Vigyan Ashram Fab Lab Pabal, District: Pune, India

Fab-Lab Pabal

Weather Data Logger

Need: Recording of weather data such as temperature and humidity; for pest control and crop advice to semi-literate farmers.

Weather Data Logger The Problem: Automated data loggers currently available cost more than $ 4000 The Goal: To Build the same within INR 4000 ($ 100)

Project Status We have built a prototype Further refinement is needed, primarily in terms of design We aim to build a kit, so that schools can build these loggers themselves

Ultrasonic Dog Repellant Vigyan Ashram’s Farm Tank Photo: Carl Scheffler

Ultrasonic Dog Repellant Problem: Farmers have begun to use plastic lining for their farm tanks, to minimize water losses These bodies of water attract stray animals, especially during the dry season Dogs dig under the fencing to try and reach the water

Our Solution A simple device that will be mounted on the tank fence Emits ultrasonic waves at frequencies that dogs find very disturbing Trials are on to determine the right frequencies

Pedal Power generator Replaced lead acid battery with ultra capacitor. We are planning to commercialize this product through a Pvt. Ltd company M/S BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT PVT LTD. Human power solution for lighting homes of remote communities, nomadic people.

Educational Aids DBRT Students have tried to understand their physics curriculum better by building small toys to demonstrate simple physics concepts We aim to take the idea further by building a kit to assist rural school-teachers

Handheld Admin Console An easy-to-use, rugged tool to assist rural school-teachers in streamlining their administrative work At its most basic, it will log attendance records More functions can be subsequently added Status: Code for the device has been written and tested Project owner: Amitraj Deshmukh

LED lights

Services to the Locals Screen Printing: -Shirts and Visiting cards Vehicle Registration Plates Sign Boards Trophies and Mementos Operated by Vigyan Ashram’s students as income-generating activities

Other projects Cottage scale ‘Soya milk’ production technology Small scale biodiesel plant Biomass processing Hobby circuits and small projects undertaken by students from a variety of backgrounds

Team Apeksha Bochare Anil Joshi Balu Jadhav Rohan Choukkar Vinayak Dharmadhikari Yogesh Kulkarni

Fab Lab Users DBRT students – In groups – 40 students Everyone spends one day per week. Engineering students – 15 students/ year Visitors – 200 per month

Thanks MIT - CBA Dept. of Science and Technology – For salary of staff NSIT IIT