……………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Classical Music

Boring and Fun -   Clean piano piece inspired by Noboe Uematsu piano style.

Hope Beautiful song, romantic

Sin Ti Romantic Melancholic song

Mad  - classical music

Sleep and Attack – Start slow (sleep) and becomes faster (attack)

Playful tango – Title says it all

Electronic Stuff

New World

Relax (violin piano, with chemical beat)

Old Quality Work

These are creative works that were recorded using an iphone, because of this the sound is of bad quality.

without battery

While recording my batteries drained :~(

Irvin De La Paz -How I feel.mp3

Not classical but a rock song.

Irvin De La Paz – Without title.mp3

This song would be a classical hit If I remade it!

Have you  wished you could  manufacture your own parts/creation for your projects?  I sure have!

I have see many  technologies to aid from concept to reality  fabrication of parts in product design.  From Computer Numerical Control technologies to rapid prototyping the problem with these technologies are not the level of difficulty (because they are not difficult) but the exorbitant price which are not very appropriate for domestic use.  These technologies have been for quite something on the market for industrial purposes (CNC since 1910 WWI and Rapid Prototyping since 2000s) and its quite a shame few  players to date have rise in the market to offer reliable manufacturing alternatives with domestic prices. 
Doing a research a few month ago I found an exciting product worth mentioning that offer rapid prototyping solutions for domestic fabrication. The product is called fab@home and is basically a 3d printer.  3D printing is a form of additive manufacturing technology where a three dimensional object is created by successive layers of material. The printers can set you back around $2000 for a ready made machine  or you can save money  assembling it yourself. All parts are easy to find (off the shelves).  Fab@home is open source which is exciting for modifications  and the creators are trying to push an idea of open hardware.  The term open hardware usually means that information about the hardware is open to all. This would include the hardware design (i.e.schematics, bill of materials and PCB layout data), as well as a FOSS approach to the software that drives the hardware.

Model 1 of Fab @ home

Video Below

3D Printer in Action, Video is 64x times faster

If you want to obtain more information about Fab@Home you can visit them at http://fabathome.com/

A process has been developed of air condition that reduces energy uses by 50 to 90%.The process was announced by the US National Renewable energy and its called DEVAP which stands for Dessicant-Enhanced eVaporative air Conditioner)/ It cools air using evaporative cooling( not new) but combine a dessicant liquid for pulling water vapor out of the cooled air stream. The dessicant used is Lithium Chloride or sodium chloride, that separates using a permeable hydrophobic membrane the air stream. Later heat is added to evaporate water vapor back out. Heat can come from many renewable energy sources, including natural gas and solar. Dessicants used can be compare to refrigerants such as HCFCs, which are environmental friendly.

Photo shows how the DEVap cooling core uses water and liquid desiccant to draw in outside air, exhaust some of that air and return cool, dry air to the area being cooled. DEVap's integrated evaporative component and its desiccant drying process offer improved dehumidification and, thus lower costs and much lower energy usage.

]]> http://www.irvindelapaz.com/blog/2010/cool-stuff/air-conditioning-process-to-cut-from-50-to-90-energy-consumption/feed/ 0 http://www.irvindelapaz.com/blog/2010/programming/autonomous-small-vehicle-that-talks-like-3cp0-using-atmega-168/ http://www.irvindelapaz.com/blog/2010/programming/autonomous-small-vehicle-that-talks-like-3cp0-using-atmega-168/#comments Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:58:32 +0000 Irvin De La Paz http://www.irvindelapaz.com/?p=706 Introduction

It’s been a while since I began experimenting with robots.  Those who know me close enough have known I wanted to do some inventions and microprocessors  knowledge is required to accomplish them. Today I present to you (like a proud parent) my son “ICAV BOT”. ICAV stands for Infrared Controlled Autonomous Vehicle.

Components

The bot components are as followed:

• 2  L293D H Bridge controlling 4 motors! (There are 4 in total but I only use 2)
• 74HC595N shift register chip (component of Lady Ada Motor shield)
• ATmega328 based platform (Arduino Duemilanove<– dev board)
• Buzzer 3 volt
• Infrared demodulator 38 khz!
• Aluminum chassis
• SPDT Switch <— Better is DPST to turn ON/OFF arduino duemilanove and Motor shield

Behavior

• Decides by itself where he wants to go  (Autonomously)
• Generates  sound tones from frequency  128hz to 4500 hz
• Can be controlled with any infrared controller for drone operation
• No other sensor is present

Video

Construction Pics

Source Code

Infrared Controlled Autonomous Vehicle (ICAV) by Irvin De La Paz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

