Category: Mad Science

Skyacht

SkyachtWhen I was a youngster I remember a children’s book called something like the great balloon race. I don’t remember the exact plot of the story (it should be self evident from it’s title) but the flying contraptions were just fascinating to me. All sorts of balloons with weird cars under them. Very inspirational to a seven year old. So, with this hot air balloon I could recapture the dreams of my youth! Or I could putter around a park at 12 MPH. Still, this would be darn fun. Plus, it looks like a prop from the movie, ‘The Great Race‘. How cool is that?

[via ektopia]

SKYACHT

Blu-Ray Laser Pointer

Blu-Ray pointerI got an email from the boys over at Hacked Gadgets this morning about some horrendous things being done over at Wicked lasers. The laser guys have decided to do a little modding of a brand spanking new Blu-Ray equipped DVD player. They ripped out the laser diode assembly and placed it in an easy to abuse aluminum housing, just the right size to take to parties, shopping, and trade shows, etc. The purple beam (405nM at 23 mW) is bound to make lasting impressions with whomever you blind, er, I mean show it to…

Hacked Gadgets – Making the Sonar Blu-ray wicked laser

Laser safety 

DIY Cintiq LED Drawing Pad

DIY Cintiq LED Drawing Pad

Yeah, so why should you buy high tech toys when you can build your own? This is a very sweet project I hope to see other people try this as well.

"This is hybrid screen/graphics tablet which makes me drool. The price however makes me weep, £2000ish for the 20" version. They also do a thing called the PL at 17" for a more reasonable £500ish. Occasionally they appear on the site in their bargain basement ex-demo section. Still hard for me to justify though.

Then I had one of those "spang" moments. None of the tech involved is new and all is readily available second hand, it’s just a matter of putting it together. My Wacom at work will happily operate with the stylus off the surface, after that it’s just an LCD screen, right? Anyhow where’s the fun in just buying something?

Experiment – what depth does a tablet work to? Stack of paper says 9mm before accuracy starts to suffer noticeably. An LCD with an EL film backlight has to be thinner than that.

So here’s the challenge, What is the least amount of money I can build a Cintiq style device for?

[via MAKE] 

DIY Cintiq

Homemade Cathode Ray Tubes

DIY cathode ray tubes
First the Sparkmuseum post and now this. What a fantastic month for mad scientists this has been! This has got to be the coolest home brew page I have seen in years.

This guy makes cathode ray tubes from scratch! This has officially buried the needle on my clever meter. Using phosphor from common florescent tubes he coats the inside of a glass tube and evacuates the air. When an electron beam exits a small hole in the discharge tube that is mounted inside the phosphor glows. He has even added deflection coils (magnets) to create an oscilloscope! You can see some videos here, here, and here. 

His other projects include a photo cell made from salt water and copper , a rectifier made from borax, and even a Homemade Tunnel Diode and RF Oscillator. He also has built his own vacuum tubes. Talk about hardcore!

Hack A Day

Spark, Bang, and Other Good Stuff

The Sparkmuseum

Influence machine
Here are some fantastic examples of equipment from the heady days of electrical experimentation, lots of beautiful photos of static devices, crystal radios, and vacuum tubes. For the past 35 plus years John Jenkins has been collecting various examples of early wireless sets, electrostatic devices, books and just about anything else related to the discovery of electricity. Much of his collection can be seen in the American Museum of Radio and Electricity in Bellingham Washingtion.

I’ve been fascinated by antique electrical aparatus like leyden jars and electrophorus. And sites such as these can give valuable tips on how these devices were created. With all the digital cameras, smart cards, and wifi communications its nice to be able to look back on a time where things were simpler and new discoveries were frequent.

Sparkmuseum – Antique Wireless And Scientific Instruments

Visit the Offworld Colonies, 70’s Style

Bernal Spheres Way back in the 70’s NASA commissioned a few studies on what long term space colonies might be like. Many artistic renderings were done as visual aids and have become icons of a future that might have been. I remember seeing these on the pages of Starlog and Future magazine when I was a little kid and wanted more than anything to live among the stars. Well, that didn’t happen. Closest I’ve come to it is working with computers, flying a lot and watching loads of Science Fiction movies.
The educational resources are simply a joy to browse through. I mean, where else are you going to find data on low-g agriculture and a Ringworld simulator?

[via MAKE, boingboing]

Space Settlement Education Information

Space Colony Art from the 1970s