This is a really interesting project that uses an AVR micro-controller to crate a 1-key keyboard. I can think of a thousand uses for this type of device. The idea for a 1-key keyboard comes from the need as an interaction designer to make "cheap, quick and dirty prototypes." When creating a quick screen-based demo in e.g. Adobe Flash, a common way of quickly prototyping physical actions is to assign actions to certain key presses on a keyboard. In more advanced prototypes, physical hacks to the circuit board from a keyboard are also often used to interface custom buttons...
Gary Gipson was inspired by the Magbot Pendulum project in Dave Hrynkiw's wonderful Junkbots, Bugbots & Bots on Wheels. Greg made a few changes. He put the electronics package on a little swinging bot and made the permanent magnet stationary to the base. The bot's LED eyes light up when he first starts out over the magnet. Nifty! Gary has some other really nice BEAMbots on his YouTube channel, including a Photopopper driven by a 1381J voltage trigger-based solar engine. We used the 1381 in the two BEAMbots featured in MAKE, Volume 06 (reprinted in The Best of MAKE)....
Apparently these speakers sound "brilliant" according to the maker. I like the look of them, especially the blue foam base that the wooden spheres are resting on. More about DIY: Salad bowl speakers [IKEA Hacker] More: HOW TO - Make a Low-cost spherical speaker array (from IKEA salad bowls) In the Maker Shed: Loud Objects Noise Toy kit Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!...
Dave sent us this tasty step-by-strep for homebrewing root beer -When I asked them about the yeast, the man behind the counter gave me a dreadful warning that making root beer with yeast is like making bombs. He said it was too dangerous as the bottles have a high likelihood of exploding. He also said that they had a high likelihood of fermenting the root beer and so it was a very poor way to make root beer. The method he suggested instead was carbon dioxide infusion. This required a carbon dioxide tank and regulator (I borrowed this from...
This article is part of the Open Web Awards, an open, international contest for the best websites and services. It’s pretty simple, really. If you’d like to cast your vote for the best How To site online, simply: 1. Choose your favorite from the nominees below 2. Select that site in the widget’s dropdown menu 3. Enter your email address 4. Click Vote 5. We will send you a confirmation email. Be sure to click the link to verify your vote! The How-To site with the most votes proceeds to the finals next week. Voting ends at midnight PST tonight....
I know Halloween is over, but I really wanted to share this project that Todd emailed us. The honking pumpkin was inspired by my How-to Tuesday: Scariest Pumpkin ever build. This is exactly why we do the builds for the blog. We want our readers to be inspired to make things, and maybe like Todd, make them better. Best of all, share what you have learned so others can do the same. Thanks Todd, you made my day year! Have you made anything inspired by the MAKE blog? If so, send us a link. Thanks! My honking pumpkin used...
From the MAKE Flickr photo pool While visiting family over Thanksgiving I witnessed this device in use - "Mark's Magic Box" displays song lyrics and note changes to simplify band rehearsals. The setup uses a laptop + LCD for storage and display - controlled via foot-pedal which was built from a mouse and housed in a handmade metal enclosure. A teleprompter for music - very cool! Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!...
Mikey's HOW TO - iRobot dead cell battery fix... I have three iRobots which help clean our house. I bought them about two years ago. As the one year warranty was coming up I called iRobot and asked them to help with various issues. They basically replaced all three of them. Now that I am at the one year point with the replacements I'm running out of options as things break. I can either fix it myself, or buy more shit. Obviously, I don't want to pay for anything. This morning I took apart the battery pack in the...
This hefty clock uses classic bells and binary display - and it knows where you are!The case measures about 15×13x8 centimeters. The bells which I happened to have lying around are from a very old telephone and were the remains of my very first electronics project (which was about seven years ago). The most remarkable feature of this alarm clock is the fact that it uses a microswitch mounted in my door to detect if I left my room. It can only be disabled when the door is open. This thing could probably intimidate you to wakefulness - Ultimate...
James Delaney's created The Unfocused Brain, an interesting variation on Mitch Altman's Brain Machine: This program and schematic is designed to flash LED's in certain brain wave inducing patterns. The device is controlled by four buttons that switch the generator between Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Theta frequencies. ... After building and trying out the SLM I noticed that certain transitions from one state to another created particularly strong visual hallucinations. My project is a deviation from the original SLM. Since my hallucinations seemed to be the same with or without the audio component I decided to leave it out....
Unsatisfied with pricey iPhone docks Gekky Gadgets shows you how to make your own - The 3G iPhone doesn’t come with a dock , unlike the 2G version, instead you have to spend an extra $29 on an Apple iPhone 3G Dock. So we decided to make our own iPhone dock, that was easy for anyone to make and can be made from readily available materials. We decided to make our dock out of cardboard, and wanted anyone to be able to print one off on their printer so we kept the size to A4. Head over to the...
All you New York makers can stop reading this right now. However, if you're a maker who grew up with real NY pizza, then moved to a place lacking it, like, say, Los Angeles, this site is for you. Jeff Varasano, a New Yorker in Atlanta, has spent years figuring out how to replicate the dough, get his home oven up beyond 800 degrees F, and perfect his sauce and toppings. His mile-long webpage chronicles it all in glorious detail so you can learn to do it yourself. I cannot look at his pizza photos without wanting to curl up...
Huge POV (Persistence of vision) via Hackaday. You can of course make your own version, maybe a little less "dangerous" using the POV kit we have in the Maker Shed store - propeller not included. Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!...
Never burn your mouth on a hot drink again... No matter your poison -- coffee, tea, hot chocolate, sake -- take a gulp too soon out of the pot and chances are good that you'll burn your mouth. But build this Smart Coaster and you'll always know when it's safe to sip. According to my thermometer, common coffee brewers produce a cup of perfect coffee that is positively molten to the tongue, at 71ºC. Even as this marvelous beverage fills your room-temperature cup, temps can still reach a blistering 58ºC. Finally, after a couple of minutes cooling, your coffee...
