked to the bone.


And most excitingly, I have successfully installed the water pump! Horrah! I am the official plumber onboard. You'll have to excuse the awful quality of the following pictures, the camera phone isn't all that great.


The pump and filter are positioned on the floor, with spacers to restrict the vibrations, the small storage tank above the pump is for when running a small amout of water and not having to switch on the pump every time.


We decided to buy a par 3 Jabsco pump and matching filter as after hours of research by Leigh this seemed the best option, expensive but guaranteed to work and work well. The pump and filter have their own output connectors and it took a while to realise that hosing and jubilee clips were all that was necessary to connect from part to part.


Note the bronze adaptor from the hosing to the grey plastic 'Pex' piping. This connector was recommended by Midland Chandlers in Braunston.


The Pex piping is used for both hot and cold water and needs pipe stiffeners when making an attachment. Here the Pex pipe went into the bronze connector of the tank and plenty of PTFE tape (about 15 wraps) was used to ensure a water-tight fit.


I inserted a stop valve to use when we need to stop the water flowing through the system.


And used clips to fasten the Pex piping in place, this is particularly important because the pipe is quite flexible and can move around in the space.


Above is an example of the PTFE tape and below are the tools I used for the job. Note the blue handled pipe cutters used for the plastic piping and hose, these were expensive but did the job with ease.


And there we have it, all installed and ready to go. Our next step is to get some one to do a check over the pipes and water tank to double check there is no break. Then we can get going with using the water system as usual.