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Posted by Nate on October 23, 2006, 11:03 pm
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"why didn't I think of that" kind of thing. Wow! Now we can save time
and money and headaches, and I really am going to have a go at it.
I sort of wonder how well it needs to shut, considering all the water
that will be in the yard. Then again, if I use a heavy-enough
counterweight, we could be in business. And, of course, it would
probably be best to ensure there's easy friction and stability with the
gate/chain/bucket assembly.
And I suppose I'll need a fairly small hole(s) and we'll need to gauge
the shutting time to approximately 4-5 hours. This can REALLY work!
Thank you again!! I'll try to let everyone know how my project goes
soon.
Many regards,
Nathan
Chas Hurst wrote:
> > Hi there, my name is Nathan and I have an idea for creating a device
> > which will help my grandfather maintain the flow of irrigation water
> > that comes into his yard. Currently, the city allots two irrigation
> > periods per month and essentially, my 80-yr. old grandfather is
> > responsible for ensuring the proper flow into his yard at odd hours in
> > the morning. For example, he'll have to wake up at 1:30 a.m. to go out
> >
> > and lift the two small water gates (on each end of his house)...then,
> > he'll have to stay awake to maintain them until 5:30 a.m., or something
> >
> > like that.
> >
> > Anyway, my idea is to install a home-made mechanism at each of the
> > irrigation gates that will allow for the lifting and shutting of the
> > water gate (about a 12"x6" rectangular plate covering the water hole).
> >
> > In my crude, non-mechanically-inclined mind, I thought of somehow
> > welding a straightened-out bicycle chain to the lift piece and
> > fashioning a sprocket to a motor (garage-door opener motor??), held by
> > maybe a pipe in the ground (in front of the water hole). The motor
> > would turn the sprocket which would be connected to the chain, somehow.
> >
> >
> > One of the tricky things is figuring out what I could use to automate
> > all of this...I was thinking of some type of connection between the
> > motor and say, a water-sprinkler timer, where I might pre-program each
> > of the two irrigation lifters to independently lift and shut their
> > water gates at specified time intervals.
> >
> > Of course, once a motor is activated in lift or shut mode, it would
> > need to stop after a few seconds when it reaches the apex of each
> > motion. Wow! Am I insane or what?! I was also thinking that, instead
> >
> > of a water-sprinkler timer thingy, maybe I could just set up some kind
> > of radio transmitter/receiver from the two irrigation points to my
> > grandfather's computer...that way, maybe we could take advantage of
> > some customized software solution or computer timer of some sort. With
> >
> > something like that, perhaps we wouldn't have to worry so much about
> > running a bunch of underground wiring (it would just be the power to
> > the motors, I think??).
> >
> > I don't want to drag on about this, so I'll pretty much leave it at
> > that and ask for any advice/comments/suggestions that ANYONE might
> > have. Is there a company or a machine or some product out there that
> > provides something close to what I want? Is it really expensive??
> > Maybe there's a better way to accomplish this all together (probably an
> >
> > easy one, like hire someone to lift and shut the water gates, ha!).
> > Anywho, thanks again in advance for any light shed on my crazy idea.
> > Nathan Entrekin
>
> Use the chain and sprinkler timer idea. Attach a bucket, of suitable
> capacity to lift the gate by weight of water, to the chain. Poke a small
> hole in the bottom of the bucket. Use the timer to turn on and off a small
> water pump that fills the bucket and lifts the gate at the beginning time,
> then shuts of the water pump at the end time, allowing the water to drain
> out of the bucket and lower the gate.
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