Project – Page 2

Industrial Shelf to Awesome Bed Build

Instead of buying an expensive frame that was large enough for a queen size mattress and provided storage I decided and be cheap and build one dubbed The Princess Bed or Big Girl Princess Bed because it’s so tall and my wife is so short.

Video below

Materials

Shelving
6x 2×4
4×8 sheet of half inch plywood
Reciprocating saw
Circular saw

The sides of the shelving came whole instead of 2 pieces so I had to cut out the supports using a reciprocating saw then cut them in half using a metal cutoff wheel on my circular saw. The bed was a bit too tall after this so I went back and cut another 2-3″ of each leg. Because the supports were welded in place I had to cut new 2×4 angled supports to make the bed more rigid. The 2×4 supports for the mattress are just the right height so that the cuts on the shelving did not have to be exactly even. The plywood was cut to fit the platform and then covered with canvas to protect the mattress.

Next for this project is a small staircase with additional storage inside.

R2 Trashcan

This was a fun little Arduino Robotics project that I built with my daughter at the AR Regional Innovation Hub an awesome place I mentioned in the Maker Faire post a while back. Come to think of it I need to post about this year’s Maker Faire. Anyways the robot can be controlled via bluetooth using an Android app.

We have everything mounted to a chassis from another robotics kit much like the Ardokit but only to hold the parts. The motors were aligned with arms of R2 that were printed on the trash bin which turns out are not entirely even with each side. It should not have been a surprise but hey we wanted it to look cool. This posed additional problems with the motor mounts being flat which canted the wheels out. R2 moves a bit awkward. The plastic trash can from Target is a bit brittle so I had to tape the drill marks first and drill with care. A caster was mounted under the front of the R2 to stabilize.

Parts

R2 trash can from Target
IEIK UNO R3 Board ATmega328P from Amazon – Not an authentic arduino but works great and is cheap.
Motor Controller – I think this came from an ebay purchase
JBtek HC-05 Wireless Bluetooth from Amazon
Battery Pack
Motors and wheels from something like the Ardokit from Amazon but I’m not a fan of these because the terminals are real week and broke with very little stress.
Caster

I have better parts most from Adafruit coming in soon for a cooler more thought out project. Better wheels, better chassis and better motors.

Cheap DIY platform bed with storage

Everyone needs storage especially my daughter. Raised platforms with storage can be pricey so I grabbed shelving from a local hardware store and got busy. This particular shelving can be put together tall or side by side which made assembly so much easier and the bonus is that the shelving is almost the same width as the mattress.

6 x 1×4
1 x 1/4″ 4’x8′ plywood
Shelf
Wood or decking screws
Canvas drop cloth to protect the mattress

I assembled the shelving then laid out the boards to get an idea of where to go next. Then a quick layout of parts, measuring the area needed for the mattress and cut down the plywood to fit. The 1×4’s helped square the decking and once the desired alignment was achieved (using the wall, a level and a square) I fixed the square in place by screwing the plywood to the slats. So now even if I took the bed and decking off, moved the bed then making everything square again is just a matter of adjusting enough so that the decking fits in place again.

At least once a day my daughter can be found hanging out underneath the bed because awesome.

Linksys WRT54G V8 Update

Update to my previous article on the WRT54G V8

This has to be the 4 or 5th Linksys WRT that has suddenly fizzled out. This WRT54G V8 was running modded firmware but in a stable fashion, not overclocked, not over powered. I got maybe 5 months of use out of it before it bit the dust. Linksys has been passed around to a few companies over the past 10 or so years to include Cisco and now I think I know why. With that I say farewell to Linksys and will most likely not own another.

Who Lives in a Pineapple?

Spongebob Peltier Cooler missing power cord – $6 from Savers (a thrift shop) – Originally sold for $45-$60
DC Female Plug – $3.99 from radio shack
12vdc Power Supply – $1.99 from Savers (a thrift shop)
Total Cost – 11.98
Cost Difference from Original Price: ~$38.02

I searched for a while to try and find a power cord with no luck. So I bought and installed a new one from Radio Shack. IT WORKS!!!

Microwave Deathray

There is something called a Magnetron, not to be confused with Megatron, inside your microwave. This is the primary component that vibrates the molecules of what you are heating in your microwave to generate heat. Mmmm in the words of Jim Gaffigan Haaaot Pocket!

Ok so it’s not necessarily a death ray but I wouldn’t want to put my junk in front of one. Ever heard of a herf gun? A herf gun is a directed energy weapon. Boeing’s CHAMP recently put on a show taking out targeted computers using one. Supposedly a crude herf gun can be built attaching a waveguide or horn antenna to the output of the magnetron.

Original video was pulled from Youtube updated 7/10/2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mjua2e8Y7k

Someone else’s crazy project

Note from wiki “a 1.1 kilowatt input will generally create about 700 watts of microwave power”

What I’d like to do

Build a Faraday cage so that I can safely perform testing
Get one of these powered up with an inline dimmer switch so that I can control the output
Build a horn antenna to attach to the Magnetron so that I can control the direction of output
Use some equipment to measure the emitted power with in controlled area
Use a frequency counter to get a reading of what range is play
Cook food from a distance
Light up bulbs in a field
Destroy some electronics

Related Projects on Instructables

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