Make: Online: November 2007 Archives

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Archives: November 2007

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November 29, 2007

Blip Festival 2007!

MAKE is kicking it all BLEEPY BLINKY and BLOOPY at the Blip festival! Stop by and visit us, we have a booth here with some discounted MAKE stuff!

We're performing some scheduled site maintenance today, so please pardon the saw dust as we move servers and add some new features! Commenting will be turned off for a while but will be available again soon!

Posted by Terrie Miller | Nov 29, 2007 10:12 AM
hacks | Permalink | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

Film can cannon, binge-drinking snacks on bbtv

Today on bbtv, Mark shows you how to make a film can cannon. He builds one from a kit, but you can easily make your own from household items. Followed by a claymation video of snacks at a kegger?

Film Can Cannon / Snack Mansion - Link

Give the gift of tools - Make:tools!

As we head in to the holidays we'll have our gift guides (like this one) and we'll have some surprises, but we're also going to feature some of the new things in the Maker store we're really excited about this year. Let's start off with TOOLS! Tools are the the types of gifts that give all year long!

Mkemkit-2
The MAKE:it - Electronic Makers Toolkit ($99). Hand picked by our Makers this kit features everything you need to get started with electronic construction. When people ask me how to get started and what tools to get when learning electronics this is the way to go.

Features:

Soldering Iron
PCB Vise Panavise "Jr"
Small (7.8") DeSoldering Pump
Soldering Stand with sponge
0.5lb 60/40 Solder
Desoldering Braid
Wire Cutters/Stripper
Shear Cutters
7-Function 2000-Count Multimeter

MAKE:it - Electronic Makers Toolkit - Link.

MAKE: Warranty Voider ($39.95) Small enough to fit on your key chain, the MAKE Warranty Voider is the perfect companion for mobile fixing, hacking and MacGyvering. This is a limited offering with custom "MAKE: Warranty Voider" laser lovingly etched with care using a 35w laser. Squirt P4 (plier version) also available AND a new "MAKE bomb defuser" version too!

Features:

Electrical Wire Cutters (spring loaded)
20, 18, 16, 14, and 12 gauge wire strippers
Straight Knife
Tweezers
Extra-Small Screwdriver
Small Screwdriver
Phillips Screwdriver
Wood/Metal File
Bottle Opener
Lanyard Attachment
Length: 2.25 in. / 5.5 cm closed
Weight: 1.8 ounces / 52 grams

MAKE: Warranty Voider - Leatherman "Squirt" E4 (electronics version) - Link.

Stx250B-2
X-Band Saw ($199) - STOUT Tool Corp brings you the most revolutionary tool to hit the industry since the cordless drill, the world's only one-hand cordless band saw! Ease of use plus the ability to cut virtually anything makes this saw a Maker's Choice.

Features:

World's only one-hand cordless band saw
Compact, lightweight design reduces muscle strain (CTS)
Complete projects faster, safer, and easier
Powerful, versatile -- cuts virtually anything
Portability means taking the saw to the materials, not the other way around
Quiet, comfortable to use
No vise required

X-Band Saw - Link.

Make:tools - Link & more @ the Maker store.

NES stuck inside its controller

This very cool hack puts an entire old school NES system inside one of it's controllers with two RCA outputs for video and sound into a TV. Included games are Tetris, Contra, and about 70 more titles. The Nintentdo logo on the front of the controller is backlit with a red glow. Finally, the whole thing was made as a birthday present for the maker's girlfriend. How cool is that?

NES mini (entire NES system in controller) - Link, [via]

Make:NYC Meeting 2! at Make:NYC (tonight)

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Matt and Ryan have a MAKE meet up tonight, MAKE will also be at the BLIP festival, busy night!!

Because of some venue issues, this meeting announcement is on short notice, so we apologize. The third Make:NYC Meeting includes:
Brainstorming Session
We'd like to get input from everyone involved and put some plans together for future meetings and projects. We have some interesting ideas, but what do YOU want? Stop by and voice your opinions. Pizza and soda for all who attend.

Show and Tell
Meet your fellow NYC Makers and show off your creations! Bring your gadgets, gizmos, sketches, ideas... anything you'd like to put in the spotlight. We encourage NYC Makers to collaborate on and discuss DIY projects. If you're planning to bring a project, drop us a note at meetings@makenyc.org.

If you'd like to attend we have plenty of space for everyone, but please RSVP!

You can RSVP here.

Location:
ETSY Labs, 6th Floor (Google Map)
325 Gold St. at Flatbush Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Bikes can be parked in the building.
A/C/F to Jay St-Borough Hall
B/Q to Dekalb Avenue
M/R to Lawrence Street
2/3 to Hoyt Street

Meeting time is 6:30PM.

See you Thursday!

Announcing Make:NYC Meeting 2! at Make:NYC - Link.

Arduino Sketchup model!

Make Pt0104
Wow, Jon-Paul made these amazing Arduino Sketchup models! He writes -

3D/2D models (.3ds, .dwg, .dxf and .skp) of the Arduino Diecimila Board created in sketchup and exported to other 3D formats. This is my site. I am a subscriber to both Make and Craft and hope that I can begin to give back to a community that has renewed my interest in electronics and fab.

Arduino Sketchup model- Link.

Make Pt0105
But wait, there's more! Here's a Sketchup Altoids tin model! - Link.

Octopart's new PartList

Make Pt0103
Octopart updated their PartList feature (Thanks Jim!) Harish writes -

Sometimes a small window to the right of your screen just doesn't cut it for keeping track of your electronic parts. To solve that problem, today we are releasing a more fully-featured PartList. By popular demand, you can use this application to cut and copy your parts, partlists and folders. To help you remember why you needed that particular semiconductor chip with the really long part number, you can add part titles, part comments, and descriptions to your partlists. Together with publishing and the cross-distributor shopping cart, we're hoping that this feature makes your life easier as you build electronics projects.

