The axle is driven with a cog belt pulley system that provides a 4.5:1 gearing to a Taigene van door motor (I borrowed/stole this from my 599 team FRC kit). The drive train consists of a 1/2 inch stainless steel axle with two 4 in drive wheels. The barrels are held on a 2×4 treated lumber frame. Rotating the barrels aerates them and the composting time is considerably shortened (about a month). The composter has a programmable timer that switches relays on to drive the motor for 2 minutes per day which in turn rotates the barrels about 5 rotations. The main difference from this photo is that the support and drive wheels were moved outward toward the rim to give more structural support. They didn’t quite finish before the end of the school year, so Beth and Ramin Khajeh spent a few days this summer with me completing the adjustments to handle the weight of the compost that was dimpling the 55 gal drums and install the solar panel. The Vex team was given the job of design and construction. Beth is on her way to UC Santa Cruz in the Fall. Shown below are Beth and I with the first photo of the near finished product. The project was conceived by Roots and Shoots school environmental club and led by Beth Davis, a member of both clubs. ARC Grant representative Wendy Castellanos has been our biggest supporter and we owe her a big Hug. The project was funded by a $1000 IEEE grant obtained through ARC foundation but we only spent about 60%. The kids on the Grant Vex team 1508 (Lancer Bots) coached by Mujtaba Khan worked hard this spring to complete the project before school was out.
Thanks to volunteer Master Gardeners and the Tree people, it is undergoing a transformation back to its former glory. The garden has been in the news over the years but has run down considerably.
Thursday, I turned over our working dual 55 gal drum solar robotic composter to Bettina, a volunteer gardener in the Grant High School Serenity Garden. Helping the environment one robot at a time!!
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