A drone alternative: hydrogen-lift aerial video (FPV)
Vložit
- čas přidán 21. 04. 2018
- Regulations are making it harder and harder to fly drones anywhere these days so in this series of videos, I look at the practicalities of using a hydrogen balloon to lift a camera and aerial video gear high into the air at very, very low cost.
As always, safety is the number-one priority.
MacGyver would be proud so stay tuned to see how this goes. - Sport
I can see the news headlines now.
Tokoroa Mayor Bans Balloon Flight in Local Parks.
Stambo BAN PARKS
Ban MAYORS.
Just a thought, hydrogen seems to be a lot of bother. theirs plenty of hot air in council that can be gathered....
No need to buy aluminium and sodium hydroxide! Just visit your local council!
It won't work; the average councillor is quite dense.
Noo... don't do it Bruce, now they going to ban baloons
Timmy, first the CX-10, and now this?!? No more birthday parties for you young man! Those balloons are dangerous you know! Where is your permit?
G'day,
Dinnae ye worry none about that ; they CAN'T Ban Balloons, and especially not from Airports.
Every International Airport has a Meteorology Building, operated by a small Department whose task is to inflate & release a 1.4 Cubic Metre Hydrogen Balloon carrying either a Radar Reflector alone or a Reflector plus an Instrument-Package ; the better to measure Wind-Speeds aloft, for their Reports to the Beaureau of Meteorology.
So, Balloons are un-Ban-able.
However, they may make it neccessary to obtain a Permit to Operate/Launch a small Free-Balloon.
Here in Oz there was a brief fashion for Garbage-Bag Hot-Air Balloons, with an Alcohol-Burner made from Alfoil, Cotton Wool, & Methylated Spirits..., launched at night, particularly in the Winter....; they sparked a rash of UFO Sightings, but lit up a few Bushfires as well - so the craze sort of died away...
But, yeah, Meteorology is very dependant on Hydrogen Free-Balloons ; so they cannot be banned - otherwise there would be no Weather-Forcasts nor Reports of current Conditions..., and the Sheeples would notice such a Disruption and commence to bleat at the Politicians.
Such is Life,
;-p
Ciao !
This was already attempted decades ago, Bruce! It was a Disaster!
They already pretty much banned drain cleaner in the UK.....
I always fly safe.
I use condoms 😎
LEGAL HAHA looking forward to the reaction of your town council lol
I learned something new today, thanks Bruce !
"Hello and welcome to another episode of shopping with Bruce!"....... would be a great series ; )
I like the points you make, and enjoy that you make them! :)
The really low cost black bags can just be filled with air, sealed, and sunlight will heat em up enough to float somewhat reliably. (They sell really long bags for the purpose)
Robert Szasz and people release them untethered causing more plastic pollution...
Yep That's why you should use weather balloons as they are made from latex (Not plastic)
Bruce you have the same type of humour love it love it love it 👍🏻👍🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻
Video quality was totally fine. It wasn’t like blindingly bright, but plenty of light to see exactly what was going on. Keep up the good work.
Yeah, this camera continues to impress me... even though it's now several years old.
Bruce. You had me at "science the shit out of it". Love your videos and rants mate
Pro tip. If shopping for drain cleaner do not get the stuff labelled drain cleaner. Seek out the sodium hydroxide also known as caustic soda or lye. Compare prices and the drain cleaner is twice the price. This marketing stunt is quite common. Look at the number of pain killers on the market. some will be labelled for head ache, some for back pain, some for period pain etc. London to a brick they are all the same as the general purpose equivalent but again at twice the price. Marketers preying on the ignorant consumer, Who would have suspected?.
Rob B - I used to occasionally make deliveries to a commercial lab that produced Ibuprofen tablets for several different companies. I once asked one of the chemists what the difference was between the supermarket home brands and the expensive stuff they made? He said the expensive stuff had a two extra chemicals added during production (He told me the chemical names at the time, But I can't remember). Surprised that there really was a difference I asked what this extra chemicals did? His reply was "It gives the tablets a shiny red coating to make gullible people think they're actually worth the 500% jump in price over the supermarket brand ones" !!! :)
Great Bruce awesome more science please 👍🏻
Very good idea....
