/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>148132

>you just have to love the depictions of those "seasteads", its like a little bit of upper middle class san francisco floating on the ocean or something

Yeah, I get the sense the designers don't realize how rough weather gets out to sea. Oil rigs look the way they do for a reason. Seasteads would most likely not have that much wasted space either, they'd be single contiguous multi-floored buildings using up all of the available space on the platform. If there are pools or grassy areas they'd be on the roof under a retractable, weatherized shield.

>>148130

>Just one question: Why?

Same reason dudes build model trains or RC helicopters or whatnot. They think it's cool but can't buy or build a full scale one.

>>148127

Interesting, but they already get a breeze from the incoming air spigot. Because air is constantly moving through the habitat to prevent the buildup of CO2, the breeze would be gentle, but nonstop, and if they desired something stronger they need only move closer to the incoming air spigot.

With the utmost respect to your Hamtaro-centric research, hamsters in the wild are primarily subterranean animals and do not likely crave any sort of breeze, although they do not seem to mind it either.

>>147927

That's what the webcams are for. So you know when there's a problem. Check in remotely, see the bulb has burned out, swim out there, surface the station and replace the bulb.

The hamsters would be cold, but fine. They don't need the light to see, they are burrowers in the wild. To them it would just be winter. You could write a neat story about a tribe of NiMH style cognitively enhanced hamsters living on one of these stations long after a gamma ray burst wiped out mankind, with their creation myth insisting the sun will last forever until one day it dies and they must decide whether to leave the station. I'm thinking Pixar.

>>147882

>I haven't checked, but something tells me that getting one pod on that thing will cost more than getting an actual seat on a Russian rocket into space.

Naw, the Poseidon costs $15,000 per person for two nights. And it doesn't need to be that much just to recoup investment, so when both of them are operational, competition will drive down the cost.

>>147853

That is more likely to be the outcome on these Libertarian "seasteads" being funded by Peter Thiel. Libertarian micronations free of regulations and taxes, floating in international waters.

It's going to be funny when the first hurricane hits. And if they survive that, there's always pirates. Those of us with the good sense to live beneath the waves, out of reach of those hazards, will gladly salvage their valuable belongings from the wreckage when it sinks into our territory. :3

>>147779

>Well you could say that you want to be able to put humans in there eventually

Well, that's already happening. Coral World Park, an international aquatic resort chain, is building a 150 million dollar luxury resort and colony (you can buy a residential pod and live there if you're wealthy enough) 60 feet deep in Palawan, Phillipines.

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/7897378-coral-world-park-an-underwater-resort-hotel-is-set
-to-be-built-in-palawan

>but everyone knows you just want hamsters

Guilty. :3

Cats might be cool too. Or chimps. Something cool to see out the window of your undersea apartment, right?

>>147580

It does, though.

Here's another design I played around with, sort of a hybrid between underwater and floating seastead. In this configuration, the floating platform has a rigid tunnel down to a 1atm observatory, where occupants can monitor the others in their ambient pressure enclosures below. The floating platform makes it possible to move all of the life support gear from shore to just above the habitats, so that the only connection to shore is a very long waterproof power cord.

Alternatively there could be more floating platforms around it holding only batteries, and with solar panels covering the top. Charge the batteries and run the pumps/heaters/lights during the day, then the batteries keep them running overnight, with significant overkill in terms of battery capacity to account for cloudy days.

For those skeptical of the silicone membrane approach, the first experiment demonstrating this phenomenon was done using...an underwater hamster habitat! :O

As you can see, the one wall of the enclosure made up of the super thin silicone membrane isn't terribly large compared to the animal it's providing oxygen for. I simply decided to overdo it a little so that this hovering "seastation" could accommodate larger numbers, and go for longer periods between maintenance.

Floating halfway between the surface and the ocean floor, anchored by steel cables in water 500 feet deep, the Mark VI would be positioned on the periphery of the gulf stream so as to sap energy from the currents via it's pivoting turbine, but not be subject to significant stress on the cables. The panels around the bottom of the shaft are passive silicone membrane CO2 exchangers; They refresh the air inside without using any electricity.

