Nothing Labs (Rich Olson)

Me on BBC's Outriders

2011-12-13T13:00:00.000-08:00

Recently did an interview for BBC's Outriders radio show / podcast:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/outriders/2011/12/creators.shtml

Topics include cloud chambers, my Resistor Photo ID iPhone app and tinkering in general.

Jamillah Knowles did a great job putting this together! I came out sounding far more coherent than I typically am in person...

Podcast can be streamed from http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/pods

It's the episode titled "Creators" (should have a date of Dec 11).

My interview starts at 6:45 into the show.

Can also be downloaded at:
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/fivelive/pods/pods_20111213-0457a.mp3

Resistor Photo ID

2011-11-29T16:29:00.000-08:00

I shipped a new iPhone app a few weeks ago - "Resistor Photo ID"

It uses your iPhone's camera to help identify resistor values.

(check out my other iPhone apps here)

I specifically developed it with color blind people (like myself) in mind - who can't successfully ID resistors even if they take the time to learn the color codes.

Click here to get it from the Apple App Store (currently free!).

Using resistor ID is easy:

1. Take a photo of a 4-band resistor using the app

2. Drag the numbered bars over the corresponding resistor bands

3. Resistor Photo ID provides you with the resistance and tolerance of the resistor!

If for any reason Resistor Photo ID doesn't detect the correct color for a band - you can easily override it.

123D Catch

2011-11-28T03:04:00.000-08:00

I've been playing with Autodesk's 123D "Catch"

http://www.123dapp.com/catch

It's a free app that transforms sequences of still images into a 3d model of an object.

It does the processing "in the cloud" - in conjunction with a client-side application.

Here's a sample video I did:

It is -very- beta (really alpha) - has some probs - but is still quite cool.

Tips:
Take a lot of shots in a continuous sweep around the object
Don't jump around when shooting
Try to get lots of overlap between photos (move around the object maybe 15 degrees per shot)
After you've rotated around the object once - you can move a bit higher / closer on a second pass around for more detail
Somewhere between 25-60 shots total seems optimal
Try to keep lighting constant
Don't use a flash or HDR

I've generally found that Catch either comes up with a good model the first time around or it doesn't. I have had very bad luck trying to manually adjust things if Catch didn't figure it all out the first time. My advice is if you didn't get good results - redo the photo shoot.

More notes:
Couldn't get direct youtube upload to work
Video export seems somewhat broken (most codecs resulted in unplayable videos)
Was able to get a useable export by choosing "Raw" as the video codec - then knocking the resolution down to 640x360.

Electronic Cloud Chamber at Maker Faire NYC (New York Hall of Science)

2011-09-21T13:10:00.000-07:00

Back from showing off the Electronic Cloud Chamber at Maker Faire NYC - things went very well!

I managed to score three "Editor's Choice" blue ribbons for the exhibit!

People really liked that the project is both "open source" (how to build your own for about $100) as well as having a commercial version.

But - dozens of people asked if there was a kit (I suspect I could have sold a few...). OK - maybe there will be a kit in the future...

Many people had no idea what a cloud chamber was - and were somewhat shocked when they were told they were seeing traces from radioactivity. This was followed up by assuring them "it's totally safe..."

The event was held at the New York Hall of Science - and I got to meet a lot of the people who make this place happen.

I was really excited when I was requested to donate one of the chambers for use at NYSCI in workshops by its educators! (I of course said yes)

NYSCI Educators Playing with the Cloud Chamber

NYSCI actually has a very large (and expensive) cloud chamber already used for viewing cosmic rays - but my smaller one provides the ability easily view traces from different samples.

Special thanks to my lovely assistant Beth for her help with everything and talking me into exhibiting in the first place.

Hanford Site Tour

2011-08-18T03:14:00.000-07:00

In early August I took a tour of the Hanford Site located near Richland, Washington.

Hanford was created in 1943 to produce plutonium for nuclear bombs. Operating until the late 80's - its 9 nuclear reactors produced enough material for 60,000 weapons.

The tour encompassed the entire Hanford site - visiting locations scattered over 586 square miles via bus. The tour lasted about 5 hours.