Remember those big remote control fish balloons a few years back? I got given one and decided to fill it with hydrogen rather than pay for helium. I used the same method as yourself. I used the tub of crystals like you had. I put the aluminium and drain cleaner in a large 2L coke bottle. I used a mix of alu foil and lumps of scrap aluminium (it eats the foil too quickly and you want it to go reasonably slow). I had the bottle in a large bowl of ice water. I ran a rubber tube from a hole in the lid into the a hole at the bottom of another coke bottle filled with water and from the lid of the second bottle I ran a tube in to the ballon. The reason for the 'bubbler' second bottle was to cool the gas (crazy amount of heat produced) and to help clean the gas as inevitably from the strong reaction the gas produced was contaminated with drain cleaner fumes. but it worked great, filled the fish with enough reaction left over to fill a black bin bag like you bought :)
Ah yes, I remember we bought a Megatech blimp (flying saucer and typical blimp) for my Uncle a long time ago, now its $70-$80... I might have to make one of these in larger scale. Put some brushless motors on it and have a slow speed, super long endurance FPV cruiser. I'd probably have to go UFO shaped for laughs.
FPV blimp, what a cool idea.
Your the best bruce
The control freaks are going to have a field day with this one.
Cant wait for the next video
Bruce, make one of the ESP32 trackers like wot I did, it will show up on your OGN tracker. That rubbish bag won't be big enough or flexible enough for expansion at altitude. You don't need to close the mouth so that will get rid of your expansion problem as the has will vent out the bottom. Then you get a more controlled descent. Cracking video mate.
Bruce, I almost lost my eyesight doing pretty much exactly what you're doing. The pressure built up too quickly, the top popped off and I copped a face full of hot concentrated caustic soda water and alumina sludge. I had just taken my safety glasses off moments before. I spent a week in hospital clinically blind and it took over a year to get 95% of my sight back. That was many years ago (when I was young and dumb). Thankfully I got my sight back, but it makes me wince watching you play with this stuff. Please take the time to explain how dangerous this reaction (& hydrogen) is before some kid copies you and looses their sight, or worse.
Don't worry... I was deliberately using very small quantities in this experiment and the experiment was to demonstrate:
a) the potential power/volatility of the reaction
b) that one must always work progressively and establishing the risk is step #1
In the next stage (where a lot more chemical is used and there is a degree of pressure involved) I use a full-face sheild, gloves and protective clothing.
This experiment is as much about teaching sound principles for *safe* experimentation as it is about achieving the final goal.
Fun Experiment! Thanks Much!
Bruce - I think a slightly more 'weighty' experiment is called for. Years ago, an intrepid fellow from California IIRC fashioned an unusual flying craft out of a lawn chair/recliner suspended under a cluster of large helium balloons tied to his recliner. He then climbed onboard, cut his tether, and up he went. It seems his experiment worked a bit too well as he quickly floated up a few thousand feet and subsequently drifted into controlled airspace, maybe over LAX IIRC. He thoughtfully carried a BB gun on board to limit his altitude and control his descent by carefully shooting at some of the balloons as needed. He eventually successfully landed his 'craft' but was subsequently arrested for violating FAA airspace rules, if memory serves.
What I'm proposing is an updated, but similar, experiment using your 'science-class' hydrogen filled balloons. Of course, you will need a pilot. I hereby volunteer...
...your mayor...
...since she's already so full of hot air it's bound to help the experiment be successful. And I'm sure she would agree that BB guns are extremely dangerous, so her lofty 'journey' would be sans any dangerous weapons or sharp-pointed objects. This would not only illustrate your point that filling balloons with homemade-produced hydrogen is feasible but also it would solve that other 'nagging' problem. ;^)
science the shit out of it . i love it
Go for it Bruce and I shall pray for your safety. I'd love a try at this but I want to keep my tiny wee camera (cost all of £15 + memory card). I don't want to watch them disappear.
I could get some cheap transmitter and camera from Banggood but I think that they send them by balloon. Delivery takes ages.
cant wait to see the dvr :D
We use to do this experiment in high school lol, it was called the Hindenburg experiment due to the combustibility of the hydrogen.
Idea I've had for a long time is to assist a quadcopter's lift with a hydrogen balloon so you only need to use 5% of throttle to hover, and you can get it back afterwards!
