BUGbot Wheels Module by Ilan Moyer-
Ilan Moyer stopped by the Test Kitchen for a visit. With the CAD files he downloaded from BUG he was able to fabricate a base for wheels. The wheels use DC motors and a motor driver. They are programmable over serial, but we were trying to get the data through the Samtec connector that day. A truely awesome invention!
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Open source hardware 2008 - The definitive guide to open source hardware projects in 2008… Read more | Permalink | Comments |
Combining two longtime favorite projects here at MAKE, Peter Csaszar’s Nixie Tube Propellor Clock displays high voltage time with persistence of vision -
The nixie tube, as well as the entire clock electronics driving it, is placed on the Spinning Board – the circuit board mounted on the floppy drive’s carousel. The heart of the device is a single Microchip PIC16F84A microcontroller. (One of the goals of this project was to familiarize myself with the PIC’s, and to see how much computing power can be crammed into this very popular low-end micro.) Port B of the PIC is dedicated to receiving signals from the environment, such as the Control button, the 12/24H selector jumper and the photodiode required to provide a stationary display.
Schematic and thorough info available - Nixie Tube Propellor Clock
Inspired by Peter’s work, Jon Stanley, also built Nixie POV using his own custom design (which we did post about a while back) -
More info on Jon’s iteration available here - World’s Second Nixie Propeller Clock
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If you’ve performed kive with a band, you likely know how important monitor speakers are. Without a vocal monitor, things can go awry quite quickly - and to make matters worse, many small venues don’t have them. To keep tabs on sonic output, Mark took matters into his own hands and built this “Wedgehorn” monitor speaker from a design by Bill Fitzmaurice. - Wedgehorn on Flickr
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This week I made the open source Trippy RGB Waves Kit by Mitch Altman. I like this kit because it’s perfect for someone learning to solder, yet it has programming headers so the advanced user can hack it up. The original video was about 18 minutes long. Too long in my opinion, so I sped it up a bit. OK, a lot!
If you have about 18 minutes to spare, and really like detailed step-by-step instructions, check out the full video in real-time below. Thanks!
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In the Maker Shed:
Trippy RGB Waves Kit v1.0
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This looks like it could be useful technique for your next build. At the very least, it is an interesting electrochemical experiment to try out. Just remember, copper sulphate is extremely poisonous, so keep your kiddies away.
More about How to electroplate with copper
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IT’S EMAIL TIME - Innocent-looking “clock” monitors the unread-message pileup in your inbox - by Tom Igoe.
I have a lot of anxiety about email. Every kilobyte in my Inbox destroys another minute of my life, but I can’t stop checking it. So I decided to embody my anxiety in a device that would worry about my incoming mail for me. I’ve always liked clockwork mechanisms, so I made my email fetish object in the form of a clock. For each kilobyte of new mail I receive, the clock ticks relentlessly forward.
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From the all-important step #2 of this Instructable: “Don’t Poison Gas Attack Yourself, etc.”
Useful for anyone who wants to make welds without spending much:
Welding is usually the easiest and quickest way to build something. You just put the parts next to each other and weld them. You don’t have to drill bolt holes and go to the hardware store for bolts. Metal doesn’t split like wood. It doesn’t have grain and knots that make every piece different. You can get all kinds of scrap metal for free. Bed frames, parts of old cars, etc etc. And you can make your own welder for free or close to it.
Don’t have access to a welder? LIAR!!
Check out TiTON’s IRON MAN PC mod…
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Probably the best way for you to make rapid effective progress on your project is to have a good idea of how you want the project to end up, and then identify the Simplest Problem that you can solve Quickly. In computer science, almost every first program is some variation on Hello World. Essentially, it is a surefire way to just show that it works. You know that you are not making some basic mistake. Once you can do something really basic, then you can work on doing something less basic. Hopefully the next thing you do won’t be too crazy hard, or you are likely to just sit there frustrated and annoyed.
Quick Simple Problems
Quick Simple Problems may seem too easy, and may seem like they don’t get you to your destination.
Best known for inventing TV-B-Gone, a keychain that turns off TVs in public places, Mitch Altman is interested in any technology that gives people more choices for improving their lives.
You don’t have to be a Buddhist monk to meditate, or a Sleeping Beauty to sleep well. Achieve these altered states of consciousness, and others, with this simple microcontroller device.
What would happen if you could play a recording of brain waves into someone’s brain? That question popped into my mind one day while I was meditating, and it turns out that there are devices that can do this. Sound and Light Machines (SLMs) produce sound and light pulses at brain wave frequencies, which help people sleep, wake up, meditate, or experience whatever state of consciousness the machine is programmed for.