Frozen

5 Articles

RC Snowmobile Makes Tracks On Ice

February 18, 2022 by 7 Comments

With all the futuristic technology currently at our disposal, it seems a little bizarre that most passenger vehicles are essentially the same thing that they were a century ago. Four wheels, a motor, and some seats would appear to be a difficult formula to beat. But in the 3D printing world where rapid prototyping is the name of the game, some unique vehicle designs have been pushed out especially in the RC world. One of the latest comes to us from [RCLifeOn] in the form of a single-wheeled RC snowmobile.

While not a traditional snowmobile with tracks, this one does share some similarities. It has one drive wheel in the back printed with TPR for flexibility and it also includes studs all along its entire circumference to give it better traction on ice. There are runners in the front made from old ice skates which the vehicle uses for steering, and it’s all tied together with an RC controller and some lithium batteries to handle steering and driving the electric motor.

There were some design flaws in the first iteration of this vehicle, including a very large turning radius, a gearing setup with an unnecessarily high torque, and a frame that was too flexible for the chain drive. [RCLifeOn] was also testing this on a lake which looked like it was just about to revert to a liquid state which made for some interesting video segments of him retrieving the stuck vehicle with a tree branch and string. All in all, we are hopeful for a second revision in the future when some of these issues are hammered out and this one-of-a-kind vehicle can really rip across the frozen wastes not unlike this other interesting snowmobile from a decade ago.

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Olaf Lets An ESP32 Listen To The Music

August 30, 2020 by 6 Comments

The joys of overengineering a simple gift. [Joren] wanted to create a dress for his daughter’s fourth birthday that would react with lights in sequence for a song from Frozen. The dress and an LED strip, along with a digital microphone and a battery were easy to procure. But how to make it all work? An ESP32 did the trick.

While the project’s name–Olaf–sounds like it was from Frozen, according to the GitHub page it actually means Overly Lightweight Acoustic Fingerprinting. Right. However, as the name implies, it can learn to identify any sound you want.

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Electronics On Ice

April 12, 2019 by 6 Comments

We see all manner of electronics enclosures pass through these hallowed pages. Lasercut wooden builds with fancy kerf bending, expertly prepared acrylic boxes, and even the occasional device cast in concrete. [Mike Kohn] decided that all of these were too permanent, however, and chose a different material – ice.

[Mike] shares the ups and downs of his experiments with electronics and frozen water. Initial tests with a circuit sealed in DAP Ultra Clear were largely successful.  A tilt sensor was installed to allow the batteries to remain undrained during the freezing process, and once freed after a few hours of thawing, the circuit was operational. Later builds required some more work – the RC car in particular took a few attempts to avoid the mold leaking. The ice hands are a particular highlight, though – created with rubber gloves, these would be a remarkably spooky decoration come Halloween.

It’s a study in the techniques required to work with this ephemeral material, and there’s a few lessons to learn. Sealing electronics is good, and the best results are with simple circuits with a few LEDs that make everything glow nicely.

If you’re looking for other ideas, you could always create a frozen lens for photographical purposes. Video after the break.

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Tear Gun Transmutes Emotions Into Firepower

January 27, 2017 by 28 Comments

Frustration is tough to deal with. When driven to the point of tears it’s sometimes a short step to lashing out irrationally. Focus in these situations helps, channeling your frustration into something useful. [Yi-Fei Chen] has done that — quite literally — by designing a gun that fires her shed tears.

The gun’s design manifested following a strenuous midterm presentation. Her insistent tutor drove her to tears as frustration clashed with the deep cultural values of her native Taiwan which prevented her from speaking up against authority.

A silicone cup resting against her cheek collects the tears which flow into a chamber of the gun to be frozen. Removing the safety slide preps the round to be fired by the pressure plate trigger on the gun’s rear. It’s simple and it works — tutors beware.

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Ice Clock

Binary Clock Fit For Queen Elsa’s Ice Palace

January 16, 2015 by 10 Comments

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. When life gives you freezing cold temperatures and a yard full of snow, you make binary clocks out of ice. At least that’s what [Dennis] does, anyway.

[Dennis’] clock is made from several cylindrical blocks of ice stacked on top of one another. There are six columns of ice blocks. The blocks were made by pouring water into empty margarine containers and freezing them. Once they were frozen, [Dennis] bore a 5/16″ hole into the bottom of each block to house an LED. Wires ran from the LEDs back into the drainage port of a cooler.

The cooler housed the main electronics. The LED controller board is of [Dennis’] own design. It contains six TLC59282 chips allowing for control of up to 96 LEDs. Each chip has its output lines running to two RJ45 connectors. [Dennis] couldn’t just use one because one of the eight wires in the connector was used as a common power line. The main CPU is an Arduino. It’s hooked up to a DS3234 Real Time Clock in order to keep accurate time. The oscillator monitors temperature in order to keep accurate time even in the dead of winter. Continue reading “Binary Clock Fit For Queen Elsa’s Ice Palace” →