Ask Slashdot: a Good Geek Project For My Arthritic Grandfather? 122
An anonymous reader writes "My grandfather is a retired electrician whom I've been trying to keep mentally busy. Together we've gotten an Arduino kit and have been working on some simple projects. He does the wiring and I've been writing the code. Recently his arthritis has been getting worse and he's been unable to work with the tiny components that the Arduino projects require. Does anyone have a recommendation for something similar we could work on together that would be easier for someone with his compromised manual dexterity?"
Non-grandfather here also interested (Score:5, Interesting)
As an early 40s person who already experiences some of these problems due to 3 decades of arthritis and worsening hand tremors, I'm also interested in geek projects folks can recommend the asker. Especially if they are things I could also work on with my pre-teen sons.
Re:Non-grandfather here also interested (Score:4, Interesting)
Virtual designs - software - FPGAs, get frustrated by the build environments instead of your soldering iron.
Re:Non-grandfather here also interested (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Non-grandfather here also interested (Score:5, Informative)
Build a damn tube amp. Build lots of them. You can make a killing selling them to audiophiles and guitar players.
This is totally true. Musicians love kit that's not off the shelf from Guitar Center. A friend of mine plays in a couple death metal bands and he's constantly amazing me with the home electronics projects he posts to Facebook: fixing up old amps, modifying pedals, etc. He gets tons of requests.
Re:Non-grandfather here also interested (Score:5, Interesting)
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Preaching to the choir, I guess, but audiophiles attribute it to the amount of "color" it gives sound. Monitor headphones and the amps like the aforementioned Denon are colorless because they're designed simply to produce raw, unfettered sound, which is essential for post-editing and mixing. Colored sound is what one wants when they want to, er, 'enjoy' sound, and it all varies on how the sound is colored.
Right now I'm personally looking for IEMs, and heading towards Etymotic stuff for their clarity and the
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True. The only reaso
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Death Metal? And he's concerned about sound quality?
He's not playing jazz records through $3,000 studio monitors. He's playing amplified music with an electric guitar (or bass). It's not so much about "sound quality" as it is about volume, tone, and control over various effects (attack, decay, etc).
To the trained ear, every acoustic guitar sounds a little different. To the untrained, casual listener, they probably all sound like a guitar. But you'd literally have to be deaf not to notice that two electric guitar/effect/amplifier setups can sound very, very d
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Build a damn tube amp. Build lots of them. You can make a killing selling them to audiophiles and guitar players.
Need to define "unable to work with the tiny component" first.
Lets say the problem is agonizing joint pain aka arthritis when snipping thru thin 22 gauge interconnect wire and thru-hole components. I'm guessing that agonizing pain will increase about a hundred fold if he has to snip thru 16 gauge filament wires.
On the other hand, lots of people weirdly confuse Parkinsons-style jitters with arthritic joint pain. In that scenario it doesn't matter that it requires more strength and force, the important thin
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Lifted pads suck.
I think PCB tech has changed over the years. As a kid I was lifting pads all the time in the 80s, to my considerable annoyance, but I haven't lifted a pad on a new PCB in probably 15 or 20 years. Maybe they use super glue instead of elmers glue now to laminate the copper to the fiberglass. I bought a decent digital hakko iron (such that it never overtemps) a couple years back and I've never lifted a pad with that iron. I can't believe I spend my first quarter century of electronic foolishness with cheap
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Re:Non-grandfather here also interested (Score:4, Interesting)
What about a tesla coil? Those should have big enough parts and will be really impressive to an 11 year old boy.
Re:Non-grandfather here also interested (Score:4, Informative)
I was going to say the same thing. And if a tesla coil is too pedestrian, there are plenty of other "macro-scale" electrical projects to build, like quarter shrinkers or Marx bank capacitor set-ups for crushing cans. Check out 4HV [4hv.org] and the Geek Group [thegeekgroup.org] for ideas and communities to bounce other ideas off of.
