cooler

Automate the Freight: Amazon Tackles the Last Mile Problem On Wheels

February 11, 2019 by 83 Comments

We’ve been occasionally exploring examples of what could be the killer application for self-driving vehicles: autonomous freight deliveries, both long-haul and local, as well as some special use cases. Some, like UAV delivery of blood and medical supplies in Kenya, have taken off and are becoming both profitable and potentially life-saving. Others, like driverless long-haul trucking, made an initial splash but appear to have gone quiet since then. This is to be expected, as the marketplace picks winners and losers in a neverending quest to maximize return on investment. But the whole field seems to have gotten a bit sleepy lately, with no big news of note for quite a while.

That changed last week with Amazon’s announcement of Scout, their autonomous delivery vehicle. Announced first on Amazon’s blog and later picked up by the popular and tech press who repeated the Amazon material almost verbatim, Scout appears at first glance to be a serious attempt by Amazon to own the “last mile” of delivery – the local routes that are currently plied by the likes of UPS, FedEx, and various postal services. Or is it?

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Artistic Images Made With Water Lens

December 7, 2018 by 15 Comments

It’s said that beauty and art can be found anywhere, as long as you look for it. The latest art project from [dmitry] both looks in unassuming places for that beauty, and projects what it sees for everyone to view. Like most of his projects, it’s able to produce its artwork in a very unconventional way. This particular project uses water as a lens, and by heating and cooling the water it produces a changing image.

The art installation uses a Peltier cooler to periodically freeze the water that’s being used as a lens. When light is projected through the frozen water onto a screen, the heat from the light melts the water and changes the projected image. The machine uses an Arduino and a Raspberry Pi in order to control the Peliter cooler and move the lens on top of the cooler to be frozen. Once frozen, it’s moved again into the path of the light in order to show an image through the lens.

[dmitry] intended the project to be a take on the cyclical nature of a substance from one state to another, and this is a very creative and interesting way of going about it. Of course, [dmitry]’s work always exhibits the same high build quality and interesting perspective, like his recent project which created music from the core samples of the deepest hole ever drilled.

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A Beverage Cooler That Comes To You!

July 2, 2017 by 28 Comments

Feel like taking a long walk, but can’t be bothered with carrying your drinks? Have no fear, this  “Follow Me” Cooler Bot is here!

Really just a mobile platform with a cooler on top, the robot connects to smartphone via Bluetooth, following it using GPS. Making the platform involves a little woodworking skill, and an aluminium hub with a 3D-printed hub adapter connects the motors to a pair 6″ rubber wheels with a swivel caster mounted at the rear. A pocket in the platform’s base houses the electronics.

The Arduino Uno — via an L298n motor driver — controls two 12V DC, brushed and geared motors mounted with 3D printed brackets, while a Parallax PAM-7Q GPS Module in conjunction with an HMC 5883L compass help the robot keep its bearing. A duo of batteries power the motors and the electronics separately to prevent  any malfunctions.

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Beer Gun Shoots Non-Lethal Doses Of Beverages

August 16, 2016 by 9 Comments

[Michalis Mavros] likes building things from steel. Guns are from steel. He and his friends also like action movies and beer. To address everybody’s needs [MakeItExtreme] style, he built a gigantic beer gun. At the size and caliber of a small field artillery cannon, the spectacular piece of art dispenses chilled pop cans for unsuspecting movie night visitors.

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R/C Bot Takes Your Strawberries Away

July 10, 2016 by 16 Comments

Don’t let the friendly smile on this RC cart fool you, it will take your strawberries away — though that’s kinda the point. It’s an RC car that [transistor-man] and a few friends modified for carrying freshly picked strawberries at strawberry fields so that you don’t have to.

