One project out the way, now would be a great time to go over some of the other projects I’ve had in mind for a while. Here they are, listed in order of ridiculousness.
Wireless MP5
A few friends have each suggested attempting to make the Monitor for my Gyroscopic MP5 entirely wireless, using some form of wireless USB bridge. One of them went so far as to link me to the PeteTether, a wireless USB bridge by fellow blogger .. pete.
Each time someone mentioned it I have to reiterate my concerns:
I’m worries that the wireless USB connection would add another layer of lag between the PC and the screen, while the lag between the gyroscopic mouse and the PC is already enough.
I’ve also discovered that the Samsung U700 monitor needs the full 5 volts supplied by the USB connection in order to start. It’ll run on less than 5, but it needs the 5 to turn on.
Despite this I did go looking for a wireless USB bridge dongle, but all I could find was one US site offering international shipping. The bridge would have cost £44, while shipping would have run me £25. It seems like until the bridge is released in the UK it won’t be feasible to get my hands on one.
Fishtank PC
I run a server downstairs which is online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This fatass machine pisses out a whole ton of heat and needs to be cooled by a small array of fans, which produce a lot of irritating noise.
A while back someone liked me to an article about dunking the whole of your PC internals into a tank full of mineral oil, allowing the oil to passively cool the hardware and forego the need for fans. Here’s a youtube video covering the same Mineral Oil Fishtank PC idea.
I did a whole ton of research on this and discovered that “Mineral Oil” in this country is actually called “Liquid Paraffin”, not to be confused with actual Paraffin which is flammable.
The Arcadia 20 Liter aquarium looks the ideal size for the PC componants and costs around £35. 20 liters of liquid paraffin will run you £52.92 from the cheapest supplier, Mole Valley Farmers.
Dolls House
When I was a wee kiddie, my grandad constructed a Dolls House for my sister, a petrol station for myself and a farmyard set for us both. Of these three items the dolls house ended up needing some serious attention.
My sister had already started rennovations when I hitched upon the idea to use his original house design and styles in order to create my own. I’ve always considered this project an ode to my grandad rather than gaying it up playing with dolls.
With help from my girlfriend we painstakingly working out how the house was put together and replicated it on 3d studio, before my sister took back the original dolls house.
Using this 3d model we came up with a new design based heavily on the old one, but including features such as electric lighting and access to the attic. I also improved upon several shortcomings from the original, such as expanding the difficult to access (even for childs hands) hallway, recessing the windows, adding window sills and making the garage large enough for a Playmobil car.
Last time I worked on this project I believe I’d just finished working on the staircase and was struggling with the hinges on the interior doors. I’ve since seen minature hinges in our local toy shop Trinders, which might work wonders.
Battlestar Galactica Viper Mk2
A way back I saw an image from the 1978 show Battlestar Galactica, showing two half-built Mk1 Vipers. For some reason I also stumbled across fellow blogger Greg Kolodziejzyk’s PedalTheOcean.com blog, which mostly centers around ocean boat construction.
Somewhere in my head these two sites met up, shook hands, and told my brain “you can do this, its not that hard!” and my brain took them seriously. As a result I’ve spent way too long considering the ins and outs of attempting to construct a Battlestar Galactica Mark 2 Viper in our garage.
Essentially the concept is very simple – model the Viper, then render silhouettes from segments placed along the length of the model. Using a thin strips of the flexible wood, nailgun the flexible wood to the segments and you’ll have yourself a pretty good looking frame.
Of course, this straight forward approach only works if you have a warehouse to construct the Viper in. In my case, our garage measures approximately 500x220x184, and the viper is 840x470x270. The solution? Create the Viper in segments!
The idea I’ve hitched upon is to separate the viper into 10 separate pieces:
- Nose Cone
- Neck
- Body/cockpit
- Left Engine
- Right Engine
- Center Engine
- Left Wing
- Right Wing
- Tail Fin
- Landing Gear
Each piece would need to be created in full before moving on to the next segment. The last piece to be constructed would be the main body/cockpit section, as it is the largest and would need to be stored inside the garage at all times, and would barely fit.
So far I’ve managed to get my hands on a copy of the Battlestar Galactica Viper Mk2 model, and using this I intend to replicate the frame of my build and come up with a design for the entire Viper. A flawless design will be required before starting any construction due to the fact I can’t test pieces out as they’re built.
I’ll also need to use the design to figure out exactly how much the project will cost, at least in guesstimated figures of wood quantities, meters squared of fibreglass roving, paint and other hardware. It may be that even with a brilliant design the construction just isn’t feasible.
Of course the other problem to contend with is the only option I would have, should the viper be completed, is to sell it. Otherwise it would do nothing but eat up space in our back garden and garage.
