The first step we did is grab our two inch PVC pipe and measure it at 90 centimeters. Then, we got our SUV rotor which you can get from your local automotive shop or brakes shop. Then, we needed two PVC two-by-three reducers.The next step is that we cut off three centimeters from one of the PVC reducers and placed it under the car rotor so that it fits perfectly and is not hanging off. When you get these parts, the first thing you need to do to put them together is clean the inside of this (reducer) and the outside of this (PVC) first.

 

To put together our reducer and our PVC pipe, we first took our PVC primer and put that all around the edge we were going to glue which was the inside of the two-by-three reducer and the outside of the two inch PVC pipe and we let that dry first before we continued. You should let it dry for about less than a minute. We then took our PVC cement, and did the same thing we did with the primer, which was put it all over the edge of the PVC pipe and reducer we were going to glue. Quickly, we put the pieces together and turned it a couple times so it got secured nicely. This piece was the base of out trap.

 

When we placed the base into the garbage can, we made sure it was closer to the front because if  we kicked it backwards then when we cut the hole on the lid of the garbage can, it would not fit. We then measured the size of the hole to make sure the reducer would go through and then cut the hole so it would go through perfectly. This would go inside of the garbage can to touch the PVC inside. Again, we kept the base at the frontmost part of the trash can. If it wiggled around then we kept pushing it towards the front until it was all the way at the end. We closed the lid, tightly sealed it, and made sure that the pipe is in the centermost part of the trash can.To make sure it was in the center, we took a peek inside the trash can to see. Then you’re going to press down to find out where it is and make a mark in the center. What you’re ultimately going to have to do is continue to keep making holes inside the perimeter of the pipe and if you have an adult present and a razor blade you can have the adult cut around the inside of the pipe.

 

The next set of instructions is for the CO2 and heat off-gassing tube for the trap. We got our half inch PVC pieces, one was 18 cm and the other was about 28 cm, two other small pieces of PVC and our 3 elbows. First, we cut a ½ inch hole at the top edge of the garbage can. What we did here was get the tiny ½ inch PVC pipe and put the small piece in between the two elbows, one outside the garbage can and one inside, to create a seal between the inside and the outside of the trap so no air can get out or in and put the other tiny piece of half inch PVC to connect to the PVC elbow inside the trap. When that was done, we connected our 28 cm half inch PVC piece and connected it to the elbow on the outside of the trap and put the other PVC elbow onto the top of that. Then we took our 18 cm half inch PVC piece and connected that to the half inch PVC elbow. Once that was done it should reach up to the entrance of the trap and we zip tied the 18 cm half inch PVC pipe to the lid of the trap so it stayed in place and wouldn't move around.

 

Then, we sawed the PVC pipe that was measured. What we did is drill holes in our 3-inch PVC pipe for the entrance of the trap. First, we drew a line five centimeters down the top of the pipe and then we measured the circumference of the PVC and figure out how many holes we wanted to go on the PVC pipe. When we did that, we spaced out our holes. In our case, our pipe was twenty three centimeters in circumference and we did nine holes and spaced it out two centimeters apart. Then you drill the holes. Once you’re done drilling your holes in your PVC pipe then you are just going to put your PVC through the customized 3D-printed motor mount and then you’re going to put the PVC reducer on it. Next, you’re going to want to put on the two inch PVC pipe and cap then the hood.

 

Ok, so what we did next is glue all our pieces together onto our motor mount and we started off with our already glued PVC reducer and our 3 inch PVC pipe and we glued it to the bottom. We primed it first with the PVC primer like always, on the edges and our PVC. And then we got the cement and did the same thing quickly so the glue wouldn’t dry. Now you just spin it a little bit. After that you’re just going to want to let it sit out for a while so it can just hold itself.

 

After you let it dry - you only have to let it dry for a 30 seconds to a minute or so because it dries quickly - you’re going to want to make sure that your fan isn’t in there and put it to the side because you don’t want any of the PVC primer and cement to get through. You’re going to take your 14 cm high, 3 inch PVC pipe, the one with the holes, and prime it which was done earlier. You’re then just going to want to flip it over and prime the inside of the motor mount. Again we just took our cement, repeated the action, and just twisted it a bit and let it dry again. After that, we put our PVC reducer onto it and we just did the same step as before. You don’t have to let it dry because we’re not going to flip it over. We’re just going to want to do the same thing, prime it then put on the cement. Then we just put it back onto our trap. For the last part, we primed our ½ inch PVC cap and the ½ inch PVC piece and we just glued it. Be careful with the glue on the hole because you don’t want to get it through since it will then get sealed up. And then we waited for it to dry.

