The 'why don't we have one' engineering / product thread.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Basic rules: no 'flying cars' or 'anti-matter drives' or 'Mr. Fusion'.  Entries must be:

   1. Tech we have now

   2. A solvable problem that hasn't been solved satisfactorily. 

I'll start. 

Why don't we have a good, affordable attachment to a regular lawnmower that shreds and mulches leaves? 

 

(I know there are dedicated leaf machines - I just want to be able to hang the thing on my existing lawnmower and use it for the two months I have to both mow and deal with leaves) 

[Gargamel]

9 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Why don't we have a good, affordable attachment to a regular lawnmower that shreds and mulches leaves? 

They most likely already exist.   I mean, the blade itself already does that, but it doesn't spread them around, leaving them in large clumps in the lawn.   If you were to build one though, It would require the base unit to modified in such a fashion that it could handle attachments, and it would have to drive the mulcher.   But getting it to spread, as mentioned, would be another issue, and would require it to throw leaves, and possibly more solid debris, into the air, possibly striking the operator.    But I assume we're talking about consumer level stuff, and the "low end" push powers wouldn't be able to sell at that price point they are if they had the ability to handle attachments.   Now we're into pro level cost stuff, and you might as well buy a dedicated mulcher/spreader for that if you're running pro level equipment.    What other attachments would be needed?   Edger?   Weed eaters / dedicated edgers exist.   Brush Hog?   If you need a brush hog, an attachment to a mower probably won't do the trick, and if you only need a hog for a small area once, renting one would probably be far cheaper.  So basically, I think it boils down to, it wouldn't be that difficult to do engineering wise, but there might not be a market for it. 

 

I'd like to see a device/method to stop me from bringing pens home from work all the time.  

[Rutabaga22]

Combination appliances. 
Why not make something that has a microwave and toaster combined.
Another on of mine is that someone hasn't made a washer that can also dry or a combination washer-dryer where when the washer is done washing it just drops the load into the dryer and you just set both.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

13 minutes ago, Gargamel said:

like to see a device/method to stop me from bringing pens home from work all the time

Can I have them?  I never can find a pen when I need one. 

 

...one that works, that is! 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

1 hour ago, Gargamel said:

Now we're into pro level cost stuff, and you might as well buy a dedicated mulcher/spreader for that if you're running pro level equipment

I started buying 'pro' level stuff back when I was making a living as a carpenter / builder.  It is sooo worth the money to get a good tool. 

As in buy one tool for $600 or two for $400 in any given decade of use (cost/value) or saved time and money by just getting the job done right the first time (craftsmanship /labor & materials) vs fiddling with a cheap tool.  Any way you slice it, pro tools are worth the vig. 

If there was a 'pro' push mower with attachments that could handle my 'cover the grass in 2 feet of leaves' yard, believe you me... I'd buy it!

... 

I did some research - and discovered the source of the problem. 

My yard is too small.*

Time for me to convince the wife we need to buy a farm, so I can have a barn that I can fill with pro tools and do everything I'm doing now with bigger and better TOOLS!!! 

 

*(We live in the burbs and the yard is just shy of the size I can justify moving up from a push mower) 

[Bej Kerman]

11 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Basic rules: no 'flying cars'

That'll be fairly easy, flying cars already exist and only pilots are allowed to fly them for all the reasons that separate aircraft from ground vehicles.

[Nuke]

flying cars don't make much sense. if you can fly, why bother with ground travel? what we should be asking for is affordable light vtol aircraft. now you just need to get your parking space certified as a helipad and somehow comply with noise restrictions. thats probibly more expensive than the vtol itself.  

as for my "why doesnt it exist yet" thing. i kind of have a pet peeve with atx case standards, which i find are woefully lacking in the structural capabilities. these standards were formalized back when most processors just needed a small fanless heat sink and a graphics card didnt contain several pounds of copper. two things id like to see in the standards. the first are standoff locations for hardmounting the cpu backplate. for dealing with the load of large tower coolers without putting too much stress on the mobo. ideally you would mount your cooler through the loadplate/mobo/backplate direcly into the mobo tray (probibly with spring screws). the other would be a forward lug for the gpu. this would be a line of heavy duty standoffs an inch or two off the end of the pcie slot  (either beyond or through the mobo). you could then mount the gpu with a large diameter thumbnut. both require a bare minimum of effort to comply with, mobo and case manufacturers just need to put in the holes. cpu manufacturers would need to adjust their sockets (which they do every few years anyway) and gpu manufacturers would need to add a bracket to accept the thumb nut.