Re:Non-grandfather here also interested (Score:4, Informative)
LEDs come in Jumbo sizes [google.com].
Re:Non-grandfather here also interested (Score:5, Interesting)
I have arthritis in my hands that has altered a lot of things for me, the best "geek" project I've found has been learning to play jazz on the chromatic harmonica. Now, I've been a musician since very young, but the chromatic harmonica was the only instrument I have found that does not require a lot of digital dexterity. There's one button on the side, that's it, and it can be pressed in lots of ways - with the tip of the finger, at the joint, even the side of the finger.
And if you've ever heard the music of Toots Thielemans or Gregoire Maret or Larry Adler (or even Stevie Wonder) you know that you can make some extremely sophisticated music with the chromatic harp. Personally, I play jazz, standards, ballads, but I know players who are into classical, blues, Brazilian music. It's easy to start, but you can spend a lifetime learning it, and there's nothing like learning some music to extend the useful life of the brain. The intellectual part of learning music engages like few other things. It's like mathematics, except you can dance to it.
And chicks dig musicians. No matter how old your grandpa is, that's always a bonus.
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Bonus geek points if you also build a reprap from scratch - although that may not be possible if the arthritis is getting bad.
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I really need to sleep sometime this week.
Boron and Arthritis (Score:2)
http://www.glucosamine-arthritis.org/glucosamine/boron-arthritis.html [glucosamin...hritis.org]
Worked for my dog (Score:2)
Is there a placebo effect in dogs?
*Note. This are much, much larger doses than any of the glocosam
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Is there a placebo effect in dogs?
Absolutely! Google around for placebo-by-proxy.
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Try cutting out wheat and/or nightshades (potato, tomato, peppers, etc) from you diet. I've seen HUGE improvements.
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Same with my wife. I don't think it works for everyone, but she definitely notices, within minutes or hours, when she has a nightshade... especially paprika, which is in a lot of things like mustards or hot dogs.
Re:Non-grandfather here also interested (Score:4, Interesting)
The obvious geek project: a gripper/manipulator that discards jitter in its input. I believe I read something about robotic surgical tools using this strategy. It has the added benefit of enabling scaled-down control, so you could e.g. write something on a grain of rice.
If I had the time I'd do it myself!
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Mental (Score:1)
something that doesn't require the use of his hands?
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something that doesn't require the use of his hands?
That's the problem with "find something geeky" being a little too vague. What, like watch Star Trek reruns? Play RPGs like pathfinder or DnD? If he means "something geeky thats electronic related", maybe amateur radio?
Electromechanical computer? (Score:3)
While I freely admit to knowing next to nothing about it, maybe an electromechanical computer of some sort? There are a bunch of them around, some of them are quite famous too, maybe that?
Switch (Score:5, Informative)
Depending on how bad his arthritis is, you could take over the wiring and he could start writing the code.
Re:Switch (Score:5, Funny)
That's not the American way. Outsource! A small Chinese boy can be purchased for cheap. With his tiny fingers he can manipulate even the smallest components.
Re:Switch (Score:5, Funny)
That's not the American way. Outsource! A small Chinese boy can be purchased for cheap. With his tiny fingers he can manipulate even the smallest components.
That's true, but hand transplants aren't that advanced yet, dexterity-wise, and even once they will be, it will be quite a hefty medical bill to pay.
Re:Switch (Score:5, Insightful)
You beat me to it! Let me elaborate on this by suggesting that each of you should spend time teaching the other the missing specialty. Don't just take over the wiring, have him teach you how to do it right, while you teach him to code.
Dear Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
My pain in the arse grandson has been hassling me me pointless electronics projects that are wasting away the precious few years I have left. How can I get out of them without causing offense?
Tell him your arthritis got worse and you can no longer handle the small components.
Re:Dear Slashdot (Score:4, Funny)
Maybe he'd perk up a bit more if you started cruising for hookers together...
