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Hack Chat Transcript, Part 2

A event log for Citizen Science Hack Chat

[Ben Krasnow] Hosts a Hack Chat

lutetiumLutetium 04/29/2020 at 20:120 Comments

alexwhittemore12:25 PM
@Abhishek Viswanathan this seems to fit neatly along those lines: https://www.seeedstudio.com/Smart-Citizen-Kit-p-2864.html

Mark VandeWettering12:26 PM
Ben: Kind of shocked you haven't heard of them. Very cool series, more for teaching you _how_ to build machine tools, with the side affect of, well, building machine tools. It's hard to argue that for most of us it is a cost effective way to equip a shop, but it's a great set of skill building projects.

Applied Procrastination12:26 PM
I'll continue my monologue about micrometeorites for a little longer. Because one of the problems for citizen scientists in the field is to definitively prove that you have actually found something extraterrestrial. With Larsen's method you can learn how to find stuff and be pretty certain, but to be really sure you need an electron microscope and more importantly an electron microPROBE (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_microprobe/). It's similar to an electron microscope but uses Bragg diffraction to identify the constituent materials of the object being irradiated. Since you've built your own SEM, @Ben Krasnow, I'm really curious to hear if you've ever attempted or considering making a microprobe like that.

me12:26 PM
I want to do https://amzn.com/0596514921 and https://amzn.com/1449396593 but understand others have had legal problems. I guess it's not hardware hacking really.

zacchaeus liang12:27 PM
how would you collect them?

Sam Zeloof12:27 PM
@alexwhittemore nothing too bad, have to write a reflection essay, formal warning, etc... I think having it associated with that lab might have been worse actually because I've already been politely *corrected* for having some chemicals and things in there

Peter Bosch12:27 PM
@Ben Krasnow For your diy SEM, did you have any issues with the outgassing of the materials you used?

Kendall Meade12:27 PM
gingery home workshop, informed by developments since then like cheap graphite for air bearings and cheap industrialized flat granite for reference surfaces, means more people could do the dan-gelbart micron-accurate grinders too Mark VandeWettering

Mike Kennedy12:27 PM
Ben: When you have done your difference project, did you have a plan for the different equipment needed? For example the SEM, and the sputtering project..

Christian12:27 PM
@me ah I thought you only meant hardware as in electronics

Dan Maloney12:28 PM
FYI, I'll be posting a transcript of the chat directly afterward, in case anyone misses a link or something.

Mike Kennedy12:28 PM
For example did you plan ahead the need?

Mark VandeWettering12:28 PM
Kendall I'll be googling for those improvements :-)

Kendall Meade12:28 PM
for reference

dennis1a4 joined  the room.12:28 PM

Ben Krasnow12:28 PM
Peter, yes! I originally used acrylic (PMMA) parts, it was too much. I could tell the parts were outgassing since the pressure would go up, the more parts I put into the chamber. I switched to PTFE, which was much better, and luckily mechanically good enough for what I was doing.

Peter Bosch12:29 PM
And the metal? what was the base plate made of?

alexwhittemore12:29 PM
@Sam Zeloof Reflection essay thesis: "Ultimately this experience has shown me that my decisions were largely optimal given the scenario, and others would not have achieved goals as effectively" :)

Ben Krasnow12:29 PM
Aluminum. I've never had problems with metal choices in the realm of vaccum that I need.

Sam Zeloof12:30 PM
@alexwhittemore haha perfect, thank you

Kendall Meade12:30 PM
I haven't worked with vacuum but I have heard that epoxy resins particularly have a problem of off-gassing

Peter Bosch12:30 PM
seeing as I'm looking to start some high vacuum experiments of my own when the lockdown is over, and I've just been hearing a lot of conflicting stuff about aluminum being usable or not

Sam Zeloof12:30 PM
@Ben Krasnow how did the spark plug feedthroughs work for you? were they sealed with a crushable metal gasket or o-ring? seems like a nice cheap trick

Ben Krasnow12:31 PM
You can get away with more than what you'd believe reading the forums. Buna-n O-rings are perfectly fine, which is what I used to seal the sparkplugs. Pretty much any metal will be fine. Any plastic that smells strongly like PVC or "vinyl" tubing, should be avoided.

Applied Procrastination12:32 PM
Good evening, @Andy Geppert ! I loved to play with your magnetic core memory touch-screen at the hardware happy-hour event in SF back in February :) (I am Simen, btw)

Micah Elizabeth Scott12:32 PM
anyone else think it's worth reflecting on "citizen science" as it interacts with your neighbors' rights to safety though...

