article thumbnail

A DIY Tracker Tough Enough for the Arctic

Cars That Think

Unfortunately, the cost of buying instruments commercially severely limited how many trackers we could deploy. So, I set about building an open-source ice tracker from DIY components that not only proved to be much, much cheaper but also much more capable than the commercial options.

DIY 91
article thumbnail

IoT-ize Your Old Gadgets With a Mechanical Hijacking Device

Cars That Think

Connectivity usually comes at a premium, and it also usually involves buying a brand new whatever it is, because new hardware and software and services are required. It's also possible to build your own MHD device for cheap , if you know what you're doing. Whether or not every device you own actually.

DIY 139
article thumbnail

Can This DIY Rocket Program Send an Astronaut to Space?

Cars That Think

That successful mission in August 2018 was a huge step toward our goal of sending an amateur astronaut to the edge of space aboard one of our DIY rockets. We're now building the. We'll soon commence building a full-scale BPM100 engine, which will ultimately incorporate a new guidance system for the rocket. Carsten Olsen.

DIY 138
article thumbnail

VW Build

DIY Electric Car

I'd love to use lithium but initial outlay procludes this as we're buying a new home and expecting a new baby in May!! The interior is in good order. I intend to use a Open Revolt and battery pack of 120V 100/110 Ah.I I'm chuffed with the car. It cost £750. The trailer cost £45 to rent and diesel to pick it up was about £40.

Building 113
article thumbnail

Build the Most Accurate DIY Quartz Clock Yet

Cars That Think

Of course, I could buy an atomic clock—that is, one with a rubidium oscillator inside, of the sort used onboard GPS satellites. With one of these, I could build my own clock for around US $200—and one that’s about 200 times as accurate as a typical quartz clock. seconds per day, or over 10 minutes in the course of a year.

DIY 52
article thumbnail

DIY Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy with a Raspberry Pi Pico

Cars That Think

So when I decided to build a cheap DIY scintillating gamma spectrometer, it was the natural choice—although I didn’t realize I’d find myself navigating around teething problems of the sort that often affect a first-generation integrated circuit. I wanted to see if I could make it easy and affordable to build a spectrometer.

DIY 101
article thumbnail

Smith Electric Vehicles Delivers First Battery-Electric Truck into Ireland

Green Car Congress

Building materials retailer Grange Builders Providers, of Baldoyle, Dublin, has purchased a Smith Newton truck for deliveries of building and DIY products. The 10-tonne truck is the largest pure electric vehicle on the road in Ireland. This represents some 250,000 cars, vans and trucks on Irish roads over the coming years.

Ireland 150