/*
#==================================================
#    Infrared Controlled Autonomous Vehicle  ICAV #
#                       V1.0                      #
#         Code by Irvin De La Paz                 #
#         Irvin+robot@irvindelapaz.com            #
#         Website:www.irvindelapaz.com            #
#        Licensed under Creative Commons          #
#Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported#
#=================================================#
*/
#include  //MOTOR Library
#include  //Infrared Receiver Library

AF_DCMotor motor3(3, MOTOR12_64KHZ);
AF_DCMotor motor4(4, MOTOR12_64KHZ);

int RemoteMode=0; // Infrared drone mode, 0=off / 1=on
int LastProccessID; //store last proccess id for comparative value
int ProccessID;  //will store random behavior of robot
long time;   //time the robot has been on
long  randomtime; //random time  behavior will last
long randomizer; //store how long proccess id should last

//Declaring music part

int BuzzerPin = 14;
int length = 64; // the number of notes
int beats[64]; //Holds the time of each note 64 been the maximum number of values it can hold
int tempo = 25;
// InfraRed  Part
int Irsensor = 16;
IRrecv irrecv(Irsensor);
#define UP 0x80FF58A7
#define DOWN 0x80FFC837
#define FAN  0x80FF708F
#define MODE 0x80FF40BF
#define POWER 0X80FF48B7
#define TIMER 0X80FFD827
decode_results results;
//=====FUNCTIONS===============

void GetMeRandom(void){
  ProccessID = random(0,6);
  time = millis();
  randomizer= random(2000,4500);
  randomtime = time + randomizer;
  //randomSeed(analogRead(0));
                      }
// RANDOM PROCCESSES FUNCTIONS
void directo(void){
  motor3.run(FORWARD);
  motor4.run(FORWARD);
}
void StopAll(void){
  motor3.run(RELEASE);
  motor4.run(RELEASE);
}

void CirculoD(void){ //Turn right
  motor3.setSpeed(200);
  motor4.setSpeed(200);
  motor3.run(BACKWARD);
  motor4.run(FORWARD);
}  

void CirculoI(void){ //Turn left
  //motor1.run(BACKWARD);
  //motor2.run(FORWARD);
  motor3.setSpeed(200);
  motor4.setSpeed(200);
  motor3.run(FORWARD);
  motor4.run(BACKWARD);  

}

void Reverse(void){
  motor3.run(BACKWARD);
  motor4.run(BACKWARD);
}

void deccelerate(void){
int i;
for (i=255; i!=0; i--) {
    motor3.setSpeed(i);
    motor4.setSpeed(i);
    delay(10);
  }
}

void playTone(int tone, int duration) {
for (long i = 0; i < duration * 1000L; i += tone * 2) {
digitalWrite(BuzzerPin, HIGH);
delayMicroseconds(tone);
digitalWrite(BuzzerPin, LOW);
delayMicroseconds(tone);
  }
}

void randomizebeats(void){
  length=random(4,50); //declaring the number of notes to be played
  for (int i=0; i < length; i++) {
   beats[i]=random(0,7); //declaring the duration of each note
  }
}

void playNote(int duration) {
    int tones[65] = {123,131,139,147,156,165,175,185,196,208,220,233,247,262,277,294,311,330,349,370,
    392,415,440,466,494,523,554,587,622,659,698,740,784,831,880,932,988,1047,1109,1175,1245,1319,1397,
    1480,1568,1661,1760,1865,1976,2093,2217,2349,2489,2637,2794,2960,3136,3322,3520,3729,3951,4186,4435,4699,4978};
    int i  = random(0,64);
    playTone(tones[i], duration);

}

//=====END OF FUNCTIONS========

void setup() {
  irrecv.enableIRIn(); // Start the receiver
  pinMode(BuzzerPin, OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);
  //motor1.setSpeed(160);
  //motor2.setSpeed(160);
  motor3.setSpeed(160);
  motor4.setSpeed(160);
  randomizebeats();
  delay (5000);
}

void loop() {
long codigorecibido; //store code received
  if (irrecv.decode(&results)) {

    if (results.value == POWER && RemoteMode ==0 ) {
                  RemoteMode = 1; }

          delay (250);
          irrecv.resume();
          //Just for debugging
          //Serial.println("Primer comando exitoso");
          //Serial.println(RemoteMode);
          //Serial.println(results.value,HEX);

