Domain: sciplus.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to sciplus.com.
Comments · 58
-
Re:Somewhat Similar Store in Wisconsin
--They also have an outlet in Chicago:
-
Somewhat Similar Store in Wisconsin
American Science & Surplus in Milwaukee, WI (www.sciplus.com) has a ton of oddball stuff I've never seen anywhere else. Some electronics, but chemistry supplies and educational stuff too.
-
Re:Radio Shack Surplus in Fort WorthYou might be interested in this, then. I've bought a couple of these:
http://www.sciplus.com/p/surpr...Like you said, random stuff, although about half was purely mechanical (bearings, shafts, etc).
-
Re:Farewell, TRS-80
As far back as the early 80s I noticed that Radio Shack rarely had the parts to service its own branded consumer electronic products. It's only in retrospect that I understand that this lack of serviceability was being built into all consumer products and was not specific to Radio Shack
It's unfortunate that Radio Shack's leadership missed the Maker movement and hacker renaissance. It didn't help that RS management's obsession with employee polygraph tests in the 1980s drove out the last of the nerds and hackers from their staff. Shortly after RS's CEO announced a return to its hobbyist roots I asked staff at our relatively well-stocked local branch about ultraviolet LEDs and arduinos. They had never heard of either even though both were on their shelves.
Radio Shack nearly killed all independent electronics stores while it killed itself. Thankfully a few brick and mortar independents such as Chester Electronics (ignore their vacuum tube era website) and American Science and Surplus still survive.
-
furniture, lighting, storage
I recently put together such a lab in a room in my office space.
Electronic equipment depends completely on what kind of work you're doing: digital, analog, high-speed, low-signal, RF, etc. So it's hard to answer that question.
Pretty much everything, however, needs some basics: ESD protection, furniture, lighting, storage.
ESD protection: Install a conductive tile floor. Most vendors for this stuff prefer to work on whole buildings; finding someone to do a single room took a bit of looking. I ended up buying the tiles myself (from StaticWorx, from their odd lots selection at about $3/sqft) and hiring one of the big company's installers to moonlight over a weekend.
Other folks have talked about grounding. It's just as important as they say. Most electricians who do commercial work will understand how to get this right.
Furniture: Get one or two heavy duty lab benches with anti-static surfaces and shelves above the bench. It's a little detail, but I recommend bullnose fronts instead of square, to make chipping and other damage less likely. Benches should be 36" deep if you have the room, so you can have relatively deep equipment on the bench and still have room to work in front of it.
You should be able to get behind the bench to fuss with cabling and such (and to vacuum... dust accumulates like nobodys business if you have your test equipment pushed all the way back to the wall behind it).
I have a couple of anti-static lab chairs: conductive fabric, little chain to connect to the anti-static floor.
I also have a big folding table that I unfold when I need to lay out a bunch of stuff and reorganize it.
Lighting: This is really important. You can't have too much. I have a bunch of 4-bulb T-8 fluorescent fixtures on the ceiling (in several groups with different switches, so it doesn't have to be that bright all the time).
I also have a big magnifying lamp, and a big stereo microscope, although I'm still looking for a good solution for lighting on the microscope.
Storage: I have a bunch of little drawer cabinets. Most aren't anti-static, so I have a lot of stuff in conductive foam. It's a trede-off: anti-static is safe, but it's opaque, but clear drawers are a lot easier to work with (and cheaper). A lot of stuff (machine screws, switches, resistors) doesn't need anti-static.
I also have a bunch of open shelves filled with Akro-Mils plastic bins. These are great for storing miscellaneous stuff like multimeters, tools, small project pieces, larger components, etc. They come in many colors, which I've never figured out how to use effectively as an organizing scheme. I try to keep everything loose in one of these bins so it's easy to put a bunch of bins on the shelf to make room fo a project.
I do a fair amount of work with surface-mount devices, and I struggled with how to store them. It's a nuisance to handle the devices in cut tape form: the tape is bulky and springy and clumsy, and it's a pain to get devices out of it one at a time. Once extracted, the devices are way too small to make effective use of drawer cabinets: it's like storing grains of sand. But then I found these nice little (conductive) aluminum canisters at American Science & Surplus, and they're great: about an inch in diameter, glass window in lid, and stored 20 to small aluminum box the size of a small book. I now have a bunch of those "books".
