"Ham-Base Alpha" is finished and in the water. Largest of all modules it can comfortably house 3 to 5 hamsters, with 4 being the recommended number. It contains not just necessities like a water bottle, chewing log and ample food dish but amenities like a running wheel and larger chew toys I happened to see at petsmart and thought they might like. :3
I'm very pleased with how it turned out. It's large enough that it's right on the edge of what is practical to transport and deploy, but that means ample elbow room for the hamsternauts inside. This habitat is truly sufficient for longer term missions, measured in months rather than weeks. The food dish contains enough for that, but I may have to upgrade to a larger water bottle, that remains to be seen.
Im curious about what will you do with the Mk. III. Will you deploy it alongside the Hamblab and the Ham-Base A.? Or it will be a past landmark in the underwater deployment of the objectivist hamsterkind?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I have a very silly, and probably unfeasible idea for a modular enclosure system.
DeleteYou put a silicone ring around the exterior edge of enclosure 1's ceiling; drill a hole to fit a rugged tube on it, with 4 small holes around it to put bolts, and a silicone ring around the edge of the hole and its bolt holes. On enclosure 2 drill another hole on the floor the same way, to match the hole on E. 1.
You could put one on top of the other, fit the rugged tube, and press them trough bolts or a tight rope around both enclosures.
Then, if only one is being deployed, or if deployed separately, you can bolt a plexiglass circle on top of the holes. The ring, being over the internal holes, will only need to waterproof one set of holes.
Its probably too much hassle, as bolting both enclosures together will make a lot hard to seal holes when not coupled, and a rope around enclosures is not the most reliable thing in the world. Also, it would only work vertically, as the sides of almost all enclosures you can find have irregular sides that are almost impossible to effectively waterproof.
Past landmark. Mk3 was a learning experience. Much too big and heavy, if I built it again I could probably make some improvements. But for this phase of the project, lots of smaller separate habitats is the direction I decided to go.
Deletehttp://i43.tinypic.com/2nalf77.png
DeleteDid a shitty MS Paint diagram. Don't mind my horrible artistic skills.
Very well illustrated, but what's the purpose? It looks like a lot of unnecessary hull penetrations for the sake of expandability, when if I wanted to make a two story habitat I'd just do that from the start.
ReplyDeleteMy focus was making a less rigid design that makes transport and at a lesser rate deployment of multiple habitats easier, and somewhat faster, than an normal habitat of the same size. It also makes testing new enclosures easier. For example, you want to test the new hamsub moonpool/docking station on a live-fire situation. Normal design forces you to carry all the interconnected habitats to the testing area, and deploy them all (like the Mk.III). With this you only have to carry the desired module and a temporary enclosure for the test subjects.
DeleteAlso, if a individual habitat fails while underwater for any reason, it can be dealt with in less than 10 minutes and on-site, against 1-2 days plus losing the trip to the testing area.
A quick note too, the "airlock" design can be applied to a tube, dealing with the removable bolt problem, and the vertical-only design. It also makes waterproofing easier, as you don't have to make the hole in the habitat as exact and bothersome to make, and couplings could be more resistant to movement and fissures, if the second ring is implemented.
I made a super-quick diagram (I just found I love to make this things):
http://i41.tinypic.com/s3ehkn.png
Although more holes means more things that can fail. Im not sure if a modular design is enough of a tradeoff for the risk of something going wrong. Im just leaving ideas out here.
Deletei feel like a bigger cage or more attatchments going all together is the way to go! The hamsters want an underwater mansion!
ReplyDeleteI did that already with the Mk3. Connecting them requires transporting and deploying the entire city as one piece. Aside from which I can only allow blood related hamsters to co-habitate; Unrelated groups will fight each other. As pet stores rarely sell sibling groups larger than 3 hamsters, no single habitat needs to accommodate more than that, it would be a waste.
ReplyDeleteYou can solve the family problem getting a hamgal, if you know what I mean ;)
ReplyDelete