[islandlabs] hacker space

Tue Aug 16 20:35:38 UTC 2011

Bill,

Nice, I'd be interested to learn more about the balloon launch. 

Cloud chambers - We built several, from fish tanks, to peltier cooled, and petri dishes. 
I have few of the petri dishes left in kit form. 

As far as FM radio, the one I have been thinking is this

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10344

There is a interferometer that was setup to map the lower part of the ionosphere (I think) :

http://rrsl.ee.washington.edu/Projects/Manastash/

But I have not a good feel for how it would work. In the past we used analog TV stations that
are not around anymore. 

Cheers

Helio

On Aug 16, 2011, at 10:29 AM, Burns, William wrote:

> Helio:
> 
> If the website was up, you'd be able to see some of our high-altitude pictures.
> We followed the MIT/Icarus model and got good results on our first launch.
> We're now trying to get a good launch weekend for our APRS-enabled payload w/ arduino-controlled cameras.
> 
> We tried a few cloud-chamber variants. Got a petri-dish version operating, but only once.
> I'd be interested in finding a better (more reliable) setup.
> 
> We've been daydreaming about building our own (cheap) radio/transmitter from handwound inductors, etc. (as a replacement for the $70 handheld radio in our current payload)
> 
> There was one guy who showed-up at LILUG
> http://www.lilug.org
> with a demo of his computer-tuned HAM radios.
> (he wrote the application that did the tuning, and he streamed audio over the internet for his demo)
> He might be reachable on their mailing lists.
> 
> What kind of receiver would you be controlling with an arduino?
> Would you be tuning the radio, or using it to process audio output?
> 
> -Bill
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Helio Takai [mailto:takai at bnl.gov] 
>> Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 7:38 AM
>> To: Burns, William
>> Cc: 'Island Labs main mailing list'
>> Subject: Re: hacker space
>> 
>> Hi Bill,
>> 
>> Thanks for your reply and very interesting links.
>> 
>> Apropos ICON, I have been doing demos at ICON in the past 3-4 
>> years. It is called "The Physics Demonstration Show". Yes it 
>> is lame...  I have built many cloud chambers and have two 
>> that I take to schools and other places. They work really 
>> well, so I can help you there. 
>> 
>> Weather balloon - do you mean taking pictures at high 
>> altitudes? I have done one flight with students and it is 
>> pretty cool. 
>> 
>> I have seen Krishnan demos at ICON. I do demo shows at 
>> several places but mostly in physics, though it does include 
>> a bit of liquid nitrogen, dry ice, but I stay away from 
>> explosions and loud noise. Mostly explaining about light, IR 
>> light, etc... 
>> 
>> I work primarily as a particle physicist in the ATLAS 
>> experiment at CERN. I also have another activity which is to 
>> develop a radar for the detection of ultra high energy cosmic 
>> rays. The latter involves a lot of teachers and students. The 
>> radar is a parasitic forward scattering radar that can also 
>> detect meteors. This is one place I am interested in using 
>> Arduino, i.e. to control an inexpensive FM receiver. Meteors 
>> seem interesting as it can probe the ozone layer at very high 
>> altitudes. 
>> 
>> I wrote down the 17th on my calendar. If I am available I 
>> will stop by at your meeting at Farmindale.
>> 
>> Thank you again for your email and lets stay in touch. I am 
>> very interested in what you are doing, and it seems that we 
>> have a lot of parallel effort going on.
>> 
>> Best Regards,
>> 
>> Helio
>> 
>> On Aug 15, 2011, at 5:55 PM, Burns, William wrote:
>> 
>>> Helio:
>>> 
>>> Sorry about the website being down.
>>> 
>>> The turnout at Island Labs meetings has been low lately, 
>> but we've been meeting every wednesday at 8:00pm on 
>> Farmingdale Campus: Whitman building, room 251.
>>> http://www.farmingdale.edu/quicklinks/IFS_Map_of_Campus.html
>>> The next meeting is the 17th.
>>> "Please note that there is construction taking place on 
>> campus. You'll have to stop at the public-safety office to 
>> announce that you're on campus for a meeting, and that you'll 
>> need a parking pass."
>>> 
>>> I don't know what you know about Island Labs already...
>>> 
>>> Weather ballooning is our one big/active project right now.
>>> We've done 2 weather-ballooning presentations for a private school.
>>> 
>>> We like arduinos.
>>> http://www.arduinoeducation.com/
>>> http://electronics.flosscience.com/
>>> So do the people at this (more active) hackerspace:
>>> http://www.nycresistor.com/
>>> 
>>> We're also doing HAM radio training which (depending on 
>> who's at the meeting) could take most of our meeting time.
>>> 
>>> re:
>>> Science demonstrations:
>>> Recently at I-Con, we did a "kitchen science" demo 
>> including a fire tornado, a pulsejet engine, an electrically 
>> illuminated pickle, and *almost* got a cloud chamber working.
>>> 
>>> I'd be glad to share details of any/all of these projects with you.
>>> There's a lot of information on youtube as well.
>>> 
>>> Are you familiar with Dr. C. V. Krishnan of Stony Brook?
>>> http://www.iconsf.org/archive/icon23/sci_tech_chem_magic.htm
>>> As I recall he charged about $200 for expendable supplies, 
>> but his show was amazing.
>>> Unfortunately, he's no longer doing his chemistry magic 
>> show at I-Con, but he may be willing to talk to an educator 
>> like yourself since promoting an interest in science was a 
>> big focus of his.
>>> 
>>> "chemistry magic show" is a great search phrase on youtube, 
>> by-the-way.
>>> So is "Steve Spangler science".
>>> http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=steve+spangler+science
>>> 
>>> I'd recommend attending Maker Faire NYC.
>>> http://makerfaire.com/newyork/2011/
>>> It'll be held September 17th+18th at the New York Hall of 
>> Science, which is an interesting place by itself.
>>> I could easily spend 2 full days there.
>>> 
>>> Please let me know if you think you'd like to do a demo of 
>> your own at I-Con, or if there's a topic you'd be interested 
>> in speaking about.
>>> I'm sure the crowd there would appreciate an update on 
>> activities at BNL.
>>> 
>>> -Bill
>>> 
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Helio Takai
>>>> Sent: Saturday, August 13, 2011 1:34 PM
>>>> To: Burns, William
>>>> Subject: hacker space
>>>> 
>>>> Hi,
>>>> I heard about hacker spaces through a friend of mine and I am 
>>>> interested to learn more about it. I went to the web site, 
>>>> islandlabs.org but it is not working.
>>>> 
>>>> Anyway, I am a physicist from Brookhaven Labs, and work 
>> with a lot of 
>>>> local high schools. We are always interested in science 
>> projects that 
>>>> can be developed inexpensively but still gives good scientific 
>>>> results. So I would be interested to learn more about  your 
>>>> activities.
>>>> 
>>>> Helio
>>>> 
>>>> Helio Takai
>>>> Physics Department, bldg 510A
>>>> Brookhaven National Laboratory
>> 