Of course its agility will suffer a lot, but it'll stay up where you want it for a *very* long time.
Could use this to turn a 2kg quad into a 100g one with a balloon of about 2m³ volume! :-)
EUREKA!! The breakthrough .. and the law makers will be more than happy with this. Ha ha .. This man is a GENIUS .. I salute you! .. Hmmm .. Probably not a good idea to go aloft in excess of Beaufort scale 2 or you will be back doing free-flight .. P.s. Won't the blades chop up the envelope a bit? .. and burn out the ESC, .. get the wind right and it will crash on the Town dump .. Oh, well .. back to the drawing board .. Sigh .. ahh .. How about a giant papier-mache charcoal-fired Montgolfier job instead?? A great way to transport sheep. Happy landings ..
Balloon would be a few feet above the quad, tethered close to the centre of gravity on a flexible perpendicular spar about a quad arm's length long so the blades couldn't catch the tether. No chance of escs burning out if they're hardly being used.
Of course, not recommended for windy conditions!
Unstable. The flight controller would be working hard all the time, and if the battery runs out, it flips upside down.
Make the entire frame a quad-shaped inflatable, then you have something like a dirigible with 4 props and very little weight.
Having followed your channel for a long while Bruce, I know where this all came from and I totally agree with you! The rules are being made up as a knee jerk reaction to "Fake News" (I don't like the term personally but it works here). Commercial pilots have figured out that blaming a drone for a 'near miss' requires no actual proof and is probably more dramatic than a poor old bird! Keep it up, love it!
So many parallels between this and Breaking Bad supermarket scene! Well I have launched a Hydrogen balloon with a Bixler attached and it went rather high. While it was climbing I was not flying it, that went for about an hour or so, needless to say I studied the flight paths and wind currents for months and months in advance. What people don’t seem to understand is that those sounding balloons climb quite quickly, between 5 and 10 meters per second at lower altitudes. This means it is only at a given altitude very briefly. I used industrial Hydrogen but have seen people putting Aluminium foil through a paper shredder to produce massive and fast reactions. P.S. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the known universe!
Amazingly, I was thinking the same, zeppelin like, helium filled, with a 3 axis gimbal and an wifi action-cam attached to it. For the purpose of replacement follow me drone when doing off-road trips or hiking where drones are not allowed. For example in Austria, there you can fly drones, even FPV but for filming or taking photos you need a licence for about 400€ per year and per drone.
an gallium-aluminum almalgum can be used as the fuel for the hyrdogen production and the best part is that the gallium can be reused to make more amalgum
THE BIG BANG HOPE NOT... Great one Bruce cant wait to see if you pull if of. I hope you realise if this works there will be people all over the world this weekend making them, I know i will be. lol
Put a little mini Whoop inside the balloon so you can bring the camera back home after it explodes. :) . I can't wait for the rest of this series. :D
hi Bruce, i think you should make some sort of weather vane on the balloon which will stop the balloon and camera just spinning around wildly so you get some nicer shoots
I was messing around making hydrogen this way a couple of years ago and was thinking of make an air ship using large rubbish bags, and when you were finished with the model you would ignite the hydrogen. I made a crude cell and bubbled the gas into soapy water. When I had a good amount of bubbles I set it alight and It just made a nice ball of fire due to the bubbles only containing hydrogen.
Yes, to get a bang you need a stoichometric ratio of H2 and O2 so a balloon filled with just H2 will burn but won't produce a loud bang. Note how the Hindenburg didn't explode -- it simply caught fire -- in fact the nitrocellulose paint on the fabric skin was more of a fire issue than the H2 inside.
You are a Diamond amongst gems. I'd ballast it with Dog Poo (lots from the park!!) to stop it going above 400', but i couldn't possibly comment on where it would end up......
Someone else pointed out water regulation (for hydrogen).
I propose regulation for another reason: Statistically, drowning kills many people each year. Its also capable of getting you drunk (everywhere on the news in the US). So clearly, we need to regulate water more strictly, ID people if they are buying a gallon (or "keg") at a time. We don't want under-aged hydrophiliacs walking and stumbling in the streets. Lets put an end to this together!
