Today I show you how I pimped up a granny stroller to help me out during a tough time in my life.
I broke my collar bone, which meant I couldn’t be carrying weight of any form on that shoulder. Of particular impact was my back pack, and simply carrying shopping home. Yes you can put more weight on the other shoulder, but it doesn’t take long before other problems are created. So I started using the granny stroller. However, there were still some challenges:
It would appear that I am a bit bigger than the typical granny. So I make a telescoping pole and attached it to the stroller. The best way to understand how this works is probably to watch the video.
Above: Showing my first attempt at a handle. It’s made of aluminium, and duct tape.
I made a much better version of this that I used for years after. It’s in the video, but apparently I didn’t take a photo of it?!?!!!
So I detached them and put on some wheel barrow wheels. The details of how I did this are in video. The bigger wheels with a wider base massively improved the handling of the granny stroller. Now there’s a sentence you probably never thought you’d read.
So I made in a sign and attached it to the back.
Above: A sign on the back of the granny stroller that reads: You have just been passed by a granny stroller.
I was used to lots of daily exercise, and at this time of my life, the only viable exercise was walking. So I tended to do it quickly and everywhere. so the “You have just been passed by a granny stroller” seemed rather fitting.
Eventually this became moldy despite my somewhat quick efforts to seal it early on. So I replaced it with a more robust sign showing the FunnyHacks.com website address.
This was essentially a piece of acrylic with some LEDs stuck in it, and the logo partially drilled in to it.
Above: Prototyping the sign that lit up. - Penciled in.
Above: Prototyping the sign that lit up. - Traced.
Above: The tools for making the sign. You can see I’ve done the fun part already. Ba dah TIIIIIIISH.
Above: A closer look at the technique of drawing by partially drilling holes.
Above: The completed sign.
The LEDs were powered and controlled by an old fibre optic thingy. Eg
Above: The base unit from an old fibre optic decorative unit.
Above: The electronics that run the fibre optic unit.
Above: Harvesting the LED outputs.
I took it to a local park to get some interesting shots of it. These shots are all with the camera being on a long-ish exposure.
Above: The sign in action. Blue, red.
Above: The sign in action. Cyan, green.
Above: The sign in action. Blue, purple.
Above: The sign in action. Blue, RED!
Above: The sign in action. Green, yellow, orange.
When it started getting darker, I got more creative. Here I’d have the camera on a tripod, and beautifully still for about half of the exposure, and then move the camera slowly during the second half of the exposure, which gives this really interesting effect.
Above: Playing with the sign, exposure times, and movement. Blue, green, red.
Above: Playing with the sign, exposure times. and movement Blue, cyan, green.
Above: Playing with the sign, exposure times and erratic movement. This is one of my favourite shots.