  }

while (RemoteMode == 1) {
if (irrecv.decode(&results)) {
    if (codigorecibido != results.value)
    {
        codigorecibido = results.value;
      //Serial.println("Estoy en while");
    delay(250);
    irrecv.resume();
    }

if (irrecv.decode(&results)) {
  Serial.println("STOPPING ALL");
  StopAll();
  codigorecibido=123456;
  delay(250);
  irrecv.resume();
  }
                          }
  switch (codigorecibido) {
      case DOWN:
        Serial.println("A");
        directo();
        break;
      case UP:
       Reverse();
       Serial.println("B");
       break;
      case MODE:
        CirculoI();
        Serial.println("C");
        break;
      case FAN:
        CirculoD();
        Serial.println("D");
        break;
      case POWER:
       RemoteMode =0;
       break;
      case TIMER:
        randomizebeats();
           for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
              playNote(beats[i] * tempo);
              delay(tempo / 2);  // pause between notes
           }
       break;
      default:
        break;
                         }
                      }

while (RemoteMode == 0) {
GetMeRandom();
StopAll();

Serial.println(ProccessID);
Serial.println(randomizer);

  while(time < randomtime) {
    if (irrecv.decode(&results)) {
     RemoteMode =1;
     time =millis()+randomtime;
      break;}
    if (ProccessID == 0)
    {   //Serial.println("Empezo a viajar derecho!");
        directo();
        time = millis();}

   else if (ProccessID == 1)
    {   //Serial.println("Empezo CirculoD");
        CirculoD();
        time = millis();}    

   else if (ProccessID == 2)
    {   //Serial.println("Empezo CirculoI");
        CirculoI();
        time = millis();}   

  else if (ProccessID == 3)
    {   //Serial.println("Empezo Reverse");
        Reverse();
        time = millis();}
  else {
     //Serial.println("que rayos, un 5!");
     randomizebeats();
     for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
        playNote(beats[i] * tempo);
        delay(tempo / 2);  // pause between notes
}

     break;
   }
        }

}
  }

This was left on a car.

and.

Kindness, we need more of it…very nice!

on a side note, here is another one, hey at least he is honest!

]]> http://www.irvindelapaz.com/blog/2010/funny-and-curious-pics/there-are-still-good-people/feed/ 0 http://www.irvindelapaz.com/blog/2010/funny-and-curious-pics/bp-oil-spill-solution/ http://www.irvindelapaz.com/blog/2010/funny-and-curious-pics/bp-oil-spill-solution/#comments Fri, 09 Jul 2010 10:17:59 +0000 Irvin De La Paz http://www.irvindelapaz.com/?p=738 Oil be back!

By: Andy Weir

You were on your way home when you died.

It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me.

And that’s when you met me.

“What… what happened?” You asked. “Where am I?”

“You died,” I said, matter-of-factly. No point in mincing words.

“There was a… a truck and it was skidding…”

“Yup,” I said.

“I… I died?”

“Yup. But don’t feel bad about it. Everyone dies,” I said.

You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. “What is this place?” You asked. “Is this the afterlife?”

“More or less,” I said.

“Are you god?” You asked.

“Yup,” I replied. “I’m God.”

“My kids… my wife,” you said.

“What about them?”

“Will they be all right?”

“That’s what I like to see,” I said. “You just died and your main concern is for your family. That’s good stuff right there.”

You looked at me with fascination. To you, I didn’t look like God. I just looked like some man. Or possibly a woman. Some vague authority figure, maybe. More of a grammar school teacher than the almighty.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “They’ll be fine. Your kids will remember you as perfect in every way. They didn’t have time to grow contempt for you. You wife will cry on the outside, but will be secretly relieved. To be fair, your marriage was falling apart. If it’s any consolation, she’ll feel very guilty for feeling relieved.”

“Oh,” you said. “So what happens now? Do I go to heaven or hell or something?”

“Neither,” I said. “You’ll be reincarnated.”

“Ah,” you said. “So the Hindus were right,”

“All religions are right in their own way,” I said. “Walk with me.”

You followed along as we strode through the void. “Where are we going?”

“Nowhere in particular,” I said. “It’s just nice to walk while we talk.”

“So what’s the point, then?” You asked. “When I get reborn, I’ll just be a blank slate, right? A baby. So all my experiences and everything I did in this life won’t matter.”

“Not so!” I said. “You have within you all the knowledge and experiences of all your past lives. You just don’t remember them right now.”

I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. “Your soul is more magnificent, beautiful, and gigantic than you can possibly imagine. A human mind can only contain a tiny fraction of what you are. It’s like sticking your finger in a glass of water to see if it’s hot or cold. You put a tiny part of yourself into the vessel, and when you bring it back out, you’ve gained all the experiences it had.

“You’ve been in a human for the last 48 years, so you haven’t stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. If we hung out here for long enough, you’d start remembering everything. But there’s no point to doing that between each life.”

“How many times have I been reincarnated, then?”

