Mike Colombo: thrift

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Evaporative Cooler Update!

Methinks the evaporative cooling set-up did it's job just fine! Between 11:00 to 1:20 the inside temperature creeped from 85 F to 90 F and has held steady since then (writing this at 3:30). I'm calling this a not-too-shabby success, since the outdoor temperature climbed from 91 to 97 in the same amount of time.

So I didn't quite reach the wet-bulb temperature of 84, but here I am writing this entry - a bit balmy, but if it were 97 indoors I'd probably have passed out before finishing this paragraph :)

Lots of thanks to Make: Magazine for featuring this project!

DIY Evaporative Cooling in a Heat Wave

At home, we only have A/C units on the second floor, and I do most of my work on the Mac, which is on the first floor. Yesterday the New York metro area wasn't just hot, it was Africa Hot, and today looks to be more of the same, but I've got work to do. This morning I lowered all the blinds in an attempt to keep the heat out, and set up the window fans on tables with shallow baking pans full of water in front of them. The idea is that the air flowing from the fans will evaporate the water and cool down the room.

WARNING: SCIENCE CONTENT BELOW

How much you can cool a room using this method is dependent on the relative humidity on that particular day. The less relative humidity, the more water you can cool the room down. I found a quick and dirty formula for calculating the "Wet Bulb" temperature, which is the lowest possible temperature you can attain by evaporation alone given the current atmospheric conditions. It turns out that today's wet bulb temperature is 84 degrees, which will feel around 80 for me with the fans going - a bit hot, but definitely tolerable. The thermostats on the fans are holding at 85 right now. However, we haven't reached the hottest part of the day yet - I'll update later this afternoon to see how the experiment worked out.

How To Rewire Roland DS90 Speakers (For Humanities Students)

After so many years of literary analysis and myriad other right-brained ventures, I've become quite sluggish in mathematical type analyses. So, when I accidentally blew the internal amplifiers on my Roland DS90 desktop monitors, it took six years of procrastination before I finally opened them up and converted them to passive speakers.

Wiring in series and parallel I could understand, but when it got into the heady world of impedance and frequency crossovers, my brain started to swirl. I'll try to give the condensed version of how I figured it all out.

First, these monitors have two speakers, one standard for all frequencies, and one tweeter for only high frequencies.

A "crossover" is a speaker wired in parallel that has it's frequency limited by wiring in one or more capacitors.

I found out the "crossover frequency" of my speakers, then checked out this site to calculate the proper capacitance

Then it was a matter of rummaging through my junked circuit boards to find the right capacitors. That same site I linked to has a nifty little calculator that tells you how many farad you get when wiring the capacitors in different series or parallel combinations.

Now for the build pics:

The monitors with their butts ripped off.

The capacitors wired in: 2 10 microfarad caps in series, and 1 2.2 microfarad cap in parallel = 7.2 microfarad

Hacking the input: After I went all Om Nom Nom on the preamp circuit board...

I used the existing RCA input jack, and kept the rest of the amplifier guts intact, guessing that their physical presence has an effect on the overall sound of the monitors.

What's it Worth to You?

     One of my favorite quotes is, "You tell me 'Looks like someone has too much time on their hands,' but all I hear is 'I don't know what it feels like to be creative.'"
     Every day we experience a conscious state taking up what Clay Shirky calls cognitive surplus. In two nights' worth of TV time (watching the NBA finals game 1 last night, and a TV movie this night) I've organized all of my loose hardware: nuts, bolts, nails, screws, washers, and whatever else I might dive into for inspiration from time to time.
     One on side, I paid less attention to what I was watching on the tube. But how much attentions do we really pay to the act of watching television anyway?

Now the tip: sorting hardware is a devious task when you feel like you've gotten so much accomplished, but it's really just because you sorted the big stuff first. Then it's a marathon of drudgery and fine motor exercise. When you're down to a handful of fluff and the tiniest of pieces, I suggest throwing it all in a tin can, going outside, and burning it from a safe distance with a splash of accelerant (isopropyl, gasoline, kero, what have you...).

Once you're finished, dump it onto the pavement, blow away the ash, and scoop up the spoils!

Scrapwood Trellis

It's June and the plants are going vertical for sure now. Our snow peas needed some help with their ascent so I put together this trellis from scraps I have lying around. Kept my Triangle Square (def my fav new tool) out on the ground while framing it up. The design looks haphazard but keeping everything at right and 45 degree angles makes it coalesce I think.

The Magic of the Mail

I love sending and receiving snail mail - I really do. We have X number of ways to connect with each other digitally now (skype, facebook, email, cell, gmail chat, text) that the most intimate form of written communication we have has been largely forgotten. I say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and it's time for snail mail to make a comeback. Here are some ways you can get back into the game:

1. Send away for free samples. This is a no-brainer- there are several sites online dedicated to this where links are posted for free samples. Try www.fatwallet.com - I just have a few free stuff gadgets on my IGoogle and click on the links that seem interesting. Set up a dummy email account and usually you just have to fill out an online form and answer a couple of questions. Usually they take 4-6 weeks and by the time they arrive you've forgotten them and are pleasantly surprised. I've gotten free granola bars, a hospital sharps container, tons of stickers (which I cut up and use for other projects), and I haven't bought soap or shampoo in months thanks to all the products I get in the mail.

2. Write to companies you think are awesome, and write to companies you think are lame. One time I bought an "easy to clean litterbox" that required no less than 9 steps to cleaning out the box! I wrote a letter to the company and they sent me a personalized letter of apology, free litterbox liners, and a Paul Bunyan sized litter scoop. Win! And when I proposed to my wife at Garcia's Kitchen in Albuquerque, we were so smitten with each other we forgot to get some souvenirs. I wrote to the restaurant with our story of true love and burritos and they sent us a care package with t-shirt, mug, pen, and fridge magnet!

3. Reconnect with old friends. We all have a few interesting people in our lives who we've just lost touch with. We think of reconnecting but feel awkward writing an email, don't want to get trapped into a phone conversation, or bristle at Facebook's "suggestion" for us to "reconnect" with them (damn robots telling us what to do!) Just scribble a quick hello down and mail that sucker out. As it goes into the ether the onus is suddenly on the other person now to get in touch.

4. Get a bunch of different denomination stamps, and a postage scale. Use the USPS' online postage calculator to send them on their way. I send slinkies and books and toys and presents of all sorts to my friends through the mail, and it's cheap! Parcel post is the biggest transportation thing going for inanimate objects, get on the gravy train!