BioPower for Nokia N900

BioPower and Nokia N900 estimates your solid bio fuel burner power!

BioPower for Nokia N900 is tool to estimate solid bio fuel burner current input power. It listens and visualizes the sound of conveyor detecting the on / off period times from the conveyor sound. From conveyor on / off period times the current input power of the burner can be estimated. BioPower utilizes the capabilities of N900 in a clever way to accomplish this task.

Try out BioPower - it's easy!

You may try out BioPower on your N900 even if you don't happen to have solid bio fuel burner at hand - first download and install BioPower on your N900, then play sound sample files from the menu on the left and let BioPower listen it right from your N900 device or from your computer speakers!

BioPower screenshots

This is the main screen of BioPower. The conveyor sound is high lighted with bright colours. During the high lighted areas in graph, the conveyor is on. The lower black area is the background noise.

When the high bars turn to green, the current power of the burner is displayed as kilowatts on the bottom of the screen along with the conveyor feed percentage and on / off period time as milli seconds.

The thin blue line indicates threshold level, that will adapt automatically to the environment and conveyor noise levels. Threshold level is used to decide when the conveyor is on or off.
Screenshot: BioPower main display
This is the settings screen of BioPower. To get good estimates, the settings must suit your conveyor as well as your fuel.

Conveyor production defines how much fuel your conveyor products during 60 seconds of time. You really need to measure it!

Fuel energy defines the energy contents of your fuel. For wood pellets good estimate is 4750 Wh/kg.

Typical period time is the normal length of conveyor on / off period as milli seconds.

Filtered display data smooths the main display graph.
Screenshot: BioPower settings display

Biopower constraints and some tips

Biopower may be used with burners that feed solid bio fuel directly from conveyor to the furnace bed, e.g. there is no small storage for fuel inside the burner from where the fuel is delivered by secondary screw conveyor into the combustion.

While using BioPower, try to hold the device so that there is no big changes in background noise. Also for example speaking may disturb estimation process.

BioPower demo in boiler room

The video below demonstrates how BioPower works in actual boiler room. Please take a moment and watch the video!



Developer: Jukka Rajaniemi
Email: thejukra (at) gmail.com
License: GPL