Multimeters: Someone suggested getting a bunch of cheap multimeters; this is a great idea. $5/each from Harbor Freight (or free sometimes with a coupon). An extra cheap oscillosope isn't a bad idea, either--an old Tek 465 is cheap on eBay and very quick to use.
Lots of power outlets: I ended up bolting a ton of cheap power strips all over the benches, because there are so many things that need power. And because so many o -
American Science & Surplus
-
Think Geek is nothing compared to AS&S
As a youth, all of my snow shoveling and lawn mowing money was spent at The American Science Center on Northwest Highway in Chicago.
It now has a new location and name, American Science and Surplus. This store has all of the pre-packaged gadgety gizmos the commercial science stores have, plus surplus electronic and mechanical equipment to use in more creative projects.
It was the fault of this store that I ended up majoring in Physics. I know many other kids that ended up being engineers and scientists because of the projects that this store supplied the hardware to make. Chemistry, Physics, Biology, electronics, mechanical; whatever your interest this place has the material you need to explore it!
-
How about building/deconstructing?
As much as I like ThinkGeek, their selection is limited to gadgets. I found that assembling and -- to my parents dismay -- disassembling things are what really grabbed my interest.
I would take a look at the various kits from American Science & Surplus. There are a number of other sites (e.g., Carl's Electronics) which have even more kits, but I haven't ordered from them so I can't say whether they're worthwhile or not. (These days, most of my toys come from DigiKey, and not in kit form.)
-
Re:$29 Million?
I can buy you 29 million of these. What more could you want?
58 million cheeseburgers.
-
Re:$29 Million?
I can buy you 29 million of these. What more could you want?
-
can't get specific items
I had run across that site before but had to dismiss it. As you can see it has little to offer in the way of specific gears. They're all plastic and they don't seem to have any relation to each other. I need something where I can get a bit more specific. I'll need to be able to gear things down by exact amounts, get bevel gears or worm gears, etc.
-
American Science & Surplus
-
American Science and surplus in Chicago.
Seriously, this place has a ton of random stuff. You would have to walk through there, but it is a nerd/engineer's wet dream. Anyone else know of this place? http://www.sciplus.com/
-
Re:Or you could make it yourself.
Oh, make no mistake, I was only suggesting getting enough skill to cut a core, cut a centered hole in that core, and taper and smooth the resulting very simple band. I've been buying supplies on and around NYC's 46th street for over twenty years now and am well aware of how much skill making a complex ring takes. As for cost, I would say $250 for the drill press, if it's used, and about another $150 for the bits should do fine. We're talking a handful of simple bits and a few grinding stones. Admittedly, though, I'm used to buying my bits and such from places like American Science and Surplus and having had the time to track down the right stuff cheap, so YMMV.
-
Re:my 2 centsamerican science and surplus near Chicago- I would highly recommend a visit to the real store, if you are nearby. They also have a catalog. Damn near everyone can find something they want in it.
Personally, nothing beats having a catalog. :) -
http://www.sciplus.com/
get on the mailing list for http://www.sciplus.com/
It's a science surplus store, lotsa fun stuff for kids and big kids. I found it while riding a bike in Milwaukee when I was bored because my boyfriend wouldn't stop playing World of Elfquest or whatever it was. Decent anime shop next door. -
my 2 cents
interesting new book about home science labs"
american science and surplus near Chicago- I would highly recommend a visit to the real store, if you are nearby. -
Re:power isnt free
Solar panels aren't cheap
For this kind of application, the cost of solar panels is negligible considering the likely cost of the monitor, like $1-2 wholesale. The expensive kinds are much bigger. I had simple solar powered toys when I was little that cost less than $20 in the mid 80s. cheap little ones: http://auctions.bargainland.net/detail.aspx?id=86745 http://www.sciplus.com/recommend.cfm/recommendid/10092 expensive big ones: -
Re:Radio Shack
I couldn't agree more. Part of why I'm moving back to Portland is that at least there are still a few parts shops near there worthy of the name. I used to love the ones in Milwaukee. But mostly, these days, I point people to America Science & Surplus, which I love but is no substitute for rows of stuff you can go to in a bricks and mortar store, pick up, and fiddle with before laying down cash.