“Oh lots. Lots and lots. An in to lots of different lives.” I said. “This time around, you’ll be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 AD.”

“Wait, what?” You stammered. “You’re sending me back in time?”

“Well, I guess technically. Time, as you know it, only exists in your universe. Things are different where I come from.”

“Where you come from?” You said.

“Oh sure,” I explained “I come from somewhere. Somewhere else. And there are others like me. I know you’ll want to know what it’s like there, but honestly you wouldn’t understand.”

“Oh,” you said, a little let down. “But wait. If I get reincarnated to other places in time, I could have interacted with myself at some point.”

“Sure. Happens all the time. And with both lives only aware of their own lifespan you don’t even know it’s happening.”

“So what’s the point of it all?”

“Seriously?” I asked. “Seriously? You’re asking me for the meaning of life? Isn’t that a little stereotypical?”

“Well it’s a reasonable question,” you persisted.

I looked you in the eye. “The meaning of life, the reason I made this whole universe, is for you to mature.”

“You mean mankind? You want us to mature?”

“No, just you. I made this whole universe for you. With each new life you grow and mature and become a larger and greater intellect.”

“Just me? What about everyone else?”

“There is no one else,” I said. “In this universe, there’s just you and me.”

You stared blankly at me. “But all the people on earth…”

“All you. Different incarnations of you.”

“Wait. I’m everyone!?”

“Now you’re getting it,” I said, with a congratulatory slap on the back.

“I’m every human being who ever lived?”

“Or who will ever live, yes.”

“I’m Abraham Lincoln?”

“And you’re John Wilkes Booth, too,” I added.

“I’m Hitler?” You said, appalled.

“And you’re the millions he killed.”

“I’m Jesus?”

“And you’re everyone who followed him.”

You fell silent.

“Every time you victimized someone,” I said, “you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you’ve done, you’ve done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you.”

You thought for a long time.

“Why?” You asked me. “Why do all this?”

“Because someday, you will become like me. Because that’s what you are. You’re one of my kind. You’re my child.”

“Whoa,” you said, incredulous. “You mean I’m a god?”

“No. Not yet. You’re a fetus. You’re still growing. Once you’ve lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born.”

“So the whole universe,” you said, “it’s just…”

“An egg.” I answered. “Now it’s time for you to move on to your next life.”

And I sent you on your way.



Refrigeration technologies have enabled great advances to the modern society. Contrary to what one might think the first civilizations that used some sort of technique to refrigerate a room go back to prehistoric times. On these ancient times ice was stored and packed with hay and other types of insulating materials in order to have a cool environment to preserve food during hot days. The uses of the now known refrigeration cycle have broadened to more than just food preservation. Up to this day cryogenics exists, where super low temperatures can be achieved and the quest to absolute zero has just begun.

This experiment will replicate the vapor compression cycle that was first proposed in 1805 by Oliver Evans. The upcoming report will show the acquired understanding of the refrigeration cycle and its applications. In order to analyze this system several assumptions where made such like a isentropic process at the compressor a isenthalpic expansion in the throttling valve. Diagrams will be provided to depict these thermodynamic processes in addition to computing the heat transferred to the system and the work input to the compressor.

It was found that lowering fan speeds of condenser and evaporator in the experiment reduced the compressor and coefficient of performance of the cycle.  It was suggested that this may have been because at higher fan speed, convection coefficient increased, increasing heat transfer in the evaporator and condenser with the surroundings, thus reducing the work of the compressor to the refrigerant. Vapor compression cycle was more efficient with fans of evaporator and condenser at highest speeds.

Introduction

A vapor refrigeration cycle is composed of several components which can be seen in the Figure 1 below. These components are the evaporator, compressor, condenser and throttling valve (Brokowski). The figure 1 shows the simplified stages at which the cycle occurs. The refrigerant in this case R134a receives heat from the surroundings at the evaporator and is passed to the compressor ideally as a saturated vapor. At the stage one the compressor increases the pressure in the refrigerant which is accompanied also by an increase in temperature. Ideally this compression is isentropic; this heated fluid is then passed to the condenser in order to reject heat to the surroundings. Here at stage two the temperature is lowered and then is passed to the stage three. This stage is where a sudden change in pressure takes the saturated liquid and is further cooled this cooling ideally occurs as an isenthalpic process. The loop is closed at stage four where the cooled refrigerant is then returned to evaporator.

You can download the rest of the report below.

Refrigeration Cycle Analysis

This experiment consists on taking measurements from a heat exchanger while varying the direction of the flow of the hot and cold fluids.  Heat exchangers makes possible the use of machinery and processes that otherwise would generate too much heat to operate.  The goals for this laboratory include determining the amount of heat dissipated to the surroundings, the overall efficiency, the temperature efficiency for the hot and cold fluids, overall heat transfer coefficient, the theoretical overall heat transfer coefficient.