A large portion of the tour was sort of a radioactive bus safari - with the tour guides providing extensive narration of sites we drove by.

The tour unfortunately did not allow computers, cell phones or cameras (none of these photos are mine - but they are what I saw). I had to resort to pen and paper for notes.

A shorter tour just visiting the "B-reactor" is also offered (which does allows cameras).

Inside the B-reactor (more later in the post)

The EDRF (Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility) is a series of massive pits where they store low-level waste. This can include remains of buildings, contaminated soil, clothing and equipment. Hanford seems to have a lot of this stuff.

Trench 94 is where they store the reactor compartments from submarines! (Trench 94 on google maps)

I also saw countless dismantled reactors, buildings for research and processing and the Cold Test Facility (a mock-up of a nuclear waste storage tank used for testing cleanup techniques).

Hanford is very active - I saw dozens of people working on cleanup. Still - the current schedule projects things won't be fully tidy until the 2040's.

The general theme of the cleanup seems to be, "we keep finding stuff" - like weapons grade plutonium or radioactive wasps.

I get the impression if I could have wandered around a bit with my geiger counter - I wouldn't have had any trouble finding interesting samples for my electronic cloud chamber (and probably landed myself in jail).

How to make Plutonium

Plutonium is produced as a byproduct of nuclear fission.

Fuel rods containing both uranium 235 and uranium 238 are placed in a nuclear reactor. The U-235 undergoes fission - producing lighter atoms and neutrons in the process.

Some of these neutrons smack into the U-238 - creating U-239. U-239 is unstable - and quickly beta decays into Neptunium 239. The Neptunium is also unstable and beta decays into Plutonium 239. And there you go!

After several weeks in a reactor - a fuel rod's plutonium content fully matures to about 1 part in 2000.

Fuel rods are periodically extracted from the reactors - and stored in holding pools of water in back until they are loaded onto railroad cars (which they now can't figure out what to do with ) to be taken to processing facilities.

This is the messy part.

Several processes were used to extract the Plutonium - but the short of it is:

1. Dissolve the fuel rods in massive pools of acid

2. Chemistry, chemistry and more chemistry
3. Plutonium!

For details on one the methods used see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PUREX

Processing was performed on a monumental level - just one of the five processing buildings is "longer than three football fields, stands 64 feet above the ground, and extends another 40 feet below ground." - http://www.hanford.gov/page.cfm/PUREX

All this gets you a tiny amount plutonium, in addition to a huge serving of uranium, highly nasty fission byproducts, mixed in with the assortment of chemicals that were used to separate the two.

As you may guess - this refinement process is where most of Hanford's high level waste comes from.

The 53 million gallons of radioactive slurry left over from plutonium extraction was initially stored in 177 single-walled tanks.

Roughly 1/3rd of these tanks have leaked.

All the liquid from the single-walled tanks has been pumped into new double-walled tanks (no leaks so far!). But - the old single-walled tanks are still loaded with high-level radioactive sludge coating their insides.

Part of current cleanup efforts is to de-sludge these tanks using a robotic arm system.

Eventually all liquid waste is supposed to be vitrified - mixed with sand - and then heated to produce a solid radioactive glass for safer storage. The vitrification plant isn't operating yet - but is supposed to be soon - http://www.hanfordvitplant.com/

For periods of time Hanford's reactors were able to produce more enriched fuel rods than the processing facilities could keep up with. When they decided to stop producing plutonium - they still had a backlog of fuel rods they had to do something with.

So - they decided to let the fuel hang out in the holding pools of the K-Reactors indefinitely (my notes say some sat there for 30-40 years). This did not go very well. The fuel rods liquified, then the pool cracked - leaking millions of gallons of high-level waste into the ground near the Columbia river. More at http://www.hanford.gov/page.cfm/K-Basins.

B-Reactor Tour

Visiting the B-Reactor was the highlight of the tour.

The B-reactor was the first full-scale nuclear reactor ever built (the "A" reactor being the Chicago Pile). The reactor was built to specification by DuPont in just 11 months.

