Wood Fired, Arduino Controlled Food Dehydrator Idea

This is just an idea I dreamt up in my head. I've been pondering ways to make food dehydrators that don't require tons of electricity. Solar dehydrators are of course the first go-to in this case. The designs I've seen for some solar dehydrators have been fantastic! But what about drying meat? Namely beef jerky, or sausage. Can the solar dehydrators reach 165 degrees F and stay there? I don't know.

So I thought, what about a wood fire powered dehydrator? Sure, why not? There's always plenty of small sticks and branches around that could power something like this; it doesn't take much. Think: rocket stove on steroids with a large clamber on top to house foodstuffs.

It would work like this. On the bottom, a metal combustion camber. It's designed to easily add more sticks and scrap wood randomly throughout the drying process. The camber is under the drying box. The drying box is full of racks to place food items on. The exhaust from the fire is channeled through a metal pipe that goes through the drying box, towards the back so it's not in the way of the drying racks. Heat from the exhaust is convected through the metal tube and it warms up the drying box. The smoke from the exhaust just vents out the top (from the same tube it's always been in). Perhaps the metal pipe could be a linear straight shot from the burner into and out of the drying box venting into the open air. Maybe it would need a few heatsinks to make sure the thermal energy goes into the drying box as well. The smoke doesn't actually contact the food, although that could be arranged with a valve if you wanted this thing to be a convertible smoke/dryer. Inside the drying box is a series of simply fans to keep air moving and help with the evaporation process.

So, how do you regulate temperature? You obviously don't want it that hot when drying a load of fresh herbs. Well. We have fans already. Why not add more fans and make them Arduino controlled? This set of fans would push in new outside air, on demand, instead of just mindlessly circulating inside air. My idea is this. You fire up the oven. Turn the Arduino on, and set the desired temperature with buttons and an LCD. The Arduino then monitors air temp and when it gets too hot, it kicks on a outside-air fan or two to cool off the drying box. This also circulates air at the same time.

Also, why not add a cheap humidity sensor too? I think it would be interesting to note the current humidity and if it makes progress.

Also also, why not make this a hybrid solar AND stove dehydrator? I don't see why you can't have both. Solar for when the sun is good, and stove for quicker drying, meats or when the sun don't shine.

Have feedback on how to make this idea better?

moving blogs!

I'm moving to another blog. I'll have it up in a week or so.

I don't think anyone reads this one anyways :P

Review: Merrel True Glove Cross-Training Shoes.

Why did I buy these shoes? Parkour, Running, Spartan Race, and Outdoors/Hiking.


They really fit like a glove! But a glove that you have to break in. For the first few days, they will hurt badly!

Pain? Yeah these were definitely some of the most painful shoes I've broken in. Yeah they fit well, except they dig into the back of my heel; To the point that one day of wearing them I was missing a chuck of skin. Perhaps it'd be better to break them in just an hour at a time or so. Bring a backup pair of shoes to work in case your co-workers want to walk to a restaurant half a mile away for lunch. You wouldn't want to dread taking every step the whole way there... Or you can do as I did and truck through the pain until there is no more pain. Okay, I did take several days off from wearing them after the first painful day.

Flexibility? Not quite like my Vibram Five Fingers. I can easily flex them by hand, but they are still pretty stiff. Maybe they will loosen up over time. Notice in the picture below how my VFFs are so loose, they fold under their own weight.


Durability? It's to early to tell. I suspect they will not live up to my ultra high durability expectations. I do predict they will be pretty decent. I'll report back in roughly 6 months to see if they are still in one piece of not. As you can see, my VFFs were not exactly all that durable. We'll see...

Can you feel the ground? Not as well as my VFF. :( Maybe it will get better as I wear them down and they get more flexible.


In Conclusion, do I like them? Yeah, once you get past the break-in hurtle, they become your best friends. For me, it's worth not having to deal with toe-slots and loosing expensive toe-socks. (yes, $12/pair) to the hungry washing machine monster..

Simple Aquaponics Growbed From Recycled Materials

I built a simple aquaponics system today and I thought I'd share a few pictures. The awesomeness about aquaponics is the ability to recycle/upcycle so many old materials into your aquaponics system; the possibilities are limitless! Junk yard aquaponics onward!


I got this used fish tank from a hydroponics shop called Brite Ideas (What a great place, even for second hand materials). I gave it a quick wash and I've now been using it for about 2 years.

Stay hello to some big gold fish! (and fathead minnows)

I cut out a piece of old plywood. I figured 2ft by 4ft would be a good size for this fish tank (110 gallons).

You may want to weatherseal any non-treated lumber to be used in outdoor aquaponics systems...

I completely forgot to take a picture of the 2x4 support framing that was used under the plywood. Basically, you just make your 2x4 cuts and lay them out on the plywood to make sure everything is square. Screw the 2x4 piece together and then flip it all over to screw the plywood down to the frame. To get an idea of what the frame looks like, imagine 2x4 pieces around the outside edges of the plywood and a center support piece in the middle.

Insert 

Imagination

Here

I did however snap a picture of one of the frame corners... Better than nothing I guess.

Square it up

Once the entire base was finished, I installed some old 2x10's (we found them in a flood) for walls. I put a bunch of screws into the side walls because the weight of the water will be pushing them apart and I don't want them to separate over time. Set screws into the bottom 2x4 frame (not the plywood) and also on the corners you can place about 3 screws joining the side walls together.

I previously got some recycled pond liner from someones old backyard water feature. It's important to preform a leak test on used pond liners to make sure there is no holes. I let water sit for about 2 hours monitoring for leaks. I did find a few smalls holes but I had enough excess length to slide the pond liner around and find a good continuous spot with no leaks. It may be that some of my trimmings will end up in the land field, but at least I was able to save the bulk of the pond liner from the dump. My eco-work for the day has been accomplished. Do I get a green badge or something? 

With the pond liner all sorted out, it was time to drill a hole for the bulkhead. This is where a good holesaw kit comes in handy.

Oops, the hole was too small! I didn't account for how thick this pond liner was. No worries, Dremel tool to the rescue. I just needed to carve out the hole a tiny bit. While I was at it, I got to thinkin' bout how someday someone will dismantle this aquaponics system. It may be me in 2 years or maybe it will be someone else in 10 years. Who knows. I still thought it'd be nice to leave them a message.

=)

How about some trim? We saved this stuff from going in the dumpster at church well over a year ago. I'm so very happy it's finally getting used Unfortunately it was only 4ft long and earlier in the day I decided to make the aquaponics system 4 foot 2 inches. Doh! So, the walls hang out of the trim a tiny bit... but hey, this is junkyard aquaponics right? It can't be perfect! It does look good for what it is though.

I installed the stand pipe for the bell siphon and my favorite part is testing out the siphon action. Of course I always build the bell siphon last and it takes forever for the stinky silicone to dry/cure. Actually, that stinky smell may be me.. considering I have been sweating out in the sun all day with my power tools gettin-ir-done.

Kittehs love construction!

I'll add more pics this week when I finish testing the bell siphon, gravel guard, and filling with medium and transplants from an old system.

Neon Trees

Quite a while back in the Woot Music Mondays Turntable room, I played a Neon Trees song when it was my turn to DJ. This started a discussion which led one listener to state that the Neon Trees concert he went to was one of the best shows he's ever been to. Interesting. I had been wanting to see Neon Trees, but the only time they came to town was to play in SXSW. The tickets to that are way too expensive to just see one or two bands, so I've never bit the bullet. Finally the came to town for a show and I knew I couldn't pass it up. I was a little worried about the venue being a little subpar for an act like Neon Trees, but it turned out pretty good.

Sound Check. Mic. 1. 2. 3.

... yeah I'll finish this post later.

The Primal Lifestyle

In 2011, I decided I wanted to take my health under my own control. I was rapidly gaining weight and feeling nauseated all the time, I finally hit a breaking point, and all time low. I had heard about the primal/paleo diet a few times before. I had even started reading Mark Sission’s blog, MarksDailyApple. By the time his annual 30-day challenge came around I was so disgusted with my condition that I decided to jump aboard and go for it, full force.

What is the primal diet?

It’s the idea that what you eat directly assists your body in functioning not only properly, but optimally. It is also the idea that what you eat could hurt your body, and bring your body’s performance down. Most of it is based on ancestral wellness, and all of it is based on science. We look at modern western diseases and draw conclusions on why we get them, and why didn’t our ancestors have them. Perhaps, it is because we are eating differently than our ancestors did.

Minding My Mitochondria - MS In Remission?

Dr. Terry Walhs was diagnosed with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis in 2003. She went through different phases of physical decline and was ultimately wheelchair bound for 4 years. Then she started experimenting with ancestral wellness and healthy eating. Perhaps you've seen her TEDX speech before:

I was listening to Dave Asprey's podcast "Upgraded Self Radio", and this week he interviewed Dr. Terry Walhs. It was good to hear an update! She briefly mentioned something about conducting clinical trials.. I was so exited about this, I had to blog about it! I cannot wait to read the results from the clinical trials.I am so glad that there will be data to support eating a healthy diet that is wheat-free and what will come of this.

Read more about Terry Wahls on her website.