Comment below or like if you agree.
Water is highly addictive. One sip, and you're hooked for life. It's also a very powerful solvent. Remember; solvent abuse can kill!
Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide!!
Each year, Dihydrogen Monoxide is a known causative component in many thousands of deaths and is a major contributor to millions upon millions of dollars in damage to property and the environment. Some of the known perils of Dihydrogen Monoxide are:
Death due to accidental inhalation of DHMO, even in small quantities.
Prolonged exposure to solid DHMO causes severe tissue damage.
Excessive ingestion produces a number of unpleasant though not typically life-threatening side-effects.
DHMO is a major component of acid rain.
Gaseous DHMO can cause severe burns.
Contributes to soil erosion.
Leads to corrosion and oxidation of many metals.
Contamination of electrical systems often causes short-circuits.
Exposure decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes.
Found in biopsies of pre-cancerous tumors and lesions.
Given to vicious dogs involved in recent deadly attacks.
Often associated with killer cyclones in the U.S. Midwest and elsewhere, and in hurricanes including deadly storms in Florida, New Orleans and other areas of the southeastern U.S.
Thermal variations in DHMO are a suspected contributor to the El Nino weather effect.
You will probably find that in NZ, a balloon/system that can fit inside a 2m sphere "at all points during it's flight" is totally unregulated, as you say. Beyond that, regulations do exist and such flights require CAA approval and generation of a NOTAM, without which you would not be permitted to fly your balloon.
The communities that fly balloons up to 43/44km altitude, but where 30km is commonly achievable are responsible and go to great lengths to comply with the rules regarding regulation and safety. Amateur floating balloons with solar powered payloads meeting the system diameter constraint have made circumnavigations of the earth and one is currently circulating the earth at around 12km with an airborne duration which exceeds one year.
HIRFW-6 was over Svalbard, Svalbard and Jan Mayen (75.48107,20.96215) at 11999 meters about 17 minutes ago. The payload weight is less than 9 grams That's 0.009kg. These devices and the engineering involved in the duration and communications are far from being trivia.
If you really feel a need for hydrogen, buy it and use it outdoors; it will save you a lot of hassle in the long run. and that sparky light switch is a lot less likely to give you unexpected grief.
Excellent information Ian... thanks for sharing that, I'm sure that myself and others will now leap onto Google and find out a lot more about this. And yes, my balloon project will be low-mass and very much small size compared to these 40Km-altitude jobs of course. How do they deal with the issue of gas leakage through the balloon envelope? Is it a metalised film material or what?
A lot of the pico (unregulated < 2m sphere at any point in their flight) floaters used to be Qualtex 39” foil party balloons. Generally gas migration is less of a problem than the effects of UV on the envelope and differential heating. In the case of latex floaters, failure is often shortly after dawn, when the cold of the night has rendered the balloon slightly less elastic than in full sun and the UV finally causes failure of the latex substrate. The long flight duration envelopes have all tended to be custom built by their designers from EVOH or other exotic plastic films to mitigate gas migration.
Recently the Qualtex have started being displaced by clear plastic party balloons from China, which don't seem to suffer the same differential heating problems because of the transparency.
43km up down flights are selected stock latex balloons - a particular batch might burst high of the design altitude and so are prized.
www.habhub.org is a good place to see the infrastructure and what's going on. www.daveakerman.com/?p=1732 Gives a super how to and links at the bottom of the page are a veritable cornucopia of related project development. 10mW ISM band in the UK and a lot of EU, as UK are not able to operate Amateur Radio airborne; which has spawned a UHF distributed receiver network in the UK and as far east as Poland and beyond. It's an educational hotbed for would be EEs interested in exceedingly low power consumption, extreme environment, RF and micro controller/computer systems. It's pretty neat designing your own ground sector tracker or chase applications too.
I have done this a lot of times ! You get the best result by filtering the gas through a second container of water.. It will work even if you don't but you get a lot less lifting power, i think it is mostly due to water steam being generated also :-)
Yes, I plan to build a moisture trap in the gas-line for the final version.
The sodium hydroxide, Anhydrous or hygroscopic?
Almost the same, but different.