The experimental setup consists of a compact heat exchanger in counter and parallel flow that interchanges thermal energy between hot and cold fluids.   Data is collected from four thermocouples, two at the cold and hot inlets, and two at the cold and hot outlets.  Six measurements of temperature are obtained from each of the thermocouples. The volumetric flow is also measured for both hot and cold fluids.

It was found that the counter flow configuration behaved more closely to the theoretical value, having a maximum error of 44.1%, The maximum error for the parallel configuration was 58.6%,   Both  errors were not in range of the uncertainty  +/-  1,298 W/m2*K compared to a theoretical values.   Tubing during the experiment was not isolated and contributed to errors in both counter and parallel flows.

Introduction

Heat exchangers are devices that are designed to allow a heat transfer between two fluids.  Most of the times, the exchange of thermal energy occurs between two fluids.  These types of devices are used in many applications such as refrigeration, cooling engine systems and air conditioning.  In order to create the adequate configuration, various parameters are taken into account, such as the fluid properties, the pipe setup and the direction of the fluid.  If the flow is directed in the opposite direction, it is called counter flow.  In contrast, if the flow follows the same direction of both cold and heat fluids, then it is called a parallel flow.

A plate heat exchanger or compact heat exchanger is one type of heat transfer device commonly used.  It consists of various plates stacked one behind the other.  These plates are the path through which heat will be transferred from the hot fluid to the cold fluid.  A particular advantage for this configuration is the compactness of the device.  It is useful for places where there is a need for a heat exchanger that has small size and the pressures are low to medium.

Heat exchangers are theoretically governed by the laws of thermodynamics.  These laws provide the energy balance equation for this system.  The efficiency can also be determined using various equations that relate the temperatures.

You can download the rest of the report below.

Heat Exchanger Analysys

Remarks:

This project was made by mechanical engineers: José M. Otaño, José R. Vázquez,  Luis A. Plaza, Hiram González and me (Irvin De La Paz).

As part of thermal lab some friends and I made an analysis of the cooling towers at the university used for air conditioning.

This project was made by mechanical engineers: José M. Otaño, José R. Vázquez,  Luis A. Plaza, Hiram González and me (Irvin De La Paz).

Abstract

A cooling tower is a series of systems that are use to cool large structure or process.  This cooling system utilizes a series of baffles inside a tower in order to permit a heat transfer between the atmospheric air and the water been cooled.  A draft inducted system is one common configuration for rapid cooling effects using an air fan as the driving mechanism.  The cooling tower experimental activity consisted in obtaining different parameters for the analysis of the system’s performance.  Such parameters as the speed of the fans and voltage were used to determine the power require for them.  Apart from the fans, the temperatures of the water and air entering and exciting were used to calculate the thermodynamic balance in order to obtain the effectiveness of the system.

This experiment was carried out at the “Planta Fisica” building. This place is equipped with two chillers with several pumps and four cooling towers. These units are responsible for processing and distributing the cold water used for refrigeration purposes throughout the campus. The main goal of this experiment is to take measurements of a large scale, and functioning system on the field. The measurements taken include: psychometric data at the air entry and exit, temperature measurements of the system’s water at different reference points and making a velocity profile for the cooling tower fan.

Experiences like this where the student comes in contact with the equipment that is used to perform a certain task, in this case the cooling towers, enriches the learning experience via a hands on approach. Additionally it exposes the student to a more industry-like scenario where a large scale system has to be analyzed in order to assess its performance. Having this in mind this also shows that the fundamental laws taught in the classroom will apply to real systems. Some examples of these laws are the conservation of mass and the conservation of energy, within others.

Introduction

A cooling tower is a device designed to reject heat absorbed through a cooling system to the atmosphere.  There are many configurations for this purpose, but the most common for small buildings is a small fabricated induced tower, such as Figure 1.  This tower uses a series of internal baffles to help transfer heat to the outside air by using a fan to induct the flow.  Most of the water falls into a pool area below, while some of it evaporates to the atmosphere.  The system compensates the loss of water with new water called “make-up water”.  Figure 1 below shows the schematic configuration of this system.

The major use for these systems is in the cooling of big buildings and industrialized processes that require a lot of heat removal.  The theory behind this configuration lies in the design of thermodynamic concepts and fluid mechanics optimization.  Chemicals are also aggregated to the pool in order to help maintain the performance of the pipes working in the system.

You can download the rest of the report below.

Cooling Tower Report