Converting a WW2-Era Landing Gear and Flaps Indicator into a USB Peripheral | Hacker News Reader

Converting a WW2-Era Landing Gear and Flaps Indicator into a USB Peripheral

bikerglen.com

102 pointszdw14 comments

That paint looks radioactive to me.

https://theaviationist.com/special-reports/radioactive-mater...

That article’s conclusion is that you get about 3-4x as much annually as from a single dental x-ray.

A problem if you work in a room with 500 of them at a museum. Not so much if you’re tinkering with one.

It depends on what sort of tinkering. The highest risk is if you open the case, which is likely to release some radioactive dust.

This. Sitting several feet away with the radium behind glass, you're down near background [1], but any contact with the dust is a risk. If you must to open the case, I would suggest doing it outside with mask, gloves, and eye pro: blow the case out with some compressed air to dispel any lose dust. Don't grind or disturb the markings otherwise. You can also replace the hands with non-luminous ones.

Also consider leaning in! Radioactive antiques and minerals is a whole fun hobby by itself; start with a cheap Geiger counter and move up to a scintillator for more fun. There are many artifacts like uranium glass, ceramic glazes, and watches to look for in antique shops.

https://www.kensclockclinic.com/vintage-clocks-and-radium-ri...

Agree. Radium is also an issue with vintage watches. A few years ago there was a paper discussing the the dangers of radon gas emitted from vintage watch dials. The tldr is keep them in a ventilated space. https://www.northampton.ac.uk/news/wwii-military-watches-pot...

A friend of mine inherited about 1,000 vintage clocks.

He set up shelves all around his bedroom and put them in the shelves and put his bed in the middle.

5 years down the track I made a joke about radioactivity from the glow paint. We realized it wasn’t a joke.

He got a radon gas monitor and it did register high.

He seems fine but doesn’t sleep in that room any more.

I have a dream that all post like this start with an extensive paragraph one the most simple but fundamental question of “Why?”

I know it’s mostly for fun and to tinker around with tech and just having cracked the problem, but mostly there is more to it and for me the most interesting part of such projects.

> one the most simple but fundamental question of “Why?”

Flight simulator cabin making might be one of the reasons.[0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_simulator

If I had a dream, well several actually, one of them would be to expand public libraries to include small lab areas where development boards and other useful "bench" stuff were available (maybe for a fee) - a tinker library perhaps.

I could imagine communities springing up around them.

Makerspace?

Sounds like an hackerspace type of a thing.

If you are lucky you might find one near you https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/List_of_Hacker_Spaces

Im quite active at Estonian hackerspace https://k-space.ee

This reminds me of a blog post [1] that was recently posted to HN [2]:

> Fortunately, Helsinki has an amazing library (more like a library, hacker space, gaming cafe, and a public hangout place combined) where I could go and desolder the header for free.

[1]: https://kimmo.blog/posts/7-building-eink-weather-display-for...

[2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33583326

Like this? https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/plan-my-visit/spaces-visit/edge

Discussion of a similar post from same site. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33756277

Reply on news.ycombinator.com