LifeTrac Alive!
Yesterday, LifeTrac rolled out of the shop under the power of its own engine. It purred like a cat, turning smoothly over the ground with its articulated steering. Brittany, Jessica, and I celebrated with elderberry champagne. Farm-fresh organic, of course....
Personal Fuel Makers – Biomass to Fuel
Based on a personal gasifier, care of Dr. Yuyi Lin , Mike Koch, et al: which generates gas from any cellulosic biomass: we can take the process further to make liquid fuels – such as diesel. Utilizing Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, a process proven...
Open Source Solar Turbine Convergence
We are preparing for several guests here in mid August to build the open source solar concentrator power system. Today, Benjamin from the Solar Turbine email group sent an updated design on the solar reflector mounting: In the August convergence, we’re...
Solar Panel Construction
Here are some videos of solar panel construction that we took last weekend. This video shows the process for connecting solar cells to one another: Here is video on how we tin the tabbing wire, and here is how we set up the soldering station. In about...
Summer Heat
We are in a backlog for Factor e Live documentation and updates in general. It’s a busy time – so here is a few notes. I shook the cobwebs off the CEB press, and our team is doing 3D and finite element analysis modeling. We are days from finishing...
Factor e Live – Part 3
This installment of Factor e Live focuses on LifeTrac – the open source, life-time, design-for-disassembly articulating multipurpose tractor/loader. It is the key to powering the CEB Press, permacultural operations, as well as: well-drilling, sawmilling,...
Well – Solar Turbine – LifeTrac Day 1
We have finally completed our water well-drilling adventure. Everything that could went wrong – amounting to a 2 month delay – but the bottom line is that we have a 4 inch-bore well that we estimate is giving us 1000 gallons of water per day...
On Progress
Here is an overview of our overall program of action: On the CEB Press for building – we are presently building the LifeTrac tractor – an agriculture, construction, and general utility device. This device is remarkably pedestrian in appearance...
Factor e Live
Change is continuous at Factor e Farm. You may have seen this post on how our place has evolved from a plain soybean field to rich diversity on many fronts. To record these changes as they happen, we have begun the Factor e Live series. These are videos,...
Agricultural Innovations Podcast
Last week, Frank Aragona from Agricultural Innovations published a podcast interview regarding some of our work at Factor e Farm. Agricultural Innovations is a research and consulting organization involved with biodiversity, fair trade, community supportecd...
