User talk:Mjn

Hi Mark! I will of course include you in any changes I make. I suppose my first step after telling everyone who I am is to ask where I can help. I am interested in making this information readily available in a straightforward manner but I don't want to step on any toes. Guess I'm looking for an introduction to the work online here.

--Ryan Lutz 22:29, 27 June 2011 (PDT)

hi mark! would you like me to merge your two pages, Mark J Norton and User:Mjn? this way, we can reduce redundancy and avoid confusing people checking out your profile. you can check out how mine works and tell me if that's fine with you :) my pages are Pepe Bawagan and User:Syk0 saje

--syk0saje 08:54, 4 May 2011 (PDT)

I've considered it, but there is a problem. My login name is Mjn, which shows up in the logs, etc. However, that's probably not enough info to tell people who I am, so I have retained Mark J Norton. I have cross-linked the pages. What is your opinion? I suppose we could FORWARD User:Mjn to Mark J Norton. That would work for me.

I had a look at your pages. I guess it comes down to: do you want to be known by your name or by your handle (login name)?

I think I'll leave both of my pages up for now and think about how to merge them at a future date.

--User:Mjn 12:08, 4 May 2011 (EDT)

Hi Mark, I've noticed your contributions to the Nickel-Iron battery concept. I'd like to compare notes with you, as I have only a basic understanding of its chemistry. I've got a decent design figured out, using sheet steel and nickel hydroxide (build the battery discharged, then charge it). Turns out that a 1kWh cell is quite feasible. Anyway, I hope to learn a thing or two from you and I hope we can flesh this battery out as well. Thanks! Colin 14:38, 16 May 2011 (PDT)

CAD for a steam engine
Mark, I have been noticing you are putting up a whole bunch of stuff related to the steam engine. Specifically you have enough diagrams of different designs that it should be possible for me to knock together a rough model of one of them. I was wondering if you had a particular design that you think we will use that I could try to make a CAD model for.

I am looking to make a tutorial for how to use FreeCad to contribute to OSE and wanted a model to use as an example and I think this would be a good one. All the diagrams/drawings you have uploaded make it easy to put together pictures of what we want combined with pictures of what you do in FreeCad which I think will make a very nice tutorial. The model would be mostly procedural based, meaning you would be able to change things like the cylinder bore and other properties by just changing a single number and other parts of the model adjust accordingly. Although it will probably not be a final CAD model, and may not even be the design we ultimately use, it should be useful to you in your design work to have a 3D model to examine/tweak, rather than having to work all in 2D. Anyway, let me know what you think of this. -Andrew Buck 06:20, 25 May 2011 (PDT)

Duplicated Images
I was going through the drawings you are making and categorizing them and I happened to notice you have two copies of basically the same image at File:Spec-Valve.png and File:Valve-spec.png (the first one is linked to from a page, the second one is not. Let me know which one you want to keep, or if you want to keep both of them and I will take care of the rest.  Also, what program are you using to draw the part drawings you have been uploading?  They look very nice and should make the cad model pretty easy to do.  I got my tutorial finished (I ended up making an engine block as an example) and will probably start making parts for the steam engine either tonight or tommorow.  Hopefully I can make and assemble the parts in CAD as fast as you are drawing them.  I think this is going to be a lot of fun.  I will keep my skype open (username andrewbuck40) and if you want to chat about any of this sometime, give me a ring. -Andrew Buck 13:33, 26 May 2011 (PDT)

Incorrect Dimension for Valve
I was putting together the CAD model of the valve and I noticed a mistake in the stated dimensions for the 'valve head' (see Steam Engine Build/Valve). You list D3 as being 2.4 inches and D4 as being 0.8 with a 0.4 inch horizontal distance between them. However, using those dimensions you do not arrive at a 45 degree bevel. If you start with a 0.8 inch valve opening and then extrude it out on a 45 degree bevel for 0.4 inches, the radius increases by 0.4, meaning the diameter increases by 0.8. So D3 should be 1.6, rather than 2.4 like it is stated. I think this is the way the mistake should be resolved as the valve seat thickness of 0.4 and the 0.8 for the opening diameter sound like the figures you wanted so they are the ones I think you want unchanged. Let me know for sure if this should be how the matter is resolved and I will update the CAD model accordingly. -Andrew Buck 10:12, 27 May 2011 (PDT)

nice work on the build instructions. looks really good. --Dorkmo 20:19, 5 June 2011 (PDT)

Re switching to Zn Br, I woudl not advocate switching just yet because while I am personally pretty sure, there shoudl be some hysteresis when it comes to switching the actual project focus. After I learn more I think I probably will recommend switching. There are still some issues, mainly whether the bromine resistant plastics are patented, and the vapor pressure of bromine (if it is above atmospheric that could be a real safety issue) that I need to check, and also to do the financial calculations to compare LA, NiFe and Zn Br to determine roughly how much they are really worth quantitatively. Gregor 16:37, 25 June 2011 (PDT)

Yes, I may do that at some point, but I was sort of waiting until we had better wiki tools like the ones I did research on and posted about in the forum, so it won't take forever. Gregor 09:01, 13 July 2011 (PDT)

RE: Hierarchy structure
I do believe you're right in using a separate navigation system for the subpages of each GVCS tool, but I think the ToolTemplate should still be at the top of every page so as to give an easy way to jump between larger sections. The way I see it, from any page, one should be able to trace back all the way (i.e. breadcrumb) but with the added functionality of jumping to other sibling sections (i.e. from LifeTrac/Manufacturing Instructions/Assembly/Frame to LifeTrac/User's Manual

I'm all for each GVCS tool fabricator organizing his or her respective nav system, we just need a way for people to be able to see where they are and where they want to go at any time more easily. I think having ToolTemplate over a GVCS tool-specific navbar is the best way to cover all our bases. Ryan Lutz 04:41, 26 July 2011 (CEST)