Allan Adams
3rd May 2010, 07:10
Well, if I could sticky this topic to make it top the list I would. I am new here and look forward to participating. A bit lost starting out in that there is no obvious place for puzzled new fish to introduce themselves. So, being the cantankerous type I made one.
I am Allan Adams, but go by "Gadget". I have been an Artist/Inventor for a long toothed while. As an inventor I am accustomed to focusing within a paradigm. My lifelong focus has been cottage industries that use recycled materials and renewable energy as much as is practical. My areas of expertise are electronics, robotics, and plastics applications. Later in life a different element presented itself into my focus paradigm. I adopted and raised a severely disabled child. Then to cap that off I became disabled myself.
The resulting focus is to employ renewable energy in the reworking of discarded materials and to develop means whereby those with challenges can best benefit from that effort. I presently operate a train of self designed and fabricated work centers towards that end and build such devices for others when I get the opportunity to enable the so-called disabled. Some of these (and more coming) can be seen on my website. Much of the website is “web art” in a semi puzzle format and still in development. The inventions and workstations can be seen through the bright little “encapsulated SOLAR” portal in the lower right of the first page at:
http://epiphany3.com
This aspect of encapsulated systems is showing great promise. The minimum wattage solar supply is sculpted into each station and the smallest footprint to output sought. All work centers, even the very elaborate, “Time Machine”, and, “Robo Dragon”, are more than 90% recycled material. Exceptions are solar cells and about 1/3 of the batteries. While the Jazzy Scooter was acquired intact and in brand new condition, even it was recycled from the purchaser who could not manage the digital joystick controls. Even the very sweet 55 amp Optima batteries on SPAWN 2 and the upcoming unit were reconditioned from some left to dissolve back into a river bank. A note about the Optima: always glom onto these treasures. You can’t kill them with a big stick because they use solid lead coils instead of wafers.
It is a crime (for real!) to discard such a thing in such a way, both for what it does to the planet and for the waste of all that energy storage that could have done something very productive in someone’s life. This is all the easier to see when they are used in creative work centers and one can observe first hand the production that can come out of one when properly integrated with a DC system of tools. All the more when one sees the focus of someone who was considered disabled go from a glum, “why me”, attitude to a gleeful, “what shall I create next?”, glow. I do believe that creating something worthy from something thought to be worthless is as therapeutic as the creativity itself.
I am Allan Adams, but go by "Gadget". I have been an Artist/Inventor for a long toothed while. As an inventor I am accustomed to focusing within a paradigm. My lifelong focus has been cottage industries that use recycled materials and renewable energy as much as is practical. My areas of expertise are electronics, robotics, and plastics applications. Later in life a different element presented itself into my focus paradigm. I adopted and raised a severely disabled child. Then to cap that off I became disabled myself.
The resulting focus is to employ renewable energy in the reworking of discarded materials and to develop means whereby those with challenges can best benefit from that effort. I presently operate a train of self designed and fabricated work centers towards that end and build such devices for others when I get the opportunity to enable the so-called disabled. Some of these (and more coming) can be seen on my website. Much of the website is “web art” in a semi puzzle format and still in development. The inventions and workstations can be seen through the bright little “encapsulated SOLAR” portal in the lower right of the first page at:
http://epiphany3.com
This aspect of encapsulated systems is showing great promise. The minimum wattage solar supply is sculpted into each station and the smallest footprint to output sought. All work centers, even the very elaborate, “Time Machine”, and, “Robo Dragon”, are more than 90% recycled material. Exceptions are solar cells and about 1/3 of the batteries. While the Jazzy Scooter was acquired intact and in brand new condition, even it was recycled from the purchaser who could not manage the digital joystick controls. Even the very sweet 55 amp Optima batteries on SPAWN 2 and the upcoming unit were reconditioned from some left to dissolve back into a river bank. A note about the Optima: always glom onto these treasures. You can’t kill them with a big stick because they use solid lead coils instead of wafers.
It is a crime (for real!) to discard such a thing in such a way, both for what it does to the planet and for the waste of all that energy storage that could have done something very productive in someone’s life. This is all the easier to see when they are used in creative work centers and one can observe first hand the production that can come out of one when properly integrated with a DC system of tools. All the more when one sees the focus of someone who was considered disabled go from a glum, “why me”, attitude to a gleeful, “what shall I create next?”, glow. I do believe that creating something worthy from something thought to be worthless is as therapeutic as the creativity itself.