The sodium hydroxide was anhydrous when I bought it (ie: it was in dry crystal form) but because it is hygroscopic, it delequesced into an aqueous solution. I love science because at heart, I'm love using sesquipedalian terminology. Rule #1: never use a big word when a diminutive one will suffice :-)
Hi all if you was to hang your drone off the bottom of the balloon but not control it in anyway does that mean you can let your quad fly on its own is it legal then cheers paul
Did you use non-stick foil? That might be the reason why it didn't chemically take off right away. And the Works tolet bowl cleaner works good.
your hands never leave your arms.. you made my adult carbonated beverage come out of my nose dude.. and it kinda hurt XD
Bruce, are you going to include a safety-feature in this balloon (ignition if you are closer than 5km or so from an airport - self destructing with a boom) , or is this against regulation, since there are some kind of control included in the package?
But we've been told, by the same people who warn us that a small child's flying toy *WILL* bring down an airliner, that free-balloons pose no risk to those same airliners. Who am I to doubt the world of such powerful and obviously well-informed people?
Bruce, on the CAA website it says , including balloons.
Part 101 Gyrogliders and Parasails, Unmanned Aircraft (including Balloons), Kites, and Rockets - Operating Rules, and
Part 102 Unmanned Aircraft Operator Certification.
I think if you cant stop it going over 400ft then you would need to obtain an air traffic control clearance issued by Airways. Its not very hard, the NZRA guys do it when flying rockets in Taupuri, or maybe you could tether it with some really light weight fishing line, and then you wouldn't loose the fpv gear either.
But read the section dealing with "free balloons" and you'll see that only certain categories (medium and heavy) have any real restrictions. The only restriction for the type of balloon we'll be making here is that if it has a trailing antenna, that antenna must break when a specified force is applied. Let's face it, only an idiot would try to regulate a child's party balloon. Oh hang on, CAA *does* regulate children's 25g flying toys so I guess they'll be reviewing the party-balloon regulations after this :-)
Ahh, yes, I found it. Thanks:-)
You can just use Gallium and aluminum mixture in water to distill hydrogen. The Gallium can be reused over and over.
The biggest problem is to hold the hydrogen inside of the balloon. I've done a similar experiment some years before. I never run into problem with fire, but the balloons we filled at the evening were less or more empty at the next morning. You need special "Helium rated" balloons. We got the Hydr. from a metal shop. Cheap. BTW: Big balloons work also filled with propane.
Yes, this is a problem with hydrogen storage that those advocating it as an alternative fuel seem to have forgotten. The H2 molecule is so very small that it finds its way between the molecules of other materials such as rubber, plastic or even steel. This means that balloons filled with H2 will "bleed" quite quickly and deflate. Even helium tends to bleed but H2 does it even more quickly.
This bleeding problem makes it difficult to store H2 as a compressed gas for any length of time (the higher the pressure, the more quickly it bleeds through the containment material).
For the purposes of this experiment however, the gas will remain contained for more than long enough by both the helium-grade party balloons and the plastic trash-bag I'm using.
As long as you make sure there is almost NO AIR AT ALL in the balloon, Static should be no problem.
You could use the hairdresser's truck as a chase vehicle.
nice bomb making skills.
kids in west brisbane are using this technique with soda bottles and making a noise and a mess after dark.
chucking them into people's yards.
a helium filled one would go great. could you stick a cheap FC and gps so you can track it?
Fly over Tokoroa counsel meeting house?
The regulations concerning free flight planes are also relatively lax. You could put an FPV camera on a fairly heavy free flight plane and be subject to less laws and regulations than would apply to a much lighter radio-controlled or robot-guided aircraft.
Surprisingly, here in New Zealand the rules for Free Flight are quite strict. You're not allowed to fly them beyond visual line of sight -- what the hell? What is the value of being within VLOS if you have zero control over the craft so are unable to take evasive action if an aircraft is around? Makes zero sense to me!
blue peter badge coming your way Bruce
Can you all fly Kites in your country?
Won't the gas in the balloon be corrosive? As much as I'd like to see you stick it to those a-holes, I don't think a trash bag filled with corrosive hydrogen gas is a good idea.
Oh, the humanity.
Very long thin mylar bags called "ufo solar" can be found on eBay.. 😁.. Also weather balloons can be found there ☺️
Tut!