Lightning Phil12:32 PM
@Ben Krasnow , what vacuum levels were you hitting?

pe1cmp12:32 PM
large rubber stops with needle pressed through was also used in some experiments

Christian12:32 PM
@Micah Elizabeth Scott well sure

Ben Krasnow12:32 PM
Epoxy can be very good. Hysol 1C is known as a good vacuum sealant.

Mike Kennedy12:33 PM
I believe that you can get low-off gas expoy.. they are just expensive..

Peter Bosch12:33 PM
@scanlime : thats common sense isn't it: don't do anything you can't reasonably assume is safe to the environment around you

alexwhittemore12:33 PM
@Micah Elizabeth Scott I do - BUT I also thing it substantially comes down to "safety first" - as long as you're conducting yourself rationally and mitigating risk for yourself, that naturally extends to others.

Lightning Phil12:33 PM
Torr Seal works well, but quite expensive. Still less expensive than off the shelf vacuum fittings.

Micah Elizabeth Scott12:33 PM
i mean, yes, but i'm also just seeing a culture of "safety third" for this stuff a lot, and this chat hasn't been taking the "reflection" seriously it seems

Mike Kennedy12:33 PM
Could this be an experiment? measure the different off-gassing of materials?

alexwhittemore12:34 PM
@Micah Elizabeth Scott Oh well - if you work at SpaceX, sure.

Christian12:34 PM
and point your particle accelerator only in the direction of your least favorite neighbor ;)

Ben Krasnow12:34 PM
Micah, I take it seriously. My neighbors actually discovered my channel organically, so they know what I'm up to in, at least what makes it onto YouTube, which is mostly every project.

Micah Elizabeth Scott12:34 PM
i mean, in my experience diy culture is full of folks talking a big talk about safety and then doing risky experiments in apartment buildings

Peter Bosch12:34 PM
lab safety 101: determine the risks (worst case) of your experiment and determine the failure modes of your mitigations

Kendall Meade12:34 PM
Ben Krasnow what would it take to convince you to do an AR15 build on the channel? :D

Mike Kennedy12:35 PM
OMG..

Christian12:35 PM
Do mean risky as in harming themselves or others?

Ben Krasnow12:35 PM
I'm not really into guns, but don't hate them either. It's just not what my channel is about.

Mike Kennedy12:35 PM
Ben: what about Antenna projects?

Mike Kennedy12:35 PM
:)

Kendall Meade12:35 PM
they aren't for everybody, but at a time when so many people are impulsively buying beyond their competence, it'd be nice to see level heads weighing in on them

Micah Elizabeth Scott12:35 PM
christian: yes. i mean like producing fumes in enclosed spaces, producing x-rays in a dorm room, that kind of thing. it's a risk that people nearby don't know about or consent to.

Ashley12:36 PM
Ben, is there an experiment or project you've been eager to do but have had to put off? Even a dream project.

Mike Kennedy12:36 PM
Or another way.. what are your next big Projects in mind?

Micah Elizabeth Scott12:37 PM
i'm not trying to be a pest to any one person i just see this celebrated a lot in the diy community- folks venting acid vapour out their balcony or whatever and the replies are all "lol sucks to be your neighbor" in a way which doesn't actually discourage this sort of thing at all *shrug*

Kendall Meade12:37 PM
I think guns are an interesting "ultimate beating swords into plowshares" industrial test case, if you can manufacture a modern firearm you can basically perform all of the precision operations that are necessary to also be able to make things like car engines and electric motors and generators. I'm not some crazy "everybody should have an ak47" nutjob but I also think they can't be un-invented.

Ben Krasnow12:37 PM
Ashley, yes, an MRI machine ! Alan Yates and I had been planning it long ago. It's still on my list. There is also nuclear quadrapole resonance spectrometers, which are sometimes callled "zero field NMR".

Mark VandeWettering12:37 PM
yeah, the problem is that if you make a gun...well.. you have a gun. What use is that?

Peter Bosch12:38 PM
ben: what about building a DIY STM?

Mark VandeWettering12:38 PM
I'd rather have an electron microscope.

anfractuosity12:38 PM
oh yeah an STM would be interesting, or AFM

pe1cmp12:38 PM
what non-medical uses can such MRI scanners provide ?

Kendall Meade12:38 PM
eh? can be nothing but a fun bangstick in the best case, and used only for shooting cans, there's plenty of sports leagues for this stuff, IPSC and all

Kendall Meade12:38 PM
guns aren't magical violence wands

Kendall Meade12:38 PM
this isn't harry potter

Peter Bosch12:38 PM
i've seen some people claim to do it using COTS piezo buzzers

Kendall Meade12:39 PM
anyway, @Ben Krasnow any recommendations on the sort of TV to find that can make the best electron microscope?

