The Garage: A craft-y type thread for handypeople

Giant inflatable hammers don't cost that much...

Eh, we have bad luck with that. Last inflatable thing I got him was a sword. It lasted five minutes and two swings.

Well, the trick about my zappy stick is that it's gonna be truly zappy. You press the button, and blue light gets more and more intense. You release the button, and white light starts flashing while blue one fades back to the default dim setting.

Hell, I just realized that I don't need a PWM for the white LED, making it go full blast for varying number of times and lengths of time will be even better. And that leaves me one PWM channel I can use to drive a motor for the rotating metal cage inside the tube.

Also, Dealextreme has Adafruit Neopixel LED array clones for sale. I think I could try working with those...

edited 18th Sep '15 10:08:31 AM by NotSoBadassLongcoat

Ah. Flimsy plastic is also out, I take it? And, foam can be quite a bit more expensive. Hmmm.

edited 18th Sep '15 10:07:28 AM by Euodiachloris

I have a question.

I've recently got myself a metallic water bottle. It would be very cool to be able to doodle all over it and make it unique and hipster. However, I'm not sure which paint to use. What kind of paint/marker will 1) adhere to metal 2) not be toxic, considering that the bottle is going to be containing hot liquids?

To clarify, I intend to paint the outside of the bottle, so the paint does not have to be food-safe specifically, however, it should not be toxic while mildly but frequently heated.

Honestly, I would jsut use permanent sharpies. They make all kinds of colors and i can't see that being a problem getting hot with coffee or tea.

I think that standard automotive paint will do. Sharpies will rub off too quickly.

edited 23rd Sep '15 2:25:58 PM by NotSoBadassLongcoat

Thanks

Model paint, ceramic markers, metal based spray paint, all these will work.

I learned how to ebonize wood! I want to keep a pen on my fridge, so I glued a strip of magnet to a clothespin. But that looks boring. So I'm making another one, but ebonizing the clothespin first. It's an interesting effect.

I'm learning a lot about staining/refinishing at the moment, as part of a much larger project: fixing pianos. (Also, tuning pianos.) The black keys on older pianos are often just dyed black, which wears off. I'm thinking ebonizing would work, and then maybe refinishing with linseed oil? You don't want them too slick, or pianists get annoyed.

So I got a green laser for my plasma cannon project. But, to drive it I need a Darlington transistor, and I have to short out the built-in switch in the first place. And I accidentally ripped off the negative terminal wire, I'll have to solder it back on.

What is ebonizing?

It's a way to stain wood black, so it looks like ebony. I guess it's been around for ages: all it takes is water, vinegar, and iron (steel wool, nails, etc.). And black tea if you want it really dark.

IMMA FIRIN MAH LAZOR! Well, I mean, I managed to control the laser module with Arduino through one of the spare MOSFETs I had around since building the XCOM backpack. The idea came from some old man yelling at clouds on the internet - he said that Darlington transistors are seriously outdated and difficult to work with, so why don't you kids try using MOSFETs instead. Works like a charm, sending bright laser pulses from a common USB power source. Next thing is rigging plasma chamber and barrel lights for MOSFET control too.

scion: Oh neat. Learn something new. That sounds like something I would have found handy in my jewelry class but we never covered it. Would have been really neat for doing inlays.

Slightly off topic but does anyone here watch Cody's Lab Real Life Minecraft? Seems like something many of us would be interested in.

Back on topic, I actually cleaned up my craft room today...well, sorta. I really need to get in there put some elbow grease in and make it mine again.

Toddler wants to learn to knit.

I have all the electronics I need, and a spare ATTiny 85 for the Lightning Stick. Sure, I could use a custom PCB for the Arduino bits, and another one for the amp, but I can work with universal boards if I have to...

You had better post a photo when you're done. I want to see what you came up with!

Some more experimenting revealed that the Darlington transistor wouldn't do its job anyway. With a MOSFET, I get to run the laser at 50%-66% (ballpark estimate) power, which maybe isn't as spectacular as the full blast (that, go figure, is bright enough to see the beam, not just the point of impact), but does its job. The Darlington, though? Well, the Darlington just produces a barely visible dot, although that may be the fault of the USB power supply.

Oh well, I do have enough MOSFETs to run the entire lightshow AND the laser anyway, I'll leave the experiments with Darlingtons for tomorrow. It would be cool to operate the laser in its entire 20mW glory - a bright flash at the barrel is something you'd expect, but a bright flash at the target is a game-changer.

I also have two red 5mW lasers, one with a line diffuser, one with a cross diffuser. The line one is pretty disappointing, as the line is roughly ten feet long if projected from three feet and a half, but it's so weak that you can barely see it from more than five feet away. The cross, that is considerably smaller but at least grows to pretty noticeable ten by ten if projected from about twelve feet away. I'll either put it as a laser sight on my plasma cannon or bodge it into an eyepiece - either on the Electric Nazi mask or something for my Commissar costume. Although I'm really, REALLY pissed that I can't find a decent air force (nor navy) greatcoat on a budget.

OK, quick note for posterity:

I broke the laser. The positive wire came off and I'll have to solder it back on. But, I tried one more experiment with the Darlington pair.

I decided to not only power the Arduino through the USB port used for programming, but also side-load it with my homemade USB power cable for the protoboard. Finally, I slapped a 3.3K resistor between the base and emitter of the Darlington, then plugged the laser into the circuit.

FULL POWER. Woo!

I'm suspicious: did you at least think of going into full-on Science-Related Memetic Disorder mode at that point, by any chance?

No, my mood was spoiled by that wire that snapped off. I was too focused on holding everything together (holding an alligator clip to the solder spot on the laser control board, pressing the button on the laser control board with one hand and the button on the protoboard with the other) to just go ga-ga.

No worries, when I fix the laser I should have enough time to go nuts.

Also, I'm confused why the sound doesn't record right even with the new speaker. Apparently it's some programming wizardry that makes it sound different to human ear and recording devices.

What are you using to record sound, and what are you using for playback?

Best guess (as a musician & n00b piano tuner) is that there are frequencies which you can hear that are either 1) outside the range of the recording equipment; 2) being compressed by software at some point; and/or 3) outside the range of the speaker(s) playing it back.

For instance, if you create a ringtone for your phone using a clip of a song, it's a good idea to compress the clip's volume range and limit certain frequencies. Otherwise you won't recognize it when it's played by the tiny, weak speaker on a phone stuffed in your pocket/purse.

Playback: Arduino with SimpleSDAudio library, running at 16kHz sampling/8 bit playback. Recording: Sony Xperia E. It sounds like it doesn't catch half of the frequency, despite recording my voice and environment noise clearly.

Got the soldering iron out to make a quick pair of gator clip "jumper cables", and got around to soldering the laser leads back on.

Maybe I should finally order the body bits?