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Archives: July 2006

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July 31, 2006

The making of "Simmer Down Sprinter"

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Steve sent in the "making of" for his video game that is controlled by how much you relax - "I somehow came up with this idea for creating a video game that would be controlled by the players relaxation. I loved the idea, but I had no idea how (or if) it was even possible. In January of 2006 I started talking to people that knew more about electronics to see what they thought. The answer was generally, "yeah, I suppose it's possible, but..." and that's when I would start taking notes." - Link & video.

Knit a wig

Coloring your hair is so passe... Knit yourself up a new hairdo and hair color all in one with this Knitty Hallowig pattern. This is also featured in the Curio section of the new CRAFT magazine coming out this fall. (You can sign here for the free CRAFT newsletter.) [ via ] Link.

Crayon cookies

Children's craft site Kiddley has a great solution for all those broken crayons. Melt them into crayon cookies for more coloring life. Link.

HOW TO - Make steel rust quickly

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Hal writes - "You posted about removing rust. Here's how to put it back on, but with potentially dangerous chemicals involved." - Link. Read the warning / disclaimer, be smart.

July 30, 2006

Ice bikes

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Over in the MAKE forums Bf5man put together a nice collection of ice bikes - "There's some challenges as biking on ice or snow that just call for creative solutions. I was looking for some pictures of bikes with rear tracks and here's some funny bikes i've came across. It might inspire some makers! The oldest one i've found is from 1885, the pedal system is simple but functionnal..." - Link.

Freezer paper stencil with bleach

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MAKE Flickr photo pool member Sillyred writes - "Freezer paper stencils are taking over the crafty blogosphere. And then last week I saw on Make Blog an interesting use for bleach. Combining the two ideas, I took some time to decorate a t-shirt for Fuller using a freezer paper stencil and bleach as the medium. Here's my step-by-step. If you plan on doing this, I suggest that you take a good look at the instructable and the following comments. I wish I had read some of them before I started." - Link.

Controlling LED arrays on TCP/IP networks

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Spark Fun has an awesome internet controlled color LED matrix how-to - "Open-Source methods for embedded TCP/IP networking. This tutorial will show you how to control a full color LED matrix from anywhere in the world using a Java script on the remote computer and an ARM development board connected to a tri-color serial LED matrix listening to a specific UDP port." - Link.

HOW TO - Electrolytic rust removal

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ToolNut writes - "This is a relatively simple, safe and cheap way to remove light or heavy rust from any ferrous object. I used this process to restore an old wood plane that I bought for $1 (it looked totally un-usable because of the rust). As opposed to grinding, heavy wire brushing and acid bath processes, this method removes none of the original steel and is not noisy or caustic." - Link.

HOW TO - Make incredible pictures (without Photoshop)

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Old camera tricks from pre-PhotoShop/GiMP days - Link.

HOW TO - Build a simple scanning tunneling microscope (STM).

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Plans for building a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) for under $100 - "The goal of this project is to build a simple STM that can resolve atoms, with a cost of materials less than $100.00 excluding oscilloscope. My real goal here is to provide a base of information so experimenters and students could build a simple STM. Typical piezo tubes used in tube scanners of commercial scanning probe microscopes cost in the range of $200 - $800 and operate with several hundred volts applied to the scanner. This design uses a unimorph disk scanner to reduce the cost and avoid using any high voltage. The Piezo element is commonly available and this particular one costs $1.80. The control voltages are so low that two 9-volt batteries can power the control electronics." - Link.

HOW TO - Build a direct current converter

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Good how to on voltage conversion from 9 VDC to 220 VDC, Pedro writes - "To have a Direct Current Converter on your work bench increases greatly your capability of experimenting within an ample range of electronic components that need over 100 volts to be driven. Among these components we find neon lamps, nixie display numerical tubes, and some kind of triode and pentode valves. Neon lamps open a broad field to build audio oscillators, blinkers and flashers, polarity finders, display decorations, hot chassis checkers...etc. Nixie tubes allow you to construct displays for digital counters, and various types of clocks; and with electronics valves many kind of radio transmitters and receivers can be mounted, among a huge lot of other electronics instruments and equipment. Some of these devices work with voltages between more or less 100 and 200 VDC." - Link.

