Chris Nafis Projects

I'm retired after 35 years at GE Global Research, I enjoy my family, boating, skiing, biking, working on our 1833 house, and a ton of other things! You can follow along on some of Sue and my journeys at: SerendipitySue

3D Printer Part Designs

I own several 3D printers. I love designing and 3D printing parts. I put all my designs out in the public domain.

RYOBI Tool Hacks

I love my RYOBI tools, but I also like making my own. Sometimes I just hack them to make them do something I want. It's fun designing and 3D printing things.

RAD Power eBike Hacks

We got a RAD Power Radcity step-thru 3 eBike. I've made several attachments for the eBike and the battery.

Bosch eBike Hacks

I have a Bulls eBike that uses the Bosch drive system and battery. Unfortunately, Bosch has a very close system. Here are some of the things I've figured out

Solar Projects

I got interested in Solar Panels and chargers when I purchased a trailer and wanted to go boondocking. I've since added them to my house and other projects

Boondocking

I've been camping around the country in my 2015 Jayco 145RB. I made some changes to better boondock: I've documented some of the locations on Youtube:

Bike Generator

I worked with an elementary school teacher to build a bike generator to help the kids explore the environment, conservation of natural resources, and electricity generation

Weatherstations

I have built several weatherstations. Currently I have a wireless Davis Provantage 2. The data is posted to WeatherUnderground ( KNYREXFO1 [barn roof] ), the Citizen Weather Observer Program ( CW1411 [barn roof] , CW3725 [garage roof]) , CBS6 WeatherNet6 , StrikeStar , and Boltek Lightning Sites .

Rabbit Processor based 1-Wire Weather station

Here's a Rabbit Semiconductor Processor based weatherstation that uses 1-wire sensors ( version 1, version 2). It displays the weather information locally on an LCD display and posts it's weather data to the WeatherUnderground and CWOP.

Siteplayer based weathervane

Here's a NetMedia Siteplayer ethernet web server based Weathervane.

Measuring Snowfall and snow depth

I'm interested in low-cost sensors that automatically measure snowfall or snow depth. I've developed several prototypes:

Water Level Detector

Here's a 1-wire IR sensor to measure water level

Solar Radiation Sensor

Here's a 1-wire solar radiation sensor based on the DS2438.

Lightning Strike Detection

Lightning detectors are available from Boltek. Lightning strike counters kits are available from Hobby Boards. Unfortunately the Boltek range estimations are not that good. I'm interested in combining the bearing information from different locations to better locate the strike locations. I've put together several applications to help display the strike locations. Astrogenic systems (makers of NexStorm) has now come out with an application called Strikestar that combines data from Boltek NexStorm users and triangulates lightning strike locations.

Wirelessly Reading Electric and Water Utility Meters with Arduino

Many electric and water utility meters broadcast consumption messages that can be received and decoded. This project shows how to use the Grid Insight AMRUSB-1 and the Arduino to post the data to the Internet.

Radon Gas Monitor

Radon gas is a leading cause of Lung cancer. Charcoal test kits only give you a small window view to your Radon levels. Radon levels vary over the year and change with the weather. I've only been able to find one inexpensive electronic radon gas detector. Unfortunately it isn't set up to collect data. I wanted to work with the local schools to collect radon and weather data to correlate. This Arduino Ethernet Hack shows how to connect a safety-siren radon detector to the Internet to log/graph the data.

Air Quality Monitoring

With allergies and asthma, I've been interested in the local indoor/outdoor air quality. I'm gathering data from the local DEC office and putting it into COSM so I can better compare it with my own results. I have hooked up a A Dylos DC1100 Pro air quality monitor to the Internet with an Arduino Ethernet. It posts data to COSM. I have also been evaluating the low-cost Sharp Dust sensor and the Shinyei Model PPD42NS Dust Sensor.

Air Quality Egg

The AQE was an idea that was Kickstarted. The idea is to have a community-led air quality sensing network that gives people a way to participate in the conversation about air quality. The initial hardware measures Temp, Humidity, NO2, and CO concentrations.

WiFi Air Quality Particle Sensor

Here is my attempt at an inexpensive WIFI laser particle sensor based on the Electric Imp / Shinyei PPD42NS dust sensor.

3D Scanners

I'm interested in building low-cost 3D scanners that can make a digital model of a real objects. I try to keep track of the different 3D scanning and measurement technologies.

Building a Pole Barn

Time-lapse photos of barn raising

Restoring an old Yamaha G1 Golf Cart

Yamaha G1 restoration project.

1957 Oldsmobile 88 Restoration

I was given an old 1957 Oldsmobile 88. I acquired three other parts cars and have been learning a lot! We got a 1957 98 Holiday out of the weeds in 4 hours

I have designed and 3D printed several parts ( Radio faceplace and knobs, Windshield Washer jar hole cover, Windshield Washer F connector, and Steering Column Grommet ).

Community Service

Selected Publications

Patents

Useful Tools