Of course the plants help too, but it doesn't contain nearly enough to do the job without external support. The enclosure itself is 1 atmosphere (due to the depth, which insulates it against storms) contains a closed loop biosphere to provide the hamsters with food (plants, insects, seeds) decompose their waste, and by way of one of those tacky little multi-tier faux rock indoor fountains, a source of fresh water (passively desalinated by equipment in the lower half of the enclosure) that does not sit stagnant and allow insects to breed therein. Suspended from the top of the fountain is the artificial sun; A heater bulb, as used in incubators, provides heat and light that simulates natural sunlight exposure. Around the base of the fountain you may notice openings for various webcams that transmit live footage of the habitat interior over the internet.

>>136990

This is an excellent idea that has been suggested many times, but it has an unfortunate flaw; A tube connecting the habitat directly to the surface would equalize the pressure between the two. That's bad. It's the higher interior air pressure of the habitat (supplied by the pump) that keeps it especially watertight, as bubbles can escape but water cannot get in. Equalizing the pressure would literally suck water in through the seal unless I used a scuba grade drybox, and they are about half the size needed for reasonable comfort.

The very first habitat was a scuba grade drybox, and true 1atm. It did not vent bubbles into the water but instead had an air return tube. Consequently there were no bubbles from it (which is psychologically harrowing as bubbles are the clearest sign that air is getting to the hab and it makes you run back every five seconds to check that air is still coming out of the exhaust tube) and the interior was at 1atm at all times.

A 1atm habitat like the Mk.2 could've had a food delivery tube, no problem. I just don't trust 1atm habitats. If they develop cracks or something over time, for 1atm that's a big deal, for ambient pressure it's not. Ambient is safe as fuck and very fault tolerant, 1atm not so much

>>136457

You're simply wrong. The literature confirms the ability of siblings to peacefully cohabitate, every web resource agrees, and the staff of the pet store from which I purchased them reaffirmed it when asked. Wherever you got your information, it is incorrect. More likely you're simply trying to get a rise out of me, in which case you're wasting your time.

>>136463

I have those same concerns, it's why the habitats have all been so ludicrously overengineered. Even nonessential systems like the lighting have battery backup and the design is self-purging; If somehow water did get in the constant airflow would simply force it out of the exhaust on the bottom or lowest edge of the enclosure. This is how diving bells work, it's how ambient pressure habitats including the Aquarius work and it's why there have been no deaths due to a habitat flooding in the history of our manned undersea program. The risk with 1atm habitats is considerably greater as they lack the inherent self correcting nature of ambient habs and consequently there's been only one (although many have been hybrids, but they only depressurized to 1atm so that aquanauts could decompress while onboard.)

Sufficed to say they're as safe as on land and that's part of the point of the project. To illustrate the simplicity and safety of underwater habitats by building them from off the shelf components and demonstrating their use. If a hobbyist can construct a fully functional scaled down undersea living space for small mammals we are surely at the point where it's possible to expand our presence into the sea, as the same feat is reasily reproducible on a larger scale provided the funding.

>>136447

No, I stopped updating it a while ago. I am increasingly too busy with real world concerns to continue with it although it pains me, as I did enjoy drawing them while I was active.

www.plasticbrickautomaton.com

>>136430

Dryboxes are designed specifically to be very reliably airtight but also to be opened and closed. I need access to the interior to clean it and replenish food. A custom enclosure designed to that spec would be beyond my financial means. I selected the largest transparent drybox available. If I get comments on the blog agreeing it is too small I will add a second story to it.

>>136422

Read the blog. There is a post about that already.

>>136424

It's the same size as an entry level habitrail cage. Hamsters are crepuscular burrowing animals. In nature they live in subterranean burrows.

>Also, your hamsters will chew the cords, regardless of your pitiful attempts to make them unpalatable.

They cannot. Reach. Them. The ones on the floor are not merely unpalatable but will be coated in a crystallizing insta-harden glue that they are physically incapable of chewing through.

>You're also an idiot for placing two hamsters together when they're solitary creatures, rarely, in an environment where there's 'enough' space (WHICH YOU ARE NO PROVIDING) dwarf/robo hamsters will coexist peacefully. Expect your hamsters to tear each other apart after being shoved down there for four fucking weeks?

This is why I specifically selected siblings. It is only unrelated hamsters that behave in the way you describe.

>You're toying with the lives of living things because you can. You're a cunt and I hope you die a watery death.

