Sorry about the hiatus

I'm moving cross-country shortly. I haven't made much progress on the project because of that, and because there's been no donations for a long time. I'll continue construction of the Mk. III habitat after the move, once I've settled in. There's not much left to do but the stuff I need, I can't get, at least for the time being.

Possible future project?

I can't believe two people independently had this idea. It gives me great hope for the future of humanity.

Dremeling shit takes forever.

...But it's done. All the holes are precisely dremeled out. Here's the colony with the tunnels in place:Next I need to get ahold of a resin sealed wooden platform I can bolt the enclosures to, then I can seal it all up.

I plan to make the third enclosure (nearest the camera) the planter. That way it will be the last place air gets to, meaning the clover will recieve air with higher concentrations of CO2, which it needs to survive. Hamsters hanging out in that chamber will breathe easy due to close proximity to the oxygen emitting plants, everyone's happy. The alternative was to add another enclosure, pipe oxygen into all four, and let the stagnant air bleed out the seal of the central enclosure, but I didn't like that idea for obvious reasons. This one's tidier and safer overall. Now, where to get grow-LEDs...

Finally, progress to report!

Thanks to a steady trickle of donations plus a bit of my own money I was finally able to get these extra enclosures and the dremel necessary for expanding Hampture. You can see the Mk. II habitat in the back for a size comparison, and inspirational reading material in the lower right. :3Next I'll need a sealed wood panel to bolt them to. I'll want them very secure before I glue/seal the tubes in place as trying to bolt them down after the fact might cause cracks.

Air will flow in to either of the two side enclosures, through the main exercise room, then into the bottom enclosure and out a one-way air release valve. This model will release air directly into the water as the Mk. II taught me that maintaining a 1 atmosphere habitat via air return tube requires precisely measured pump strength or you wind up with a slight overpressure that forces bubbles through the seal (as seen in the video). That's not a big deal for a few hours here and there but I'd rather the seals not somehow weaken over time as a result, so the Mk. III habitat will be ambient pressure. At 8 feet deep, the increase in pressure won't be significant enough for the hamster to so much as feel it, although I may want to raise/lower it at a leisurely pace to be on the safe side.

Side note; The Mk.III will have a power cable instead of an air return tube, this time for powering the heating pads, one for each room. I can't really rely on battery power for that many heaters and the clover aquaculture room will require grow lights. Still shopping around for compact grow LED arrays.

We're close, guys. This is really gonna happen.

Hampture Mk. III is coming together nicely.

The acrylic tube sections arrived today along with the largest enclosure. Below you can see the planned layout, though of course the tubes aren't 'installed' yet.There's room for another enclosure if I can think of a good reason to add it, but in all honesty three is probably plenty. I want to conserve funds for Project Earth Rover so unless someone can pitch a convincing rationale for adding another enclosure, this is probably as big as Hampture will get.

Next up; need to buy a dremel tool to make the holes for the tubes, and buy some kind of platform I can secure the enclosures to. Movin' forward!