52 Things R&D Lab

I regret to announce to the 0 readers of my little blog I am not going to continue with the 52 Things Project. Basically there are two reasons. First the economy and lack of supplies and the second is I recently came to the conclusion that I HATE MY JOB. I am putting a lot of effort into getting a new job including getting my Cisco certs updated.

I will still do some projects and post what I can.

dave Uncategorized

— Week 24 of 2010 —

I’ve got two things in the hopper so I thought it would be a good time to do a recap. I’m fast approaching the middle of the year so a sanity check is in order.

1. LED Cube
2. Nightmare Before Christmas Box Mod
3. Rewire of Makers Quilt Board # 2
4. Solar Roller
5. ATX Power Supply
6. LED Spot Light
7. Workout Timer
8. Light Up Easter Egg
9. Leprechaun Hat
10. Peep Sushi
11. Mini Catapult
12. Duct Tape Wallet
13. Film Canister Cannon
14. Lego Guggenheim
15. Light Box — More on this later

Still holding out at 9 projects behind. Biggest problem is supplies. I need to start planning them ahead and start working on Halloween projects now.

dave 52 Things Project Recap, Week 24

– Week 23 of 2010 Project 14 –

Built the LEGO model of the Guggenheim from the Frank Loyd Wright Collection. Now I didn’t know whether I should count kits like LEGO as part of the 52 things. Does it count if I buy an all ready made kit and build it instead of gathering all the parts and biukding something. I decided it was up to my discretion and as long as I put a resonable build time in I should count it. Worst this is My charity get’s $10.00 and Intelligent Design gets nothing. Which is a good thing all around. Still 9 projects behind must think more.

dave 52 Things Kit, LEGO, Project 14, Week 23

— Week 17 of 2010 —

I finally got around to building something from the totally awesome SciToys website. A small canister and a 99 cent store butane lighter and I made a Film Canister Cannon.

Didn’t have any film canisters … will they become a thing of the past with digital camera’s? I used a canister from some diabetic test strips. Made a nice loud bag a little bit of fire and went up around 9 ft. Here’s a picture of it … That makes 13 projects done in 17 weeks. I still have some catching up to do but I’m getting there. I need to find some projects of substance though.

dave 52 Things, Science Project 13, Week 17

— Week Number 17 of 2010 —

Built a catapult over the weekend from the awesome book "Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction". My daughter thought it was cool and one of the GeekMoms recommended I do a review of it for the Geekdads blog.

Also when I go to the gym all I need is my membership card and a few dollars. Maybe my drivers license if it’s raining. So I made a nice little wallet out of Duct tape to hold a few essentials.

Need to add some Pictures to this post.

Project #11 — Catapult

Project #12 — Duct Tape Wallet

Still 5 behind but I have a Light Box to build, A bow making jig, a USB charger for the car and a Film Can Canon. That will be 4 which would get me pretty caught up.

dave 52 Things Catapult, Duct Tape, Seige Weapons

Haven’t posted but I’ve been working.  Albeit not as much as I should be.  I need a couple of quick ones to increase my output.  The past few months I’ve built an Electronic Easter Egg, an Irish Hat for our Moose decoration a workout timer and I finished the solar roller.

I also did a little playing with food.  I used Rice Krispy Treats and Marshmallow Peeps to make sushi.

With these projects I’m at 10 things built, crafted, and hacked.  This is the start of week 15 so I’m about 5 things behind.  I’m also going to be sending off a $100 check to Nuts Bolts and Thingamajigs.

dave 52 Things Food, Moose, piacaxe, robotics

Solar Roller parts finally came in so now I’m done with that Project. LED Spot light design is just about done. I need to pick up a 3/4″ PVC coupler at Home Depot to finish it up.
Project #7 will be a round timer for work outs. I need to be able to time 15 2 minute rounds with a 1 minute rest in between. This should will be programmable so I can change it as I need to. Eventually I would like to work up to 15 3 minute rounds with a 30 second rest in between.
This being the 10th week of the year I’m about 3 projects behind. I do intend to make a prop for a magic trick. I have a script written and all I need is this prop.

dave 52 Things, Lab News, hardware BEAM Robotics, Picaxe, Workout

The ATX power supply is done. Yay now time to move on to an LED Spot light design. I want to have a few LED spot lights for my Halloween decorations this year. I’m not to crazy about the DIY version that uses a bottle cap so I’m working on one that uses a 1 inch perf board circle and a 3/4 inch PVC coupling. This may become an instructable when I’m done

dave 52 Things, Halloween Halloween, Power Supply, Reuse Recycle Remake

I’ve been meaning to build one of these for some time now. I can definitely use a beefer supply than the one I’m using. This will be getting done in parallel with the Solar Roller. I just broke a lead on the voltage trigger and now I have to order another one so the roller is on hold
I’ll also be putting some time in on some LED spotlights I was meaning to build for Halloween. I’m not to crazy about the construction and I have a few ideas to make it better. This will most likely shake out to be project #6. I can use an easy win here.
On a positive note the construction of the Solar Roller is going better now that I’m using epoxy to mount the parts. The drive wheel is now a bottle cap I stuck on the motor and everything will be hanging off a paper clip.
Once I get 5 projects put away I’ll send $50.00 to Nuts Bolts & Thingamajigs.

dave 52 Things, hardware 52 Things, BEAM Robotics, Power Supply, Reuse Recycle Remake

So my Scout troop won first place at the Klondike Derby. Which is a good thing.
The Solar Roller build on the other hand is going nowhere fast. The electronics are built for the most part. The mechanics on the other hand are proving to be a pain in the ass.
First I had a hell of a time gluing the rubber on the wheel. Cynoacrylate turns out to be the wrong choice for this job.
Then comes mounting the motor. I thought I would use a belt drive which after a few mock ups proved to be a stupid idea. I found some Solar Rollers using direct drives. So I’m gluing the pulley of the walkman motor to the hub I made using a post from the walkman.
I need to start the next project as I’m falling behind and will be 2 projects behind starting this week. I’m not giving $20.00 to the Discovery Institute that much I can tell you. I will catch up !

dave 52 Things 52 Things, BEAM Robotics