Zip ties

My lightning detector stopped working last week. I suspected a problem with the batteries because it had been acting up, but I was nonetheless doubtful that the batteries could be low. The quiescent current of the detector is low enough that the shelf lives of the D-cell batteries are barely affected. I did suspect that the battery holders could be broken or that the batteries could have become dislodged. I opened it up, and sure enough, one of the battery holders had broken again. I had fixed it once with a combination of a few tapes (aluminium and masking), but the adhesive had pulled off. Not having a replacement on hand and not wanting to make a trip to the overpriced cell phones and maybe some electronics store (Radioshack), I decided to try zip ties. Long story short, they seem to work very well.

This is just a quick post of something interesting yet obvious. I move in to the dorm tomorrow, so I have been busy. HOWEVER, I should have a more interesting and full project writeup soon on something that I began and fully completed within the last few days. Hopefully it is impressive enough to be featured on Hack A Day or a similar site! 

Vacation, 3D, and Van De Graaff

I hadn't written anything for quite a while because of a two-week roadtrip that my family and I took before I went off to college. Needless to say, it was a blast, but I didn't do much science. However, I did buy a set of Nvidia active shutter glasses at a used electronics store. I figured I could hack the protocol and use it with the IZ3D drivers that are available for multiple 3D setups and seem to be somewhat open for hacking. After getting the glasses to blink, I tried to see over what frequency range they would operate. Unfortunately, they seem to cut out right around 60Hz, so they don't seem like a good candidate for low refresh rate displays (like almost all of mine). Luckily for me, USF has given me a $1,200 computer stipend, so this was the excuse I was needing to get a computer with a 3D display. USF prefers Dells, and sure enough, Dell has an Nvidia based 3D laptop. (They also have an Alienware 3D laptop, but I don't need to spend $400 on fancy lights, even though I want to.)  Nvidia glasses timings are summarized here. For you Arduino users, delayMicroseconds (at 16MHz) is adequate. Surprisingly, the IR patterns function without a carrier signal. Being used to TV remotes, not having to code the 40ish-kHz signal was a nice surprise.

On an unrelated note, I was at Ikea this week. I was browsing around when all of a sudden I found OMG-PERFECT large stainless steel hemispherical bowls with no lip for $4.99 each (Blanda Blank). These have been EXACTLY what I have been looking for to make a topload for a Van De Graaff generator. They also sell smaller ones (and MUCH more expensive larger ones), but 11" diameter is a wonderful size. Hopefully I can get together a HV-pumped VDG generator in the near future, but I need to figure out belts and bearings. This made my day!

#EDIT: Dell has discontinued the custom ordering to campus stores, so I instead purchased a $1200 laptop (XPS 15) that I am trying to sell. This means no 3D computer for a while for me. Oh well.