Edited October 5, 2022 by Nuke

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

2 hours ago, Nuke said:

flying cars don't make much sense. if you can fly, why bother with ground travel? what we should be asking for is affordable light vtol aircraft. now you just need to get your parking space certified as a helipad and somehow comply with noise restrictions. thats probibly more expensive than the vtol itself.  

as for my "why doesnt it exist yet" thing. i kind of have a pet peeve with atx case standards, which i find are woefully lacking in the structural capabilities. these standards were formalized back when most processors just needed a small fanless heat sink and a graphics card didnt contain several pounds of copper. two things id like to see in the standards. the first are standoff locations for hardmounting the cpu backplate. for dealing with the load of large tower coolers without putting too much stress on the mobo. ideally you would mount your cooler through the loadplate/mobo/backplate direcly into the mobo tray (probibly with spring screws). the other would be a forward lug for the gpu. this would be a line of heavy duty standoffs an inch or two off the end of the pcie slot  (either beyond or through the mobo). you could then mount the gpu with a large diameter thumbnut. both require a bare minimum of effort to comply with, mobo and case manufacturers just need to put in the holes. cpu manufacturers would need to adjust their sockets (which they do every few years anyway) and gpu manufacturers would need to add a bracket to accept the thumb nut.

Wow - this is something I could get behind!

 

[Shpaget]

5 hours ago, Rutabaga22 said:

Another on of mine is that someone hasn't made a washer that can also dry

Those certainly exist.

Just the first result on google for me:

Candy CSWS485TWMCE

[StrandedonEarth]

10 hours ago, Shpaget said:

Those certainly exist.

Just the first result on google for me:

Candy CSWS485TWMCE

The downside is that the machine takes twice as long to do multiple loads of laundry…

[kerbiloid]

16 hours ago, Rutabaga22 said:

Another on of mine is that someone hasn't made a washer that can also dry or a combination washer-dryer where when the washer is done washing it just drops the load into the dryer and you just set both.

Spoiler

 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

30 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Unfortunate alliteration with 'drops the load'

[kerbiloid]

That's by design.

Also has a bonus fur for hands wiping.

[cubinator]

Where is my glowing bioluminescent fruit?

[Spacescifi]

A few years back the Dollar Store used to sell tiny boom box shaped stereo speakers.... that worked without a battery or charging.

 

They no longer sell it. I hate that the only portable speakers you can buy must be charged.

The cool thing about the non-charging speaker was that I could get modest volume control just by adjusting the volume on my mp3 player as the speaker had no controls... plug and play only.

 

I am also aware that volume from speakers can be amplified simply by placing a piece of cardboard on the speaker.

 

I think there must be a way to make a non-charging speaker with great volume... but obviously no one wants to do that because you would never have to buy a speaker again.

Edited October 6, 2022 by Spacescifi

[kerbiloid]

5 hours ago, cubinator said:

Where is my glowing bioluminescent fruit?

Here. But it swims.

[magnemoe]

On 10/5/2022 at 4:02 AM, Nuke said:

flying cars don't make much sense. if you can fly, why bother with ground travel? what we should be asking for is affordable light vtol aircraft. now you just need to get your parking space certified as a helipad and somehow comply with noise restrictions. thats probibly more expensive than the vtol itself.  

as for my "why doesnt it exist yet" thing. i kind of have a pet peeve with atx case standards, which i find are woefully lacking in the structural capabilities. these standards were formalized back when most processors just needed a small fanless heat sink and a graphics card didnt contain several pounds of copper. two things id like to see in the standards. the first are standoff locations for hardmounting the cpu backplate. for dealing with the load of large tower coolers without putting too much stress on the mobo. ideally you would mount your cooler through the loadplate/mobo/backplate direcly into the mobo tray (probibly with spring screws). the other would be a forward lug for the gpu. this would be a line of heavy duty standoffs an inch or two off the end of the pcie slot  (either beyond or through the mobo). you could then mount the gpu with a large diameter thumbnut. both require a bare minimum of effort to comply with, mobo and case manufacturers just need to put in the holes. cpu manufacturers would need to adjust their sockets (which they do every few years anyway) and gpu manufacturers would need to add a bracket to accept the thumb nut.

Think part of the reasoning for the car part is that you have to drive the can a bit away from there you take off because of noise. 

But agree on ATX cases, now ATX came with the pentium 1 cpu as I remember and they did require a heat sink with a fan. yes it was not an large heat sink.
It was an another standard BTX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BTX_(form_factor), introduced because the Pentium 4 power use, this was later cancled because an shift to lower power cpu and coolers with heat pipes. 

