Weird Connections - No Actually!!

I really couldn't think of a better subject line.. it may imply a lot of things but this article is going to be about some of my weird ideas and how I tried implementing them.

1) Fire Automated - One day while watching a program on TV about how Edison invented the light bulb a similar bulb lit up in my head (The actual wattage was and still is highly questionable but I was in the 9th standard so sue me..). I suddenly had this desire of having a way to light a candle in case the light went out. I specifically wanted to light a candle not a bulb as somehow that seemed more .. ahem.. romantic. Oh OK., what the heck.. I just wanted to light a candle cause I wanted to do it. The circuit I built was a simple one, broke a light bulb and took out the tungsten filament, hooked it via a switch to a group of batteries and wrapped the filament around a couple of match heads and placed the match heads close to a candle's wick. Hit the switch and lo and behold the filament glowed red and the match heads ignited.. ha ha.. Fire! Fire!. Its aliiivve. Well not that dramatic but it was quite "cool". Showed it to a couple of friends who couldn't have cared less and hence I took that apart after a few days.

2) Mithunism - Inspired by a scene from the Lords movie ( Don't remember which one it was.. have I sinned.. Oh NO!!) I tried lighting a match by striking the boots I was wearing. Turns out that its not easy. Did some reading and found out why they are called "safety" matches :-(
However, I just had to find a way around it and do something.. and I did. Took the striking part off from a match box, stuck it to a sheet of paper and wrapped that paper tightly around a matchstick. The result was a roll of paper layered with the striker with a match inside it.You just had to pull it out sharply and out it would come bursting in flames. I stuck that to the heel of my boots and headed out. Met a few friends, went for a smoke, pretended to not have a match box and did my thing .. he he.. were they surprised!!

3) The Arnold Alarm - While in engineering, in order to get up in the morning after the usual late night sessions I built a system of alarms. The first set was a set of two alarm clocks connected in parallel. I used to set them 5 minutes apart and once one started ringing it would trigger the others alarm as well. The second system was more innovative. It was a motion sensor.. he he.. OK.. not quite but it was a stripped down alarm clock that I connected to my door. Once somebody pushed on my door, it tripped the alarm and it kept ringing till it was manually rest. Dinesh, my next door neighbour and an early riser was the designated "trigger". He would get up every day morning and begin with a customary "Abbey sam ***** uth ja saale" followed by a swift kick on my door thus setting off the alarm. Oh the happy days!! :-)

4) Engineering Mini project - It was called the Automated Lab Support System.. an ingenious mirco controller based system which can only be conceived by 4 aspiring electronic engineers. The design basically involved about 10% engineering skill, 40% lack of common sense and 50% lack of foresight. This deadly mixture when marinated in vodka overnight led to the final design. I built that entire circuit in my room ( as I was too lazy to walk 500 yards to the lab) and by circuit I mean the entire mirco controller assembly. Soham did a phenomenal job of Mircoprocessor programming and we were able to give a demo of the system. When compared to our original plans, the system we finally built was like starting out with the blue print of the Taj Mahal and finally ending up with the open air toilet of Shashi ( Shashi from Trivandum junction).

Thus it seems that over the years, my ideas have just become crappier, complicated, unrealistic, unmanageable and totally lack lustre. Thankfully I am in IT so no one noticed :-)