You popped your head into a thread that you did not bother to read and suggested that someone who has spent two years perfecting the design of functional model underwater habitats and who is in fact a crew member of a project founded by an ex NASA bioengineer to establish a permanent human seafloor colony did not know that hamsters living underwater require an air supply. Skipping over, in the process, multiple videos of prior habitat designs in use without issue.

And yet, my jimmies remain unrustled. I have had to deal with worse than you.

If you would like to review the history of the project to confirm for yourself that I have a complete understanding of what is necessary to build a comfortable underwater living space please read the project blog here:

http://hampture.blogspot.com/

You might enjoy tangential posts about the history of this country's "man in the sea" program and detailed explanations of what distinguishes ambient pressure habitats from 1atm habitats, the safe limits for depth as it pertains to nitrogen saturation and various options for CO2 absorption/purging, humidity control and other aspects of microclimate management.

I hope you enjoy it and that you come away from it agreeing at least that I am not someone who would construct something like this and fail to account for an air supply.

>>136409

>That habitat is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too small for any hamster, dwarf or regular.

No, it isn't. You can't see a hamster in the shot for size comparison.

>You have no way to replenish the air supply.

Yes I do, I already explained here >>136399 that I have a battery backup air pump. I will ignore for the sake of politeness the implication that I am stone cold retarded and don't know that hamsters need to breathe. (In fact i did the math necessary to determine that the pump would replace the atmosphere quickly enough that CO2 would not build up, based on figures for the lung volume and resting/active breathing rates of roborovski hamsters. It is sufficient for fifteen of them.)

>The hamsters will chew on your lights.

They cannot reach them, they are supplied with applewoood chews to satisfy that need, and everything sensitive has been coated in a fast hardening glue and then coated again with bittering agent.

Please, understand I have been at this since 2010. It's a goofy hobby but it's proven entertaining enough to stick at it that long and I have learned intimately the principles of ambient pressure habitats in that time. Keep in mind I have also built and used my own pressurized, surface supplied diving helmet since then. I know what I am doing. I am insulted by the implication that I do not but I can understand how someone with no prior knowledge of this ongoing project might wander in and assume at first glance that this is actually my first attempt and that I haven't already thought of the things you mentioned. Rest assured that I have.

>>136403

I still post there, just not as often so you likely miss most of my more recent threads.

>>136396

It is related, I drew that. It's when I started this project because I was curious about how it could be done irl.

Btw, a demo of the LED lights. Note that it has battery backup, just like the air pump. The lights will only last 5 hours in the event of a power failure, the air pump will last 14. Both backups recharge to full once mains power is restored.

This isn't the largest habitat. That was the Mark 3, which was an enclosure exactly like this one but connected to three other slightly smaller ones by transparent plastic tunnels. I used it once then abandoned it because the sheer amount of weight needed to keep it submerged made it impractical to transport and deploy, plus the hamsters rarely ever visited the other rooms. They simply didn't need or care about the extra space.

This is basically everything good about the Mk.3 in a more compact, lighter package with all of the technological developments I've added to various other models, but all in a single habitat. Heated floor pads, led lighting, silica dessicant, a running wheel, a litter tray, a water bottle (not shown) and the most compact and nicest looking ballasted platform by far. This is pretty much the finalized, ideal design for an underwater hamster living space, if for whatever strange reason that happens to be something one wants to build.

The yellow thing is a litter dish. Apparently, hamsters have the instincts necessary to do their business preferentially in a litter tray if it's available, and if you use some other material for the floor lining. This will make periodically cleaning their habitat much simpler. The white thing is one of two resistive heating pads. They will be soaked in bittering fluid to prevent chewing. The green thing is a running saucer, like a wheel but it takes up less vertical room. The blue bar at the top is a row of ten LED lights.

Here are some pics of the Mk.4 habitat parts as they will look when put together. Nothing's bolted to anything else yet or glued in place as I am still finalizing the interior layout.

>>136363

You could just watch videos of past habitat deployments. I've made several.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7JujUQkLfQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEsV-nU29Qw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dNkYXgiH3w

>>136377

I have, I'm preparing to set up a livestream of the hamsters living fulltime underwater inside a large fishtank when the Mk. IV is complete.

>>136359

Second post contains examples of other projects where this would be useful