If these internet millionaires really wanted to help innovation in America, they would help organize and fund the creation of clusters in every American city like what New York used to have on Canal Street. Rubber tubing in one place, plastic bits and adhesives in a few more, a couple of surplus shops with gears, ornamental castings, and assorted fiddly bits. Then they would give schools funding for field trips there.
I would guess that if real estate could be provided by the municipality, bus lines or other transit guaranteed to run there, and a few years of gift certificates for shops there given to local schools, one could add craft stores like Michaels to help pay the bills, maybe get American Science & Surplus to open a ministore, and have the place profitable within ten years or fewer.
Add a bike shop, a place that does welding to order, and a "hobby shop" focused on RC cars and the like, put in a coffee shop or something where folks can sit for a spell while still there. Maybe a video arcade. Ideally do it near a Fry's. It would be a hell of a thing, wouldn't it? And it wouldn't cost much money other than the real estate which could probably be in some really crappy neighborhood as long as the bus service was decent. Hosting robotics competitions and such at a nearby venue would probably up the foot traffic even further. Put in a service bureau that does stereolithography and revenues would go up even further. An auto parts store would probably do a decent business, too.
Synergy. Ya know, stuff actually making other stuff work better without it costing more.
But we're Americans. So we don't do that sort of thing anymore.
Makes me tired, it does. -
Re:Where do people buy parts?
You can get lots of goodies cheap here if you are willing to browse a bit...obviously their stock is always changing:
http://sciplus.com/ -
Standard Mad Scientist costume prop
I've done a mad scientist costume a couple years, and my favorite prop starts with one rubber chicken.
Add fake eyeballs with LEDs wired through them. Flashing LEDs or wiring up a bread board to make them flash is extra points. A knife switch wired to turn the eyes on and off is a delicious addition. Resistors may need to be placed in series with the LEDs depending on the batteries used. Batteries are of course placed inside the body of the chicken.
Decorate liberally with old serial/parallel ports from old computers, scraps of wire, resistors and other interesting looking electronics equipment. I've even had a serial cable running from the chicken to an old defunct laptop.
Electronic gizmos, such as a cheap box from Radio Shack or similar which can record a couple seconds of sound and playback always add to the fun.
I have rigged the chicken with coathangers and fishing line so I could move the head around puppet-like.
Frankenstein bolts in the neck are easy to accomplish... a bolt can easilly be held on with a nut inside the neck and one outside the neck.
Stitch the whole thing up coarsely with thick black thread, possibly leaving a hole to be able to get to the battery/make spot repairs.
Best accompanied with a labcoat, miss-buttoned white or light blue shirt, rubber chicken tie poorly tied. Brown dress pants or curdoroys, one leg tucked into the socks. Bright yellow chuck taylor's make good shoes, although clunky dress shoes work too. A pair of welding goggles (don't have to be worn on eyes... up on forehead is good enough) is good. Having poofy hair which can be costume painted white/gray is great, although a white wig from a costume shop does the trick too (better if gray/bluish highlights are added with costume paint.) And of course, an Erlenmeyer flask or graduated cylinder to drink from (Red Bull works well, with or without liquor.) Pocket protector, comically large syringe (preferably real 60cc syringe with no needle) stethescope, doctor's head reflector, and other medical trinkets always a plus. Black facepaint/ash to simulate explosion leaving clean goggle lines is good for effect, but seems to be counterproductive in actually talking to people. -
Standard Mad Scientist costume prop
I've done a mad scientist costume a couple years, and my favorite prop starts with one rubber chicken.
Add fake eyeballs with LEDs wired through them. Flashing LEDs or wiring up a bread board to make them flash is extra points. A knife switch wired to turn the eyes on and off is a delicious addition. Resistors may need to be placed in series with the LEDs depending on the batteries used. Batteries are of course placed inside the body of the chicken.
Decorate liberally with old serial/parallel ports from old computers, scraps of wire, resistors and other interesting looking electronics equipment. I've even had a serial cable running from the chicken to an old defunct laptop.
Electronic gizmos, such as a cheap box from Radio Shack or similar which can record a couple seconds of sound and playback always add to the fun.
I have rigged the chicken with coathangers and fishing line so I could move the head around puppet-like.
Frankenstein bolts in the neck are easy to accomplish... a bolt can easilly be held on with a nut inside the neck and one outside the neck.