While most of the reactors at Hanford have been dismantled - the B-Reactor is being preserved as a museum. The reactor is staffed by about a half-dozen guides - several of them actually having worked at the reactor when it was active.

After a brief presentation we were able to roam most of the reactor's rooms on our own.

The "face" of the reactor is the insertion point for the 2,004 fuel rods. Each fuel rod capsule has its own monitors for temperature and pressure.

Each one of these monitors corresponds to its own gauge in the control room.

A single pressure monitor going outside of parameters could cause the reactor to go into automatic shutdown. This was all done without digital technology!

Like most reactors at Hanford - it was used strictly for plutonium production - not power.

Cooling water was pumped in from the Columbia river. It was also returned to the river - somewhat radioactive...

All info not otherwise specified is either from my own notes or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site.

B Reactor photos courtesy http://www.b-reactor.org/ (more B Reactor photos on Flickr)

Electric Ducted Fan "Jet" Bike

2011-07-20T20:58:00.001-07:00

Over the last year - I've toyed with the notion of making an EDF fan bike.

EDF is short for Electric Ducted Fan. They are basically enclosed propellers for model airplanes - they look kind of like little jets!

I finally got around to putting one together - here's some test footage:

The hope would be it could boost my top speed when peddling - and mitigate going up hills. It also has the advantage of not messing with the current drivetrain mechanicals - and being easy to add / remove.

Although in reality - this project is just about having fun. This is probably the least efficient way to move a person imaginable.

The 3 EDF's I got are rated for about 2 lbs thrust each when run at 12v (so maybe 6lbs thrust total). The specs say 20-40 amps (no - nothing more specific than that).

I got them on ebay for about $40 each including brushless motor and motor controller.

Normally the motor controllers are connected to a receiver - but I wanted something a little less cumbersome. So - I rigged up an Arduino to generate a PWM signal - and tossed together a little control panel.

The battery is a big sealed lead acid (SLA) 12v. It's good for 18 amp hours - but that's assuming the energy is consumed over a 20 hour period. When SLA's are drained quickly - they only provide a fraction of their total capacity. I'll make up a number - and say I'm getting maybe 5 amp hours.

Using almost any other kind of battery (NiCD, Lithium, etc.) - would have given me more capacity per the weight - but for $30 it was the cheapest way I could come up with to supply the 60-120 amps for a moderate duration.

Also - 18lbs really isn't that much when you think about me + bike being more like 250lbs.

The fans + electronics are only about 2lbs - for a total weight around 20lbs.

I laser cut the base plate out of 1/4" MDF on my new Laser Cutter - which is proving to be a fairly well spent $2500.

Testing proved a real challenge - finding a truly flat street to test on with little to no wind proved very difficult.

The solution to this was to test on the same street going both directions.

It was hard to concentrate on the speedometer - but I saw 8.5mph just as I was turning around - and then slowed to about 6.5mph returning (assuming there was some wind / slight slant in the road).

I had made some rough guestimates - suggesting a top speed around 10mph. This seems reasonable.

It also seems to give about a 5-6mph boost in top speed when peddling (this is really hard to be objective about though - can I really say I didn't peddle harder?).

I probably get about 6 minutes useful runtime - then the power starts dying off quickly.

I'd say the current setup is a little shy of being really useful - but it proves that it works.

Pretty happy considering I only spent about $180.

This project could really rock with 2-3x the thrust (maybe 15lbs) - and about 6x the battery capacity (say an actual 30ah at 12v - or equivalent at higher voltage).

Adding another 3-4 fans wouldn't be that hard /expensive (there's probably better / larger options) - but adding that much battery capacity would probably get pretty expensive (weight would like dictate going to Lithium / NiMH).

If you'd like to help fund this effort - please buy some Uranium or Thorium from me.

Selling Uranium and Thorium on Ebay

2011-07-11T19:49:00.000-07:00

I'm now selling small uranium and thorium samples in laser-etched bottles on ebay. I made them myself on my new laser cutter.

Check out http://www.nothinglabs.com for a listing of my current auctions!

The thorium samples are thorite - a naturally occurring ore.

