Parts Delivered for Peltier Test Build

Starting to Experiment with Peltier and Water Cooling/Heating

Date:10.27.17
Location: Logan HS
Goal: Begin to experiment with the peltier and water cooling/heating components. Also, design an interface to monitor temperature.
Students: Paige, Andy and Ben

The parts we will be using to begin testing cooling/heating on the Peltiers. The blue block are aluminum blocks used in CPU water coolers. We have also found some Pentium II heat sinks with fans. In the upper left corner of the picture are thermistors that we will use to monitor the temp through an Arduino.

Paige soldering extension wires on the Peltiers.

Andy has been working on a LCD display to use to display temperature. You see a basic "hello world" program running with a timer counting up.

Short video of the parts with Andy overlooking.

Guest Speaker-Mike Wettstein, Industrial Automation

Guest Speaker-Mike Wettstein, Industrial Automation
Date: 10.20.17
Students: Entire DE class 3rd hour

Mike Wettstein came in to talk to the DE class on the Desalination Machine and shared ideas and concerns as well as solutions to our sensor problems.

Concerns/Questions:
1. Do we need a trap? Will this prevent air from circulating?
2. If air does not circulate it will "deadhead" creating a pressure difference.
3. Can we bring both tanks to atmospheric pressure with pressure relief valves or pressure switches.
4. Can we use ultrasonic water level sensor or just a vertical float switch?
5. To measure the air flow, can we use a differential pressure switch?
6. What protective devices do we need? Pressure/heat/stored energy. If something fails we don't want it to blow up or melt down.
7. Should we try PLC controllers?

Mike Wettstein talking to the class.

Controllers, sensors and pressure switches Mike brought it.

Testing Peltier for Voltage Output

Testing Peltier for Voltage Output

Date: 10.16.17
Location: Logan HS
Time: 1 hour
Students: Paul B.
Goal: Test the Peltier chip for voltage output when heating the hot side of the device.

We wanted to test the output voltage of a Peltier just to see what it was capable of. We do not plan on using the Peltier to produce a output voltage, but some students wanted to see what would happen when we heated the chip and monitored the voltage.

The heating source in the video is a small heat gun and we are using a inexpensive infarad thermometer to check the temperature. It appears to output 1.6 V - 1.7 V when we increased the temperature to between 120-150 degrees F.

A Peltier cooler, heater, or thermoelectric heat pump is a solid-state active heat pump which transfers heat from one side of the device to the other, with consumption of electrical energy, depending on the direction of the current. ... It can also be used as a temperature controller that either heats or cools.

Conceptual Drawing of HDH Desalination machine

Conceptual Drawing of HDH Desalination Machine

Date: 10.16.17

This drawing represents a cleaned up version of the original sketch that was hand drawn. We are still determining size and scale, however, our initial research indicates that most of the fabrication will be done with CPVC pipe, aluminum cooling/heating blocks, plastic tubing and perhaps some copper tubing (though it is sensitive to salt water).

We are beginning to experiment with Peltier chips to test the range they cool down and heat up.

This sketch was drawn by Ben L. to visually represent the HDH Desalination machine.