Penguinslab Archive

Archived news updates (Most recent --> Least recent):

[24/12/08]

Construction of a new waste vegetable oil furnace will be underway very shortly... keep watching for details.

[21/7/08]

More greensand castings from the furnace

[21/7/08]

Some awesome greensand castings have been made using the furnace, and brand new homemade flasks.

[11/7/08]

Greensand moulds and castings are now in the making for the furnace, after the acquisition of some bentonite clay!

[30/6/08]

Some improvements have been made to the furnace, and a few castings have been produced!

[25/6/08]

The construction of the furnace is complete! A small fire was lit to test it out.

[24/6/08]

Penguin's lab springs back into action with a charcoal powered furnace designed to melt aluminium, brass, bronze and copper! Initial melts with a fireplace were quite successful and a brand new furnace is in the making.

[11/2/08]

Whoops! Penguin's Lab had a bit of downtime for a few days, as the web hosting server went down. I have since transferred to a more reliable source (Lunarpages).

[6/1/08]

Just a couple more photos added to the laser page.

[24/12/07]

Merry Christmas from Penguin's Lab! Have a fun but safe time, especially if working with HV.

[22/11/07]

After a long break, acquisition of a high powered industrial fan has enabled me to revisit the peltier project and cool things down even further.

[30/6/07]

Schematics!! I finally got around to digging out the ignition coil driver and re-drawing the schematic diagram from that. Despite checking it over and over again, I still can't be sure that it is 100% correct though, but why don't you build it and see? Just don't blame me if anything blows up!

[21/06]

Whilst still playing around with the luxeon LEDs and trying somewhat pitifully to find my LED lens, I have added some interesting eBay links to each of the subcategories. Hopefully you will find these useful.

[03/05]

I've edited all the pages and somewhat improved the format. I can't believe how many grammatical errors I had to fix up... jee must have been drunk or something like that.

Also on the projects side of things, I have been playing around with some 6 watt luxeon LEDs. I want to get a lens and case to permanently house it in, perhaps to use as a torch. It'll be uploaded on the website soon...

[04/04]

Thanks to everyone who voted on the poll, not that many people actually did, but oh well. The logo has been changed back to the good 'ol sparky penguin, as I think the 2007 welcoming is well and truly over!

As I am currently away from home, I have no stuff to play with and lack basic tools to really do anything. I will be playing around with some relatively harmless high power luxeon LEDs soon though.

Schematics of projects such as the induction heater have been in high demand, and so I have decided to load them up on the website except that's impossible without first returning home, so unfortunately ya'll have to wait till June/July holidays :(

[11/03]

A poll has been put up, it "should" be working, (keyword- should). Also a new donation button at the bottom of the page if anyone is feeling generous :)

[14/02]

Alrighty! 4new sections added to Penguin Photography... caves, mountains, plants, and man-made structures. Also, new photos added into animals section, which brings total photo count to 159!

On another note, the Balloon Project II has unfortunately been delayed until the next holidays (June/July) where I will return to Darwin (I shall be in Melbourne for Uni). Hopefully during this time we can try and integrate some additional components into the current design to make it even cooler!

[10/02]

Hey hey, its great to be back and also great to see the induction heating page gaining alot of interest recently.

I'll soon be uploading some absolutely awesome (well I think so anyway) photos I took whilst on vacation.

Regarding the Balloon Project II- CL size helium cylinders are now available and hopefully we can send the balloon off to the skies soon. Updates on progress later.

The weekly traffic report has been updated to show only the two most recent logged activities, but I guess noone really cares about the forgotten weeks anyway!

[10/1] On vacation until 10th Feb. Which means no site updates :( and I wont be able to answer any emails :( Check back soon though!