The uranium samples are small fragements of "radioactive red" Fiestaware - mid 20th century dishes that used uranium oxide for color.

The latest batch includes the entire decay chain of the respective elements on the back:

Ebay rejected my first auction - claiming I was selling hazardous materials - but they seem to be OK now that I've added some additional text quoting postal regulations.

Check out http://www.nothinglabs.com for a listing of my current auctions!

$20 Laser Cutter Crosshair Aiming System

2011-06-09T00:26:00.000-07:00

Been enjoying my new Full Spectrum laser cutter. It's a lot of laser cutter for $2500!

I wanted to come up with something better than the stock "aiming" laser pointer.

Issue is that since the stock aiming laser doesn't actually follow the cutting laser's path - it can only be calibrated for a given focal length.

This is a significant problem since engraving and cutting need different focal lengths - so you end up never being quite sure where the laser is going to go.

An optional "beam combiner" solves this by adding optics for an aiming laser that follows the cutting laser's path - but it's $300.

I did some meditating on a bike ride and came up with another solution which addresses this problem for the cost of two cheap laser levels ($20 or so):

Full Spectrum $2500 Laser Cutter Unboxing and Review

2011-05-31T09:15:00.000-07:00

Nothing Labs now has a laser cutter!

The Full Spectrum 40 Watt Laser Cutter showed up about a week ago.

Here's a video documenting my experience thus far:

Highs:

- It works pretty well!
- Deluxe package really includes everything you need to start cutting for $2500 with shipping
- 40 Watt laser can handle up to 1/4" acrylic / MDF / other stuff
- Documentation does exist - and is mostly decent (you can check this out online)
- U.S. support base / active online forums
- USB support - with "print to cut" style drivers

Lows:

- Manual z-axis is easy to get off-level / difficult to re-align / is generally dodgy
- Air pump (external) overheated and failed after a few hours (fortunately had one on hand)
- "Spotting" laser pointer had a bad connector

In short - I'm quite happy with it.

Update: Full Spectrum says they haven't gotten other reports of air pump failures - and offered to replace mine.

Starting this week - name plates for the Nothing Labs Electronic Cloud Chamber will be laser cut:

Gearbox for speed 400 motor made out of 1/4" acrylic:

Introducing the nothinglabs.com forums

2011-05-20T13:25:00.001-07:00

So I've gotten a -lot- of email over the last 18 months or so on two of my projects:

- My electronic cloud chamber (to view radioactivity)
- Open Melt - an open source "translational drift" robotics project

I always welcome the email - but I sometimes feel people might benefit more from talking with each other - than just bouncing ideas / questions off me.

On both of these projects other people have made advances beyond what I initially published online.

So - I hereby introduce the:
nothinglabs.com forums

So go forth and post your cloud chamber videos and questions about spinning robots!

Easy, Reversible Motor Control for Arduino (or any Microcontroller)

2011-04-12T19:28:00.001-07:00

I just did another Instructable - Easy, Reversible Motor Control for Arduino (or any Microcontroller) (wow - that's a mouthful...).

It is the result of my effort to come up with something less annoying to construct than an H-Bridge - using just locally available parts in the process (under $9 at Radio Shack!).

If you order components online - you can get the cost down around $4 each. Pretty good considering it can handle 5 amps.

I find documenting projects online highly satisfying. It lets me set aside worthwhile projects that I've gotten bored with - without feeling I'm abandoning them.

This particular Instructable is hypothetically a subcomponent of an upcoming homebrew CNC system.

Stay tuned...

Arduino Powered Laser "Projector"

2011-03-24T23:59:00.000-07:00

This project is a variation of my arduino powered laser show - and honestly it's not quite as cool. But - I wanted to go down this road to explore a few ideas...

The video really covers all the core technical details:

My original hope was to project 100x100 or so at 10hz - which might be enough to feel like low-res video. But I think it's fairly clear I'd need to go to commercial parts to do that (which isn't how I like to roll...)

Besides - I've got a handful of ideas how to get the "laser show" version working better...

