The briefest of updates

Holy crap.. looks like it's been a while since i did one of these.. probabably need to update the pic too..fortunatel, I;m home from
work for a week or so, recuperating from knee surgery.. whee! a whole weekend of scrubs reruns and b grade discovery channel specials(today i learned how marshmallows and asphalt are made..yee-haww).
anyhoo, here's the status of the aforementioned projects:

Flying vid cam project:  The 2m glider is juuuust about done.. at the last minute i decided to permanently join the wing halves together.. once i can get downstairs i;ll upload some pics.. i think the cam will be mounted inside the fuselage, with a little periscope(just a small mirror in a tube) mounted out the side.. the cam shoots the mirror, and the tube can rotate via servo to show forward, down or backwards.. sounds simply.. now i just have to get the parts..

Controller mod:  havent had time to work on this in a while.. my first soldering attempts on the b button addition wound up disabling the b button.. should be easy to fix, but i need to order a smaller soldering iron designed specifically for surface mount components.. if you are planing any soldering on your original 360 controller, i highly recommend a low wattage surface mount type soldering iron.. and use the least possible amount of heating time.  If the b button doesnt come back to life with some repairs, this is just going to be a no-b button having controller with a shock circuit built in.. i may even dump the vibe motors, since the main purpose of the thing will be to mildly shock unsuspecting gamers.. if i go this way, the controller will be somewhere at the chi lan, whether i make it or not..pics to follow in a later post

Damn.. what other projects did i have? ./. oh the hydrogen marshmallow gun... i may switch to foam pellets from marshmallows, as marshmallows leave gooey residue in the barrel..my small scale hydrolysis device makes plenty of hydrogen for the scale, and i have electrode coils already made up for the full scale.. just need to order some clear pvc fr the unit so the whole process will be visible.. pics to follow..

i was going to do up a little tracked bot from my old mindstorms system to follow our 16 month old daughter around the house, but she has suddenly developed a fear of my robosapiens and It's Alive chimp head, so i may wait on that.. maybe if i did this sort of mod..http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/robots/gutted-teddy-bear-reincarnated-inside-robosapien-body-221741.php

Hopefully I'll have some real updates in the next week on these little side projects..

Posted by DeadDrPhibes @ 1:37 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

Addenda to PC game article in Issue 3

Just thought I would toss in a few emulator links for anyone wanting to torture themselves.. These are Java, Flash or downloadable emulators for:

;;

the TI 99/4a: http://www.99er.net/win994a.shtml

Timex Sinclair 1000: ;; http://www.vavasour.ca/jeff/ts1000/

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SpaceWar!: ;; http://lcs.www.media.mit.edu/groups/el/projects/spacewar/

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Colossal Cave Adventure ;;: ;; http://www.astrodragon.com/zplet/advent.html

;;

Enjoy, you filthy masochists!

 

PS as a follow up to the previous post.. I got the Xterra.. WOOHOOOO! Screw mileage, this thing is a blast!

Posted by DeadDrPhibes @ 7:54 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

Short but pointless update

Hmm.. not much progress on any one project.. several are on hold until i get the 2 meter sail plane covered.. (Ill post a pic or two of the completed mess if it doesnt look too wretched).  Made a nice slim water rocket fuse from a couple of cut off dr pepper bottle top ends and some Flourescent tube cover.. this is the same stuff the current Wrocket altitude record holder (1300 + feet)was made of, so I initially meant it to be a slim, efficient high altitude sort of project, but the more i look at it the more it seems to cry out for a pair of flat, carbon reinforced foam wings and maybe 2 channel r/c..ill pressure test it first, and if it doesnt go Blooey by 100psi, i;ll try some wings and a free flight version before i risk any electronics on the thing.

In other news, apparently some clever bastard in england has found a way to sweat the upper and lower halves of a 2l bottle over a single intact 2l bottle in such a way that the whole mess can hold around 320 psi! this may be the way to go for a high altitude rocket.. but i just have to try hydrogen before i get to that stage.. i have all the parts in my basement workshop now for the hydrogen/oxygen generating hand held flaming marshmallow shooter (or "fist full of sticky hot death".. hmm maybe i need a better name than that...).. just need the time to do the cutting and shaping and pvc welding..

Of course, my 8month old is my priority.. shes at the stage now where shes starting to get around a bit, and grabs anything within reach and shoves it into her mouth.. a fun age to have her of course, but it requires constant vigilance.. getting harder and harder to keep her happy and play oblivion at the same time!  Of course, oblivion loses out to the kid, as does everything else.. I have considered making a little 2 channel r/c car platform to put her in and driver her around the basement, but i think the wife might not approve.... and it would be hard to conceal a car big enough to hold the kid in my fairly petite workshop.. dangit..

 

Oh and I need to buy a new damned car in the next 2 months.. heres what i;m looking for:  AWD or 4WD, loads of head and leg room, under 25K, extreeeemely reliable and crash resistant..

Heres what i;m considering:  Toyota FJ-4 cruiser, rav 4, subaru forester, honda cr-v.. maaaybe a nissan xterra..

 

any suggestions from the peanut gallery will be gladly accepted and duly considered.

Posted by DeadDrPhibes @ 1:31 am EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments

Dead Dr.s Adventure Basement

Ok sooo my gamertag is DeadDrPhibes and I;m a 39 year old gadget freak who likes to slap together mildly dangerous yet amusing toys in my craptastical basement workshop..Since I am a late-comer to blogging and all the original blog themes are taken, I;m just going to use this space to ramble on and on about the dorky little things i cobble together in my basement to amuse myself..  

A few of the projects I have started(and realize I am not deluded into thinking i am the first to do any of this.. if you find this stuff boring, go read someone elses blog.. this will most appeal to gadget freaks and pyromaniacs).. :  I;m just finishing up a 2 meter radio controlled sail plane.. nothing too exciting, but I plan to put a small (about 1" cube) vid cam with transmitter in it and make exciting, grainy short films of near misses with trees, my roof, slow-moving bystanders, and probably terrified mice as the thing augers in.  Ill post photos when its finished.. I;ve just slapped together a water rocket launcher.. so far i;ve launched unmodified 590ml bottles about 70 feet with only 30 psi and about 200ml of water.. so it stands to reason a 2 liter bottle with about 100 psi  and some aerodynamic refinement should either make about 300 feet, or explode in my face and embed shards of PET plastic in my corneas.. Check this space Sunday to see which it was!

I may make a hydrogen powered version of the water rocket setup that just uses a little dc current and lye to split hydrogen and oxygen out of water for fule.... its sooo easy that its a little scary.. as a proof of concept, I;m making a tiny tater gun powered by a small hydroxy generator.. think potato gun, then scale it down to tater tot size and add a pistol grip.. i have a theory that if i launch marshmallows with the thing, they may ignite from the combustion.. would be great fun for starting the grille from a distance.. hmmmm.

A few other irons are in the fire.. 360 b button controller mod, perhaps an r/c glider with water rocket launch .. i;ll post as any progress is made..

Posted by DeadDrPhibes @ 3:17 am EDT | Permalink | 6 Comments