Octopart's new PartList - Link.

Japanese competition robot father/son team

Geegdad segment of Wired Science on a father and son who build competition humanoid robots.

Wired Science Geek Dad: Nao Maru & King Kizer - Link

Dollar store parabolic microphone

Parabolicmic2
Liane sent in this handy little tutorial for how to make a homemade parabolic mic - Link.

Battery-learnin'

Everything you ever wanted to know about batteries, but were afraid to ask.

Battery University - [via] Link

Timing diagram font

Timingexample
PC Services writes -

When dealing with documentation of electronic circuits, it has always been difficult to put down basic timing diagrams into documents. Obviously with newer oscilloscopes and the like, it is often possible to capture events to insert into documents, but many aspects of documentation involve specifications, technical manuals and other documents to show parts of what is happening or is intended to happen, even some reports require diagrams which are not always easy to extract from imported data.

To this end I started off using Xwave a Truetype® font created several years ago by Joseph Palmer and is still available. I found this lacking in some aspects for my purposes, so created a new font. You may find that Xwave is more suitable for you, but I needed to be able to label parts of the signals like data values, have better transitions to and from Tri-state levels, as well as add breaks in the middle of the diagram (like ellipses '...' in quoted text). The final thing breaks means when doing a diagram of events like video processing it becomes possible to create a diagram which can skip sections of a video frame or line easily.

Timing diagram font - Link.

Arduino NES to MIDI Project 1.0

This project converted a Nintendo Powerpad into a MIDI controller! - Link.

The Wooden menace - Robotic arm

Chris writes -

This project is a robotic arm made mostly from Wood. It cost less than $50 to make and has alot of the functionality that any normal robotic arm would have. It is controlled by a PIC MicroController and cloned PS1 controller.

The Wooden menace - Robotic arm - Link.

Bike stripping

Bbbbbbgrey
Josh writes in -

I've been building bikes for a bit now and doing what I can to document the process in between the sheer joy of building and learning stuff. I thought I'd share with the Make crowd what I'm learning and how. I'm starting from only the most basic bike fixing knowledge and building from bits and bobs, learning about different standards, (did you know there are four kinds of bottom bracket thread? I did not!), different geometries, how to build wheels, and so on.

Bike stripping - Link.

November 28, 2007

Review - Making Things Talk: Practical Methods for Connecting Physical Objects

Make Pt0102
We Make Money Not Art has a review our our new book Making Things Talk! - Link & more @ the Maker Store.

Programming microcontrollers used to require an expensive development environment costing thousands of dollars and requiring professional electrical engineering expertise. But recent innovations, such as open-source physical computing platforms with simple i/o boards and development environments, have given hobbyists, hackers and makers new options for homebrewing video games, robots, toys, and more.

This book contains a series of projects that teach you what you need to know to get your creations talking to each other, connecting to the Web, and forming networks of smart devices. Whether you need to plug some sensors in your home to the Internet or create a device that can interact wirelessly with other creations, Making Things Talk shows you exactly what you need.

The projects in this book are powerful but inexpensive to build: the Arduino and Wiring microcontroller kits themselves cost around $40. The networking hardware covered here includes Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Zigbee, and Bluetooth, and can be had for $50 to $100. With a couple of microcontroller kits and the networking gadgets of your choice, you can make things and make them talk to each other!

Internal bluetooth hack for the Asus Eee PC

tnkgrl spent some time exploring the motherboard of her Eee PC. Looking for available USB ports, she was able to hijack the USB trace that goes to the mini PCIe slot used by the Atheros wireless card. Since the Atheros doesn't use the USB signal, the card will still function without it. This gives you a spare USB port, perfect for embedding a tiny USB Bluetooth module!

If you don't mind soldering a few traces, you can add a built-in bluetooth device to your Eee PC. You'll still have the external ports available for other devices, and your wireless card will still function. The only difference is that when you can't find a hotspot, you'll be able to get a cellphone uplink and jack in using your new bluetooth connection.

Modding the Asus 701 (Eee) - Bluetooth - Link

Quick n' dirty respirator

Jake von Slatt has posted an update to his Gas Mask Respirator page at the Steampunk Workshop. He writes:

Sometimes when I'm working in the shop I just need to wear a respirator for a short period. For instance if I just need to walk into the paint area to shoot a second coat on a small part or make a quick cut on the table saw - read below to see why that's an issue for me.

Doning the powered respirator for these tasks takes much longer then the task itself. It's so much trouble that, more likely then not, I'll just try to hold my breath. This doesn't always work.

So I came up with this simple solution. I took a respirator cartidge and hot glued it to the mouthpiece of a diving snorkel. Now can pop this in my mouth and have both hands free for a quick operation, I just breath in through the cartridge and out through my nose.

Gas Mask Powered Respirator - Link

The Blue & Green Ball - A Benefit for Todd Blair

from babaLou of SRL in SF:

Please come out and support our efforts to raise money for our beloved Todd Blair. Todd has been a long time good friend of mine (many many years). He is a stellar individual and amazing asset to our community.

The Blue & Green Ball - A Benefit for Todd Blair is Saturday, December 1st at SOMARTS, 934 Brannan, San Francisco, California 94103. Time is 8pm and there's a $10 donation. Link to more info.

Todd Blair suffered a severe head injury after the last SRL show in Amsterdam. He has a long road of medical bills, living and rehab expenses. Todd’s SRL, CCA, and other communities join forces presenting an evening of entertainment, bazaar, silent and live auction of many fine art, kinetic sculpture, peoples’ highly coveted skills, etc.