Flannel Pillow Case Mod

Goway, I'm sleeping For a group trip I’m going on, I was given an inflatable neck pillow by the travel agency. It seems like a good idea: it packs compactly and is still reasonably comfortable to rest my head on. However, it is made with flocked vinyl, and reeks of plastic softeners. My solution: make a cotton flannel cover. It has a much better texture, can be easily washed, and it even hides the silly name of the travel agency.

cover number one

I took a scrap of leftover flannel and cut it out in the shape of the pillow with the fold of the flannel on the straight edge of the top of the pillow. I then stitched around the perimeter, leaving one side open so I could stuff the pillow in. Crowning touch: I put a button hole where the valve sticks out so it can be inflated and deflated with the cover on. (More photos here.) The net result is an improved pillow, which did help me sleep while I was packed in a 747-400 sardine can for 14 hours.

Bicycle Seat Cover Project

pretty, pretty

Vintage saddle

My vintage cruiser bike has an unusual seat post both in diameter and in the amount of taper at the top where the saddle mounts. I have not been able to locate a new saddle mounting bracket that will fit on the very small top of the seat post, nor will my non-standard mounting bracket fit on a replacement saddle, so I can’t just grab a replacement off the shelf. So, for both aesthetic and comfort reasons, I decided to make a seat cover.
Continue reading Bicycle Seat Cover Project

What (the heck) is it?

mystery

We came across this puzzling object at Weirdstuff, and we haven’t figured out what it is and/or was part of.

The piece is made of stiff black plastic– like that used to make dominoes– and is approximately 3/8″ thick. The surface of the piece is filled with a rectangular array of uniformly spaced holes that are visually labeled with a white checkerboard pattern. Each square on the checkerboard covers four holes and is roughly 1 cm square (we did not take a ruler to it). The rows and columns of holes– not checkers– are labeled. The rows are numbered from 0 to 33, increasing from top to bottom. The columns are numbered from 24 through 47, going right to left. The row labels appear on both the left and right sides, and the column labels are also repeated on both sides. That, combined with the coarser size of the checker pattern would seem to indicate that its usage requires either (1) rapidly identifying the numeric coordinates of a given hole or (2) rapidly finding a given hole from given numeric coordinates.

So what is it? (This time we really don’t know, so your best guesses, hints, and spoilers are welcome!)

Update 9/24/07:

Still no definitive answer. A few more details noted upon a closer look: The holes are clear through the plastic, with no electrical parts, connectors, or contacts inside– it’s just a sheet of holey plastic. The checkerboard pattern and numbering are repeated on the back side of the panel.

Visualizing image stabilization

EclipseLast month I went outside at 3 AM to photograph the eclipse. But I ended up having a hard time getting a good picture of the moon. The pictures were turning out unreasonably blurry– much more than I’d expect from just the moon’s apparent motion during the exposure time. The problem turned out to be the “IS” in my Canon S3 IS– the image stabilization– which apparently needs to be turned off for this sort of thing.

But why? Isn’t image stabilization supposed to take out blur?

Pointing elsewhere in the sky, you can sometimes (depending where you live) see small point-like sources of lights that can provide a useful tool for figuring out what the bleep your camera is actually doing. In the land of moderate light pollution one thing that we can see through our electronic viewfinder is the Pleiades star cluster, so let’s point our lens at that. The parameters for the two photographs below are identical, except that they were taken with image stabilization off and on, respectively: 15 second exposure, aperture wide open, zoomed in like crazy.
No IS.jpg
IS.jpg
In the top photo the stars each look like clean, easily distinguished stripes.

(In order to reduce vibration due to the button press, these two pictures were taken with a timer delay of a few seconds. However, there is still a small, squiggly tail at the base of each star track, presumably due to residual vibration of the tripod.)

In the lower photo, with image stabilization turned on, you can really see a significant difference. The initial squiggly tail at the lower left of each star track is still present, but is now smaller– thanks to the IS no doubt. Otherwise, the shape of the tracks is quite different. Let’s zoom in:

At the lower left is the initial squiggle from the tripod. In the middle is a large almost triangular structure where the star light was initially steered to. Then, there is an additional, wandering shape starting towards the upper right that bends down the right side.The net effect is that the trail of the star is not reduced to a point– just bent around into a loop.

Conclusion? It looks as though the image stabilization works well for short times– maybe up to a second– but lacks accuracy for longer exposures. And *that* is why you might want the IS off to take a clean picture of the moon.

Update: From what I can see online, there’s no image processing component to the image stabilization process– it’s based solely on sensing acceleration of the camera. Possible answer: Could the slow wandering of the image result from noise in the accelerometer signal?

 

One Minute Project: Chip Bugs

Still life with yellow paper (group shot 2)

If you work with electronics, you have probably at some point come across chips that have gone bad. The usual strategies to deal with these include (1) writing “DEAD?” on them in large letters (2) throwing them out, and (3) hiding the evidence. I once heard about a lab student who, whenever he came across a dead chip in his circuit, would dutifully file it back in the drawer with the new chips of that variety– just in case it turned out to be good after all.

Here’s an alternative solution: Turn your chips into Chip Bugs: cute, tiny sculptures that leave no doubt as to which components are which.
Continue reading One Minute Project: Chip Bugs

September Linkdump

  • Could you decode a message from an alien civilization? Here is your chance to find out.. It’s one of the most rewarding puzzles that I’ve ever seen.
    (Hint: print the pages out large to work on it.)
  • Individual Icons makes fantastic geek jewelry incorporating screws, rulers, thermometers, levels, and compasses.
  • See also: GeekGirl Jewelry made from electronic components
  • Density game
  • If you like evilmadscientist.com, then you will probably
    also like….(similicio.us)
  • New Honorary mad scientist:
    Tim Hunkin(thanks Matt Tovey)
  • Another variation on our circuitry snacks
  • Video showing what you can do with a mac laptop and Processing.
  • Every math geek chef and their brother has seen the beautifully fractal Romanesco broccoli, but I had never seen the more mundane fractal hiding inside red cabbage.
  • ACME Portable Hole $3.25/3
  • Have you ever found yourself wondering where you could buy 3D glasses by the thousand? (Not… that… i… would… have… any reason for that.) Source 1, Source 2.
  • What every baby needs
  • Bagless shopping concept
  • CandyFab has its own
    wikipedia pagenow.
  • Custom PCB is yet another low-cost prototyping service that nobody seems to know about. They have been around a while, but I haven’t tried them. (Have you?)
  • There are not many things that would I would trade-in my Prius for. Not many.
  • How to prepare a kiwi
  • Admit it. You want this squirrel-infested coffee table.

Make your own 1952 Fraction-of-an-inch Adding Machine

Adding Machine in case

Last weekend we took a trip to Urban Ore in Berkeley, where I found an incredible gem: this “Fraction of an Inch Adding Machine.” It’s a simple to use device that lets you add any number of fractions– from 1/64 to 63/64– quickly, automatically, correctly, and without thinking about it.

As proudly proclaimed on the bezel itself, this calculator design is covered under patent Des. 169941, submitted in 1952, and granted a 14-year term in 1953. Forty years after the patent has expired, it’s painfully obsolescent, and yet remarkably charming. The design is so simple and so obvious in how it works, and yet… there’s something almost magical about it.

But enough talk. Want to play with one? Using our pdf pattern and some office supplies, you can make a working replica in 5-10 minutes and try it out yourself!

Usage 3: First operand

Continue reading Make your own 1952 Fraction-of-an-inch Adding Machine