 

We then put our piece of 2 inch PVC pipe and cap onto the top of our trap. We needed a small brush to prime the cap and pipe because it’s a very small edge. Then we just dipped the brush into the primer, and put it around. The we primed the inside of our reducer. After that, we used a different brush to put the clear cement on the ½ inch PVC pieces edge. Then we used the sponge and put the cement onto the reducer. Lastly, we put the two pieces together, spinned it a couple of times, and let it dry.

 

The next step is to install the light bulb into the trap. We used this little trick which was to tape a piece of regular wire to the light socket and try to get it out from the bottom of the trap and then pull it all the way through until we got to the light socket. Once we did that, we twisted the bulb in and carefully pulled it so the bulb was at the to of the trap. What we did next was make the mount for the solar panel. The materials that we needed included our solar panel and three 1 ½ PVC pipes or any reasonable size. One PVC pipe measured 62 cm long and the other two were 35 cm long. We first drilled holes into the PVC pipes to connect them to the solar panel. Then once we drilled the holes on the pipes, there were already holes on the solar panel we had so we just connected the solar panel and the 62 cm PVC pipe with zip ties. Then, we took our other two PVC pieces and connected them to the 62 cm pipe. So once all our PVCs have been zip-tied to the solar panel,depending on where we are, we can position your solar panel to a certain degree depending on the longitude and latitude of where you are.The two pipes that are 35 cm are the pipes that are going to be attached to the fence and the two holes will then be zip-tied straight to the fence.

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What we did next is identify which wires are negative and positive to avoid short-circuit. First, we tested the voltage of the solar panel. To do that we didn’t need to connect it to a power source because it makes its own energy. So, all we had to do is test the voltage to find out which wire was negative and which was positive. If it comes out as negative that’s incorrect. If it’s correct then it comes out as positive. Next, for the light socket which is connected to the light bulb, we had to connect it to a power source like the battery. When we tested the voltage it read 12 volts so we knew it was fully charged. What we did next was hook up the light socket to the load - putting positive to negative. Once you hook it up, then you’re going to test the voltage to see which one is positive and which one is negative.

 

Right now there isn’t a power source so it’s not going to work but you see that if you switch it then it’s going to turn out as negative on the voltage tester. This is incorrect so when you put the positive on the positive and the negative on the negative then it comes out as positive on the voltage tester. That’s how you know you’ve hooked it up correctly. This part is very important because you’re also connecting the fan to load.

 

The final step of the trap is the installation which is the electrical component. First, we connected the battery to the charge controller. When that’s done we moved onto the next step. Next, we connected the fan to the battery controller. Then we extended the fan wire because it was not going to reach the lockbox. Then we did negative to negative and positive to positive. This was only temporary because we put electrical tape on it but if we wanted it to be more permanent and stable, we would have soldered it. We put the electrical tape on the connection because once it’s running and they touch it would have short-circuit. Once we did that we connected it to the load part of the battery controller. So positive goes to positive and negative goes to negative.

 

We then connected the light and then saw that there was a little too much wire exposed so we put just a little bit of electric tape around it so they don’t touch. It was not long enough so we connected it to an extension and then connected it to the battery. We just put them together and put electric tape around it. We then took the other end of the wire and connected it to the back of the volt. This went to the input that said solar panel. We did not see any indicators on the battery controller because our battery wasn’t charged and the solar panel did not have light. We had then successfully installed the electrical component of your Global Traposquito.

 

We 3D-printed one of the motor-mounts for our prototype which would hold our fan in place.

 

(We upcycled a fan from an old computer to use for our Global Traposquito.)

 

(Please seek adult supervision when using tools.)

 

There were many different prototypes we used for our 3D-printed motor-mounts. For our first one since our computer fan is a square and the PVC is a cylinder shape, we had to make a motor-mount to keep it in place. We were supposed to make two where one would be on the bottom and one would be on the top but the problem was nothing was securing it around the edges so we had to make a different one to test it out. For our second prototype we made it where we could just slide the fan through and put it inside. The problem with this one was that we didn’t cover one side and both sides were open so they could easily slide out and it would just stand over the fan blades if we just put the PVC through. Our third prototype was good. The only problem we had was that the size was too small. At the end when we slid the fan through, it wouldn’t go through because of the cylinder shape so we had to make it larger to get the square shape inside. We also tested to see if PVC primer and cement would work and not melt the 3D-printing so we could glue it together to hold in place. For our last prototype we did the same exact design as the third one only to fix our mistakes with the measurements. It was able to go perfectly through so the PVC wouldn’t be on top of the fan blades.