An army of quadcopters, for just a few bucks...

Hello readers,

It has been a while since I lasted posted something. I had no inspiration, and I was busy doing other things so yeah... But I had a party yesterday, during which I came up with an idea. It's inspired by a civalization like no other, a civalization that has shaped the western world. The Romans. They had an army which used formations, it was very organised. I believe every formation had a signal. This would be copiable using robotics. Simple robotics. But it still would be expensive to buy 10 quadcopters to create a flying "Roman" army. So I came up with a solution. But I don't know if it works...

First you'll have to make a frame. A base with four sticks on each side so that it will become a cross like shape. Attached to the ends of the sticks are (helicopter)rotors on axels which are this way allowed to rotated freely verticly. On the base is a motor, small and electric, and a light battery which delivers enough power for the motor. This motor is connected to all four rotors, so that the all spin at the same speed. This will create balance withouth difficult calculations which would create demand for a computer-like system. Beneath the base is another stick that is able to rotate freely around verticly. This stick is a bit thicker and holds another rotor. It also holds two other electric motors. One to power the rotor, and one to steer the stick. This system allows for steering withouth varying the rpm between the upper rotors. The controls are simple, a slider (or maybe even only a on/of button) for the height, a rotary knob for the thick-stick (which works like the arrow keys only then with more directions which each send a different signal to the motor of the thick-stick), and a slide (or again a on/of button) for the lower rotor. But these are only manual controls. If you would find a way to record the controls for a forming formations, and a way to play this when a certain drum sound is played. Then you would have an army of flying quadcopters that reacts to drumbeats. I think that I'll post a way to program the formations using cards with holes another time.

You need three motors, some material for the rotors, 4 thin sticks, 1 thick stick maybe pvc tubing, a battery, three rc recievers, some materials for the controller and rubber bands to transmit motion from the motors to the rotors. Oh, and some other things which you can figure out yourself. Just to stay creative (-_^)

Mel

A true 3D world map...

Hello readers,

World maps are always so flat, so I came up with a high tech solution:

If you take a closer look at a LED-TV than you will see lights. Well, if a red colour is showed on this TV, more electricity goes to the red LED. If you would take all the wires that go to the red LEDs and plug these in air pumps which are connected to movable hexagons, than these would go up and down when the intensity of the red changes. If you would do this with a lot of hexagons, as many as there are red LEDs in a LED-TV, than you would end up with a cool computerized pin toy. This shows that the hexagons can be replaced with pins. Now, if you made an elevation map of the world which used shades of red (no, not shades of gray) than you would have a feelable world map. You could use a splitter to send the image to both a computerscreen and the pin toy. Using just an full-screen image editor you could zoom in on a landscape, and still feel and see this landscape. Such thing could also be used to simulate basic water level rising research and stuff like that. You could also hang a projector above it to project the world map on it to add realism. I don't know if such thing exists already, but if it doesn't I think it should be made. This is way more interesting than those static elevation maps. But you can show other things than elevation, like population or statistics. Or live temperature or live cloud movement etc...

 You need a TV, some (a lot actually) plastic hexagons, a lot of plastic tubes, a lot of pumps, a computer with a screen and mouse, wood for the frame, a projector, even more plastic to hold the hexagons and some coffee to keep you awake while making this.

Mel

P.S. I gonna change from a post a day to two post a week. Sorry...

The survival lamp...

Hello readers,

Lamps break quick so maybe this is a solution:

Make a Faraday cage in the shape of a cilinder. Then make a smaller acrylic cylinder and attach it inside the cage to the cage with wood or whatever attachementmaterial you can think of which is non-conductive. Rubber may be a good solution. On the upper side of the cage, just inside it, place a small solar panel conected to a battery. That battery is also connected to a plug which fits inside the cage, but can be pulled out when needed. The lamp fits inside the acrylic cylinder (and therefore also inside the cage) and is connected to the battery. It's a good idea to use LED lights because they have a longer lifespan. It's a smart option to add a dynamo which can be pulled out, connected to the battery. If rubber bands are used to connect the acrylic cyclinder to the Faraday cage, it can survive these disasters:                               - Earthquake - EMP - Nuclear bomb - Power cut - Tornado - Beating it - Droping it - Etc.

So, this is a small electronics project to make sure that you have light when the whole world will be dark. You only need some metal pieces,  a sheet of acrylic, a lamp, a battery, a dynamo, some electric wire, rubber bands and a solar panel.
This will asure light for the rest of your life!

Mel

P.S. Please comment!

An international clock...

Hello readers,

I always struggle with knowing the time of the day, at another part of the earth. So, here's my solution:

If you take a clock mechanism, it doesnt matter what kind of clock mechanism, and remove the plate etc you only have the bare mechanism left. Of course... Than you should remove the hour and minute want to make this possible. Now print out a top view of the earth which accidently also shows the time barriers/zones. Cut it out and paste it on a cirular board of wood to make it  more difficult to break. Than glue (of find another way to attach it) to the pin which originaly did hold the hour wand. Now make a wooden ring which fits perfectly around the "world" circle with around an milimeter (or two) of space between them. This ring is attached to the backplate of the clock so it won't rotate. That you should write the hours on this ring exactly as on any other clock. Than, make a ring that fits around the other ring with (it doesn't matter how much) space between the other. This ring is meant to write the minutes on (stripes, not numbers). And as the last thing to do you should place the minute wand back on. And there you have it, an international clock which shows the hours and the minutes everywhere. The only thing you have to do now is to line up your time zone with the corresponding hour on the hour ring!

Sorry that I haven't posted anything yesterday, it's my holiday so I didn't keep track of the days.

Mel

Some information about posts...

Hello readers,

I'll post a new post every day of the week. Atleast every workday, which means every monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday and friday. Atleast I'll try to. 

A clickable box...

Hello reader,

This is a little woodworking project you could do, you only need some pieces of thin wood. Some glue, some screws. And some tools would be handy.

Last night I had the idea of a "clickable box":

It's just a box, but than more complicated. For school I have several books, everyday I have to take different books to school. But they are stacked on top of eachother so it takes me a long time to find some books. Well, I have a solution. I hope :) If one has x different books, than one makes a box with x drawers. The box is a bit deeper than the drawers because there will be a mechanism behind the drawers. The drawers will be big enough to fit the largest book in, and the box will be big enough to fit all the drawers and the mechanism in. On top of the box (well, it's the top of the box) is a wooden board. With, behind the drawers) square holes cut out for the buttons. Every button is connected to a little stick, just long enough to reach to the corresponding drawer. Behind each drawer (connected to each stick with the side of the circle that is the furthest away from the front of the drawer) is a wooden cilinder. A very thin cilinder. It's installed horizontaly, the top of the cilinder points right or left. At the side of the cilinder that is closest to the top of the box is a little stick fixed. But it must be able to rotate though! the other end of this stick is fixed to the back end of the box. This must also be able to rotate. This mechanism is then made behind all drawers. So, when you pull at one of the buttons, the cilinder rotates, causing the other stick to come closer to the drawer, which causes the drawer to come out or show the book. The only thing you'd have to do now is mark which button goes with which book. And then packing books for the next day would take halve the time of normal!

I hope you enjoyed reading the post, and if you have any comments please comment. Also, if you don't got anything to say to me, please comment though because then I know that people are reading this.
And please follow my blog.

Mel