What can't you do with PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) pipe? The ubiquitous blue PVC water pipe may be seen along most streets here and Zap Zone Defender appears to be one of Thailand's most plentiful un-natural assets. A wide variety of various connectors can be found and other than carrying water it is also used as an affordable construction materials that can be used to make all the things from clothes dryers to Wheel chairs (PDF), Crutches, flagpoles and shop indicators. After all on the internet you may also discover another very cool and artistic things made from (non-blue) PVC pipe together with: Halloween costumes like Ben Hallert's Matrix APU and Aliens Exo-skeleton Power Loader, another energy loader costume, single and multi-guitar Guitar Hero stands, a laptop stand, flutes, and even a shaving stand. Below you can see, in chronological order, ZapZone some of my own (largely authentic) creations made from PVC water pipe together with: - a Marshmallow Shooter, Plumbing, Soccer Goals, - a Cricket Wicket, - a Basketball Hoop, ZapZone Bookshelf Supports, - a Water Pipe Tron Controller, Racing Cars, Pinball Table Leg Extensions, Data Projector Mounts, - a Laptop Stand, - a Wiimote Holder, - a DIY Wii Zapper, - a Workbench, Real-Tron Controllers - a Music Stand Puzzle Bobble Coffee Grinder Controllers, - a Netbook Treadmill Hook, ZapZone CD/DVD Holders, - a Nightstand/shelves, - Push Up Bar/Handles, Fake Legs, - a Hilbert Cube, - a Mario Kart steering wheel, - a Guitar Stand, Hockey Sticks, - a Tank-recreation (BZFlag) controller, - a Train Whistle, and - a Trident.

This was the challenge that started my love affair with blue PVC pipe. I had seen the blueprints for Zap Zone Defender this marshmallow shooter whereas I was in Australia but the fittings had been prohibitively expensive (see the picture right). Fortunately they're very inexpensive right here in Thailand. 2 x T-Pieces and 6 x elbows. Cricket (to not be confused with Brockian Ultra-Cricket) is Australia's national sport performed with a bat, a ball, and two wickets. 6 x T-pieces, and 12 x 45-diploma elbows. The backboard is a non-regulation dimension piece of plywood that we discovered lying round and we used green duct tape for the markings. Although the ring is not strong enough to cling off, the side helps make it sturdy enough for normal play. Additionally they give it a really Star Trek really feel and I think the ring seems to be not in contrast to the NCC-31911 Saratoga. This is perhaps essentially the most straight ahead use for PVC pipe on this web page. 2 x 25mm to 18mm (1" to 1/2") reducers, 2 x custom motorbike hand-grips, four x push-buttons, and a mercury swap which are linked to a pc by way of a hacked USB joystick.

Yow will discover more particulars about how I made the controller on this challenge page and i've also extended the same idea to play GL-Tron using real motorbikes. A university student who played with the PVC Water Pipe Tron Controller, described above, said "That's Ok but I prefer to play driving games". It received me pondering and over the following week I spent my evenings building a PVC racing car controller - essentially a wheel-much less, PVC go-kart frame related to the computer through a hacked USB joystick. Some Thai university college students who noticed the first car needed to understand how all of it labored and 6 of them got here round one Saturday and we spent the whole day hacking joysticks and building a second automobile. By connecting them both to a laptop and a data projector ZapZone we have been able to play cut up-display screen Daytona USA. Yow will discover extra details about the design and development of the automobiles on this mission page. The white workplace table I used for the virtual pinball machine wasn't excessive sufficient to be played comfortably.

1 x T-piece, and 2 x elbows - partially to help air move but largely to hold my display screen up because the spring within the hinge has damaged. As simple as this stand appears to be like, the "L"-shaped upright section is definitely part of an air-conditioner mount for an information projector that I made for one of the virtual pinball table installations. The T-piece isn't glued and so in a small manner (a very, very small means) I prefer to suppose that if the air-conditioning mount had been ever wanted once more then the elements may re-combine in a Voltron or Captain Planet and the Planeteers or Power Rangers MegaZord-like way. In fact if that happened my laptop computer display screen would fall down. I do not personal a Nintendo Wii but I did manage to get my hands on a Wiimote in order that I could try out some of Johnny Chung Lee's cool tasks. This is a Wiimote mount I built using a size of 35mm (1 and 1/4") pipe, some 18mm (1/2") pipe, 3 x T-items, and 4 x elbows.

The 35mm pipe has been reduce in order that it fits nicely into the ridges down the facet of the Wiimote which holds it securely. This is screwed onto a T-Piece which has additionally had its high reduce off. The joint between the two topmost elbows isn't glued so the angle of the top section could be adjusted. These sections are simply cable-tied onto the entrance of the motorbike handlebars and the gamers squeeze the buttons with their index fingers to show left or right. A mercury swap is also mounted on the suitable handlebar so the accelerator can be utilized to provide enhance inside the game and up to 4 bikes may be linked to the computer by way of a single hacked USB joystick. The centerstands keep the bikes upright throughout play and a half-spherical of bamboo is wedged underneath the back tires to stop them from rocking. This is a music stand made from three different sizes of pipe.