My father runs a car wash and I built a vacuum cleaner that accepted coins using coin acceptor from Aliexpress and Arduino. That was fun but it lasted only a few months until the device got too dirty from open weather to recognize coins properly.
Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
11–20 of 694 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#12I learned the basics of electrics and rewired my house. While doing that i also learned how to "make" network cables and everything. That in turn has lead to some cool house automation for lights pool and more and now i can make my own homekit adapters too =)
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#13Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#14I have a Fairchild K-20 [1] lens from WW2 and I created a 3D printed camera for it so I can shoot large format 4x5 inch film handheld.
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#15Brass coin:
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#16I learned the basics of electrics and rewired my house. While doing that i also learned how to "make" network cables and everything. That in turn has lead to some cool house automation for lights pool and more and now i can make my own homekit adapters too =)
being able to crimp out ethernet cables is so useful
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#17A titanium road bike frame. UBI in Ashland OR USA had a 2 week course during which you learn to and complete a frame. You didn't need prior experience but I took a welding course in a community college beforehand.
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#18This one is physical and digital. I personally patented, designed, built, and deployed a novel ultrasonic inspection device that encoded position/orientation using IR (Just like motion capture in movies). Actually used it in the field at a nuclear plant. The value pitch is that is allowed for fast deployment (manual scanning), but could also record coverage ensuring nothing was missed. Fast deployment was important to avoid radiation and guaranteing coverage was important for safety. Ended up costing significantly less than automated scanning using a robotic system.
My absolute favorite was using the data to project a 3d model of the interior of the welds. Had to learn quaternions which was nearly the death of me, but I'm just glad it worked.
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#19I made a player piano from scratch ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atJ_YsPFDjQ (improved since I took the video).
I do a LOT of custom stuff (mechanics, woodworking, house rebuilding, electronics, ...) but this is my favorite one yet, kind of sad I'm bad at showing the stuff I make :D
If you have any idea of what kind of job I could do to make use of all these skills I would be happy to have your thoughts !
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#20Brass coin: https://youtu.be/te130KONPP4
I like that it includes a large rope around the edge to prevent coin debasement.