Baking powder subs - troubleshooting

These use baking POWDER, which is NOT the same as baking soda. If you are using baking soda that's why the sub does not work.

There are two issues people run into with these. Sub won't sink, and sub won't rise.

SUB WON'T SINK - A lot of these subs are too buoyant. So you will need to add ballast, but not so much that the sub won't rise. I've done this in a few different ways. I've added small paper clips,

 hot glued very small pieces of solid wire(around 24 awg),

and used poster putty. Probably the easiest way to go is to use the poster putty.

I used Blu Tack, but any poster putty should work.
One more thing to try - add a drop of soap to the water. This will reduce surface tension and may help.

These are generally NOT fast paced toys, so you may have to wait a bit for it to rise. Make sure you shake it a bit when you first put it in the water, the baking soda needs to be wet in order for it to work.

SUB SINKS BUT WON'T RISE - Some of these subs only have a very small hole in the chamber where the baking powder goes into. This means even if the sub is shaken vigorously when it is first put in water, the water may not get into the hole to activate the baking powder. This can be solved by adding a small drop of water to the baking powder just before you put the sub into the water.

Here is the 26 min long video. These subs are SLOW, I had to speed up or splice out the wait time between rising and falling, and it was still a pretty long video, too long for youtube's 15 min time limit.

Mini RC sub and pop pop boat

Pop pop boats have been around since the 1800's.
Mini RC subs? Well, not quit so long. 10-15 years?

Cartesian Diver

Also known as a Cartesian devil, it was first mentioned by Raffaello Magiotti in 1648.

Picture from: A. Privat Deschanel Elementary Treatise on Natural Philosophy Part I. Mechanics, Hydrostatics, and Pneumatics (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1884)

Versions of these vary greatly, ranging from a ketchup packet

to hand blown glass.

You can even use a lego mini fig, as shown here.

Pop Pop Boats

  Pop pop boats are an old toy, the first ones came out around the late 1800's. Essentially a simple toy steam boat with no moving parts, engines are either coil (which are silent), or diaphragm. It is the diaphragm engine which makes the noise from whence this toy got its name.

DIY coil engine pop pop boat

Video - diy coil engine and made in India pop pop boats.

Baking powder submarine

  I recall getting this from a Captain Crunch cereal box in the 70's. Long gone, I found a picture of it online. Basically you add a little baking powder (NOT baking soda, that won't work!) to it and it sinks and rises repeatedly.

A youtube video of one.

Robots!

Domo origato, Mr. Roboto!

Drinking birds

The drinking bird is a classic science toy. For an explanation of how it works, go here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_bird

Cap Guns

I don't think these are very common anymore, but back in the 60's to early 80's they were everywhere.
These are all modern, but are pretty similar to what was around.

Made to look like a semi auto pistol, it is really an 8 shot ring cap revolver

You can see where it loads here.

This a cowboy six shooter cap gun, it also uses ring caps.

Another six shooter, this one uses roll caps.

8 shot ring caps. These were more expensive, but louder than roll caps.

Inert and toy grenades

Inert "pinapple" type grenade and "kids army" toy grenade.

Cap Bomb

Another old school toy that I had as a kid.

Crosman GI 1911 bb pistol

Cowboys and Indians

Classic "last stand".

Little green men