Category: Mad Science

N55 Protest Rocket System

N55 Protest Rocket

Lets just for a moment forget the fact that if you wheel one of these up to a demonstration, convention, or rally your going to get all sorts of unwanted attention like getting thrown into a police car or shot in the head by a sniper. But then again, maybe you like that sort of thing… Kids today…
Anyway, other than that the idea is pretty cool. If you want to read a pretty good over view of how a modern high powered rocket works this is it. Because the BATF has made obtaining black powder motors next to impossible, the NO2 (nitrous oxide) and plastic motors have become very popular. Its amazing what will produce thrust if you give it a good oxidizer.

    Technical specifications:

    Maximum speed: approx. 475 m/s or 2600 km/h
    Apogee: 5200 meters at a launch angle of 85 degrees
    Net weight: 8,5 kg
    Fuel weight: 3.8 kg

    Component list:
    Steel tube Ø 102 mm
    Acrylic tube Ø 100 mm
    Rocket head: Fiberglass / epoxy
    Cupper nozzle
    Parachute
    Fuel grain: LPDE polyethylene block
    Oxidizer: N20
    Bolts, nuts
    Launching pad
    Launch Control Box:
    Polyethylene box, electric cords, electric switches

[via we-make-money-not-art ]
Manual for Rocket System

Hard Drive Clock

Clock drive

This is just super cool! Take an old dead hard drive (not totaly dead, it needs to spin up), cut a slot in the top platter, add some LEDs and a microcontroler, and you have yourself a very unique clock. You have to see the videos of it running to fully understand how it works.

[via MAKE:blog]
Alan Parekh’s Electronic Projects – Hard Drive Clock

Rocket Cam On the Cheap!

rocket rocketcam
Here is an interview with Matt Campbell, why should you read it? Well he took a model rocket and adapted it’s nose cone to house a hacked CVS video camera. The videos of the launch are pretty impressive. The recovery phase of the launch wa a little rough, if there was a way to stabalize the nose cone during decent the video was be heaps better. It’s also of some not that the camera will do odd things to the image is it’s slewed too fast. Go take a look at the video to see that I mean.
The CVS Video camera is going to be showing up in so many projects that it’s bound to win some sort of DIY hackability award (hint hint MAKE, you should have one of these).
I know if I had a few (and yes, I’d want at least three of them) I’d put a zoom lens on one, and turn the other two into a stereoptic video system with variable ocular distance. That would be so flipping cool… Then there would be the ‘lets-make-you-sick’ three inches off the road camera for my car, an underwater housing for those times at the beach, and not to mention a pretty cool payload for an R/C car.

Now You See It, Now You Don’t

Huh?

I think that Special Agent Greg might be on to something here.

This article is interesting from a purely scientific perspective for what it demonstrates about perception and the brain. And then there is the “use for evil” angle…

They gloss over the transcranial magnetic stimulation, but it is a technology that uses intense magnetic fields to temporarily shut off areas of the brain. They can make versions small enough to be hand held and portable.

Researchers are using the devices to more or less hack the brain. The only practical application of which I am aware is for treating depression.

I can envision other uses if you could construct one in such a way that you could use it on people without their knowledge. For instance stimulating the brain region described in the article would seem to give you the ability described in the old Shadow radio series as “the ability to cloud men’s minds.”

I will begin construction immediately. The first version will probably be large, so I will design it to be concealed in a conference room. I will be starting my own business and selling…something. I don’t think the product will really matter.

Now You See It, Now You Don’t: ‘Change Blindness’ Isn’t Magic

I think I’ll see what happens if you try this with a super magnet. The effect is more than likely due to a pulsed magnetic field so it will need a nice big solenoid to get the desired “ability to cloud men’s minds”.
Greg, I’ll get the wire and soft iron, you go find an expendable lab assistant.

The Coaster Toaster

CD Killer

Looks like this will do a pretty good job of dealing with a few CDs that you don’t want to ‘fall into enemy’ hands. I have about 150 that I need to destroy, my first thought was a microwave oven with an auto feed attachment to just make it a ‘load and go’ way of dealing with them. Another thought was to glue a stack of them together and then chuck it on a lathe and turn it into something useful. Good concept except that I’ll be gluing the base of one to the thin top cover of the next, I doubt that it would be all that strong. Plus flowing the glue would be a pain.

CDR’s are great things, but what to do about old backups? You can’t just throw them away, lest someone fishes one out of the trash. Breaking them isn’t very satisfying, and they jam paper shredders. Sticking one in the microwave oven is good fun, but the fumes are probably toxic and I don’t have a microwave. I do have this broken 52x CDROM drive though.

The Coaster Toaster