[2/1] Temperature and humidity data has been acquired for the Peltier device.
[26/12] Hope everyone's had a great xmas! Hopefully helium returns soon so we can get the Balloon Project underway.
[15/12] Just back from a storm chase... here's a nice pic (click to see the high res version):
[15/12] Helium for the Balloon Project II is unavailable until January, due to a worldwide shortage of CL size helium cylinders (says BOC anyway...)
[25/11] The simplest magnetic "levitation" device ever! Visit the Magnetic Levitation page.
[22/11] Penguin's Lab experienced some downtime for many hours today, because the index.html file was missing for some reason. I have absolutely no idea why. Apologies for the inconvenience.
[19/11] Generation I Night Vision device completed! Photos and more here.
[18/11] New Fibre Optics page created, including a fibre optic "camera"!
[18/11] Progress has been made into constructing the new night vision device, pictures available! More...
[17/11] PVC tubing and end caps for the new housing of the image intensifier tube have been acquired.
[15/11] Hey everyone! Beautiful new ads on the site now... haha yes, but I've made sure they are as unobtrusive as possible.
[13/11] Image intensifier tube arrived today. More...
[13/11] Hmm, had a little button crisis, and could not decide whether the button links or the text hyperlinks looked better, so for the sake of a faster loading site, I've decided to stick to the text links.
[10/11] Fibre optic lamps arrived. More...
[6/11] New high speed water drop photos added to the HS Water FX page!
[5/11] Ordered a Generation I image intensifier tube for a new night vision scope. More...
[4/11] Ordered a wholesale lot of fibre optics to play around with. More...
[27/10] Balloon Project II: The 1GB SD card arrived. More...
[17/10] Balloon Project II: Meteorological balloons arrived. More...
[15/10] The Peltier element has found itself a new mega heatsink and is cooling things to lower temperatures!
[15/10] New pictures of the subwoofer during a repairing session have been added to the subwoofer page.
[10/10] Balloon Project II: An accidental discovery of shutter behavior in the new camera has greatly simplified the project and is making great progress. More...
[6/10] Balloon Project II: CR-2025 lithium batteries ordered, these will be the power supply to the automatic shutter triggering circuit.
[4/10] Balloon Project II: Digital camera to be used for Balloon Project II has arrived, and successfully modified for electronic shutter control. More...
[25/9] Proposals for Balloon Project II, improving on the first balloon project. More...
[23/9] Whoops, silly error in the traffic report, fixed that up.
[20/9] New videos of the Marx Generator (charging up polystyrene balls) and the Trebuchet in action!
[15/9] The new Stroboscopic Photography page has been created!
[15/9] A reorganisation of the LHS menu results in stroboscopic, high speed, water splash and IR photography combined into one section known as "Special FX Photography".
[13/9] The new Trebuchet page has been created!
[13/9] New logo. Refer to text below logo for details.
[03/9] Stroboscopic photographs of the coilgun and trebuchet have been made. Check the coilgun and stroboscopic photography pages for pictures.
[31/8] Those google ads have been removed because they were a complete waste of space and probably not that interesting anyway. Also a 'fixing up' of the front page.
[30/8] Stroboscopic photography underway! Some nice photos of a bouncing soccer ball. Much to improve on though.
[28/8] Optimised front page for faster loading. Enjoy! (or not?)
[27/8] The range of the trebuchet has increased to at least 15m after additional weight added to the counterweight (which at the moment consists of two microwave oven transformers hahaha... probably around 15kg) Be patient, it will be on the site in a few weeks.
[26/8] Penguin's Lab has made a mini trebuchet capable of throwing a 50g rock about 10m. More...
[20/8] Proposal of Coilgun II, a three stage coilgun. More...
[20/8] Stroboscopic photography is soon to be attempted at Penguin's Lab. More...

Older news updates (prior to date stamping and proper organisation):

New Google ads and search bar! How exciting! Hopefully you'll find something of interest in the links that are advertised, New series of fire pictures, New pictures (lightning simulation) added to Marx page, Improved pictures on main page (whilst remaining the same loading speed), New picture(s) for fire page, New fire page, Higher quality videos for glass shattering experiment, Updated Marx Generator, New Marx Generator page, New distillation page, New glassshattering results- Exp II, Glass shattering experiments underway: new glassshattering page, Current projects updated (again), Current projects updated, New holograms in holography section, New fireworks section added to Penguinphotos, Additional photos added to Lighting FX and Animals, Front page optimised for faster loading, Induction heating page created, 22/5 Update to current projects, Current Projects updated, Fixed the friggin clock/date thing: I thought it was the current time indicator.., New Infrared Photography photo gallery here, Current Projects updated, IR Photography page updated (minor changes), Updated main page, IR Photography page updated, IR Photography page created, Current Projects updated, Holography page created, Current Projects updated, IR photography well underway (check current projects), In process of hologram production (check current projects).Credits page updated, Current projects updated again, Current Projects updated, LCD Panel page created, Current Projects updated, Contact page created, Main page updated, Penguin Photos (animals) page created, Main page updated, Penguin Photos (lighting FX, electricity FX) pages created, FM Transmitter page created, Coilgun page created, Credits page updated, Lasers page updated, Penguin Photos (cliffs, moon shots, sunsets, lightning, skies) pages created/updated, Balloon Project Launch III page created, Balloon Project Launch II page created, Current projects updated, Current projects page created, Credits page created, Low voltage fluoro-driver page created, Penguin Photos (sunsets) page created, Magnetic Levitation page created, Ignition Coil page created, Balloon Project Launch I page created, Subwoofer page created, New Age lighting page created, Night vision page created, HS photography page created, Lasers page modified.