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Archives: March 2006

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March 31, 2006

HOW TO - Turn an Amiga 500 into a lamp

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MAKE pal Mark shows how to turn an Amiga 500 into a lamp, it's gorgeous! - Link.

NES controller iPod shuffle mod

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Technicolorcavalry's pal Dave modded an iPod shuffle to be controlled via (and inside) a NES controller, great mod! - [via] - Link.

LED/3D camera interactive installation

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The photos and videos are spectacular - "A selection of imagery from a recent prototype of a combination LED/3D camera interactive installation. The user's gestures and motion through the space affect both the visuals and the audio." [via] - Link.

General purpose computer from 1952, only $62k

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Modern Mechanix writes - "Not too shabby for $62K in 1952, this thing operates at .12Mhz has roughly 2K of memory and each tape holds around 360K.
Plus for all you case modders, it already comes with 200 glowing tubes. Try to beat that with your little LEDs." - Link.

More Yesterday's tomorrow, today - at Modern Mechanix!

HOW TO - Make your own go kart

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Dan writes - "This is a pointer to a web site which shows a number of different design ideas. Use these as a starting place and come up with your own creative design. What you build will depend on what materials you have available to you." [via] - Link.

Zorbing - human-sized hamster ball

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Ok, who wants to help bring Zorbing to the USA? This looks awesome - "Zorbing - effectively throwing yourself down a slope in a giant ball - has become the latest extreme sport craze to sweep the world." [via] - Link.

Pictured here, people inside zorbs, zorbing down the hill in Rotorua.

Related:

Zorb - Link
CoolHunter - Zorb - Link.
Zorbing - Link.

Cheap DIY homemade reflector stand

Udijw writes - "This reflector panel holder made of 3/4" PVC pipe is handy if you have a spare tripod to use. The tripod provides a stable base that can be adjust for height and tilt angle. Reflector is the collapseable type used for an auto windshield (31 x 38"). It may also be possible to build a stand from PVC." - Link.

Hackable Juice Box Personal Media Player - $10

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Robotwisdom points to a super deal on the Matel Juicebox, $10 shipped! - Link.

Related:

Juicebox hacking on MAKE - Link.
Juicebox gets Linux jolt - Link.

Taking apart Cube World

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Wan & Carolyn write - "Here is a look inside Cube World...These are cool little cubes that are fun by themselves, but will interact when connected together! It would be great if we could figure out how to program our own graphics so we could introduce new "interactions"!!!!
" - Link.

OGLE Captures Texture Coords...

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Warcraft virtual-worlders, this is for you...Fruminator writes - "As of OGLE 0.3b, it is possible to capture texture coordinates (UV) for vertices that have them. This is enabled by the CaptureTextureCoords flag. Coupled with the fact that GLIntercept writes out to disk images for all the texture maps, this allows you to re-texture your capture in Maya with a little menial labor..." - Link.

Related:

Turn virtual 3D objects into real world objects - Link.
OGLE - Link.
OGLE and moving 3D between worlds and programs - Link.
What a 3D Printer can't do... Link.

Papercraft of Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle

Gail writes - "I love Hayao Miyazaki. I also love papercrafts. Only Epson in Japan is offering a free download of Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle the papercraft model. The pattern is quite large as is the final model." - Link.

Handy farm devices

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Jack writes - "This site has all kinds of neat farm-related stuff that quickly describes how you can make all sorts of handy things." Handy Farm Devices and How to Make Them, 1910 - Link.

Hektor - The spray painting robot

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Clever design for a spray painting bot - "Hektor consists of a suitcase which contains two electric motors, a spray-can holder, toothed belts, cables, a strong battery and a circuit board which is connected to a laptop and controls the machine. The motors that are mounted onto the wall suspend the can holder through the toothed belts and define its position by changing the length of these belts." [via] - videos.

