Clusterpuck Test Table
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Table details
- There are presently ~0.040" ID holes on a 1" rectangular pitch. They pass through a ~1/8" tileboard.
- The area over which those holes are spread is roughly 33" x 61".
- The plenum is presently ~0.5" open, though there may be a wider area across the middle. Not sure.
- The stock driving fan, which was, I guess, adequate for the stock puck, is 4.5" across the blades.
January 22nd 2013 session
Some hacking was done on the Craigslist air hockey table on January 22nd 2013:
- Increased the airflow. Tried adding "just a bit more air" by replacing the 4" PC case fan... with a 2HP blower! Result: near-catastrophically inflated table, with surface bowing up at least an inch in the middle. Wooops...
- Figured out the workings. Dissected one corner to learn more about the plenum structure. Result: BUGS! Well, as far as we know only the two stinkbugs hiding in there. But where there are two... hmm. Other result: the plenum is actually very thin, just a ~5/8" sandwich of tileboard top, air gap bounded by particle board, and masonite bottom. The holes are a ~0.040" diameter, and on a ~1" grid.
- Tested the magnetic deflection concept. Taped a 0.5" diameter, 0.1" thick NdFeB magnet under the top surface. Taped another magnet onto the top of a puck, poles facing (for repulsion). Result: whacky puck behavior! Sometimes rapid invisible-cause ricochets, sometimes complete flippings. We're definitely working in the right direction here! So much fun.
- Tested a printed puck. 3D printed a puck containing a ring of eight of those same NdFeB magnets (See blog post).
- Result 1: Turns out there's a reason air hockey pucks are normally quite light! Not only is it hard to get it to float (until you hook up the megablower, that is), but also: At these speeds it's quite frightening to have the puck be so heavy!
- Result 2: the behavior around the hidden magnet under the table surface was definitely even whackier. But maybe not whacky enough to justify the near-certain bodily harm that will result if we persist in using so heavy a puck.