[gmfoster]

Hi, guys

is there anybody still working on this project ?
Im sharing my latest video of the printer:

drop-media.eu - YouTube

cheers !

Better all the time. what is the hardware like?

[kojaetova]

As first Hallo to all!

I'm planing to start to create graphic controlled waterfall . Can someone help me with this?
[email protected]

[Khalid]

any progress on the project. ?

[kojaetova]

my is almost done. Just have little complication with software.... any help?

[Khalid]

What complication you are facing we can discuss here. This time i am making proper hardware and hope it will be success. I just completed 16valves electronics controller for solenoids. These modules will be added as solenoid valve increases.

[Khalid]

As we Know IRF530 or 540 is not logical level MOSFET it is energized with 10V so the people pushing 5Volts through it give bad performance. If you want to use the use IRL540 or IRLZ44.
OR
See my above circuit in which i am energizing with 10V. Attached is the PDF for toner transfer. When printing use no scale option. Four optoisolator PC817 are installed on 8-legs IC base. Please confirm the direction of installation.

[Khalid]

VisualBasic program that i uploaded with source code was hard coded to run 40 solenoid valves, so it will not work with other number of solenoid valves. This needs you change programming with visual basic.
However, currently making program which does not need any changes within the source file. it will be universal.

[Khalid]

What about if the graphical waterfall does not rely on computer?...Using SD card only?

[kojaetova]

I create a arduino sketch with data inside ( to bad for memory) something like POV. Also I tray to use your software but for some reasons doesn't work well...

[Khalid]

it will not work due to above mentioned reason. you have to wait for the new release of software.

[Khalid]

Please dont follow post 245 and 246 PCB as the IRF540 legs wiring is not correct in the PCB. That was a big blunder from myside, all the etching, soldering work went in vain somebody beat me on this. Meanwhile prepared one simple 8 valves controller motherboard. Today i shall test it.
The idea is to make one MOTHERBOARD to which 8-valves modular card will be attached. User can get number of these cards to attach with the main mother board depends upon the number of solenoid valves installed. Minimum number of solenoid valves=8. Each modular card will control 8 valves.

[Dak01]

Great to see some activity on this thread!

I have been designing and building my water wall for about 8 months. I currently have 32 solenoids working on my water header and the final design will have 192 total. Total length of the wall will be 7 feet.

Have attached a couple of photos and a schematic of my circuit.

Let me know what you think.

[julfi]

Wow, very nice assembling ! Which design of reservoar did you use ? I guess is filled with water all the way up, like my first project ?
This is the promo video of my waterfall printer:

[Dak01]

Wow, very nice assembling ! Which design of reservoar did you use ? I guess is filled with water all the way up, like my first project ?

Hi julfi,

I have tried to make the assembly of semi-commercial grade as I want to install it permanently in the new house I am building and it needs to be something that can be maintained over the years.

Yes the reservoir is filled almost to the top and I can control the level with an adjustable overflow nozzle. Your printer is impressive. What is the design for your printer? Is it a sealed, pressurized reservoir? How many nozzles are operating and what is the spacing? It looks like the spacing on my nozzles is tighter .... not sure if this was a good idea or even necessary.

Are you starting to produce these for commercial use? Any concerns with existing patents?

Thanks!
Dak

[julfi]

Am, are your nozzles made of a bullet casing ? Poor animals

I have pressured reservoir, with a valve to adjust the pressure. The advantage of sealed reservoir is that you can flip it over without water leaking (transport..). Dissadvantage is that is quite hard to make reall waterfall e.g. atmosphere=1.
Two rows are ok, important is that it looks like a homogen water curtain, without many space inbetween. In my video you can see those spaces but is a bit cause of the camera and fps of movie.

We have been to some events with the printer, but we havent find the niche thet is generating money. You have any determine plan for the future with it?

[kojaetova]

I like it. What king solenoids are installed? I have problem with software.... wright now I'm communicating with arduino source code.

[kojaetova]

Julfi The curtain is awesome. What king a software communicate with solenoids?

[Dak01]

I tested a number of different nozzle designs and found that the bullet casings gave the best laminar flow. They are new shell casings so no animals had to be harmed in the making of this fountain...lol. I drill a hole through the casing and machine a thread on the end so it screws into my header.

Julfi, the software you are using has a great user interface. Is this your own creation? The software I am using is written in C# but a number of the concepts were taken from Khalid's VB software which he so kindly posted. My user interface is still being developed but it does have some neat functionality like the ability to output the time and text in various fonts.

I like the lighting on your fountain. It looks like you have lighting installed between the two rows of nozzles. Is this correct? What type of lighting is it? I currently have a series of RGB LED lights behind the header which I can change to various colors. Also has a strobe feature which can be used to create the levitating water effect similar to this video I found on youtube:
Levitating Water Droplets - YouTube

The solenoids are 24VDC purchased from digikey.

As I mentioned, my plan is to permanently install the water fountain in my new house. Since the house will have a space specifically designed for the fountain, I will access the fountain and electronics through a closet in the upper floor. The water will fall the full 9.5 feet of the main floor and the pump, water collection, filtering and treating area will be designed into the lower floor.

[Khalid]

I have improved the software. I am using handshaking protocol now. So no garbage data can affect the shift registers. Julfi's concept is good and implementable in my software, you need a touch screen
I am thinking of completly removing the computer in future version. An LCD display with SD card will be enough to run the waterfall.

[julfi]

Im glad you like it. The software is my friends creation, from scratch, using arduino. Solenoids are industrial solenoids, is a bit more expensive but they are very accurate.
This waterfall printer is not using computer, its reading the SD card. Beside reading pictures that are pre-prepared we used to have a touch screen monitor for interaction. After our exhibition on a marketing conference we upgraded the software to ipad (yeah.. if you dont have apple gadgets on such events you are an outsider ) This ipad module you can see on the video. After a research we came with the conclusion that the interaction is what attract guests so we made a SMS module. Guest can simply send the SMS to the printer and water will read it.

Lights used in the video are some powerfull leds, but they are not part of printer. Between nozzles are led stripes, but are not sufficient. Probably some good led wall washer would do the job, but we never tested it.

Dak, did you tried the strobe function ? Is possible to see some video of printer while operating ? I like the idea of integrating the water fountain into the house, i bet it will look awesome !