Ben Krasnow12:39 PM
Whitequark was doing some STM experiments with MLCC surface-mount caps. I don't have a link handy, but it was on hackaday

Mike Kennedy12:39 PM
Ben: Are you open to the idea of a DIY community Projects?

Kendall Meade12:39 PM
I know I need some kind of CRT with an in place and not-discharged magnetic ring

me12:39 PM
you can use a gun to shoot a few balloons so you can descend https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawnchair_Larry_flight

Spencer Lund12:39 PM
@Ben Krasnow on the topic of citizen science, I really enjoyed your research on electroless plating. Did you find the circuits you produced to be robust enough to replace other home-produced PCBs? I recall you had some peeling issues, at least at some point

Mike Kennedy12:39 PM
Or even Mentoring..

pe1cmp12:40 PM
https://hackaday.com/2015/08/20/using-a-capacitor-as-an-actuator/ ?

Mark VandeWettering12:40 PM
I'm trying to work my way back into telescope making/optical fabrication, and an interferometer is on my list of todos.

R. Scott Coppersmith12:40 PM
I just built a face mask sanitizer using an old EPROM eraser UVC lamp

Kendall Meade12:40 PM
oh yeah also on the subject of projects, @Ben Krasnow do you have a github that you can put up so that people can build along or maybe even make submissions to?

Ben Krasnow12:41 PM
Spencer, no. It needs more work to be ready for beta testing. I haven't developed it since presenting at Supercon.

Mike Kennedy12:41 PM

https://github.com/benkrasnow

GITHUB

benkrasnow - Overview

Dismiss Sign up for your own profile on GitHub, the best place to host code, manage projects, and build software alongside 40 million developers.

Read this on GitHub

Kendall Meade12:41 PM
duuuuh thanks, I'm a googletard, lol

Kendall Meade12:41 PM
followed :D

Lightning Phil12:42 PM
@Mark VandeWettering - beats the plant pots I'm presently printing

Christian12:42 PM
@Micah Elizabeth Scott when I think about it I've seen some really stupid stuff that's dangerous to others/the environment. But on the other hand I think that most regulations are meant for commercial applications ie doint stuff all the time. So the causal chemist or the hardly used x-ray source should not pose a too great risk. but you are absolutly right I rather like to know it when someone is opperation an x-ray source nearby

Mike Kennedy12:42 PM
Ben: Are you open to the idea of a DIY community Projects? Or Mentoring projects?

Kendall Meade12:43 PM
how much can you mitigate the risks of Xray stuff by either a) doing it in a basement with shielding over the top so that it's insulated by the earth, or b) doing some kind of rammed earth arrangement to bring that 'earth shielding above ground' in something like an earthship?

Shiz12:43 PM
if everyone believes they're not doing "too much harm", you make a lot of collective harm

Ben Krasnow12:43 PM
Mike, I guess it depends on the project specifics

Shiz12:43 PM
also speculating on the exact intention of laws seems dangerous

Kendall Meade12:43 PM
shiz, the problem is that if everybody can do 'no harm' nothing gets done

morgan12:44 PM
*citation needed

Joseph12:44 PM
I am back.

Mike Kennedy12:44 PM
Can we make a Proposed Project Web Site?

Shiz12:44 PM
that's a rather sweeping statement without any backup

Kendall Meade12:44 PM
so was yours, lol

krux12:44 PM
I agree you have to not be short sighted on what do do with waste products, what electrical emissions you are producing, etc.. that's a being good to yourself, your neighbors, and the planet kind of thing. A lot of people don't think of that. Can't just dump random chemicals down the drain type of stuff.

Lightning Phil12:44 PM
@Kendall Meade http://www.radprocalculator.com/Gamma.aspx is excellent for working out dose rate calculations

Mike Kennedy12:44 PM
Take in Idea's and choose?

Kendall Meade12:44 PM
noice, thanks phil :D

Ben Krasnow12:45 PM
Mike, yes I started a reddit for the purpose of voting/generating project topics. It's been a while since I checked in...

Mike Kennedy12:45 PM
oh really? wow..

Mike Kennedy12:45 PM
do you have a link.. or would a different forum work better for you..

pe1cmp12:45 PM
electrical emissions are worst on low frequencies and long wires - the higher the frequency, the less problems in the long range

Ben Krasnow12:45 PM

https://www.reddit.com/r/AppliedScienceChannel/

REDDIT

r/AppliedScienceChannel

r/AppliedScienceChannel: Discussion area for the Applied Science youtube channel.

Read this on reddit

Ben Krasnow12:46 PM
I can't even remember my login?

Kendall Meade12:46 PM
lol

Noel12:46 PM
@Ben Krasnow What tools/methods do you use to track progress in your projects?

Kendall Meade12:46 PM
don't feel bad I've been on reddit like 10+ years and I can't remember mine eitehr

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