Thursday, October 14, 2010

The habitat is finally complete.

The pump arrived today, and after fixing it to the battery pack and hooking up the air hose I switched everything on, and placed a finger over the air return. It works. Air flows readily through the entire system and based on tests conducted yesterday, the habitat is fully watertight. It's done. Everything is in place. All that remains is to spend the day testing it above water, in the bathtub and in the pool. Tomorrow, we launch.

UPDATE: over-water tests concluded, hamster seems fine. Started bathub test about 15 minutes ago:

The sound of rushing water sent him into a panic, but once the faucet was turned off and the tub full, he settled down pretty fast. There he is next to the light. I just checked on him, he's eating, looks pretty mellow. Doublechecked pump, air's circulating, so far so good.

UPDATE: Removed habitat after one hour. Resounding success. No ill effect, he didn't eat, drink or poop much and the battery pack hasn't depleted by even one bar. This bodes well for the possibility of longer term deployments.

UPDATE: Here's video from the interior during the bathtub test.

10 comments:

  1. Congratulations! Now all you need a tiny hamster submersibles, tiny hamster free trade societies, tiny hamster museum of the history of Hampture!

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  2. I can't wait to see how this works on the real test!!! more pics would be absolutely awesome!

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  3. Whoa, that is great, best of luck tomorrow.

    Also, now that I think about it, aren't you worried someone will tamper with the battery or the air hose in the lake?

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  4. Well, it'll be hidden in a small bunch of bushes and trees on the shore. I don't expect anyone would go looking in there. It's not a lake where people normally swim.

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  5. Let this abomination unto God reach completion!

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  6. When you move onto larger scale habitats you should bolt container to the weight instead of strapping it.

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  7. Oh sure, I'm just apprehensive about drilling any more holes than I have to.

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  8. What video?
    I see no links or anything.

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  9. hope it all works out. kudos to you and your commitment!

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  10. some criticisms. first, it looks like the weight would allow an easy topple as its descending. second, the lighting seems kind of depressing. maybe some white led's would work better.

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