Interactive robot art helps your self esteem

Robot gossip has a neat robot art project from Thomas Edwards - "Sycophant explores the relationship between viewers and a human-like robot. The human head is mounted on a motorized base which moves along a track. As a viewer walks by, the head follows on the track, while plying him or her with a cornucopia of compliments such as "I really like your hair" and "You look really hot!" - [via] - Link.

"YOU LOOK HOT"...zeep... thanks baby head robot!

Previous:
Interactive, kinetic sculpture "Blame" - how it was made - Link.

Learn How to Knit "George" at the Maker Faire

Join Jess Hutch for her "Knit a Toy" workshop at the Maker Faire and learn how you can make your own version of George shown here. Jess will be teaching her workshop on Saturday, April 22 from 12:30 - 1:30pm and will also be around at our Craft Corner later on that afternoon to meet and greet. More info on George is here on Jess' blog. Thank you Jess for making an exclusive pattern for us crafters at the Maker Faire!

Here's the supplies you'll need to make this:
- size 7 circular needles
- 1 skein each of Lamb's Pride Worsted Yarn (or similar weight) in 3 colors of your choosing. Jess used these colors: Seafoam (light blue-green), Blue Blood Red (red), and Pine Tree (dark blue-green)
- Polyster fiberfill for stuffing the toy (when you've finished knitting)

If you don't have time to get supplies now, you will also be able to get yarn for this workshop at the Maker Faire from our wonderful vendor (and my favorite yarn store ever), Imagiknit! See you at the Maker Faire!

TVH-72g graphing calculator (TI calc for your phone)

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Tea Vui Huang writes - "The objective here is to create a low-cost introductory & disposable graphing calculator for the educational use of schools and students who may have difficulty, are unable or may not wish to acquire a stand-alone feature-laden graphing calculator.

The TVH-72g Graphing Calculator is a small 14 Kbytes Mobile Java program that can be installed over-the-air (OTA) or locally via infra-red or data cable from a PC or notebook. For the latter, the student's phone may be equipped with the software using a school computer hosting a copy of the license-free TVH-72g Graphing Calculator. The TVH-72g occupies barely 0.1% of the J300i's 12 Mbyte phone memory; it can also be easily deleted by the student when it's no longer needed. " - Link.

Build a CT-BOT robot

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A MAKE reader writes in - "[Here's] an ongoing series of articles in the German computer magazine ct describes how to build and program a robot. The first website gives you information to get and produce all necessary parts. All magazine articles are for sale as pdf. Furthermore segor electronics sells a complete ct-bot kit." The site is in German, but there seems to be enough to get going... - Link.

Neon signs, made from LEDs

LEDs to replace NEON? I want to tinker with these no matter what - "The ideal lighting solution for any architectural, decorative or signage application. LED-FLEX incorporates light emitting diode (LED) technology in a flexible, durable tube that uses a proprietary maximization technique to achieve the appearance and brightness of traditional neon. Completely sealed and impervious to shock and vibration. LED-FLEX can be used indoors or out, in wet and extreme conditions. Best yet, LED-FLEX is up to 70% more efficient than neon, provides long years of continuous use, yet is cool enough for contact with people and delicate materials." [via] - Link.

DIY Media Mac

Wow, here's another Mac creation from Calhoun, he writes - "This machine was built around a 12-inch Powerbook. The name Media Mac refers to my intent to make this a sort of MP3 jukebox and perhaps DVD-player, TV-recorder, iChat AV machine, etc." - Link.

Synth module of the month

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Here's an interesting idea, a synth module a month to build your own modular synthesizers - "You begin your plan by purchasing the "ENTRY-22-1" on the order form for $120. The next month, order the second installment of $120 and we'll begin building your cabinet/Power Supply/Cable Harness and ship them to you. This normally takes 2-3 weeks. Each month thereafter you will receive the items listed in the plan above once your payment is received. Each module is calibrated and tested, ready to install into your system. It only takes a screwdriver." [via] - Link.