[Cyborg] wearable fog machines

Sean Cusack sean.p.cusack at gmail.com
Sun Jun 6 02:40:28 UTC 2010


Nice. I'll bring some by for some awesomeness in the near future (I'll write
the list). Hilariously, even though we handle a ton of this stuff, we don't
really have very good safety equipment for it. Typically, we just use normal
nitrile gloves and resort to the "hot potato" method or use plastic scoops
and boxes. I'll bring some of that stuff though when I bring it by the area.

Sean

On Sat, Jun 5, 2010 at 10:14 AM, Eric Boyd <mrericboyd at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Sean,
>
> I'd love to play with dry-ice any time you want to bring some to
> noisebridge!  I think we can play with that independent of when we have our
> laser projects ready.  Can you also snag us some safety equipment, like big
> gloves and boxes and stuff?
>
> Eric
>
>
>
>
>
> On 6/4/10 1:35 AM, Sean Cusack wrote:
>
>> We get ~100kg of dry ice delivered to our lab every day, so I can
>> definitely snag some for you Eric to give some ideas a try before we
>> totally commit. Just let me know when you want me to snag it.
>>
>> An alternative idea may be to use finely atomized water vapor instead of
>> smoke. It should give the same effect...although it could leave you a
>> bit um....soaking wet. Also, mini fog machines have totally already been
>> made in the aerospace industry for wind tunnels. Perhaps we can try to
>> adapt something like that? (see
>> http://www.aerolab.com/Display_Pages/SMK_Gen.html for ideas)
>>
>> Sean
>>
>> On Fri, Jun 4, 2010 at 1:04 AM, Rachel McConnell <rachel at xtreme.com
>> <mailto:rachel at xtreme.com>> wrote:
>>
>>    I have actually seen a costume (last weekend even) that used some kind
>>    of smoke machine (it was a Steam Punk costume, a woman with a mohawk
>> had
>>    made a headdress that produced a steam-like fog).  She said it was
>>    nontoxic and it was attached to her belt so it was definitely portable.
>>      I will try to track her down and ask about it b/c it would be the
>>    perfect thing for this.
>>
>>    Rachel
>>
>>    Eric Boyd wrote:
>>     > So, we're probably going to need fog machines of some sort in
>>    order to
>>     > make the beams from the laser properly visible.
>>     >
>>     > There are basically three types of fog generators:
>>     >
>>     > 1) Chemical, using heat to vaporize "fog juice". This is what
>>    clubs use.
>>     > They typically require a ~kW of power for the heater, and 5
>>    minutes to
>>     > warm up. Obviously that'll never be wearable.  But, maybe some small
>>     > wearable version could be built somehow?  I'm thinking of some
>>    kind of
>>     > tiny heater, and a way to "drip" the fog juice.  Not sure how
>>    much fog
>>     > you could get that way though, even if you pulled it off. Almost
>>     > certainly not the solution we need.  Interestingly, you can get
>> these
>>     > fog machines surprisingly cheap, I found several at the $50 price
>>    point.
>>     >   Fog juice is about $20/gallon.  Does noisebridge need a fog
>>    machine?!?
>>     >
>>     > 2) Ultrasonic.  Basically, mechanically force vapor out of water.
>>      Makes
>>     > a heavy (sinking) fog.  Still has fairly large power requirements,
>>     > typically 24V @>1 amp, i.e. 25W or more - possible for batteries,
>>    it'd
>>     > be heavy, but doable.  This usually only yields a small amount of
>>    fog,
>>     > suitable for e.g. a small fountain.  Maybe that's sufficient.
>>      Can't be
>>     > used with fog juice, it gums up the ultrasonic emitter (darn!).
>>      Overall
>>     > I don't think it could be made to work.
>>     >
>>     > 3) The winner: dry ice.  Simply add water to dry ice and presto,
>> fog.
>>     > Primary concern is safety, dry ice is dangerous.  Still, I think
>>    this is
>>     > the clear choice.  You could have a little hand-pump to meter out
>> the
>>     > water into a chamber in e.g. a backpack, and tubes to guide the fog
>>     > where you want it. Bonus points if you can engineer the dry-ice
>>    chamber
>>     > into your laser costume somehow :-).  Anyone know where I could
>>    buy some
>>     > dry ice in the Mission?
>>     >
>>     > One final thing: you could just actually use smoke, i.e. burn
>>    something.
>>     >   It might be harder to control that though.  Perhaps the use of
>>     > something like Smoke Candles?
>>     >
>>     > http://www.qasupplies.com/2001000.html
>>     >
>>     > Eric
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>>
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