Stitch the whole thing up coarsely with thick black thread, possibly leaving a hole to be able to get to the battery/make spot repairs.
Best accompanied with a labcoat, miss-buttoned white or light blue shirt, rubber chicken tie poorly tied. Brown dress pants or curdoroys, one leg tucked into the socks. Bright yellow chuck taylor's make good shoes, although clunky dress shoes work too. A pair of welding goggles (don't have to be worn on eyes... up on forehead is good enough) is good. Having poofy hair which can be costume painted white/gray is great, although a white wig from a costume shop does the trick too (better if gray/bluish highlights are added with costume paint.) And of course, an Erlenmeyer flask or graduated cylinder to drink from (Red Bull works well, with or without liquor.) Pocket protector, comically large syringe (preferably real 60cc syringe with no needle) stethescope, doctor's head reflector, and other medical trinkets always a plus. Black facepaint/ash to simulate explosion leaving clean goggle lines is good for effect, but seems to be counterproductive in actually talking to people. -
Re:What's next?
Robotic Catholic nuns?
They're so yesterday. You can even buy'em surplus now! http://www.sciplus.com/category.cfm?subsection=1&c ategory=4 -
American Science & Surplus
The submitter says he has a bunch of links, but this is for the rest of you
:)
American Science & Surplus has a ton of cheap electronic components for sale. No breadboards, but they do sell LEDs, some resistors, motors, etc. They even have a whole "Robot Parts" selection, with items such as Windshield Wiper motors, etc. They also have a great (and entertaining) paper catalog, and their inventory changes very often. Lasers, high quality optics, weather balloons-- all sorts of fun, geeky stuff.
I haven't built any robots myself, but I have been ordering random bits and pieces for various projects for more then 5 years. -
A bunch of stuff!
Being good open-source citizen, you will immediately donate that $100 gift to your favorite OSS project! Thank you! Or Maybe just a few bucks.
Or, you can buy a bunch of little stuff, like:
Super-strong neodymium magnets. Magnets sound boring, but these things are really, really strong. Get the spherical ones.
There's a whole host of cheap, unusual geeky projects at American Science & Surplus.
Get a cheap computer. Buy a Used Xbox, and install Xbox Linux on it.
Color changing lights. The color change is nice and smooth. Popular with the kids.
-
More hardware hackery, sources, and ideas.
I always love BG Micro's weird catalog. Don't let the yellow background throw you, it's a mimic of the colored paper they print the dead-tree version on. It's significantly less annoying in that form. Don't count on them for production quantities unless they say so, but some of the small lots of surplus stuff are super cool.
American Science and Surplus, formerly known as Jerryco carries a broader spectrum of stuff, including plastic replicas of human organs, glow-in-the-dark everything, millitary surplus and yes, a variety of electrical and electronic weirdness. If the Edmund Scientific catalog is too highbrow for you, Jerryco is sure to amuse.
There are some hardware hackers over at Green Bay Professional Packet Radio whose projects you might enjoy.
I'm also going to suggest del.icio.us as a good way to collectively manage bookmarks like these. Just go play with it. -
Re:Call me crazy but I like mouse pads..
At home, I use some giant mousepad I found at CompUSA. Unfortunately, they do not list the product on their website. It is about 4x the size of a normal pad and is the old school fabric over foam type.
You can get a big piece (about 3ft by 4ft) of wetsuit material from American Science and Surplus. It's fabric bonded to neoprene foam, and is pretty much what those old school mouse pads were made of.
Scuba Do -
Re:HD Magnets
In fact, even the mostly non-ferrous American coins are still slightly affected by electromagnetic fields. American Science & Surplus in Milwaukee sells a device that can be used to demonstrate the effects of eddy current damping on various coins. Don't try it with higher-ferrous coins (Canadian, etc.).What this is essentially, is several sets of hard-drive magnets mounted in a verticle row, so that the coins can fall through the open spaces between them. Hard drive magnets are actually an arrangement of four magnets. Each of the two panels has two magents, mounted closely side-by-side with opposite polarization. This configuration produces an extremely strong and tight field in the opening (where the coils of the read-write head go). But fields that are that strong have stronger eddies. Strong enough to have an affect on even practically non-ferrous American coins.
