Electromagnetic Fountain design taking form
Today I had a meeting with the EMF project team (led by Øystein Lia, with Svein Kjetil Haheim, Espen Jorgensen and Geir Erbo Rougthvedt) at NLI Engineering Industry as located at Klosterøya in Skien, Norway, where I proposed, and we discussed the following water jet design and scheme for controlling the fountain:
Each dot is a valve.
The valves of each pentagon are mounted on a manifold.
Each pentagon has a dedicated pump.
Each valve is controlled by on/off signals.
As each valve can be controlled individually, it’s possible to program a multitude of dynamic jet patterns. (Triangles, spirals, random patterns, star forms, curvy lines, etc, etc …..)
The height of the water jet is in relation to the pump speed, and according to how many valves on each one of the pentagon manifolds are open – the more valves that are open, the lesser the height of the jet.
The red dot in the middle uses a 4th pump and does not need a valve. The height of the water jet is controlled by pump speed.
PRODUCT SPEC LINKS:
Hardware:
Lanbox LCX: http://www.lanbox.com/products/LCXDataSheet.html
788-LD+: http://www.lanbox.com/products/LDplusDataSheet.html
CLS 4002 Digital DMX dimmer: http://www.cls.no/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/332
Alesis iO|14 sound interface: http://www.alesis.com/io14
Mac Mini Intel Core Duo: http://www.apple.com/macmini/
Software:
Max/msp/jitter 4.6: http://www.cycling74.com/downloads/max4
Apple remote desktop: http://www.apple.com/remotedesktop
The main task for the project team is currently to find out of the options I have suggested are compatible with the products that they find most appropriate for the job, and that the total design is achievable both practically and economically. What is most challenging for me is to get around the idea that the hardware will be produced before I have had a chance to test various components, but never-the-less achieve a result that I can manage to test in prototype form (mock-up situations), and to keep the programming in the realms of something I can work on myself – and hopefully with some help from friends!
LIGHTS AND SNIFFERS
More research is needed for both these aspects of the fountain.
Regarding lights the best solution seems to be to light up each of the water jets with a ring diode underwater light. Colour changing diodes would be good, but possibly too complex/expensive for this phase of the project. A simpler option could be to have white diodes on the pentagon jets, with a red ring lighting up the central, big jet. Another option could be to give each pentagon its own set of coloured diode rings, but my fear is that the fountain will become too “disco” with this option.