Re:Dear Slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)
LittleBits (Score:5, Interesting)
http://littlebits.cc/
Saw these on a TED talk, looked pretty neat. (They are very expensive, though)
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Minecraft? (Score:2)
If he can use a keyboard/mouse for a while, he could build things, but also work on circuit design (redstone) as well.
Better yet... (Score:2)
If he can use a keyboard/mouse for a while, he could build things, but also work on circuit design (redstone) as well.
Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of an electronics simulator, like Circuitlab or SPICE. That way, Grandpa can build a virtual circuit using a mouse and keyboard. He can completely test and debug it. Then, when all is ready, the circuit can be emailed to a company that will print/etch the circuit board and solder on all the components.
Obvious Suggestion (Score:2)
Was there not a recent article about building a Turing machine out of Legos? I would think the big block version would be something he could handle...
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Wow, that linked article had absolutely no information in it all! Why, thank you for continuing to perpetuate quack science!
A Project to Solve the Problem? (Score:2)
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While it may be expensive, maybe you can find a few old unbuilt Heathkits on ebay.
One of these days I'd like to build a tube amp and compare the sound with the gainclone I'm now using. Power triodes are expensive, but that's what I'd like to try. Maybe I can find some surplus 812's cheap.
mobility (Score:4, Funny)
Pinball games have bigger parts (Score:5, Interesting)
Pinball games have bigger parts
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Using them to build a nuclear bomb would be a neat project.
My mom healed artritis with homeopathy. No joke. (Score:2)
My mom healed her artritis with homeopathy. ... Ok, ok, hear me out!
Yeah, yeah, I know. Magic, unscientific nonsense, jada-jada.
The fact is: You could *watch* my mothers joints move back into normal position and the build-up disapear once she had found the 'right substance' ( ... don't ask, it's this crazy homeopathy thing).
Placebo effect or whatever, it worked. She's 72 now and does regular garden work. She says without homeopathy and - probably more importantly, her homeopath - she'd be dead by now, and I
Re:My mom healed artritis with homeopathy. No joke (Score:4, Funny)
The placebo effect from homeopathy is pretty neat, but on the downside you have to be a fucking idiot for it to work.
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The placebo effect from homeopathy is pretty neat, but on the downside you have to be a fucking idiot for it to work.
You make it sound like a religion
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The placebo effect from homeopathy is pretty neat, but on the downside you have to be a fucking idiot for it to work.
You make it sound like a religion
Prayer works for the same kind of folks, too.
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Another one for my quote book...
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Teach grandson how to do electrical work (Score:5, Insightful)
grandfather is a retired electrician
Almost painfully obvious answer is "teach grandson how to do home electrical work".
Attention to detail is kind of important in this line of work, and a second set of highly experienced eyes is probably very helpful.
A noob can't do a worse job than the average illegal alien construction worker, so doing it yourself is not going to be any more dangerous than your average new McMansion subdivision. No time constraint and no need to nickel and dime to make the boss more profit means you can methodically make it right.
Obviously if you live in a nanny state where you require endless licenses and union membership to plug in an extension cord, this doesn't work so well, but in a free area its not too unreasonable.
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Thirty years ago when I was a child I helped my Dad, a lawyer in the UK, to wire and plumb our house. He paid to have it all tested by the electricity and gas boards, and everything was good.
I recently moved into a new house and the experienced electrician (he looked to be in his fifties) had fucked up the strappers (one light with two switches). Nowadays it would be illegal to fix it myself. The law is bullshit.
Model Rockets. Big Model Rockets. (Score:2)
IF you're really feeling fancy, get a ham radio lice
Lego Mindstorm? (Score:3)
Seriously... There's a lot of cool things to build and the bricks would probably be a lot easier to handle.
Not entirely relevant, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Wish I had some mod points: +1
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Totally relevant. And he is a great grandson, this shows great character. It is very rewarding to work together on something you love doing.