-
Re:HD Magnets
In fact, even the mostly non-ferrous American coins are still slightly affected by electromagnetic fields. American Science & Surplus in Milwaukee sells a device that can be used to demonstrate the effects of eddy current damping on various coins. Don't try it with higher-ferrous coins (Canadian, etc.).What this is essentially, is several sets of hard-drive magnets mounted in a verticle row, so that the coins can fall through the open spaces between them. Hard drive magnets are actually an arrangement of four magnets. Each of the two panels has two magents, mounted closely side-by-side with opposite polarization. This configuration produces an extremely strong and tight field in the opening (where the coils of the read-write head go). But fields that are that strong have stronger eddies. Strong enough to have an affect on even practically non-ferrous American coins.
-
Bargain and surplus galore!
B.G. Micro is sort of like All Electronics in that they carry a ton of surplus electronic junk, download both catalogs and enjoy! Also try American Science and Surplus for a wider variety of tech stuff, toys, labware, and millitary goods.
I've been using for a while now. When a site pulls a coupon code or something, Ben usually updates the listing, and the discussions following each posting are a helpful way to share results. "I had to put in a California ZIP code to view the item, but then I was able to order it shipped to my Michigan address." or "Make sure the CompUSA is within 4 miles of the Best Buy or they won't honor the pricematch. Get a friendly CSR and you should be golden!"
I've stopped using Pricewatch, their listings have become crammed with keyword spam and are all but useless. The "price including shipping" column was a good idea, but the quality of the listings has been terrible lately. -
Re:A small black spot on the Sun
Okay, everybody stare directly at the Sun.
You can glance at the Sun, or else all baseball fielders would be blind. However, if you're using a nice 8" reflector, even closing your eyelid is not going to help. They make metalized "solar filters" for many telescopes, which keep most of the energy out of the scope body while preserving the aperature so you can still have good resolution at high magnification.
If you have a smaller telescope, or a a pair of binolculars, you can project an image of the sun onto a sheet of paper through the eyepiece. Use a cardboard box to make a darker area for the paper to be in. If there is some distance to the paper, the image of the Sun will be big enough that it will not burn the paper. Experiment with distance and focus to see what works.
Or you can just buy a Solar Viewer. American Science & Surplus has 'em for under $100. -
Have you tried local university salvage?Not sure if all schools do this, but at least some universities and national labs have an excess equipment auction a couple of times a year. Basically, everything that gets put into the salvage bin is up for grabs.
You can't really plan on finding anything in particular there, but its a great place to look around for random bits of gear. Equipment which is either "obsolete" or customized tends to go for close to nothing - which means you can stock your basement on the cheap.
If that fails, there's always Ebay, or specialty shops like American Science and Surplus in Chicago, www.sciplus.com.
-
Back in the day....Back when I used to get lab equipment
:-); it was usually from Purdue University Surplus & Salvage which used to always have various and sundry interesting stuff.They even take requests
Of course, if you're not near Northwest Indiana, it's probably not all that convenient.
If you're near Chicago you can always check out American Science & Surplus, or you can order stuff delivered from their web site.
-
AS&S
I've been getting crazazy stuff from here for years.
-
One stop shopping...You will find everything you need in surplus... from flasks to surplus army gear, electrical, materials and much much much more.... at American Science and Surplus.
This company used to be called Jerrico - and I've ordered from them for years. Additionally, their catalogs are FANTASTIC reading - very accurate descriptions on all items and most of the writeups are quite humorous as well.
Also, if you happen to visit the Chicago area, they are located just outside of north chicago - the store is chalk full of amazing things - a true surplus shoppers dream.
Aloha
-
the ultimate place
-
Re:speaking of geek toys...
Try making them. A little wood or metalworking, and some help from a Surplus store and you should be well on your way. For comptuer interfaces, game controllers or keyboards are dirt cheap, buy one to take apart.
-
American Science and Surpuls...
Greatest store ever... i found these little babys there. It says they're not the brightest ever, but they light up a room pretty well. I have 7 of them, one of each color(they had green and purple at the store, but not online) and an extra blue one on my keychain. The rubber button is great because if you push it down all the way you can jam it under the casing and the light stays on. About once a week i find the one on my keychain jammed on in my pocket, but its still birght as ever. The last one broke(the keyring clip) before i noticed any decrease in brightness.
-
Re:In Chicago...
