Have you been approached with strange requests for help? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Kaptein QK
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 01:37:02 pm
content: A fellow wanted help with a machine that generated power with only water that did not work. (No, not using water in motion)I declined.Another one wanted help with a autopilot for an autonomous air ship. He wanted it to travel around the globe. He already had the air ship.I declined this one also, though it had a greater chance of success.

author: ju1ce
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 01:46:23 pm
content: It's just that you know people that are very interesting. I don't, but I remember a professor telling that he gets a lot of requests to help build perpetual motion machines. He does research on magnetism...

author: photonpunk
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 02:29:58 pm
content: After I showed someone a led clock/art piece I had made, he excitedly asked if I could build him a juicer as they are too expensive to buy from the store.I have another friend that asks all the time for me to make him things, and there is always some element to it that's obviously (except to him) impossible. Typical conversation:Him- "I want you to build me a website. Make the domainwww.theatre.com."Me- "That domain is taken. Pick something more specific."Him- "Ok. Iswww.plays.comtaken?"

author: calexanian
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 04:05:29 pm
content: Being the only independent electronics firm in a relatively large area we are a lightning rod for nutty people and their ideas! We used to get all types in our door before we put the automatic gate on the parking lot! That thing was a godsend.

author: StevenB
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 06:06:43 pm
content: I've been approached twice with serious requests for help with perpetual motion machines.

author: miceuz
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 06:18:03 pm
content: I get various art student requests. Like a vertical stick with LED pixels and you shake your head and get a persistence of vision effect picture stamped in your retina.

author: Zbig
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 06:53:48 pm
content: Quote from: Kaptein QK on March 05, 2014, 01:37:02 pmAnd you're sure it wasn't the "soul-cleansing power" or something he was talking about and he wasn't dressed accordingly?

author: Rigby
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 08:09:48 pm
content: Quote from: miceuz on March 05, 2014, 06:18:03 pmI love these. They always think you need to stick it on the side of a fast car, or drop it from a plane or shake your head really fast to see the persistence effect... Don't you think just moving your eyeballs will work, ya dink? Some folks are hilariously ignorant about a lot of things. Honestly I find more humor in it than anything. I can't get mad at these people; I really wonder what their lives are like, being able to reach their age without ever leaving fantasyland. I bet it's a lot like Kramer on Seinfeld.

author: photonpunk
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 08:30:50 pm
content: Seems like anyone who's heard of perpetual motion machines, would also be aware of the reasons why they wouldn't work? Those things do go hand-in-hand.Then again, sometimes my dad will tell me something like "You know what you should build? A car that runs on magnets so you wouldn't need fuel."

author: IanJ
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 08:41:24 pm
content: "The kid finder"..........an LED band (head or wrist) for a young kid/toddler..........so that if you lost the kid you could just press the button on the keyfob and the band would flash.Yeah!.............Ian.

author: Rigby
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 08:53:33 pm
content: Quote from: IanJ on March 05, 2014, 08:41:24 pmI will never participate in something like that. There is zero chance that I will help someone be a shittier parent.

author: David_AVD
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 09:20:39 pm
content: Quote from: photonpunk on March 05, 2014, 02:29:58 pmYeah, I've had requests like that a few times. Some people have no understanding of the relationship of mass manufacture and pricing.They want something custom (one-off) made, but think it should cost no more than their DVD player. I guess they figure what they want is simpler than a DVD player, so it should be cheaper - right ?

author: c4757p
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 09:21:59 pm
content: Quote from: David_AVD on March 05, 2014, 09:20:39 pmTranslation: They want you to work for free.It's selfishness, not ignorance.

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 09:25:29 pm
content: Quote from: photonpunk on March 05, 2014, 08:30:50 pmI was asked to help design one last year. The group involved had clearly invested quite a lot of time and effort in the design, but it didn't take long to figure out the problem - they needed a pump which would impart the fluid with more kinetic energy than the pump itself drew from the supply.The conclusion? "We'll have to wait for better pumps to be developed"Don't hold your breath, guys.

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 09:27:45 pm
content: Wish I got requests like that; I'd quote them a proposal as reasonably as I could. If they want to pay money, who am I to argue?And if they don't reply after talking bucks, well... I'd say it's win-win, wouldn't you?Tim

author: photonpunk
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 09:53:59 pm
content: Quote from: AndyC_772 on March 05, 2014, 09:25:29 pmPerpetual motion is easy apparently.Step 1. Find source of energy that can indefinitely output more energy than it consumes.Step 2. Use it.

author: os40la
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 10:42:49 pm
content: Quote from: photonpunk on March 05, 2014, 09:53:59 pmStart with this.... and add some magnets... easy...

author: ales22
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2014, 12:35:18 am
content: Quote from: photonpunk on March 05, 2014, 08:30:50 pmSooner or later someone will try to explain it to them, but the truth is too crude, too hard to accept. So perpetuum inventors start to make excuses why the man trying to explain is liar/idiot/agent... and they are "holy knights fighting for free energy truth", mostly it's something about "mighty evil power industry wants to keep ripping off our money" or "worldwide conspiracy of scientists scared for loosing their diplomas".

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2014, 12:43:41 am
content: It's funny, but there is no actual proof that you can't get more energy out of a device than you put into it. There's certainly no evidence that you can, and people have looked hard for that evidence. But there is noproofthat you can't, either, beyond an overwhelming weight of experimental evidence supporting that proposition

author: Tinkerer
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2014, 01:34:56 am
content: Only some mundane questions for me. Nothing crazy. Although I tend not to hang around with people who would ask that stuff.Quote from: IanB on March 06, 2014, 12:43:41 amThis is true. I am thoroughly of the opinion that any sort of 'free energy' device is going to rely on exotic quantum effects or something, if its even possible, and it certainly wouldnt be something you could put together in your garage.Think the closest I have heard to something that makes some kind of sense is using compressors to squeeze heat(ie transfer energy) out of the air. The heat would then be used to generate electricity. Not free energy per se, but more of transfering energy out of the air into work. Seeing as how air compression takes alot of energy, this is obviously of a doubtful nature when it comes to working.

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2014, 02:18:17 am
content: Quote from: Tinkerer on March 06, 2014, 01:34:56 amThis is very practical, it's called a heat pump (you basically run a refrigerator backwards). It can even be used for home heating, and sometimes is.Normally the heat is not obtained from the air, but from a network of pipes buried deep under the ground. In the summer you cool your house with A/C and dump the heat into the underground heat sink. In the winter you run the system the other way around, getting the heat back from under the ground and using it to heat your house.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 06, 2014, 02:33:42 am
content: Quote from: Dawgie on March 05, 2014, 09:23:08 pmAnd engineers are the Oompa-Loompas of Science...

author: johansen
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2014, 02:46:46 am
content: Quote from: Kaptein QK on March 05, 2014, 01:37:02 pmI met a man who wanted to know if I knew much about aircraft radio.He wanted to build a jet aircraft. On the order of 12 foot wingspan.120 pound payload, 5-10 gallon gas tank.. 200 mph cruising speed..He wanted radio and video link good for 100+ miles.(he was getting tired of flying his 6-10 foot wingspan aircraft via line of sight)i sent some emails around but nothing got off the groundno, i didn't ask him where the money was coming from...i was more concerned about the question of whose office is this drone going to fly into..

author: photonpunk
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2014, 03:09:08 am
content: Quote from: IanB on March 06, 2014, 12:43:41 amMaybe so, but I'm a firm believer in the "you can't get something from nothing" line of reasoning. Also known as "you get what you give" or "there's no such thing as a free lunch."