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Friday, August 06, 2010

Breadboard Crumbs

After an incredible month at Fermilab, I'm back in San Diego. I'm a little late in reporting in since I returned to the West Coast a few weeks ago, but no matter. I've spent most of the past three weeks, taking advantage of the fact that it's summer and I don't have any immediate obligations. Still, I've had a few projects swimming around in my head, some even making it past the drawing board.

First, there was the unexpected opportunity to go to Comic-Con (major kudos to mi amigo Dylan) which naturally sparked my not necessarily reasonable need to sew a dress for the occasion. Forget cosplay, I just wanted to get dolled up!


The original idea was a tad different...


...but when you want to finish up a dress in 12-hours, you "adjust". (Seriously, I have no idea how that parabolic hem would have worked out. And don't even get me started on how long making a sheer, severely pleated underskirt would have taken.) I give bountiful kudos to Dylan's mom who helped me make the dress and gave me a new confidence to fearless rip seams to make alterations to various garments I own.

The convention itself was, as always, amazing, but I'm still a bit grumpy about the fact that I waited 2.5 hours in line to go to the Big Bang Theory panel only to have the line cut off with only 20 people in front of me! ARRRRGGG!

Ahem.

I'm also working on making a circuit. I will leave it's purpose a mystery to you (unless I've already told you about it or you can figure out what it is from the picture <- which would probably mean that your are pretty handy with a soldering iron). As of yet, it's not working. Big surprise on the first wiring, right? Ha! Let's just say that I've been spending a lot of with a volt meter. If matters continue to be dire, I will take out my naval oscilloscope from the 70's and see if that cheers me up.


In other news, here's a picture of me with a charming Bulgarian named Nick and his VW bug powered by an 80 lbs. rocket engine. It runs mainly on hydrogen peroxide and a bit of ethanol. It emits carbon dioxide and water. Basically, it's baller. Almost as baller as his mustache.


Here's a pic of just the car because I know you're curious!


Until next time. ;)


Posted by Tess |


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There is a problem with this. With an electric motor on a bug you have no heater. So it will be nippy on those cold days!

Posted by Blogger Unknown #  

~Oo°~

The circuit looks like it has a few op amps wired up as schmitt triggers with positive feedback, a 555 timer with the FM input running someplace, and possibly a Maxim voltage comparator of some sort. Other than that, I have no idea what it's supposed to do.

Posted by Anonymous Professor D #  

~Oo°~

@Caleb - Good point. Although, I'm sure there's a clever way to have a rocket engine keep your toes warm.

@Professor D - Ya, it's some sort of half-baked photomultiplier tube discriminator that will convert the raw pulses into something that can be used for triggering LEDs. It's a project that I will elaborate on in a later post (hopefully soon!). I have to do a bit more tinkering but I think I can just have an Arduino handle most of this (have to consult with some of my eecs friends). :)

Posted by Blogger Tess #  

~Oo°~

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