No apparent use of PPE. Safety first please. After all your audience may not entirely consist of sane and sensible adults. (In fact,it very probably doesn't) :D
BTW, your test (the white ones) balloons will benefit from pre-inflation/deflation as this, from experience enables gas inflation with lower pressures...
Nah.
“That comes later when we science the shit out of stuff” - Bruce Simpson 2018
That man in the prayer room is going to wave his finger at you and scold you again. You need to raise your middle finger, wave it at him and smile!
It's okay, I'll be drawing a picture of a dog on this balloon :-)
Dead fly, Press F to pay respects.
Lord Grease Earl of Maggot F
You know... all day I could hear this squeaky voice saying "Heeeelp meeee, Heeeelp meee!". Now I know where it was coming from!
is there any restrictions to having motors on your balloon??? #FPV Balloon Racing
Add spark ignitors and then you have hydrogen FPV balloon racing death match :P
You need to have the classics race: Turtle vs hair (obviously the turtle is more aerodynamic, so in this case it really is a safe bet)
brushed motors only
A Magic Tree died on that worksurface. Shot through the abdomen. Aww. Everyone say a little prayer. Bless.
;)
Now if something sparks, you dont have to worry about the legality of drones, just the manufacturing and detonation of an incendiary device
Why have we not seen the Hindenburg floating over a town near you in almost a century?
Car batteries also release Hydrogen when charging.
AHH NOOO FPV blimp was MY IDEA!
Very well put, if only everyone had common sense (including regulators) we would not need rules.
Hey Bruce, are you going to put a rudder & elevator on your balloon Soo you can steer it & bring it back home!? LOL 🤔
this reminds me of a project that a fellow ham (amateur radio) is doing. they design very light weight radio beacon electronics which are being used by some folks to track their small balloon launches. the electronics are powered by a small rechargeable battery and a small solar panel recharges it during the day. the beacon transmits it's telemetry using the WSPR protocol and near worldwide tracking is available on the WSPR network because of that! the balloons usually used are simple mylar style party balloons, and like you, hydrogen is usually used i believe. there is actually one balloon currently aloft with near real time tracking (during the day). you can see it's progress here
www.qrp-labs.com/flights/u3b15.html
if you did something similar you could likely track your balloon much further. some of these balloons circumnavigate the earth, some more than once! past (and current) flights are listed on this page
qrp-labs.com/flights
This would be interesting, unless the law has been changed, powered aircraft have to give way to balloons.
I would say that the liquid is somehow inhibited against the corrosion of metals to make it safer along the tubes and the soda in crystals was very concentrated, playing on the dilution would be able to obtain the desired amount of hydrogen without overheating the solution too much. In all cases for safety it is better to do these experiments outdoors or under a canopy without walls: when I accidentally loaded a truck battery with 24 v instead of 12 after a few seconds it was created such a quantity of hydrogen that when I removed the pincer to stop the charge the spark caused an explosion that destroyed the battery. I assure you that my ears were ringing for half a day. Once you find the correct reaction, you could put the aluminum into small pieces inside the flask, the caustic soda in a glass bottle and then when you're at the pitch, insert the ball with the aluminum inside. on the neck of the bottle. only then would you drop the pieces of aluminum inside the Caustic Soda, when the balloon is inflated as you want to close the mouth of the balloon and release it from the bottle and have a good trip
Yes, the next stages of the experiment have been done outdoors -- for the obvious reasons :-)
I would say that there was very little sodium hydroxide in the drain cleaner. It's real purpose was to be bought, which he did. How are you gonna know how well it works after you pour it down the drain? You assume it is working, but...
kinda want to see a cheap hydrogen blimp build.
"If you were a nutcase, you could make it dangerous." This can be said for ANYTHING IN THE WORLD! BAN EVERYTHING!
Just had a rethink Bruce. You better not tie the Lady Mayor, or any of the councillors to your balloon, as the density of there thick skulls could do some serious damage to any aircraft that they might come into contact with :-)
where's your gloves Bruce? ;-)
They're in my pocket. That NaOH is corrosive stuff, I don't want to get it on my brand new nitrile gloves!!!!
