Laminar Jet Testing - Parabolaqueous

This is a video log of some experiments on dealing with pump jitter. Special thanks to Scott Rainwater for all his help in testing new ideas.

[@pepe6859]

Ok, all done by you great!!! My secuence its a little bit complicated so I will go with a Schneider TWIDO PLC. Thanks for ur replay and congratulations for ur incredible job!!

[@nodtotheagedp]

brilliant! I have been long enthralled by the concept of laminar jets but have had a very difficult time finding much technical information. I'm looking forward to using the low pass filter idea and hope to have sometime built in the next month. Keep up the good work!

[@moosedrummer1]

Well done. Well presented

[@Blinkazoid]

That was awesome!!! Good luck with building your fountain!!!

[@lizardlab1]

thank you soooooooooooooo much.

[@Dirkanador]

Very nice work and very informative. Thanks for all of the work done and documentation. What are you doing now as far as ALF?

[@tedstur]

I would think that they would be about the same soundwise, but you are correct about electrical control being easy. I am thinking about first trying the electrical route with some inexpensive car door actuators from the local auto salvage yard. If that doesn't produce results, I might get some mini-pneumatic pumps. Would you be willing to say how you are pumping the water? One pump per fountain head, or multiple pumps? What pumps are you using?

[@marks47]

Very very cool. Some close-ups would be nice, too... Did you finalize an installation somewhere since October? I tried building one, but never got past a very leaky hookup to the garden hose! It was only about 1/3 or 1/2 inch in diameter, but at leas it was a clear flow. Would love to see more.

[@alexgonzales3059]

I appreciate you getting back to me on this . I don't know anything about VB6 or writing software so it wouldn't help even if you found it but thanks for the offer of trying to find it.I'll keep looking and hopefully come across something . Again your videos are great and going to help a lot. If I use 4" OD and make it longer do you know if that will work as well or should I stay with 6" ?I'll definitely post pics. when I complete this project .

[@zacharysc100]

+Alex Gonzales You better stick with the 6", it's better safe than sorry, you don't want size to be a limiting factor especially when you have so much other stuff to worry about. You can get standard DMX dimmers and a cheap DMX controller to control the jets and build programs. Just like a light show, except with jets. If you do a little research on the internet you'll figure it out.

[@liteglow2000]

I love the video ! This is awesome help !! But can you show more in detail how you make the shutter to the water ? My idea was just a 12Volt magnetic valve on the INPUT.. But then it will not shut it off so quick .. any idea :) ?? thanx for all help..

[@alexgonzales3059]

Hi Zach . Your video is the best I've found on how to build Laminar Jet. I realize you did this 8yrs ago but I was wondering if I could buy a copy of the program you used to control the jets at the end of you Video or where I can go to get one .I do stainless metal fab. & welding so I,m in the process of building two of these out of SS

[@zacharysc100]

+Alex Gonzales Awesome, when you get a stainless laminer jet complete I definitely want to see it. Man that software was written in VB6 and I doubt it would even work on a modern windows computer without some painful compatibility tricks. I can look and see if I have the VB6 code somewhere but you'd have to have VB6 to even open it and look at it.

[@tedstur]

Great job. I have one fountain head that I have put together - that's the easy part. I am wondering about the jet cutter. I would think that developing a pneumatic solution would be better. What sort of hardware is driving your arm motion?

[@platypusone]

I had to pee twice while watching this!

[@BirdOfParadise777]

Do you have a video showing what you chose to use for the cutter and other parts also, how you connected it all up with your computer and what program you use? Thanks:)

[@stevehawkins9843]

These seems to be really good and you have put alot of effort into this. Kudo's. But with all the shutter devices I've seen, there has to be a area where the blocked water must go. Now if you want to use this in ground around your pool. Then where does the water go once diverted temporarily??

[@zacharysc100]

Excellent question, I suppose you'd need a drain and/or a basin to catch the water then pump it back to the pool. I have always used the jets over/in the main pool. Also, most professional fountains I've seen do the same; when the jets are cutting the water naturally makes it back to the main pool.

[@BillPinchy]

Great videos, I learned a lot from watching (particularly regarding how to stabilize the jet using an intermediate pressurized tank). How strong of a water pump do you need for a half inch jet like the one you've made here? I'm trying to make a laminar jet without spending too much, and I'm wondering if the pump will be prohibitively expensive.

[@zacharysc100]

Nope,, pumps are cheap. Any standard fountain pump from Home Depot 500 to 1000 GPH will work perfect. Another plus with these non-synchronous motor pumps is that they can be controlled with a standard lighting dimmer scheme :))

[@bigfatace777]

Fantastic work on this!! Would you be willing to share the plans for this laminar jet project? I would like to build one myself but cannot find anywhere to get plans for one aside from purchasing one for $500+ and tearing it apart. Thank you!

[@pmasover]

Vary cool, nice work, thanks for posting What do you use to vary the flow rate? I have a jet I made for my water feature, but it just runs at a constant.

[@almcpherson233]

I really enjoy these, I just found your videos. How are you controlling the flow to the laminar jet? Thanks, Al Do you have any info on how you coupled the LED to the jet.

[@zacharysc100]

I never installed lights in my jets, but coupling is fairly easy. It can be done after the water exits the jet, just inject the light at an angle headed outward like 45deg. Laser pointers do a great job. I'm controlling flow to the jets by varying the AC power to the pumps. Common fountain pumps can be controlled by a basic AC dimmer circuit.

[@Grzzs]

Zachary, While working on this fountain, I'm assuming you had your test pool up for a long time. Did you ever have any problems with jitter because of algae or chemicals in your water?

[@cpinckney32]

Hi - I would love to test laminar water features for my house and was wondering if you were available for advice? Thanks and well done.

[@jeffparks5085]

How did increase/decrease the flow of the pump to create rising and falling stream?

[@pepe6859]

What do u use for controling? (PLC) or just Siemens LOGO type contact scontroller? I´m actually developing a small water jumping secuence in my yard (EPCOT CENTER copy).

[@akeeperoftheword]

Great videos on laminar flow. Are you working in the field now?

[@RickyPonline]

Hey, How cool would it be to but a base speaker in your baffle tube and incorporate check valves on the inlet and outlet so when you play a note the water would pulsate?

[@zacharysc100]

That's an awesome,, idea,, not even sure you need the check valves.

[@lizardlab1]

by the way can you tell us about the pump you have used?tnx

[@mohammednaje5055]

hi ! i realy liked U"r jop ☺ but i wondering about the control of motor speed by you'r laptop ? how you program it ?

[@zacharysc100]

Sorry, It's all custom,, But the circuit is just a simple triac with zero crossing detector and a microprocessor to trigger the triac with an opto isolator.

[@mohammednaje5055]

i waana make one of that you made ! i'm from kurdistan so i'm sorry about may languish lol 😉 ! is it possible to make ?

[@zacharysc100]

Mohammed Naje Sorry I can't be of much help to you, but I can answer simple questions. Are you knowledgeable in electronics? Do you know how to program Arduinos?

[@mohammednaje5055]

will yeah i'm student in pump engineering ! and i mange to make the nozzle as your's and the pool some how ! but i just wanna the way to control the cuter and the speed of motor ! and thank U for U'r time 😄

[@zacharysc100]

Mohammed Naje If you wanna just buy something look into dimmer's,, a standard lighting dimmer will work,, if your looking for more complex computer control you can look into DMX lighting dimmers,, if you want to build something yourself custom, get an arduino and learn it,, then experiment with triac based dimmer controls.

[@eazy47]

Is there any way I can e-mail you with some questions?