I suspect most of my repeat offenders visitors here pay little attention to my collection of odd things I have assembled. With these wondrous moving objects consisting of mostly recycled garbage rubber banded together I have produced youtube clips. If you are interested please take a look on my Playing Around page.
Even if you not interesting or don't have the time to check out the youtube clips, you’ll still notice the pile of recycled pieces I electrified with a few LEDs below. Don’t you love the cassette tape styling I spent long minutes working on?
Myself I'm happier on days I can let the morning newspaper age a bit on the driveway before venturing out.
Actually if you are enjoying yourself I don't think that's a waste of time. I mean who besides your mother decides if you are wasting time? Is there some master of time that tracks how you use it? Everyday we all get the same amount.
If technology, space travel, science or machines interest you, then this place would be a great place to spend a day just looking around.
Most of this stuff is very expensive (cheap compared to new) but hey, space travel isn't easy or inexpensive. I don't think a discount orbital trip is in my future. You'll learn in the video clip below that some of the cool rocket engine parts cost 100's of thousands to upwards of a few million dollars.
I would just enjoy looking around the store.
I first discovered this on wired.com. They have another related slideshow of space junk that is up for auction. Check it out.
Not surprising to me there's a web site for space history and artifacts - collectSpace
I don't care for the name 'collectspace'. C'mom, you are already being accused of wasting time and now - collecting space - that's not fair!
Well you can spend time there through a youtube clip:
After that, my wife happened to find this old toy with a clown head. That lead to the next modification (2.0 ??) check this if you like
Well putting it up on youtube and looking around the net, I discovered bristle bots. Do some searching you'll find many variations - here's a fairly large one. (quad bristle?)
Basically it's a fun way to reuse your toothbrush vs. cleaning toilets or whatever.
My first bristle bot attempt was not too stable. It moved a few inches and fell on its side. Then the idea of using a paper clip and a couple of brushes to form the TRI-BRISTLE. (like the outrigger idea for canoes)
So now I have combined the clown head and the bristle bot.
(update 5/2011 - If you clicked over from youtube you might be interested in my latest video clips)
It started as a hex bug. These inexpensive toys are great except they have limited batteries. So instead of replacing the small watch type batteries, I decided to attach a rechargeable battery to it. Sometime ago I posted the first modification to this hex bug.
The other day the Chicago Tribune had this informative article about recycling cell phones. One of the big reseller/ recycler, Recellular, is reported to expect processing over 6 million phones this years. The recellular.com site has a great list of donation and recycling programs.
Here's another idea or two.
I recently updated my Verizon phone. Instead of using one of these programs I recycled my old one by selling it on E-bay.
Another old phone around the house that didn't work (dead screen) was used for spare parts. When you take it apart be sure to keep the battery holder part intact. The best parts were the battery and holder and the vibrate motor. These parts were then connected to the hex bug.
Using the battery and vibrate motor with the hex bug turned out great. The power of the battery is a little too much for the hex bug if directly connected to the bug's power. So by putting the vibrate motor in series with the bug works and then you get a this extra vibrating thing going for it.
Here's the new hex bug toy in action.
Here's a little video of a toy robot that I modified. The Hex Bug toy comes with some small (watch like) batteries so I wanted to have it run on a rechargeable. I happened to get a new cordless razor from Santa so I took the rechargeable batteries from the old one and wired them on the hex bug. I also needed some well placed rubber bands to hold things together. I threw on a gum drop looking LED for that extra touch.
If you are looking for more of real robot --- watch this:
