This is not a hack, but at least its
something new on high voltage on this site

Can we get some crazy impossible hacks like a pic running linux or something??

Also, you guys used to be so awesome with your hacks, but now its just simple diy type of things :T

Posted at 2:16 pm on Sep 17th, 2008 by hak8or

Eh, kinda neat, but Hak8or is right, not exactly a hack… On the other hand, it’s not like you can just snap your fingers and a genius puts linux on a pic. Think about it, a pic has so little processor capability compared to most things that run linux.

Posted at 2:45 pm on Sep 17th, 2008 by Yoshi

Hackaday has swayed from its beginning, and will probably never return…

Posted at 3:03 pm on Sep 17th, 2008 by pip

Hey, if you don’t like it, FUCK OFF!

There are plenty of other websites on the internet you can go and read you fucking prick.

Posted at 3:07 pm on Sep 17th, 2008 by bob

@ bob. you could have phrased it better but i can understand the sentiment
unfortunately there will always be trolls that can’t handle the slightest changes on hackaday

funky hack though :) now i just need to figure out something really dumb to do with it ;)

Posted at 3:25 pm on Sep 17th, 2008 by cap slockoff

Honestly though guys your expectations are a bit lofty. Hack a day is a WONDERFUL resource for those hacks and projects that come out, are documented enough to provide a thoughtful and insightful article, and are also new and ground breaking. Only so many good advances can come to the surface if there is no fresh input. The best solution to your concerns: Get out there with your soldiering irons, pic programmers, tools, and what ever know how that you’ve picked up or are able to teach yourself and get inventing. The ONLY solution to that which you are complaining about is a lack of fresh material. So instead of just griping, be proactive.

Posted at 3:31 pm on Sep 17th, 2008 by droose

Correction: The only solution to the lack of fresh material is provide that new material.

Posted at 3:32 pm on Sep 17th, 2008 by droose

I’ve long thought of making a simple axial capacitor from two rolls of tinfoil, and two rolls of wax paper (or saran wrap) interleaved and rolled up tight.

It would be easy enough to measure the capacitance, but you’d destroy it the moment you found the maximum working voltage.

Posted at 4:13 pm on Sep 17th, 2008 by Almost_There

By the way, I like Hack-A-Day. Quit bitching!

Posted at 4:14 pm on Sep 17th, 2008 by Almost_There

@ almost_there that could be used as an electronic fuse or killswitch of sorts.

Posted at 4:59 pm on Sep 17th, 2008 by droose

If you want practical HV capacitor use plastic cups and foil stuck them in tower for more capacitance

Posted at 6:58 pm on Sep 17th, 2008 by therian

@almost_there

You could make a guess as to the maximum voltage of the Capacitor by examining the dielectric strength of your unit, wax paper. If you worked under half of that (possibly more, but half is a good start), that would be a good maximum working voltage.

Posted at 7:01 pm on Sep 17th, 2008 by andy

while the “standards for entry” have certainly decreased a bit as compared to the former hackaday, i’m not complaining. although all of the articles may not be “how to get linux running on a pic” grade hacks, most of them (like this homemade capacitor) are at least mildly interesting, and give me something to read when i am looking for a distraction from my work. :) and as others have said, if it’s so easy to get your project featured on hackaday now that there are more people here to post them, then what’s stopping you from being the one to share the next awesome hack. seriously, if you know how to run linux on a pic (or better yet, a single vacuum tub), by all means share. but until then, no whining.

Posted at 7:25 pm on Sep 17th, 2008 by ryan

The rolled aluminum foil/waxed paper design is a good start, but it would work much better with a few improvements.

First, to keep it from arcing over on the edges at (relatively)low voltages, you need to stat by cutting down the aluminum foil. Just use hacksaw/bandsaw/etc on the bare role of foil. The next improvement would be to switch to some type of plastic over the waxed paper (its a much better dieletric, so you will store considerably more energy in your capacitor, and it is available in a much wider range of thickness so you can design a cap for any voltage you want). If you wanted to stick with kitchen supplies cling/plastic wrap, although your max voltage would be limited (but if you made a cap out of a whole role of Al foil/cling wrap you would probably have 100nf-1uf of capacitance!). Better would be painters plastic (made out of hdpe) sized for whatever voltage you want, 500v per mill of thickness (best to make the cap good for about 2x the voltage you plan to use so it will last a while). Over about 10kv you will run into corona problems, so you have to dunk the cap in oil to take care of that.

Posted at 7:57 pm on Sep 17th, 2008 by ...

almost_there: You can use two layers of tin foil and ceran wrap in between. (paper clips for the hook up).

Don’t roll it up though, hang it up flat, the voltage will pull the layers tight.

And, to some extent it is self healing, a couple sparks through the ceran wrap won’t kill it but evaporate enough aluminum to keep it insulated.

Just as a warning: Capacitance goes up with surface but also with 1/distance of the plates. Since ceran wrap is very thin, the foil plates can hold quite a charge. It is not safe to touch!

Posted at 8:08 pm on Sep 17th, 2008 by tantris

So what will you do? Fire the guys who run Hack A Day? How about you run a site so we can all go and call it shit.

Posted at 8:18 pm on Sep 17th, 2008 by Your Testicles

applications of this hack?

diy “cva electra” jk, dont try that at home.
insane?

Posted at 12:00 am on Sep 18th, 2008 by fer

I think the reason for lots of Digg/Instructables/&c stuff getting posted is /that’s where the hacks are going!/

In the ‘good old days’ folks would use their college/uni.ac or .edu/~[name]/projects.html to host their stuff, then wait for it to be picked up on by (for example…) Hackaday!

Now, they’re hosted on instructables and/or dugg before hackaday gets to them.

I have to agree – at least in part – that the (subjective) quality of submitted hacks has dropped, but that’ll be mostly a function of sheer numbers due to accessibility, like working your way through the dross on deviantart.

[pithy conclusion here]

Posted at 1:13 am on Sep 18th, 2008 by herbicide

also something that should be considered is th fact that there just aren’t that many hardcore hacks these days that aren’t on some ones private blog or dig or engadget.its hard to find deacent hacks so they have to use filler until the good stuff comes along

Posted at 5:02 am on Sep 18th, 2008 by will

the only things annoying about h-a-d are the trolls. maybe they would prefer “hack a once in a while” or “hack whenever i get around to it” so that we can wait for the great hacks to come along.

Posted at 7:48 am on Sep 18th, 2008 by bancroft

What is the airspeed of an unlayden swallow?

Posted at 10:21 am on Sep 18th, 2008 by strider_mt2k

How is DIY not a hackish topic?
I mean… DIY is doing that with what is not contemporary of the present time period; hacks are in the same vein.
DIY is like… hacking nature… or… not relying on a corporate entity to big brother you through life.
A hack is like… hacking consumecr products… or… not relying on a corporate entity to tell you what is and is not possible to do with one of their products.
Seem similar to me… and this kind of diy project could even be used in a pic controlled hack project, charged by electrostatic energy, stored in these jars… or something.

I agree that it’s better than product placement ads of other sites.

An African Swallow or a European Swallow?

Posted at 2:12 pm on Sep 18th, 2008 by Louis II

I don’t know that!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Posted at 6:11 pm on Sep 18th, 2008 by strider_mt2k

I just made one of these, and cut myself on the steel wool i used to make a brush for charging (sharp). Makes a pretty decent spark charging electrostatically.

Posted at 6:20 pm on Sep 18th, 2008 by Ray

I saw a show about some German students who made a Hydrogen fuel-cell powered go-kart and they used large (commercially made) caps to make up for the low current output capability of the F.C.

This and other homemade condensor designs (yeah, I’m old-skool ;) have great worth in DIY alternative energy/transportation applications (ie. “hacks”).

Posted at 8:32 pm on Sep 18th, 2008 by Amos

It’s wholly ironic that the trolls who come here to complain about the lack of ‘hacks’ are the ones that have never done anything original in their life. hack8tor, yoshi, pip: let’s see what you’ve contributed over the last 12 months.

Posted at 12:37 am on Sep 19th, 2008 by Marty

As a non-hacker who is interested in technology old and new, this site is great fun and informative to view. I might not want want to learn how to run linux on a pic should such a thing ever become possible, but you must remember that this kind of article is inspiring for people like me. Keep up the good work Hackaday.

Posted at 5:47 am on Sep 21st, 2008 by Fremoin

I like this as it puts things in perspective. if you don’t know where you came from, you’ll never understand where you’re headed. Plus, it makes a nice project for somebody that doesn’t want to spend lots of time and money on something much more complex that is equally impractical.

Posted at 1:10 pm on Sep 28th, 2008 by mushroombrew