Arduino Powered Laser Show

2011-03-16T04:49:00.001-07:00

I have finally gotten around to documenting my Arduino powered laser show that uses audio speakers for Galvos.

Full documentation and source code is available via this Instructable.

Quite happy with the way it works now:

I have no idea how many hours I've sunk into this project - but it's a bunch. I would guess 60-80 hours on the Instructable itself.

My motivation to get the Instructable done is that they are having a contest for an Epilog laser cutter - the deadline being 4 days from now.

Radon 220 (Thoron) decaying in a cloud chamber

2011-01-20T09:35:00.000-08:00

Turns out my new Thorite sample emits a fair amount of Radon 220 (aka Thoron):

Introducing the Nothing Labs Electronic Cloud Chamber

2010-12-01T02:59:00.000-08:00

On sale now at www.nothinglabs.com!

Cloud chambers let you see paths left by ionizing radioactive particles. Traces appear as the particles ionize super-cooled alcohol vapor - causing it to precipitate.

Most cloud chambers require messy / inconvenient dry ice or other external cooling. They also need extended periods of time to reach operating temperature.

The Nothing Labs Electronic Cloud Chamber uses a thermoelectric ("Peltier") / air cooling system to quickly chill its surface plate to -30 Fahrenheit without dry ice.

As far as I can tell - this is the first cloud chamber design that uses electronic / peltier cooling which doesn't need external secondary cooling (like cold water).

I came up with this cloud chamber in early 2010 - and promptly published most of my findings online.

So - if your idea of a fun weekend involves thermal paste and heatsinks - check out the Instructable.

Otherwise - I'll build you a really nice looking one for a small fee.

A short history of Nothing Labs

2010-12-01T01:15:00.000-08:00

I registered nothinglabs.com about 3 years ago with the intent of morphing my translational drift project into some kind of flying toy.

In a more general sense - I wanted to somehow brand myself with something other than my circa-2002 ~~now obsolete~~ totally awesome anti-spam program - SpamButcher.

I never quite completed development of the flying toy. It did take off - but someone beat me to market with an actual product (hey WowWee - if you want to make that thing actually work well - drop me a line...).

Since then I've rebranded my various projects under Nothing Labs - but haven't come out with an actual hardware product - until now...

Introducing the Nothing Labs Electronic Cloud Chamber.

Arduino Powered Homemade Halloween Laser Show

2010-10-30T23:01:00.000-07:00

I got the laser show working pretty well now.

Not shown in video - but it also has a full library of alpha characters - so it's easy to do text.

Full documentation / schematics coming soon!

Radioactive Salt Substitute

2010-09-23T01:22:00.000-07:00

Selling Uranium

2010-09-20T00:04:00.000-07:00

Yup - I'm now selling uranium...

More homemade laser show fun

2010-08-27T00:33:00.000-07:00

Made a lot of progress since the last post:

No radical changes - just a bunch of minor tweaks adding up to better performance.

Will publish code / details in the next few weeks.

Homemade laser show with homemade galvos

2010-08-21T02:06:00.000-07:00

A week or so ago - I found one of these at Value Village for $2.

If it's not obvious - it's a little laser show toy. It projects a laser on the wall which moves with sound / music. Unfortunately they don't seem to be reliably sold anymore (at least this particular model).

It actually includes X and Y "galvos." Galvanometers are devices that produce a change in angle in response to a given voltage. Laser show systems use them to aim mirrors.

So - I hacked it. I managed to get a moderate amount of control over the laser. I was able to draw a pretty good square - but when I got as complex as a star - things started falling apart.

I suspected the weak link was the galvos. So - I decided to try making my own out of speakers from the local thrift store.

The first test came out pretty well:

Yup - this is seeming like a new "project" - here are the goals:

- Migrate code to arduino
- Advance the hardware / software so it could hypothetically render 6-7 alpha characters
- Code will be able to direct XY scanner via coordinates and turn laser on / off
- Leaving character sets / animation / other cool stuff for others to figure out
- Publish full project details via youtube / instructables.com / nothinglabs.com

$2.50 iPhone Bumper Case

2010-08-17T22:11:00.000-07:00

I just got my iPhone 4.