Actually, NaOH does react with skin tissue (mainly the fat in that tissue) but not as rapidly or as aggressively as an acid does. The interesting thing is that if you get it on your hands they feel slippery -- because it is effectively turning the fat in your skin into soap. Fantastic stuff this science!
I've used gloves in the next stage -- and a face-mask -- because it would be silly not to, when working with larger quantities of the stuff.
"It is Bah-Loon...", I forgot the movies name...
Hey Nancy Boy; Choose - Safety or New Build Table !!! BTW- Any Advice 4 us Cigar Smoker's, [Safety-Wise]. YYZ-60++NOOB- Planker.lol
Lol! They call them weather balloons! We launch them all the time, and don't care where's they land.
Never, ever say "that was fun" because then they will want to ban it. If you try something new and you like it you have to say "but this really wasn't fun at all" and they won't care. The man doesn't want you having fun.
Ha...
Here we have the same regulations for aerostats as for powered flight, regardless if gas or warm air, above 1m³ :D
But nobody regulates sticks.
Really long sticks. ;)
A cubic metre is a lot of gas and represents a big balloon (about 1.4m in diameter) so experiments like this are likely to still be unreulated in your country if it's simply the size that's the determining factor.
Looks safe to me 😂
A home-made Hydrogen Fuel Cell. Huuuummmmm ;-)
Breaking Bad New Zealand
Call me Walter :-)
good ol gin wigmore
Bruce is Breaking Bad 😎
his little scene in the grocery store reminded me of that A LOT.
723400hermit me too!
90g of aluminum and 133g of naoh for 50l of hydrogen. That's going to be a lot of aluminum foil.
LoL ! Science the S#!T outta stuff ! My kind of people (^^)\m/
another alternative is hydrochloric acid and zinc in a glass bottle
AND not everything that is illegal is unsafe!
CodysLab meet xjetLab...
Bruce put it in a 2 liter coke bottle that make hydrogen BOMB!!!
Hmmm , Bruce it probably would have been cheaper and less dangerous to get some large party balloons from a party shop , i think they are filled with helium and would do the same job safer but maybe they will cost more so carry on regardless :-)
Yes, it would be easier to use helium but this way I can teach a bit of science at the same time -- and besides, helium is in short supply to the extent that scientists are not happy with people using it for party balloons.
I have done electrolysis with water to get hydrogen in the past for a balloon experiment. The reason why I went with hydrogen than helium is almost completely on the fact the hydrogen is about one fourth the weight lighter (correct me if I am wrong). I live at 6000' elivation so to have anything that fly's either needs to genterate a lot of lift of be positive bouyant.
Hydrogen is half the weight of Helium not one quarter. The reason being that Helium molecules consist of a single (mass 4) Helium atom but Hydrogen gas, H2 consists of two atoms (both mass 1) of Hydrogen. In any case, the lifting power of a gas depends not on its absolute mass but on its mass relative to the air it displaces. In normal ground-level air, Hydrogen only provides about 11% more lift than the same volume of Helium.
Have to be lots and lots of party balloons, hydrogen does a much better job at lifting.
Okay, thank you and good to know. I'll stick to airfoils I think, but an airfoil filled with hydrogen would be interesting.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/weather-balloon-go-pro-attached-11257564 No mention of danger with gopro falling free to earth.No mention of danger to planes . Happy flying with your balloon.
What the actual F, you tore that foil... for the love of god get some scissors.
Real men can tear foil with there bare hands.
ERD Epoch And that will also sharpen the scissors ✂! 👍
Bruce isn't going to be foiled by a little bit of tearing!
Come on guys, the under sides of my finger nails are starting to itch knowing hes done this.
Mitre 10 has pure sodium hydroxide crystals. Don't ask me why I know this
Tokoroa used to have a Mtre10 shop... but they closed down and left the district. Perhaps they fell foul of our council :-)
xjet I’ll be fascinated to see if you can do this, I tried and had two problems: the glass bottle I got the reaction going in would explode or cook the balloon, and the amount of hydrogen required to lift anything seemed unrealistic. Both problems that could be overcome.
Not everything that is safe is legal.
Well it is illegal to take off and land in the parks.
Always add sodium hydroxide to water never the other way around. Adding a little water to the powder will be exothermic. Ie. Not good.
but but its my home made gas