Also, it's heartwarming to see some true love and care instead of the sea of self-serving irony/cynicism that oftentimes dominates comments on /.
Half seriously but who knows ?... (Score:4, Informative)
Enormous components [hackaday.com]
Reduced Mobility... (Score:1)
Since your grandfather's dexterity is compromised, how about an X-10 or Insteon home automation project so that he might control his home using an Android tablet or iPad?
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Since your grandfather's dexterity is compromised, how about an X-10 or Insteon home automation project so that he might control his home using an Android tablet or iPad?
Brilliant! There are many levels of home automation you could get into. Replacing switches and light fixtures with Insteon or Z-Wave devices would certainly be something he's qualified to do, or to help teach you to do properly. Designing various automation scenes is also something you could work on together: turn the lights on at 6:00 AM if it's still dark out, turn them off at sunrise or at 7:00 AM when it's time to leave, doorbell cameras and monitors, home security, heating control, basement water m
Pinball (Score:1)
Restore a pinball machine. Mostly large components solenoids, motors, lights, mechanical components - lots of wiring - and quite often replacement of components on the motherboard etc. A very tangible project and very exciting if you like that kind of thing.
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I will second the motion on pinball, especially older electro-mechanical (EM) games from 1977 or prior. These can be cheaply acquired and all wiring schematics and parts are generally available. The key here is that the parts are macro-sized and you are just dealing with large solenoid and relay coils. Soldering is done with a large 40-100W gun. You don't need the precision required with soldering thru-hole or surface mount components on a PCB. Better for the eyes and shaky hands.
Being an electrician, the e
Arthitis Remedy that works well in our clinic (Score:2)
Cherry Juice. Get the good natural stuff that's not full of processed sugar and drink a glass each day. At our Chiropractic clinic a lot of senior patients have gotten really good results with reduced arthritis pain in their joints from this.
Then there's also the geek project to solve the problem... build a small robot system together that he can use for soldering. Something that can tolerate slightly trembling hands while still offering solid and precise control. I imagine a simple robot arm that can a
automate the problem away (Score:1)
Palm...face? (Score:1)
> Ask Slashdot: a Good Geek Project For My Arthritic Grandfather
Pam: Auto-Jerk Hand! Auto-Jerk Hand! Auto-Jerk Hand!!!
Jim: Good one.
Talk to... (Score:3)
Ham Radio! (Score:2)
migrate into programming (Score:2)
Model Rockets and HAM radio (Score:2)
Simple answer.... (Score:2)
HAM radio. you can run a keyer easily with severe arthritis. Plus a lot of it is larger scale and not micro mini scale. There is a huge community around it and you get to actually talk to people.
Large Component scale project (Score:1)
Telescope (Score:2)
There are lots of opportunities for electronics with a telescope: motor mount, autoguider, goto integration, etc.
Stained glass (Score:2)
Get into something constructive that doesn't require the fine motor skills or dexterity that he is losing, but allows him to be creative. I was going to suggest pottery, forging, or knife making, but maybe those things require too much strength as well.
about that Arthritis thing... (Score:2)
Arthritis sufferers that I have talked with have described rheumatologist reactions to AP (Antibiotic Protocol) ranging from "Couldn't hurt, might help" to actively hostile to the idea. In my family, the rheumatologist we're working with is (fortunately) in the former camp.
I've done some research on this AP treatment and I don't see how it could hur
Rail Guns and other big juice stuff (Score:1)
Why not build things that require big current / power stuff?
Rail gun: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railgun [wikipedia.org] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP4pL2fZQBo&feature=related [youtube.com]
Tesla Coil: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-build-a-Tesla-Coil/ [instructables.com]
Jacob's ladder: http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/212_spring2005.web.dir/kenneth_sweet/ [uaf.edu]
You could totally over-build the stuff so it looks awesome and lasts a few generations!
Also, on a non-electrical note, these: http://www.en.boehm-stirling.com/ [boehm-stirling.com] are totally awesome and com