Yup, this place has helped me with many a project, but why look in San Francisco? Just shop online.
-
American Science & Surplus in Chicago!
In Chicago, I've found nothing that beats American Science and Surplus and you can order online now too! Not only do they have cheap surplus parts and scavenged 'junk,' but they carry a lot of new chemistry equipment and supplies, all sorts of glass lab products, telescopes, etc. It's a goofy store to describe, but when I need something, it's easy for me to figure out if they'll have the type of thing I need.
I once found a couple 12VDC fans there for like $4, then went next door to radio shack and found the SAME FANS for $12. Can't go wrong with that! -
AmSci has a FREE CATALOG!
I posted this deeper in the replies, but American Science and Surplus has a free catalog and they ship nationwide -- so you don't have to live in the upper midwest to benefit from this awesome store. Their catalogs are also probably the funniest mail we get all month. They've got a great sense of humor.
-
Re:Science junk and more...
Go to their website, they have a monthly catalog with basically their whole inventory in it. And they ship nationwide. Amsci really is an awesome place. I actually just live a couple miles down Foster so I drive by it all the time.
-
Re:Science junk and more...
Go to their website, they have a monthly catalog with basically their whole inventory in it. And they ship nationwide. Amsci really is an awesome place. I actually just live a couple miles down Foster so I drive by it all the time.
-
Science junk and more...
If you are near Chicago or Milwalkee, check out American Science & Surplus for all of your unneeded science surplus stuff.
I have been to the Chicago store and wandered around for a good couple of hours. I need to get to the smaller store near Fermilab (although I have heard it is not as big) -
American Science and Surplus
A good browse on American Science and Surplus should find you geeky and weird things for low-cost.
-
3D from LCDs, making a VR room
Not that I should be succumbing to the temptation to get involved in such a silly gedankenexperiment, but . .
.
Imaging So, first of all, IIRC, LCDs of the sort this window uses work by having the charge change the liquid crystal's polarization. If polarization is synced with the separate sheet of polarizing material it is clear, if not, then it goes opaque. So let's say the user puts on polarized contacts. Left one way, right the other, and the sheet of polarized material is removed. Then you have a "phosphor" layer in the back (OLEDs?) and a layer of this stuff in the front. The two layers are synced so that the image is refreshed at 60Hz, with two images per set. Left, right, left, right. That is then matched with the front layer which is switching polarization at 60Hz as well. Horizontal, vertical. Horizontal, vertical. So there's your 3-D.
Now let's say that the user(s) is/are being tracked by the environment (little transponders in clothes like the ones used for motion capture).
Concept Sound is ideally generated by having speaker elements built into the surfaces, with the surfaces broken up into a grid so that a sound can genuinely move from one place to another. The whole mess is wired up and driven as a phased array, where volume and frequency mix are set for each coordinate separately. Let's say a one foot grid unit, giving an "audio resolution" of one "pixel" per square foot. (Okay, so I'm working with English units instead of metric - shoot me.)
Approach One could probably get away with reduced sound resolution in the floor and ceiling. And if we're going to talk about near-present tech setups then I'ld say make the floor of "environment module" tiles of about one foot square (assuming that the user(s) wear shoes) with each module having, in addition to a speaker driver, a thermoelectric unit to make panels able to get slightly colder or hotter, a low-freq. (say 10Hz to 200Hz) vibration generator, and an ability to skew slightly.
Breakdown So, what is our gear for each tile? (Keep in mind that we're talking about buying enough gear for over four hundred tiles, so assume Jameco small wholesale order prices.)
* cheap bass speaker- $2
* thermoelectric unit - $15
* cheap mid-range/tweeter speaker set - $4
* four heavy load, fine control solenoids (for skew) - 10 x 4 = $40
(Remember that solenoid travel is about one to three millimeters, max, while cycle time can be as slow as a tenth of a second.)
* center post - $1
* ball joint for connection between center post and tile - $2
We can afford to use cheap delrin or whatever parts and just lubricate the hell out of them. Deflection is dinky, stress is all compressive, and maximum load (assuming jumping around) is what, a momentary seven or eight hundred pounds?
