Flying Saucer in pieces...

[wally]

So I went looking for signs of alien life at Weirdstuff Warehouse this morning, and they had an $10 Airport Base Station in pieces. Apparently the alien had already climbed out. Power adapter and fasteners were missing but the antenna plugged into something, and I was willing to bet that the something was an Airport card hidden underneath. And a good bet it was; when I got it home and further disassembled it, a fully working Airport soon came to life in the wireless slot of my Power Mac G4 AGP, to replace the one I had stolen to put into my Pismo. [] ]'> [] ]'> [] ]'>

 

[slimac55]

Wow, that's a cheap AirPort card, especially since I got mine for AU$75 off eBay.

 

[LCGuy]

Just for the record, the cards that the original flying saucers have actually aren't normal Apple AirPort cards, but Lucent WaveLAN cards, which are mostly compatible with the AirPort slot, provided that you can get it to fit in the space where the AirPort slot is on your Mac, and will work in any PowerBook or other PC with a PC card slot.

 

[wally]

Thanks. Mine is (was) the next model up, the Airport Base Station (Dual Ethernet). Now it is a plastic case waiting for a creative moment... [] ]'>

 

[LCGuy]

Give it to a kid to make it into a model of a UFO to take to Show and Tell? :lol:

 

[Bunsen]

So .... what spare motherboards do you have [] ]'>

 

[wally]

Some thoughts at http://jlnlabs.online.fr/gfsuav/index.htm

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=672969

I would have to do a test bench experiment to see if the thrust generating flow would come down the sides of the top section of an Airport shell without detaching. Flow director fins might have to be added to convert spiral flow to downward flow, or maybe they could be hidden in the propulsion shroud mounted topside. I have no such flow test equipment or know-how....yet! [] ]'>

Edited post: But I have a Sears 150 mph electric leaf blower ready for action in its first alternate use role! [] ]'>

 

[Christopher]

Give it to a kid to make it into a model of a UFO to take to Show and Tell? :lol:

Keep it for yourself and add some lights to it and hang it above your desk.

 

[System7]

Does the airport card work?

 

[wally]

Yes it does, including operations with encryption enabled, and it is identical in form factor and part number to my other Airport card; it has the cutout end section that allows the antenna connector to be attached and not protrude beyond the PCMCIA outline in the length dimension. I'm mostly using my Sawtooth in hardwired Ethernet mode, but this will allow me to move it to other rooms if necessary more easily. I did not test the Airport Base Station part at all. I have plenty of wireless routers in my spares bin already, and from the disassembled condition I figured someone else had already had some "fun" trying to get it working... [] ]'>

 

[Bunsen]

What about ripping up an RC hovercraft and stuffing it in there?

 

[wally]

That might work. Hovering with ground effect is a lot easier than flying. I took the weight data from one of the earlier links that I posted above and applied an area rule scaling (similar wing loading) for the thrust the saucer airfoil would have to generate for vertical lift flight. The Airport Base Station plastic shell (200 grams total weight) is about 10X heavier than I would like; it would have to be used as a form for a lightweight composite hull and would never fly itself.

Some other ideas: put wheels on it as a robot vacuum cleaner; stationary use on the workbench or at the end of an adjustable arm with a fan inside and some vents to keep flux fumes away from me during soldering; Halloween UFO porch light decoration.

 

[Bunsen]

Stuff a Mac motherboard into it, add a desk lamp neck to the top with an LCD monitor - viola, ghetto iMac G4!

 

[Christopher]

I bet you could fit a Mac mini board in there and the mod it to use a 1.8" hard drive.

 

[madmax_2069]

I am using a lucent wavelan PCMCIA card i bought for my newton in my DA G4, it works great in OS 9, tiger and leopard.

but a nice find normally those fetch a bit more.