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Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#301

Post by biomcgary »

shimon wrote: post #212
mattlondon wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found that V2 was much harder from an orchestration and toil point of view.

I agree, the scale problems seem to outweigh the scale economies at N=2. At some point you get positive network effects where the older ones contribute to the care of the younger ones, but so far we mainly observe a lot of resource contention with frequent livelock exceptions requiring intervention by the parent processes.

At N=4, I have observed substantial reduction in required average per unit parental engagement. However, we found that parental unit genetics increased the probability of encountering a different instruction set (autism), which involves recompiling a large fraction of the standard library for one unit.

Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#302

Post by MerelyMortal »

shimon wrote: post #218
xyzelement wrote: post #196

This may or may not fit into the OP's intention but some of my favorite physical achievements are repairs that might be impressive for a random suburban dad :) 1. Two years ago our basement flooded a week after we bought the house. I ended up tearing out the now-saturated carpet and put in vinyl plank flooring. Mainly straight forward but requires planning and at some points tricky sawing. It's cool when people come…

What was your AC repair? Did it involve dealing with the refrigerant system or just other electronic components? If so, I'd be shocked too -- AFAIK most commonly-used refrigerant compounds are not generally available to civilians because of the environmental damage caused by their irresponsible discharge.

> AFAIK most commonly-used refrigerant compounds are not generally available to civilians because of the environmental damage caused by their irresponsible discharge.

I don't know if the EPA test has changed in the decade since I took it, but it was very easy for me to get the cert needed to buy refrigerants myself. I found an A/C supply store that administered the tests, found a study guide on the internet, ready the study guide in half an hour, took the test. Now apparently you can do the test online whereas I had to go to the store.

Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#303

Post by dirtybirdnj »

dylanlacom wrote: post #199
dirtybirdnj wrote: post #117

A few years ago I worked at a startup that let you send handwritten notes via an API. The machines that did this were basically 2.5 axis 3d printers, aka pen plotters which is not a new concept. I was a software dev on one floor of a building working on the platform, and on the floor below us there was a fleet of about 100 of these machines that were producing the notes. Edit: There was a team of folks that maintaine…

Really cool! But your site could really benefit from having more examples. One image is not enough. Maybe you can link to an instagram account with examples that users share with you. I could see this being a fun activity at a wedding event.

Thanks so much, here's the IG account I set up.

https://www.instagram.com/robotdrawsyou

Re: "Wedding events" Yes! But, the cloud. (see below).

One of the problems with my current workflow is its dependent on not only 1. an internet connection but 2. there is a "cloud" i have to interact with to use my off-the-shelf machine.

I have hardware for a new machine, it will need zero internet and work off the grid with nothing but 110 (maybe 12v?) power.

I haven't spent the time to "put the pieces together" so to speak. It needs a UI that allows control over the execution of the plotter artwork. Stuff that pesky "cloud" sort of does, but separates me enough from that I need to make my own version that allows for necessary control.

I think if I was given the time and space to do the deep work necessary I could get a functional MVP working in 2-3 weeks. The constraints of life mean that I can only give it 30min to 1 hour spurts, and even then those are not consistent at all.

Photographing the artwork has also been a challenge for me. I finally bought a pre-made template that I like so hopefully I can get past all the emotional hangups with my past failures and just move forward with what I have instead of trying to "perfect" it all before launch.

Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#305

Post by jaywalk »

hoofhearted wrote: post #179
alberth wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I understanding this correctly, basically a Colo was acquired by Amazon? It’s pedantic but colo existed for decades before AWS. It’s the software layer from AWS that made it “The Cloud” (quicker access to hardware & billing by the second, not month)

Nope. As I understand it, Amazon doesn’t actually own data centers; similar to how they don’t own warehouses. My understanding later on in my career shift to computer engineering was that Amazon is renting out the whole colo, and just owns their equipment. Amazon isn’t maintaining the datacenter infrastructure such as cooling and power, but instead it’s covered in their bill.

So then who owns the warehouses that have Amazon logos on them, exclusively used by Amazon with Amazon employees working inside them?

Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#306

Post by petsfed »

cactacea wrote: post #187

After doing the vanlife thing for a few years and rewiring the auxiliary battery system in my rig a couple of times I decided to scratch an itch and created a PCB with Wago connectors to greatly simplify the process and eliminate as many crimped ring connections as possible. Nearly everything for a small 12V auxiliary system plugs directly in on the PCB: DC-DC charger, start battery, aux battery and all accessories.…

There's a near limitless number of things of this nature to be designed and built, running the gammut from little gizmos to electrical distribution boards like you've designed. I've had ideas for an in-vehicle weather station (internal/external temperature and humidity), a music system hand-off switch, and a variety of other little things that somebody building their own overland rig might want.

Speaking as part of your likely market, I'm really not surprised that there is a market. The mainstream RV market seems to be most focused on the kind of person who wants to run their generator every day so they can watch satellite HBO on their big screen TV in a KOA campground every night. The interior design is locked into what a person retiring right now wanted their very first kitchen to look like. So things like off-the-lot solar, or effective laptop connections, or modern interior design is not really a thing.

My main hesitation on starting down your road myself is that I already have a job building things like this, just not on projects of my own choosing.

Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#307

Post by MerelyMortal »

ryandrake wrote: post #236
Fraterkes wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a link to where you got the kit? And how much do you estimate you spend in total to get to fly your own plane (including getting a license). (Srry if thats rude to ask)

Sure. There are a lot of kit manufacturers out there, offering a wide range of aircraft styles and purposes from back-country to aerobatic to long-range cruise airplanes and more. Materials can include aluminum, fiberglass, wood-and-fabric, and others. The EAA[1] has a lot of information about the various kits. I went with a Vans[2] which are very popular kits with a huge volunteer support/help community online and o…

> Not sure how much a PPL will run you these days.

As of 2019, about 10k (more if you needed extra time).

Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#309

Post by 1-more »

I have knit a number of scarves. They're kinda cool because I knit partial rows from each side. While they are rectangular in that the number of stitches across each row is constant, the tensions in the scarf make them wavy.

I made doohickeys to add homekit controlled dimming and convenient physical switching to my bedside reading lamps.

I am in the middle of making a farmhouse table out of walnut. It is very precise work that I am not used to.

Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#310

Post by edrxty »

ryandrake wrote: post #167

Built a two-seat, single engine airplane. Took 6.5 years to build and I've been flying it for close to a year now. The U.S. and several other countries have fairly liberal rules allowing for home-built aircraft, so there are actually tens of thousands of home-built planes flying around today. Yes, it's built from a kit (mostly sheet aluminum and rivets, some fiberglass) but I'm OK with calling it cool.

Working on my own RV-8. There are dozens of us!

Also, support the EAA! They're basically the EFF/FSF of aviation, AOPA/NBAA/ALPA etc are all shitty industry groups that want to make aviation as inaccessible to the ordinary person as possible.

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