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[Ben Krasnow] built his own version of the TSA’s body scanner. The device works by firing a beam of x-rays at at target. Some of the beam will go through the target, some will be absorbed by the target, and some will reflect back. These reflected x-rays are called ‘backscatter‘, and they are captured to create an image. [...]

Tags:  target tsa backscatter ben-krasnow body-scanner krasnow x-rays security hacks  

This is an x-ray detector built by [Ben Krasnow]. It’s an interesting combination of parts working with an oscilloscope. The result is an audible clicking much the same as you would hear from a Geiger counter He’s measuring backscatter, which is the reflection of x-rays on other objects. Because the signal will be quite weak [...]

Tags:  detector combination Area ben-krasnow geiger-counter area-x ray-detector tool hacks  

We are fascinated by the hybrid rocket engine which [Ben Krasnow] built and tested in his shop. It is actually using a hollow cylinder of acrylic as the fuel, with gaseous oxygen as an oxidizer. We’re already quite familiar with solid rocket propellant, but this hybrid approach is much different. When a rocket motor using solid propellant [...]

Tags:  fuel engine rocket ben-krasnow hybrid-rocket-engine solid-rocket-propellant solid-propellant chemistry hacks  

In our younger and more vulnerable years nothing was greater than visiting a museum, going to the gift shop, and badgering our parents to buy a pack of astronaut ice cream. Freeze dried ice cream leaves a taste of nostalgic chalky sweetness in our mouths, so we’re very excited to see that [Ben Krasnow] is now making [...]

Tags:  cream freeze ice ben-krasnow astronaut-ice-cream krasnow mouths chemistry hacks  

[Ben Krasnow] wrote in, saying that every so often a news story appears covering a project in which researchers embed a single pixel LED display inside a contact lens. The most recent article he saw featured a contact-wearing rabbit, and not being one to shy away from damaging his own body in the name of [...]

Tags:  news leds story ben-krasnow krasnow recent-article contact-lens led hacks  

[Ben Krasnow's] water vortex machine has been an exhibit in the lobby of the San Jose City Hall for quite some time now. Unfortuantely he recently had to perform some repair work on it due to the parts inside the water chamber rusting. This is the same water vortex that we saw about a year ago. [...]

Tags:  exhibit water vortex ben-krasnow san-jose-city water-chamber krasnow quite-some-time repair hacks  

[Ben Krasnow] is working on  a project that uses an extremely expensive specialty mirror. He needed to cut curves into it, taking care not to chip or shatter the material. He’s found a reliable way of doing this with a CNC mill and is sharing his methods. The material he’s working with is a cold [...]

Tags:  material glass milling ben-krasnow krasnow cnc-mill curves cnc hacks  

We’re not quite sure what’s going on with our fellow hackers lately, but they all seem quite interested in finding inventive ways to scramble their brains. [Ben Krasnow] has put together a pair of videos detailing his experiments in transcranial magnetic stimulation, a process that looks like it would go quite nicely with the Brainwave [...]

Tags:  fellow controlling intensity ben-krasnow magnetic-pulses fellow-hackers krasnow medical hacks  

Need to switch something on or off using a microcontroller? Using a transistor is one of the best ways to do this, but how exactly do you design properly for transistor switching? [Ben Krasnow] put together a tutorial in which he does an excellent job of explaining the ins and outs of designing transistor control [...]

Tags:  beginner transistor control ben-krasnow transistor-control control-circuits krasnow misc hacks  

[Ben Krasnow] wanted to upgrade his shop lighting but before he made any decisions he decided to educate himself about the options that are out there. Luck for us, he shares the facts about different lighting in terms of cost and efficiency. His old setup uses fluorescent light fixtures with T12 bulbs. These are rather bulky and inefficient bulbs. [...]

Tags:  cost shop lighting ben-krasnow shop-lighting fluorescent-light-fixtures krasnow home hacks  

[Ben Krasnow]  has recently completed a home-built scanning electron microscope and has posted a video of it in action on his blog. The build itself was done quite creatively using many off-the shelf components. We particularly like how long threaded brass rods were used not only for the supports, but also to maintain column alignment [...]

Tags:  electron microscope diy ben-krasnow scanning-electron-microscope column-alignment brass-rods tool hacks  

[Ben Krasnow] is working on a force-feedback joystick. It centers around the concept of an air muscle which transfers pressure into linear motion. He cites another air muscle project as part of the inspiration in his build, but where he’s gone with it is one of the better uses for these blow-up components that we’ve [...]

Tags:  air muscle joystick ben-krasnow force-feedback-joystick air-muscles muscle-project peripherals hacks  

[Ben Krasnow's] friends always want him to bring a fire extinguisher to their parties, not for safety reasons, but to quench their thirst. You see, [Ben] uses old fire extinguishers as kegs for his home-brewed beer. They’re not all that different from the Cornelius kegs that most home brew setups use; they’re intended to dispense liquids under [...]

Tags:  extinguisher fire safety cornelius ben-krasnow ben frothy-beverages home-brewed-beer krasnow beer hacks  

Forget flashlights, and leave those burning lasers at home, [Ben Krasnow] built a search light using a 1000W xenon arc lamp. That box you see on the side of the trash-can housing countains a starting circuit that shoots 30 kilovolts through the xenon lamp to get it started but it is separate from the power [...]

Tags:  xenon lamp search ben-krasnow xenon-arc-lamp xenon-lamp bat-signal classic hacks  

This peculiar setup allows [Ben Krasnow] to control an alternating current device using one pin on a microcontroller. He’s experimenting with a power drill and has relocated the trigger circuitry that makes it spin. On that board he found a variable resistor combined with a capacitor which control a triac, actuating the speed of a [...]

Tags:  controlling drill pwm ben-krasnow variable-resistor krasnow triac tool hacks  

[Ben Krasnow] is capturing some great snapshots using a microscope adapter and some tricks. The camera attachment is just a lens adapter ring with a tube added. Unlike other microscope imaging hacks we’ve seen he used a real microscope but found that the pictures had a bit of light distortion to them. The camera sensor [...]

Tags:  adapter camera microscope ben-krasnow microscope-adapter microscope-imaging microscope-camera digital cameras hacks  

If you’ve got some time to scour eBay and $500 sitting around you can build your own liquid nitrogen plant. [Ben Krasnow] figured it all out for you and estimates he can produce a liter of the stuff for around $1.15. The process depends on a membrane to separate nitrogen from the other materials in the [...]

Tags:  nitrogen time home ben-krasnow liquid-nitrogen-plant ebay krasnow classic hacks