I like the idea of mounting the cooler directly onto the back plate, this should be pretty easy to implement and make backward compatible. 
It is an standard for forward lugs for GPU, this is an fixed long length however and is mostly dropped on modern cases as it is too long and interfere with drives or fans. 

I say the form factor for graphic cards is a bit stupid,  getting wider and wider while releasing the hot air inside the case. 

9 hours ago, Spacescifi said:

A few years back the Dollar Store used to sell tiny boom box shaped stereo speakers.... that worked without a battery or charging.

They no longer sell it. I hate that the only portable speakers you can buy must be charged.

The cool thing about the non-charging speaker was that I could get modest volume control just by adjusting the volume on my mp3 player as the speaker had no controls... plug and play only.

I am also aware that volume from speakers can be amplified simply by placing a piece of cardboard on the speaker.

I think there must be a way to make a non-charging speaker with great volume... but obviously no one wants to do that because you would never have to buy a speaker again.

How does an non charging speaker work? 
I assume it used the 3.5 mm headphone connector who provides some power but not much as i'ts only designed to power headphones so volume will be limited. 
For more power you will need an external power source of charging, 

I thought if you could power surround speakers with solar cells using the indoor light? probably too weak just going off lamp light however. 

[Nuke]

i think you can do the lug on a variable length card. it would just need a little captive thumb nut attached to a bracket under the heat sink. this could be made low profile enough such that its only half the height of the pcie slot. would require a keepout region around the hole. full atx boards would be fine with that, they have the real estate to spare. for flex atx , mini-itx, and mini dtx, the nut would be completely clear of the board. full size micro atx would be an issue because you would need to go through it, and those boards tend to densly packed like mini-itx.  

another method would be to offer 2 rows of holes, one for 2-fan cards and one for 3-fan cards. single fan cards are usually ok with just the bracket. this also allows the really cumbersome cards to have 2 extra hardpoints rather than one. for reverse compatibility the bracket can simply be removed (or not installed by default). 

[ColdJ]

13 hours ago, magnemoe said:

How does an non charging speaker work? 

Very well if made of good materials.

Just like plugin earphones the signal from the player along the cords is enough to cause the cones to vibrate and produce the sound. Bigger cones produce louder sounds up to a point. We are not talking loud enough for a party but you can get a size that is more than enough for just yourself while working in an average room.

On 10/5/2022 at 10:24 AM, Rutabaga22 said:

Combination appliances. 
Why not make something that has a microwave and toaster combined.
Another on of mine is that someone hasn't made a washer that can also dry or a combination washer-dryer where when the washer is done washing it just drops the load into the dryer and you just set both.

Both of these already exist, washer dryer combos are common where I am. With the toaster microwave they just combine different methods within the same casing. Generally quartz heating elements for toasting.

 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

We are back with another installment. 

 

Why won't they make an electric shaver that does what it says it is supposed to do?

 

 

[Gargamel]

2 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

We are back with another installment. 

 

Why won't they make an electric shaver that does what it says it is supposed to do?

 

 

I'd guess it's a safety thing, mixed with the limitations of design and function.    Straight/safety razors' cutting edge contact the skin directly, allowing for the ultra close shave.    It works by shearing the hairs off, using the skin as the other side of the shear.  A mechanical cutter has to work with two shearing faces closing against each other.   That lower shear face has a thickness, as it can't be a purely two dimensional thing, and that thickness determines the closeness of the shave.    Now, when they start to dull a bit, or by design, they will tend to grab the hairs and lift them into the cutting path more.   But if you lift too much, you could cut the skin, and it will start to pinch your face as it pulls.    Theoretically, you could have a set of spinning straight razor blades sliding across your face, but....  yeah...   We called things like that in EMS as "Job Security". 

I would imagine, with enough engineering and production design, you could get a lower shear surface really thin, and get a great shave.   But now we're talking increased cost mixed with increased frequency of having to change the cutting face more often, otherwise you'd start exfoliating violently rather than shaving.   It'd be a pretty niche high priced razor, with high upkeep costs. 

Edit: I'm going to postulate that the answer to most of these questions will be: "It's too expensive to make it economically viable, and it wouldn't be safe for the average consumer to use".

Edited October 28, 2022 by Gargamel

[Ryaja]

I'm going out on a limb here, recycled rockets that actually work.

Edited October 29, 2022 by Ryaja

[Nuke]

idk when i started shaving i had a rotory that worked fine. a decade or so later i got another rotory that was just terrible. my solution was to move to an alaskan fishing town so i could grow a beard without being out of place. 

Edited October 29, 2022 by Nuke

[Nazalassa]

Why don't we have dry water yet?

[kerbiloid]

We do. But you need some wet water to make it wet again.