[Lab] Open Question: What are you working on?

Thu May 23 15:24:49 EDT 2013

Hi Chris,
Back when I was a student, my roomate and I built furniture using cardboard and duct tape. There was a place on bank street that put out a lot of card board angles every recycling day, about 1 or two blocks south of sunnyside. I think the place was Elite home decorating. The angles had legs of about 2" and were composed of densely laminated layers. 
Using sheet metal screws, I was able to form rough I-beams C-channels, as well as using the base angle for trusses. I was able to build a two tiered shelf holding up books and my printer with limited sag development over the course of months.
You didn't specify what the ramps would be for, but I think pedestrian traffic wouldn't be too hard. If you build it right, I think these things could be used to build a ramp structure that could support lawn tractors, 4 wheelers, etc.
Hope that gives you some ideas.
Mike

From: tbp at ghostwise.com
To: lab at artengine.ca
Date: Thu, 23 May 2013 14:58:22 -0400
Subject: Re: [Lab] Open Question: What are you working on?

Hi!
I was surprised there weren't more replies to this question so I thought I'd share my projects. 
1) Art Project: Ventilator input controlling projector. This project received lots of attention and adviceon the list. I've been slowly collecting all sorts of pieces to put it together, including a Raspberry Pi. With the Summer arriving soon, I've put off the completion of this project until September / October. I still planon working on the programming / set up over the summer. 
2) Mobile Light and Soundsystem. I would like to transform my powerwheelchair into a mobile light and djsystem. I've ordered lots of EL wire and LED strips. Sound triggered controllers. USB back up batteries.  USBand audio cables. A 400 watt portable PA. Planning to connect both an iPhone and an iPad to the PA. 
Main challenges: Wiring, mounting everything on my powerchair and making it look cool!
Biggest challenge: Mounting the PA (weighs 10 lbs) in front of my legs to the footrests. This is one thing I needto find someone capable to help me with. 
3) Mobile GoPro filming set up. This one is roughly in place. GoPro mounts to my powerchair. I've got extendedcables to hook it up to a USB back up battery to deal with extended use. Figured out how to mount my iPhone atmy fingertips so I can remotely control the GoPro. Just need to put it all together and do a test run. 
4) Mounting iPad to my powerchair. Commercial solutions for mounting a tablet to a wheelchair already exist. Just a matter of ordering one and making sure I can securely attach it to powerchair. Also planning to use the tablet mount as an easel for small canvases. 
5) iPhone 4 super case: I currently have two cases for my iPhone 4. One allows me to attach it to a tripod. Theother allows me to use it on my desk upright because it acts like a stand. I would like to merge these two cases into one so I don't have to constantly slide the iPhone out of these caseswhen I'm going out.  
6) Possibly mounting my iPhone with a Galileo so that I can control it with the iPad. 
7) Cardboard ramps: Long term idea to build cheap, super strong ramps made out of cardboard.  

Projects # 2-6 are my summer fun projects. Hoping in the next month to get them all going in some form. 
If anyone has any advice or leads for the PA mount, I'd really appreciate it!
Chris
On 2-May-13, at 11:14 AM, Jason Cobill wrote:
   I thought it might be interesting to pose a couple of open-ended questions to the modlab group, to find out more about what people are doing, and how we can help eachother.

   - What are your current projects?
   - What is a project you would like to do, but lack a skill, tool, or a component?

   I'll go first. :) I usually have a long list of projects on the go, but one of my new year's resolutions was to try to stay focused on just a few things to get them done. My shortlist right now is:

   - An Alexander Graham Bell-inspired tetrahedral kite.
      Before the fixed wing airplane 'took off', AGB believed if you built a kite big enough and rigid enough, you could put an engine on it and fly away. I saw a model of his super-kite, the "frost king" at the aviation museum and decided I had to build one. :) I'm making it out of dollar-store kebab skewers and tissue paper, so so far I've got about 6 feet of it built. Hoping to put a camera on it and launch it this month. (where I expect it to spectacularly disassemble itself in mid-air)
    http://www.nationalgeographicstock.com/comp/01/975/599395.jpg

   - Fireproof stamps
      I spend time at a glassblowing studio, wondering how to bring new creative ideas into the very very old tradition of glasswork. I'm currently caught up in the notion of making textured stamps I can use to push into the bottom or side of a drinking glass - but 2300C glass tends to make easily-carve-able stuff burst into cinders. I'm experimenting with carved graphite, water-soaked wood, and ceramics. 

   Projects I'm stuck on:
   I'd like to build a bicycle or wind-powered generator, and I have an alternator, battery, and some big electrical motors out of an old car to build it with, but high-voltage electricity is not my area of expertise and I'm stumped on the inverter wiring. Anyone done this before?
    There's a couple of great books at the library that I thought I'd check out, but I haven't had the motivation to borrow them yet. Maybe in the fall?

   -Jason Cobill
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