Share your ‘I MacGyver’d it’ solutions


1. A few decades ago I got sick of not having a remote on my old Marantz receiver. I grabbed one of those extension handle light bulb changers. Worked like a charm (with a bit of tweaking).
2. Just yesterday I needed to raise my DVR. Found 4 orange juice bottle caps and 4 racquetballs. It got me wondering if this could be used to actually dampen vibration (or would the opposite occur)?

 

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My stereo at the time had only a mono sub out, but I wanted true stereo subs. I found out how to convert speaker level to line level, and now I have stereo subs. Not only is the music better with channel separation, it also serves to even out room response. Cost was a few bucks for a decent rca jack and a couple resistors.

I fought back against neighbors who blasted shitmusic from an outdoor stereo by using microwave oven parts in a homemade sheet-copper horn antenna to microwave and stop their stereo. I was in my last year of the coursework for my PhD in physics and math and used the university's expensive Mathematica software to optimize the dimensions of the horn antenna I designed. 

This was more than the statute of limitations of whatever laws I broke ago but when people try to report such things to the police they sound delusional so I was safe. 

I saw some MacGyver reruns my wife told me to watch and I would like to think MacGyver had a doctorate in the physics and/or engineering that made him able to invent his weapons.

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MacGyver Revisited

Use of a pneumatic suspension is popular in the industry.  However this is seldom, if at all, properly implemented.  Overlooked is taking into account the suspended weight and the spring rate of the suspension component.  This is vital as it determines resonance.  Now, if we are so careful about matching compliance of tonearm to cartridge (which determines resonance) it seems the industry left us to guess this resonance with their expensive elastic suspensions.  The DIYer can easily do better, and the below equation should help obtain this goal of proper resonance.  The template at the referenced website makes this even easier. 

SPRING FREQUENCY CALCULATOR (NATURAL FREQUENCY OF A SPRING)
 
F1 = (1/2pi)*(k/M)^0.5
 
Reference