* underlying frame of assorted wood, glue, nails - $6
* masonite or ply tile panel - $0.5
* doped and painted fabric flooring surface - $0.5
(Probably scotch-guarded or equiv. if left painted, not my problem if turned to imaging surface)
* hunk o' cheap metal for placement between thermoelectric panel and tile underlayment - $0.1
(surely these would be bought surplus somewhere)
* wiring harness, connectors, and assembly - $8
Hey, we're assuming graduate student labor here.
Then add, say, three thousand dollars for laying in the underlying framework that the whole thing sits on (let's say a grid of 2 x 6es).
So, what's the damage? About eighty bucks per tile. For a twenty by twenty foot chamber that means four hundred tiles with, say, twenty backups for a total cost of about thirty six thousand dollars. Less then many frats spend on a holiday float. Less then a big college party. If I were in charge we'ld be buying everything at surplus (perhaps here.) and could probably bring the whole floor in for fifteen to twenty thousand. Add about ten thousand for mistakes and development costs.
Electrical Power usage per tile should be about five watts[1], all of which could be run at six or nine volts (so gotta use BIG gauge wire to deal with resistance issues), for a total running load of two thousand watts (and maybe a hundred more to drive hidden fans in the walls and ceiling[2]). Let's add another couple hundred bucks for a big ol' stepdown transformer to give us all those amps of six/nine volt current.
Computation As for processing drain, well, assume thirty audio signals that just get routed around the room like sprites in an old video game. Bass/vibration and temp could each easily be one sixteen bit value. If somebody gets slick, all four solenoids could probably be one value as well, but let's assume one per solenoid. Think of it as a color video image of twenty by sixty pixels with a refresh of fifty times a second or less and it becomes obvious that the only real problem is converting that data to signals on four THOUSAND (common ground for the solenoids) wires.
Okay, now given all of this, let's say that the ceiling has no solenoids and a resolution of one tile per two square feet. The walls have no solenoids either but a one foot tile resolution. Then only have thermoelectric on one panel in ten (since heat moves mostly vertically so the implications of localized wall temps are only notable if you get really close).
So a sim handling everything but video would be using less processing power then a single PC running Doom and the whole system up to now adds up to about eighty thousand dollars. So, what is the imaging cost? I dunno. Not my yob. I'm, after all a mech guy at heart.
Final&Notes I just thought that I'ld take a few minutes to clarify what it is we're talking about here.
[1] Even more then most of this, this number has lots of handwaving in it. I suspect that solenoid usage will be weird in some way that I don't know enough to predict.
[2] Fans pushing in bits of breeze should make all sorts of weather/motion.etc. effects more convincing. Low-bandwidth, high touch. Maybe add one of those spiffy new aroma generators in each one. (I could mention stuff like aerosolized THC but I won't. Ooops! Too late, I did.)
-Rustin -
sciplusCheap beakers and things, as well as a variety of cheap cool geekstuffs: http://www.sciplus.com/
Warning: prepare to spend at least an hour looking at this site.
-
Search "Kaleidoscope" at AS&SResults at American Science & Surplus:
- Magic Kaleidoscope: The Taiwanese manufacturer calls it Magic. We call it simple.
- The Chartres of Kaleidoscopes: Without doubt, the world's finest kaleidoscopic optics.
- Do-it-yourself kit: Everything you need except tape.
Not affiliated, YYY. But they are a good place to find toys and tools of all techs. Like, for example, wooden tops, those magnetic wheels on bent wire handles, chaos kits, etc.
-
Search "Kaleidoscope" at AS&SResults at American Science & Surplus:
- Magic Kaleidoscope: The Taiwanese manufacturer calls it Magic. We call it simple.
- The Chartres of Kaleidoscopes: Without doubt, the world's finest kaleidoscopic optics.
- Do-it-yourself kit: Everything you need except tape.
Not affiliated, YYY. But they are a good place to find toys and tools of all techs. Like, for example, wooden tops, those magnetic wheels on bent wire handles, chaos kits, etc.
-
Search "Kaleidoscope" at AS&SResults at American Science & Surplus:
- Magic Kaleidoscope: The Taiwanese manufacturer calls it Magic. We call it simple.
- The Chartres of Kaleidoscopes: Without doubt, the world's finest kaleidoscopic optics.
- Do-it-yourself kit: Everything you need except tape.
Not affiliated, YYY. But they are a good place to find toys and tools of all techs. Like, for example, wooden tops, those magnetic wheels on bent wire handles, chaos kits, etc.