RC strawberry carrying robot before putting on the cooler
RC strawberry carrying robot – WIP

They started with an older Traxxas Emaxx, a 4-wheel drive RC monster truck. The team also bought a suitable sized water cooler at a local hardware store. A quick load test showed that 5lbs collapsed the springs and shock absorbers, causing the chassis to sink close to the ground. The team had two options: switching to stronger springs or locking out the springs altogether. They decided to replace one set of shocks with metal plates effectively locking them. After that it was time for some CAD work, followed by the use of a water jet to cut some aluminum plate. They soon had a mounting plate for the water cooler to sit in. This mounting plate was attached to 4 posts which originally held the vehicle’s Lexan body. A bungee cord wrapped around the cooler and posts on the mounting plate holds the cooler in place.

Thermal image of bad MOSFET
Thermal image of bad MOSFET

Some initial testing showed that the vehicle moved too fast even in low gear and tended to tip over, as you can see in the first video below. Some practice helped but a 3:1 reduction planetary gearbox brought the vehicle down to walking speed, making a big difference. A trip was arranged to go to local strawberry picking field at Red Fire Farms, but not without some excitement first. At 1AM the UNIK 320A High Voltage Speed controller emitted some magic smoke. A quick check with a thermal-camera found the culprit, one of the MOSFETs had failed, and after swapping it with one that was close enough they were back in business.

As you can see in the second video below, testing in the strawberry field went very well, though it wasn’t without some tipping. Kids also found it a fun diversion from picking strawberries, alternating between mock fright and delight.

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2.5kW of Beverage-Cooling Awesomeness

November 12, 2014 by 39 Comments

We’ve covered many thermoelectric beverage coolers in the past, but none come close to the insane power of the AbsolutZero. [Ilan Moyer] set out to design a beverage cooler that chills a drink from room temperature to 5 degrees Celsius as quickly as possible, and it looks like he succeeded. The AbsolutZero consumes around 2.5kW of power and runs 8 water-cooled thermoelectric modules to quickly chill a drink.

[Ilan] put his machinist skills to work and fabricated many custom parts for this build. He machined water blocks for each thermoelectric cooler out of solid copper which draw heat away from each thermoelectric cooler. He also fabricated his own bus bars to handle the 200A+ of current the system draws. To transfer heat from the beverage to the thermoelectric modules, he turned and milled a heat spreader that perfectly fits a can of any beverage.

[Ilan]’s design uses a closed-loop water cooling system and 4 radiators to dissipate all of the heat the system produces, which is quite a lot: thermoelectric modules are typically only 10-15% efficient. The whole design is buttoned up in a custom polycarbonate enclosure with a carrying handle so you can conveniently lug the massive setup wherever quickly chilled beverages are needed. Be sure to check out [Ilan]’s build photos to see his excellent machining work.

Thanks for the tip, [Stefan].

A Beverage Cooler with a Stereo

August 10, 2014 by 6 Comments

Cooler

If you are looking for a way to spice up your summertime parties, try following [Pastryboy’s] lead. After letting the idea rattle around in his head for a few years, he finally built himself the cooler he always dreamed of.

[Pastryboy] was originally inspired by a YouTube video he found a few years ago. He took the basic concept and rolled with it. He started out with a mini fridge he found for $10. He removed the compressor and other plumbing bits. He also removed all of the internal shelving. Any leftover holes were patched up with silicone. Now when the fridge is laid on its back, it’s essentially the same as an ordinary cooler.

Next [Pastryboy] purchased two 6.5″ Boss speakers and an inexpensive head unit. He drilled a few pilot holes in the side of the refrigerator and then used a jigsaw to cut the holes to the proper sizes. Once the speakers were mounted in place, he needed to find a way to waterproof the inside. This was accomplished by using some small plastic bowls. The edges of the bowls were attached to the cooler wall using silicone.

[Pastryboy] was able to run most of the cabling through the inside of the cooler’s walls. The system is powered by a 12V lead acid battery. He chose a specific model of battery that can be stored in any orientation and that can handle being knocked around a little bit.

Next he added a couple of handles to the sides to make it easier to transport. A small bit of ski rope was attached to the inside of the lid, preventing the lid from flopping completely open. [Pastryboy] also added a drain to the bottom to make it easier for one person to empty the cooler. The final touch was to pretty it up a bit. He sanded down the entire thing and gave it several coats of red paint. The end result looks very slick.

[via Reddit]