Make: Online: May 2005 Archives

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Archives: May 2005

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May 29, 2005

RFID Batteryless and wireless mouse

Review of the $20 RFID mouse- Designed with A4Tech's Innovative Radio Frequency Identification Technology. This Battery-Free Wireless Optical Mouse is absolutely Interference-free from any wireless frequency. In addition to that, the RFID Mouse Pad is directly power activated & the mouse creates huge cost saving for its users. Most importantly, this technology avoids unnecessary pollution caused by batteries. [via] Link.

May 28, 2005

The Dream Recorder

Sensors embedded in a glove monitor the heart and hand sweat glands of a sleeping person to record emotional arousals provoked by the brain during dreaming periods. The resulting records - hypnograms - are 3D drawings that the user may learn to interpret and use as introspection tools over time. [via] Link.

DIY Rocket Launcher (from a Video Game)

Longtailer Chris Anderson posts up about using some tools to create a rocket launcher from your favorite video game. 1. Capture a scene from your favorite videogame (HijackGL). 2. Import it into a CAD program and isolate an object you'd like to have. 3. Send it to a fabricator, either a 3D printer or a computer-controlled milling machine, and watch it emerge as a physical object. We're still a few years away from doing this easily- but home fabricating isn't that far away at all...Link.

Video Game Controller Family Tree

History of the video game controller- How did the current home-console controllers come to be? How have they evolved? You may have noticed some similarities between the current generation controllers, or between them and the previous generations of controllers. So, how do they all tie together? [via] Link.

diyAudio.com - Audio Projects by Fanatics, for Fanatics

Spkr The DIY Audio site is filled with a ton of projects and resources: Pass Labs, Solid State, Chip Amps, Tubes, Class D, Analogue, Digital Loudspeakers, Musical Instruments, Music, Introductions, a Market Place, Electronics Parts and Car Audio. The diyAudio wiki is a collaborative effort to create the ultimate DIY reference site. You can create or edit any Wiki page you like, anywhere you like Link. Thanks Sam!

Build your Own Barbie

Build your own BBQ this weekend! Do you love tasty fresh char-grilled food but hate having to find somewhere to store the barbecue once summer's over? Then why not build your own permanent brick version outside? You hardly need any DIY knowledge or skills so the project is quite an easy one, but bear in mind that lifting bricks can be strenuous Link. Here are a few resources to check out- Texas Griller, Backyard BBQ, About.com listings...

CEO of the MPAA on the Broadcast Flag

Dan Glickman CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America has a opinion column on CNET about how the Broadcast Flag needs to go forward. This is what we're up against. If you like MythTV, developing software projects and using your TV the way you want to- a lot could change if the FCC can mandate how anyone builds or writes software that goes near HDTV. Link. Also: listen to our interview with Cory Doctorow for more about the Broadcast Flag.

May 27, 2005

User Interface in a Box

I really like this, it's all the parts of a user interface suspended in a box by strings like a school project. This example is Photoshop, I think it would be neat to do all the applications most of us use and have it in a gallery. Thanks EsNetc! Link.

Power Over Ethernet

Here's a good step by step on making your own Power over Ethernet (POE) cable to supply power to your router/access Point/wireless gateway using only your RJ-45 connection. Power over Ethernet allows you to run only a single RJ-45 cable (Ethernet) to your access point, and run the power over the unused pairs of wires within the RJ-45 cable. Link.

Homemade Linux Windows Hard Drive Switch

AizeMashu via the MAKE Flickr blog made the coolest OS switch (literally). "I bought a generic electrical switch from Radio Shack and wired it to switch my computer OS between Linux (left,) Windows (right) and boot disc (the off setting.) To get an idea of how macro this image is, the switch is mounted on a 3.5" external drive plastic knockout". Link.

Homemade PSP Docking Station

Making your own homebrew PSP docking station "When my PSP arrived, it was always in my hands, but a couple of days later, the problem of having a place to put the console became stronger and stronger (especially when you have nothing but your standard pack)... I began to feel anxious... What if it falls down the table? And what if, while is on the bed, I sit on it? And so on..." Link.

Arcade Building

MAKE Flickr photo pool member abstrakone is restoring an arcade machine using a PC as the brains and adding new hardware to make it work like a regular arcade machine. Follow the photos and how he did it here. For more details and resources on making your own arcade controls, here's a good resource that MAKE reader Jake sent in. Link.

Low Cost Style Adaptive Array Network

Pretty interesting low cost way of accessing NASA Earth observing satellites. Sophisticated signal processing techniques and simple proof-of-principle antenna arrays built from PVC pipe, aluminum foil and copper wire could revolutionize the way NASA obtains data from its Earth observing satellites. Link.

Make Morse Code Music

Morsecode-Th-1 Neat, you type in words (like MAKE) and it'll play back the letters as morse code, musically- here's an example (MP3). We covered SMS vs Morse code earlier this week, banner year for the dot dash! These patterns are very much like International Morse Code — a method of encoding each letter and number into short and long sounds called dots and dashes. In this activity, you can compose and play your own rhythmic patterns using International Morse Code. [via] Link.

DIY Das Keyboard

The Das keyboard is a pretty cool geeked out keyboard without letters on the keys- oddly enough I used an unmarked keyboard in the past during a project, the CEO of the company kept wanting to change things on the server, and the IT staff used a keyboard like this so he couldn't- any way here's a DIY version if you don't want to pay the $80. [via] Link.

MAKE AUDIO SHOW: DIY News RocketBoom!

Here's the latest audio from MAKE Magazine In this Make audio show- we interview Andrew Baron, the fellow behind RocketBoom- a daily 3 minute news show produced each day for the web, PSPs, phones and more. Want to make your own news show? Here's how. Right click or Control + click to download this MP3 to you local system or add the MAKE Audio feed to your podcasting application and get the show automatically! Show notes after the jump...

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Procyon MP3 Player

Another homebrew MP3 project from awhile back...Procyon MP3 is a hardware MPEG 1 Layer 3 (MP3) audio player which supports user-controlled playback of MP3 files stored on a typical IDE hard disk connected to the device. With the emergence of MP3 as a popular standard for storing, playing, and exchanging music, droves of electronics and computer companies have introduced both portable and desktop MP3 player devices into the consumer market. The rise of MP3 has also produced dozens of personal engineering projects like this one. Link.

Tonepad - DIY Music Projects

Tonepad is dedicated to providing ready-to-use layouts for effects and amplifier projects to the do-it-yourself music community. All layouts are provided free of charge and are subject to the limitations set forth on our legal page. Parts are available from Small Bear Electronics, and ready-made PCBs for many projects are now available directly through tonepad. Link.

MAKE on the Summer Fun Show!

MAKE was on the Canadian DIY show 94.9 CHRW- Audiozine wants to embody the spirit of DIY Culture - an attitude of independence and self-reliance. Often embraced by feminists, "doing-it-yourself" is also often politically motivated, although DIY-ers often just want to save money, or to be crafty. We talked about Summer fun. Link.

PerlMagick+Garmin GPS Data+USGS Orthoimages

Tony writes "I managed to write a perl script to do the Garmin GPS Overlay on an arbitrary satellite image. You can get ridiculously high resolution, color satellite orthoimages from seamless.usgs.gov, and then overlay the tracks on the image with PerlMagick. My PerlMagick script to do this is here". I use the same GPS Tony has, the Garmin Forunner- nice work! Link.