Inventor
Industry
Manufacturing
Scope of Work
Mechanical Design
Electrical Engineering
3D Modeling & Printing
Brand Archetype
The Hero
The Innocent
Vibe
A quiet, compact water fountain built into a standard side table. This project is a quality-of-life upgrade (and likely a marketable houseware product) that balances utility with ergonomics for consumers of all ages in most, if not all, living arrangements with electricity.
Pain Point
Waking up thirsty in the middle of the night is a common annoyance for many. Until now, solutions included a glass or bottle of water on a side table or getting out of bed to get water from the bathroom. The former has the potential to spill water everywhere or fall off the table, making noise and waking up a light-sleeping partner.
Solution
Develop, design, and manufacture a water pump that attaches to a side table, complete with input and output hoses. The input hose feeds the pump from water in a reservoir inside the side table. The output hose feeds a nozzle with a bite valve to suppress spilling.
Resolution
Works as expected. The slight volume from the pump inside an insulated, custom-designed, 3D-printed shell doesn’t disturb sleepers in the same room. The hoses connect through grommets, check valves, and a bite valve, reducing noise and preventing spills. An AC/DC converter converts 100 V AC to 12 V DC with negligible waste.
Project Overview
This water fountain project received a lot of weird looks when I told others about my plans. This told me it was innovative. Some more industrious individuals were very excited for updates throughout the project. My wife basically said it would be cool as long as it didn’t wake her up. The stakes were high.
Additional Information About The Work
The planning phase took about a week. I had to teach myself mechanical and electrical engineering first. I was able to leverage a few things I learned from engineering classes in college. I also researched what components I would need to develop such a product.
The most difficult thing to learn was how to wire a MOSFET component into the system. This allowed me to install a power button on a food-grade self-priming diaphragm water pump to keep the pump on “standby” when not in use.
Unexpected issues required adapting my initial wiring schematic to include a rectifier diode, protecting the pump from spikes in current when the MOSFET activated and deactivated. Further, it became necessary to add the one-way check valves to both hoses, preventing backflow into the reservoir of fresh water after using the water fountain.
Additional Information About the Results
This water fountain is effectively a CamelBak backpack with a pump, designed to hang on the back of a side table or nightstand. The final product is compact, with the insulated shell measuring 3″x5″x2.5″. Its ergonomic, curved body makes it easier to hold when installing. Its hoses run roughly 3′ each. Its power intake is limited to 12 volts during use.
Personal Statement
I thoroughly enjoyed bringing this idea to life. It’s not a brand strategy play or anything related to media or storytelling, but it’s a different direction to push my analytical and creative instincts. Even learning electrical engineering was enjoyable.
Having it all come together and function as designed was incredibly fulfilling. I have worked on Raspberry Pi and Arduino projects in the past, but building something that doesn’t need computing capabilities and only operates on mechanical components and electricity was deeply gratifying. I’d love to polish this project up a bit more and go to market one day. At which point, my branding strategy mindset will kick in.
Scott Duvall 