GARDEN AND VEGETABLE PLOT “TRINKETS”

Motor cultivators, mini-tractors, potato harvesters… For economically strong farms and homesteads, such equipment has long ceased to be a novelty. The lot of the less fortunate, it seems, remains only hope in oneself, in one’s ability to create solid mechanical helpers almost from “scrap,” and on extremely simple, yet reliable agricultural tools—a “gift from deep antiquity.”

However, at any level of prosperity and technical equipment, there are and always will be garden-plot “trifles,” the use of which helps in the so-called universal struggle for harvest.

The inexorable passage of time is especially noticeable in the computer world. It would seem that not so long ago, Pentium 1 processors with a clock speed of 100 MHz, a 500-megabyte hard drive, expanded to 32 MB of RAM, and an operating system like Windows 3.xx were considered almost the pinnacle of perfection. Now, no one is surprised by Core2Duo with its phenomenal capabilities, a 250-gigabyte hard drive, 2 GB of “RAM,” and a variety of operating systems: from Windows 9x.xx/ME/2000/XP/Vista to Linux, FreeBSD. Computer “hardware” and software begin to become morally obsolete almost from the moment of development. Where to put all that has been accumulated, which inevitably must fade into oblivion—the swift river of time?

For obsolete (or those that have become unusable for various reasons) computer and music compact discs, which any PC user accumulates in considerable quantities, there now seems to be a very original application: to serve… as a means of protecting the garden-plot. When hung on poles or tree branches, they can, with great effectiveness, scare away birds from sown plots with “light reflections,” as well as during the initial stage of plant development and during the harvest ripening period.

But that’s not all. When the same compact discs are coated with a sticky “fly agaric” layer on the “non-mirror” side (preferably bright yellow), equally effective sticky traps for harmful insects are obtained.

The next example is related to cooling fans for electronic equipment (coolers) of the JF-1225 (JF-1225B2H) type. One of the traditional standard installation locations for them is the reverse side of the lower (grilled) part of the front panel of the system unit. However, the rotation axis of such fans turns out to be located in a horizontal plane, which contributes to the occurrence of radial runout and premature bearing wear.

“Worn-out” fans, naturally, have to be replaced with new ones. However, old ones can also find worthy application. As practice has shown, after standard maintenance, they are quite acceptable for operation with a vertical axis orientation, when radial loads are minimal. A truly ideal installation location for such “veterans” is… greenhouses. More precisely—the inlet (outlet) of ventilation system pipes.

The calculation is simple. According to existing standards, for every 6—8 m² of useful greenhouse area, there should be at least one ventilation pipe of standard cross-section 120×120 mm². But this is exactly the “planar” dimensions of the above-mentioned fans, which have (at operating voltage of 12 V, current of 0.3 A, and rotation speed of 2400 rpm) a capacity of 2.32 m³/min!

Need power supply? As they say, no problem! The required 12 V can be provided by a power supply unit even from some morally obsolete computer that was gathering dust awaiting its fate among other dismantled equipment. Electrical safety, as they say, is guaranteed by the “low voltage” of the components themselves. And there will be no difficulties with electrical installation, since the proposed technical solution is oriented toward maximum use of the advantages of already existing (standard!) electrical connectors.

It is not excluded that some thrifty DIY enthusiasts will propose new, no less original technical solutions based on the use of “revived” parts, components, and units from morally obsolete computer models. Like other readers, of course, I will be glad to become acquainted with these developments on the pages of the beloved “Modelist-Konstruktor” magazine.

N. BULYK, Starokostiantyniv, Ukraine