Bonus Mini-Mocstring

[Dr. X]

Just took photos of my Space Freighter and a Steampunk boat.

Steamboat first.

For some reason, I love steamboats. I don't know why, but I just adore the two windows, the smokestacks, and all the machinery greeblies. When I saw that strange boat hull in a pile of Legos at my fat friend's house, I bartered it off him (easily, him being the awesome fat friend he is) immediately knowing it would make a perfect steamboat.

I like to load my steamboats with barrels of junk. Here it is, finished, with all sorts of random crap in it.



For more pics, click here.



Next, the Space Freighter.

This DT-2400 is owned by a small-time smuggler Jex Hantiir. He drives around, smuggling illegal spice and munitions.

I built this ship for one purpose only, to test a light-up hand-powered thruster system, with no battery boxes needed.




You can attach a hand crank to the nub here:



When the hand crank is turning, two things happen. First, the pulley piece on the back spins fast. Second, the fiber-optic brick inside lights up each one of it's lights in a circular motion. If it's kinda dark in the room, it looks really cool.



The faster you turn, the faster the lights spin around. This is an absolutely crappy picture of it, but you get the idea.



This is the inside system. You can see one motor and the hand crank axle, connected and geared for speed. What you can't see is the other motor. I discovered, if you connect two motors together and turn one, the other outputs power to anything connected to it, and it turns the shaft on the other motor. The second motor you can't see is connected to the first motor, and also to the light brick. The shaft of the second motor is connected to the light brick also. So when you turn the hand crank, it turns the first motor, which provides power and power output to the second motor, powering and spinning the light brick.



For more pics, click here.


That's all, folks! Tune in next time, for another

Dr. X Mocstring!


-Dr. X

[Natalya]

Very creative idea with the lighting on that small cargo hauler. Props to you.

[Bonn-o-Tron]

I love how even though you threw random pieces into it, the boat actually does look steampunk.

[pesgores]

▲ job. A huge one.

[Dr. X]

Thanksez.

[IVhorseman]

Yup. a DC (battery powered) motor will in fact work as a power generator if you turn it the opposite direction. i found this out for a science project in middle school, where i built miniature windmills.

[Dr. X]

Actually, it works if I spin it either way.

[IVhorseman]

really? huh... now that i think of it and what little i know of electric generators there's no reason that that SHOULDN'T work, but for some reason i thought it had to be opposite direction... oh! it's for the direction of the current, which usually doesn't matter! there we go.

[Bonn-o-Tron]

X, if I saw you riding around on that, I'd probably laugh at you

[ahp77]

His weight, even as a rodent, would crush it before you see him riding on it.

[OneEye589]

Oh man that thing is radtastic.

But where's the rocket launcher I told you to put on it?

[Dr. X]

It's a small (very) electric bike I recently built. Despite it's tiny size, it goes around 16mph with me on it.

But that's an old picture. The motor get's a bit hot, so recently I (glued) put an old computer fan on to the motor and wired it up to the batts with a switch. It looks awesome and cuts any foo' who tries to touch it. I also attached a 40-year old volt meter gauge to the handlebars to let me know when the charge is running low.

[OneEye589]

That's really handy. Two of my friends got moped kits to put on their bikes. It's pretty much just like any other moped, but a lot cheaper. They have a 1/2 gallon tank on them that can take them 75 miles when it's full and a gallon tank strapped to the back. We raced one of my friends and his moped went 25 MPH with flat tires and without any tweaking. He's a small engines mechanic too, so he's got it going around 30-35 MPH now.

And 16MPH is pretty good for an all-electric scooter. I'm suprised it can carry you and still go faster than a motorized wheelchair. I want a motorized wheelchair.

[Dr. X]

I kinda tinker with electric scooters, so I actually have like 5 of em. My fastest one is a stock Mongoose with a slightly larger motor and it can reach about 19mph, which suits me just fine.

But the little one is awesome, because it's so.. little.

I know a guy who used lithium-ion batteries (like 500$) and over-volted his (1000w) motor and can get 38mph. Good luck getting life insurance buddy.