OptimisticPessimist

I wonder if wax paper would work as a print/transfer medium?

"Robot Chicken" ..teehee...

Here is the gizmo working as described:

I'm old school. When you say "scratch", it used mean just that.

Because air can be disturbed, why not other media? We are very familiar with magnetism, which has waves, so how hard is it to make a similar field? The purpose can be not to levitate, but also influence. Current gravity (effect) reduction technology is an example.Also, standing waves are what auto noise canceling/reduction tech uses to make exhaust noise quieter. Same with fancy headphones. My hope is that projects that mix tech & environment being "democratized" are what we need to get more kids psyched about STEM fields.Awesome.

I have this on my list of projects. I wanted to add a radar-style animal detector to only drive the motor when birds are nearby. This is because I'm thinking of using a solar panel to keep the battery topped off.So 2 things have to happen: Water is not low, and there is at least one bird nearby. But it is the same issue whether you have 1 or 10 sensors. You are just telling something (I'd use a µC (abbreviation for "microcontroller"), like an ATTiny) to turn the pump on or off.The big decision is whether you want to drive the motor via a pin from the µC (very limited current, so look up your pump & µC), or from a motor driver chip or board/module designed for the purpose. You can also use a transistor powerful enough to take the load of the motor, using the µC output on th...

I have this on my list of projects. I wanted to add a radar-style animal detector to only drive the motor when birds are nearby. This is because I'm thinking of using a solar panel to keep the battery topped off.So 2 things have to happen: Water is not low, and there is at least one bird nearby. But it is the same issue whether you have 1 or 10 sensors. You are just telling something (I'd use a µC (abbreviation for "microcontroller"), like an ATTiny) to turn the pump on or off.The big decision is whether you want to drive the motor via a pin from the µC (very limited current, so look up your pump & µC), or from a motor driver chip or board/module designed for the purpose. You can also use a transistor powerful enough to take the load of the motor, using the µC output on the base, if things are simple, and avoid other active components.µCs, based on your question, might not be familiar to you. They are relatively simple devices, taking input from outside the chip on it's pins (Is there water? Is it daylight? Are there birds present? ...), using a program you uploaded to it to make a decision (Turn pump on?), then communicating that decision on other pins on the chip to something else-like a pump. In the case of making a decision to turn a pump on or not, the output could go to the pump itself, or to something able to drive the pump without burning out the components (pumps & motors draw a lot of current when compared to, say, an LED.So 'intelligent' designs are possible when µCs are involved, as they are well suited to determine what an output should be. They can also be dirt cheap, reprogrammed, and repurposed. And those pins I mentioned? There are tons of pins on a µC to use-sensing/sending both analog & digital signals, communicating with all kinds of sensors-and even another µC or a PC.How much of the above are you already good with? The answer will tell us which gaps in that knowledge to fill in.P.S. If you have heard of Arduino, and have not used it, it is simply a platform to do the above. By platform, I mean it has an editor to write code & upload to your chip, and contributed libraries to correctly communicate with anything outside the µC itself you would need to talk to to make the decision to turn the pump on or off. Arduino is not a chip, nor is it a language, though you will see the term used that way. I bring up Arduino as it is an ideal platform to get familiar with how µCs work if you have no prior programming/hardware preferences.Looking forward to more info!P.S. As for no examples, you may not be looking where you can most likely find something similar. Remember from above that the fact this is a bird bath is immaterial-just as the fact you are sensing water & driving a pump. Just look at any project that takes inputs in, makes a decision to drive a motor, then sends a signal out to do so to a waiting motor.P.S.S. Here are the results of a search for Arduino water sensor, and here is one specifically for what you said was not out there Arduino drive submersible pumpYou can also find a ton of people doing the same thing on the website Arduino.cc, along with other things Arduino to inspire you.

Thank you, @DIY!

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I'm surprised @instructables let this fly for so long...

The power supply was completely ignored. Single supply? Dual? So much left out. Of course, great to have effort, but no vetting by instructables?

Links to all the stuff thats missing?

I was thinking of what kind of rubber/foam would have a look/feel of chocolate, but I think that would be hard. Well, easier for me with no router, table, lathe, agreeable wife, etc."Victims"?The thing about this kind of puzzle is that it what we had as kinds, not a computer game. I mean, the games/puzzles were tactile, or "3D" in today's parlance. A kid becomes a true problem solver/creator when given a pile of legos instead of a lego "kit"...Well done.

"test subject" ...heehee...

"Yes, but..." is my answer. Your car power is the worst DC source possible. Not for stuff like running your lights, but for sensitive electronics. Using a 7805 regulator protects your nano in more ways than one. In addition to the obvious, when coupled with input ceramic & output electrolytic caps, it will suppress a lot of the noise on your car's DEC bus. They also make a cheaper fuse than the nano itself, but it you use a protection diode, even that is a limited risk (see attached)From the official Arduino Nano page:Power:The Arduino Nano can be powered via the Mini-B USB connection, 6-20V unregulated external power supply (pin 30), or 5V regulated external power supply (pin 27). The power source is automatically selected to the highest voltage source.

old post, but links are stale. Link to kit:https://www.ledsales.com.au/index.php?main_page=pr...Link to pre-assembled:http://www.ebay.com/itm/NCH6100HV-High-Voltage-DC-...