Which project?

[s.mosfet]

Any idea about a electronic project never made?

[Alex]

Hoverboards.

[sacherjj]

Yes.

[s.mosfet]

something more feasible?

[ndictu]

Flux capacitor. You can then go to the future and steal the hoverboard design.

On a serious note, if it was never made before it's either pointless (why would you want to make that), unknown (how can we tell you if we don't know) or, with our current knowledge impossible (like the hoverboard).

[A-sic Enginerd]

An electro-stimulus widget to get rid of this headache I have right now - instantly and without drugs.

[Mechatrommer]

Any idea about a electronic project never made?

something more feasible?

i suggest... null! because i never thought of it. if i did, i'll made it, and it already been "made"

[ndictu]

Maybe we could change the topic to stuff you never seen made as DIY?

For example, I wasn't able to find any serious weather station build. I don't mean all that SPI thermometer+barometer sensor hooked up to and Arduino stuff, serious weather station. Stevenson screen, humidity, dew point, rain gauge, anemometer, antenna for lightning detection, UV radiation, ...

I wanted to to build one for quite a while but except professional ones you can buy there isn't much out there. There is a lot of stuff on each part, so it is possible to glue it together, but I've never seen a serious, complete DIY build that had all that.

[Mechatrommer]

and thats "not feasible"! at diy level.

[sacherjj]

I'll get a list of the electronic projects never made, as soon as I finish the list of all the unforeseen issues we will encounter with the next release of our product.    


Actually a weather station is a neat idea.  With the restatement of what you are wanting, this becomes a more feasible thread.  If you use a common interface, then you can slowly hook sensor pieces onto a central processor and keep adding functionality.  I would want to tie in weather forecasts from the web to allow my home AC to precool if the efficiency will be better now than in 4 hours. 

[ndictu]

Actually a weather station is a neat idea.  With the restatement of what you are wanting, this becomes a more feasible thread.  If you use a common interface, then you can slowly hook sensor pieces onto a central processor and keep adding functionality.  I would want to tie in weather forecasts from the web to allow my home AC to precool if the efficiency will be better now than in 4 hours.

Trust me, I think about this more than I should I was thinking a sealed plastic container, put the main board and wireless antenna there, add some peltier for heating in winter, put waterproof connector in there. Then just have sensors on a stripboard with wires going there, in the shielded box they should last long but still will need some rework after winter. Maybe solar panels but need to check out how much power I can get at my latitude.

Anemometer - Building just an ultrasonic one would be cool. You have just a few pairs (2 pairs in horizontal plane, or 3 pairs in perpendicular axes for even better precision). Send out a beep, measure doppler shift. But a simple rotary encoder vane/cups would be much easier and good enough.

Lightning antenna - there are some open-hardware projects that triangulate lightnings but none of them is open enough. You can get raw, real time data. I was thinking of building it and making my own firmware side of things, but you need at least 4 of them, spaced like a hundred kilometers apart to get a good position so I don't know about that one

There is a lot of stuff to do, and pretty much impossible to do just as a DIY thing, but I still want to do at least something. And every time I look for DIY weather station I get just all those projects that take like 10 minutes to setup.


BTW, home automation is another cool thing. This guy's got that covered: http://www.bwired.nl/

[Alex]

For example, I wasn't able to find any serious weather station build.

That would be a nice long project. I do have my doubts about motivation to see through such a long project when I have a widget on the desktop to give you all this info with a click. It will provide truly local climate, but how much error can we tolerate?...I would like to work on such a project but time is in such short supply...possibly contribute to it if setup amongst a few as a DIWithOthers project.

It would be great if more members of the community came together on projects of all sorts. Let me take the initiative.

s.mosfet, I see you are really itching for something to be involved in and gain something from it.

At the moment I am working on a small self-contained project. It is an audio level indicator (not strictly a VU meter) using a magic eye tube/valve, that I originally intended to have as an addition to my audio system. It does provide a unique and mesmerising display. Yes, you could call it a gimmick.

So far I have roughly defined some specifications and broken it down into functional blocks. The project involves capturing specifications, evaluating implementation topologies, design of simple non-linear analogue circuits, Class A amplifiers using thermonic valves, high voltage (I envisage 250V DC), electron beams and phosphorescent targets, schematic capture, PCB design and manufacturing and of course prototyping and soldering. It is a small simple project with no deadline and budget and relaxed technical constraints (size, precision etc).

To be fair, honest and realistic, this is not a project of 'commercial sense or value' and it is far from inventing the wheel. Having said this, it would make a nice 'open hardware' project to share with the community and get some discussion going; there might be enough interest for a small batch run, but this is not the objective. It is a niche project, yet for more than one. It is a great way to get your hands dirty, practise and learn some new skills. Collaborating with someone you dont know from a distance and producing something that works is an invaluable skill for your CV. Who knows what else.

As far as I go, "hard but fair"(Gunnery Sergeant Hartman?!) and "less work but better quality". You won't be working for me, but with me and your opinion will be heard. If you would be interested in something like this let me know.

Expanded email, so you can take an informed decision without playing ping-pong.

Alex

[ivan747]

Flux capacitor. You can then go to the future and steal the hoverboard design.

On a serious note, if it was never made before it's either pointless (why would you want to make that), unknown (how can we tell you if we don't know) or, with our current knowledge impossible (like the hoverboard).

If you ever want to come back just keep going to the future until some one discovers a way to get into the past.

[Mechatrommer]

If you ever want to come back just keep going to the future until some one discovers a way to get into the past.

at the end of time, you'll find monkey is clever than human.

[dimlow]

Id like to see some projects were you are using components as they are not designed for. For example i have seen on the "youtube" people using LEDs as Sensors ? now does that really work ? Seems interesting. What other components have uses that are not intentionally designed in ?

[ndictu]

If you ever want to come back just keep going to the future until some one discovers a way to get into the past.

But you have to be careful. You could miss the discovery of backwards time travel by few years and end up in post-apocalypse world.

Id like to see some projects were you are using components as they are not designed for. For example i have seen on the "youtube" people using LEDs as Sensors ? now does that really work ? Seems interesting. What other components have uses that are not intentionally designed in ?

Yup, here's an article by Forrest Mims: http://www.jameco.com/Jameco/workshop/diy/recipe9.html

[dimlow]

Yup, here's an article by Forrest Mims: http://www.jameco.com/Jameco/workshop/diy/recipe9.html

Interesting i will have to give is a try, im wondering if this will work with a pic a make some sort of funky light sensor.

[EEVblog]

I'm working on a project that has been done countless times, but IMO never been done "properly". So really, has never been done before as far as I can tell.
I guess I'll eventually find out if its actually worthwhile or not...

Dave.

[ndictu]

I'm working on a project that has been done countless times, but IMO never been done "properly". So really, has never been done before as far as I can tell.
I guess I'll eventually find out if its actually worthwhile or not...

Dave.

Sagan? 

[EEVblog]

Sagan? 

LOL!
No, a simple electronics project this time!
Sagan can't wait to get a hold of it I'm sure..

Dave.

[ivan747]

Well, you can use an electrolytic capacitor as a solenoid. Just charge it with 480V

[sacherjj]

Id like to see some projects were you are using components as they are not designed for. For example i have seen on the "youtube" people using LEDs as Sensors ? now does that really work ? Seems interesting. What other components have uses that are not intentionally designed in ?

I've seen projects using non illuminated LEDs (maybe decimal points that will never be used from 7-seg displays) as light sensors.  This allows them to adjust the brightness of the display to ambient light, automagically.