When I picked it up the first time - I cringed. It's very pretty - but with a glass screen and a glass back - it seems leaving the house without a case is a recipe for disaster.

So - I put together this YouTube video (also an Instructable).

Manic Marble 3 for iPad Demo (in an actual Apple Store!)

2010-06-19T01:20:00.000-07:00

I haven't been able to shoot a decent demo video for Manic Marble 3 due to not actually having an iPad of my own (not enough spare cash).

I developed the entire game using XCode's iPad simulator. It's fine for testing - but performance isn't that great - and wouldn't make the game look good.

So - I headed down to the Apple Store - and shot a demo video on one of their iPads...

More cloud chamber tweaks

2010-05-03T13:53:00.000-07:00

Latest round of design tweaks + some slow motion footage:

Radiation Exposure Levels

2010-04-30T00:12:00.000-07:00

I've been collecting a number of (relatively) low-level radioactive samples for use with my cloud chamber project.

Now that I've been playing with the stuff for a while - I figure it's time to get a better understanding of radiation measurements so I can be sure I'm not putting myself in danger.

Disclaimer: I DON'T REALLY KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THIS STUFF - DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH IF THIS MIGHT IMPACT YOUR HEALTH. Further - if you think I got something wrong - please leave me a comment.

A rad is a unit of absorbed radiation dose causing 0.01 joule of energy to be absorbed per kilogram of matter. It's also a pretty large amount of radiation - so millirads is more commonly used.

A rem is a rad measurement that's been multiplied by a weighting factor depending on how biologically damaging the type of radiation it is.

For example - beta and gamma particles have weighting values of 1. Alpha particles are rated at 20.

So alphas are really dangerous? Yes and no. You don't want to get them inside your body - but they also can't penetrate your layer of dead outer skin.

So - assuming we're just worried about beta and gamma radiation - 1 rad equals 1 rem.

You can use this tool to calculate your own exposure. About 300 millirem / year is a common level.

Nuclear workers are allowed up to 5 rem (5000 millirem) per year. Maybe that's safe - but it sounds scary to me.

I figure I don't want my playing with radioactivity to bump my exposure rate any more than 10% above my annual background exposure. That's 30 millirem / year.

About 2ft from my radioactive collection - I get a reading on my geiger of about .07 mrem / hr (I'm having to guestimate this - at such low counts the needle moves erratically). At 8760 hrs / year - that would come out to 613 mrem annually (but presumably 300 mrem of this is background I'm already getting).

I can chalk up about 90% of the radiation to a piece of red fiesta ware - that stuff is pretty hot!

So - from two feet away - my radioactive collection is exposing me to about as much background radiation as everything else in the world does. If I spent 10% of my time at this location - I'd hit my self-imposed 30 millirem limit (it's probably more like 1%).

However - at 6 feet away - I only get the dozen-or-so clicks each minute that I normally see as background radiation. I think it's safe to say that just having the collection in my house (and not next to my bed or computer) isn't getting close to 30 millirem / year.

So what about handling the materials when I take them in and out of the cloud chamber?

My "hottest" sample (a piece of Autunite - third sample in the video below) rates at 20 millirad / hour if I hold my geiger directly against it. That's 20 millirem / hour based on my prior assumptions.

So - that means to get 30 millirem - I'd have to hold the piece for 90 minutes straight (which I would not do...). Further - "limits" typically tend to be about 10x higher for extremities - but I'll stick with my ultra-conservative 30 millirem to play it safe.

Note - rem and rad are considered obsolete units - in favor of the Sievert - but my Geiger counter reads in millirads - so I'm going sticking with old-school.

Introducing the Nothing Labs blog...

2010-04-27T15:33:00.000-07:00

Hello - my name's Rich.

"Nothing Labs" is the name I do a handful of things under - some commercial, some fun - some in the gray area between.

I've mostly started blogging again so I can easily share things related to the fun stuff with others. Up until now - this has usually involved FTP'ing a picture up to my website - then emailing the link to friends (very 1999).

Recently I've been spending way too much time tweaking my peltier-based cloud chamber setup (building your own is fairly easy).