Slashdot Mirror
Retrofitting an iPod into a Geiger Counter
Doug writes "An enterprising hardware guy known as JavaMoose on Flickr has created an amazing case mod for his iPod by modifying an old Geiger counter to house the iPod and remote. The photos are up on Flickr with descriptions along the way.
Very cool, if a little big to fit in ones pocket"
Of course my first thought when scanning a post apocalyptic radioactive wasteland is: Will I have my iTunes?
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
Hmm, interesting yes, amazing, I'm afraid not. It did require some skill to make it a clean fit, but the geiger counter case was so large, I can't really consider it a technological feat to have done this. Now had he did this and kept a working geiger counter (recording the sounds and playing them back on the ipod to allow the ipod display to properly show levels, or something like that), now THAT would be cool.
Next thing you know someone will put one in the keypad of their microwave (you enter time via song lengths, i.e. big meals you'd set to "Freebird"), or stick one in an original walkman case. I know, how about someone sticks a shuffle inside a Gen1 iPod? oooh, aaaah.
I've been thinking about retrofitting an iPod into my ass. Do you think that would make a good slashdot story?
... and then they built the supercollider.
Why?
Turn in your geek badge.RIGHT NOW.
I suddenly had this visual of him visiting the blast site of a meteor. All of his fellow scientists whip out their Geiger counters. He whips out the iPod, pretends to take readings. His colleagues stare at him, because they really know he's listening to music, humming like that, and they all read Slashdot. Also, it's the white headphones.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
Nothing quite like taking something known for its compactness and ease of use and making it bulky and awkward. Go-go engineering!
What is music when you despise all sound?
....he shouldn't have painted the case or buffed up the tube. In the old rusty yellow it looking intimidating and cool. Now it looks like a sandwich box that has asperations to be a model of the star ship enterprise. Still, respect to the guy for doing it. I wonder if he has a track on this ipod that plays Geiger counter noises.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
He didn't really mod anything. He didn't have to take apart the remote or the iPod, all he did was put mounts for them both.
Eh, slow news day.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
From one of his captions:
"I just love how they used to include the schematics when you bought electronics. Kinda open-source...they encouraged DIY repairs back then."
Aaaaah, the days before "Intellectual Property" became synonymous with "classified."
I hope the land around you yields, a crop like all the other fields, and then your waiting might make sense...
Next week I'm going to try and retrofit an iPod in my A Team lunchbox.
Simply the use of the word retrofit should ensure slashdot status!
The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
I used to work around nuclear reactors and monitored them for years using equipment similar to the model in the article. The desire for such a mod is alien to me as I can't imagine ever voluntarily carrying around one of those things.
Before the time of commonplace computers, the Nuclear trained personnel in the Navy were the geekiest ones on the sub or ship. Carrying around a geiger counter was tantamount to wearing a pocket protector and sure to earn few jokes from passing workers.
At least he has an iPod with a built in detector for the presence of the RIAA.
It was actually for a modding contest and I wanted to do something just plain odd...