Synth-in-a-box

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Adam writes - "On a lazy Sunday afternoon, some time back now. I decided to build a synthesizer. Analogue electronics is not really my thing, I'm much more a digital person but when I found a design online for The #3 Standard WoggleBug, I just had to build one." - Link.

DIY Bike lock holder

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Tmiron writes - "Here is a neat and easy way to make a bike lock holder that stays on your bike. More specifically this is for the U-Bolt type bike locks. The cable ones, you can usually just wrap around the seatpost, but the U-bolt are a little more difficult to carry around while your biking. This can be built for around $3.50 (less if you already have some of the parts) and takes about 10 minutes." - Link.

Soapbox racing pushed to extremes

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Rad, underground soapbox derby racing in NYC - "On a recent Saturday afternoon, a group of soapbox racers well past childhood gathered on a steep hill in Brooklyn. With a push and a prayer, they piloted their homemade carts - a wooden cabinet on wheels, a punked-out baby stroller, even a NordicTrack - down the street in head-to-head heats. The Paping Soapbox Derby, now in its fourth year, is an extreme, strictly grown-up version of the kids' cart sport. Unlike the nearly 200 traditional derby races held around the country last year, the Paping Derby occurs without benefit of city permits or the sanction of All-American Soap Box Derby..." - Link.

Pictured here, a photo from the Paping Soapbox Derby @ GammaBlog (great coverage and photos!) - Link.

Knock-based commands for your Linux laptop

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The new Macbook's aren't the only laptops you can knock, slap and bump to perform commands - "For the first time, you can hit your computer and get a meaningful response! Using Linux and the Hard Drive Active Protection System (HDAPS) kernel drivers, you can access the embedded accelerometers on Lenovo (formerly IBM) ThinkPads, then process the accelerometer data to read specific sequences of "knocking" events -- literally rapping on the laptop case with your knuckles -- and run commands based on those knocks. Double tap to lock the screen, and knock in your secret code to unlock. Tap the display lid once to move your mp3 player to the next track. The possibilities are endless." [via] - Link.

HOW TO - Secret agent earphones

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Leevonk shows you how to make your own secret agent / FBI style ear phone(s) - Link.

HOW TO - Put a remote on a CANON A80

Toxic Candy writes - "This is a modification of a CANON A80 digital camera. It adds a wired remote control for focus and release button so the camera can be triggered without shaking it. Plus, you can lock the functions." - Link.

Homebuilt bicycle trailer

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Xddorox writes - "This is a bicycle trailer that I'm putting together right now with some 1 X 2 lumber and salvaged parts." - Link & more.

Overclock your swamp cooler 50%

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Vatosupreme writes - "Swamp coolers work ok until it reaches 94 degrees. At that point, they stop cooling, because the pump can not get enough water on the pads to keep them wet. So by increasing the amount of water going to the pads by 50% the unit cools the house down faster, and the pads don't dry out." - Link.

WarrantyVoid - the electronic sound toy and keyboard modification site

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Great site for keyboard and toy music mods - "Circuit- bending is the art of hacking, modifying and abusing the hardware of cheap electronic sound toys or such keyboards ("tablehooters") in totally different ways than their manufacturer has intended - namely as experimental musical (or not so musical) instruments. This can result in such odd things like converting a battery operated baby toy duck into a tekkno synthesizer, though circuit- bending can be basically regarded as a cyberage's anarchic successor of phono record scratching. Much like record scratching only got possible by systematically ignoring all grannies warning: "Don't touch the precious gramophone discs with your smeary, sweaty fingers!", the same way circuit- bending lives from systematically ignoring any "warranty void" warning stickers on its explorative mission to boldly hear what no man has heard before..." - Link.