Wacky things at home?

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e57

e57

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San Francisco, CA
Anybody else make any wacky stuff at home? No listing, unorthodoxed instalations, just plain ol' unfinished work?

My latest creation consists of a 24v HVAC transformer, a little bit of class 2 wire, a 120v 30 minute intermatic timer, a 24v coiled 3-pole relay, a block of wood, and a bicycle spoke. With a little fiddling around... I made something very usefull. A mag lock for my cat door... :D It locks his but up-stairs long enough for me to get the car out of the garage - without having to go back in open if for him again. (The cat-box is in the garage...)

Anyone make stuff like this?
 
Haven't made that; but need one :). My cat's outside right now:mad: And I have to leave.

BTW, That creation would be called a hard-wired automatic door lock. OK in my book.:grin:
 
Well, being a ham radio operator I build a lot of stuff. I have dozens of unfinished projects. I also have some really good stuff I have built over the years. My test box has several home made gadgets I put together to make testing electrical stuff easier.

I have a comparatively small radio station. 100 watts. Using antennas made of THHN or discarded coax I can easily hold a conversation with stations in Europe, about 6000 miles away.

I am well versed in radio direction finding. I win contests doing so. I compete against people with mega buck computerized direction finding equipment and beat them with an antenna made from plastic water pipe and some rabbit ears I got from the dollar store. It's ugly, in fact, I call it my 'Ugly Stick'. The trick is a home made electronic attenuator I built just for contests. For any of you radio folk, I get well over 60 dB attenuation and that counts front end overload, which my attenuator virtually eliminates.

I think I am in the middle of building two more. Somewhere.....
 
e57 said:
Anybody else make any wacky stuff at home? No listing, unorthodoxed instalations, just plain ol' unfinished work?
Click to expand...
I've been an electronics hobbyist just about forever, so the list is long. Let's see:


In my home theater sub-panel, I installed a 4p 25a contactor to switch four of the circuits from the pre/pro's 12v trigger output. The 12v triggers a reed relay, which triggers an ice-cube relay, which triggers the contactor. (The reed relay can't handle the contactor's coil current.)

I used a GE 4-space/8-circuit panel because the panel guts are offset towards the upper-left corner, which left enough room for the contactor plus a small perf-board with the two relays on it, which I put intp a plastic pouch for additional insulation.


I connected a diode across the light switch in my son's bathroom to convert the control from on/off to bright/dim. The lights burn at somewhere around 1/4 the normal brightness, perfect for a nightlight. It would work well in a hallway, too. I suggest a diode rated at 1 or 2a at 400v.


How about a neat trick for monitoring a light on 3-ways where you can't see the light, like in a detached garage. Connect a pair of 100k resistors in series, and the pair across the travelers at the near switch. Now, connect an NE-2 neon bulb from the resistor junction to neutral.

When the light is switched off, the resistor mid-point is at about 60v to the neutral, not enough to ignite the neon bulb. With the light on, the bulb and one resistor see the full 120v. If the remote light is burned out, the neon bulb will not extinguish with flipping the switch.


I also have a non-compliant installation in my home theater, which is a receptacle above the suspended ceiling, which my projector is plugged into. It's not something I'd do for a customer, but I've always said we professionals know how to break the rules correctly. ;)


Is that whacky enough?
 
My wife breeds small dogs & they have to have heat in the winter. I have a farm-o-stat thermostat that picks up a contactor when the temperture falls below 60 degrees. The contactor is mounted in a PVC box with two indicator lights and a three position switch, ON, OFF, AUTO. Two snap switches are provided for emergency by-pass in the case of contactor failure. Each dog house has a outdoor flood light fixture with a 60 watt bulb. I call the kennel "District 9".
 
I once built a switch box with a N/C momentary switch for some rope lighting inside of a gun safe. Open door lights on, close door lights off.;)
 
I got bored and made a catapult for Thankgiving Dinner. Always had a problem with throwing food at dinner table ie. "pass me a roll". Took it to the next level and had a lot of fun with leftovers. Basic elastic bands with launch arm and managed to chuck a dinner roll 52' with some degreee of accuracy. To add to the excitement, we had one person sit in a chair in the front yard while the others loaded food and took aim. The person sitting wore a blindfold so they never knew what was coming at them. Tried a raw egg but missed the top of my sisters head by 1" at 45' range. Found out that baked beans make a real mess. Small thing amused small minds and we had a blast. Police drove by and simply shook their heads.
 
inspector 102 said:
I got bored and made a catapult for Thankgiving Dinner. Always had a problem with throwing food at dinner table ie. "pass me a roll". Took it to the next level and had a lot of fun with leftovers. Basic elastic bands with launch arm and managed to chuck a dinner roll 52' with some degreee of accuracy. To add to the excitement, we had one person sit in a chair in the front yard while the others loaded food and took aim. The person sitting wore a blindfold so they never knew what was coming at them. Tried a raw egg but missed the top of my sisters head by 1" at 45' range. Found out that baked beans make a real mess. Small thing amused small minds and we had a blast. Police drove by and simply shook their heads.
Click to expand...

now, that sounds like an excellent thanksgiving!

~matt
 
I don't think this is really wacky but when I lived in a house I ran a 3 wire to an attic fan. I attached it to a 3 way switch in such a way that I could leave it on the thermostat unless I needed to go up there. One traveler went straight to the motor, the other traveler fed the thermostat. I could just turn it on to run while I was up there. Upstream from the 3-way (in same 2 gang box) I put a single pole switch so I could kill power to the entire unit.
 
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