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August 31, 2008

Basement Apollo Guidance Computer

In November of 2000, John Pultorak got to thinking about building a replica of a 60's or 70's era digital computer from scratch. By 2001, he started placing orders for technical documentation and had chosen his target machine, a Block I Apollo Guidance Computer.

Four years later, in September 2004, he had completed a fully functioning replica of the worlds first integrated circuit computer.

In the 1960's, each Apollo moon mission had one AGC in the command module, and a second in the lunar module. These were used by astronauts to collect real-time flight information and control the spacecrafts' navigation and guidance systems. Almost half a century later, John Pultorak has one in his basement, and thanks to his remarkable documentation and collection of reference materials, you can have one in your basement too!

Block I Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC):
How to build one in your basement

MAKE Flickr pool weekly roundup

Flickrmosaic8-31-08
From the MAKE Flickr photo pool

Atari PCB console [above, top-left]
LED hula in action [above, top-right]
Breadboarding … in 3D!! [above, bottom-left]
1-megabit cufflinks [above, bottom-right]

Solar Theremin (video)

There are just a few short hours left in our 20% off everything sale at the Maker Shed store... Just enter "dogdays" on check out and get 20% off your entire order. On a related note Marc's "Solar Theremin-like device" build was just featured on YouTube!

Austin / San Antonio Event: Terrific Treehouses

(A rendering of "Our Green Treehouse")

If you find yourself with a desire to see examples of how we might live more in harmony with nature, with a stress on the "in" part, there's a collection of treehouses being unveiled in San Antone through tomorrow:

The Balcones Chapter of the USGBC invites you to come see "Our Green Treehouse" at the public grand opening of Terrific Treehouses at the San Antonio Botanical Garden from August 30, 2008 to September 1, 2008. The display continues through December 7, 2008.
The USGBC-CTB treehouse, "Our Green Treehouse," is made possible through collaboration with Texas Public Radio (TPR) and the Metropolitan Partnership for Energy (MPE). Designed by Lina Luque at MPE and built by USGBC-CTB volunteers led by John Rivenburgh, Our Green Treehouse is an open-air backyard retreat made entirely of sustainable materials featuring rain water capture and solar panels to harness renewable clean energy to power the LED fixtures that illuminate the space at nighttime.

Our Green Treehouse will be aptly located near Water Saver Lane on the grounds of the Botanical Garden. A special thanks to Allen and Allen Lumber and Hardware and Novastar Energy for their contributions of lumber and solar panels, respectively.

Also sponsored by the Aveda Institute of San Antonio, Our Green Treehouse will be auctioned off on-line at www.tpr.org in early December with proceeds benefitting Texas Public Radio.

Brought to you by the San Antonio Botanical Society, Terrific Treehouses will feature up to nine locally designed treehouses intended to delight and stir the imagination. More information about Terrific Treehouses can be found here.

For more on treehouses, check out:

Building a treehouse step-by-step

The steampunk treehouse (amazing)

How to knit a treehouse

Francesca Lanzavecchia's ProAesthetics supports

Absent1
Victorian1
F.Lanzavecchia-53Proaesthet
Francesca Lanzavecchia's ProAesthetics supports via pan-dan.

Best of CRAFT

Here are some of my favorite posts from the CRAFT blog this week:

Green exercise

The Green Microgym recently opened in Portland, Oregon - in addition to using solar panels and green building materials, they're working with several companies that harvest power from gym equipment, including ReRev and Human Dynamo.

More:
Kinetic charger

August 30, 2008

Pringles can macro photography

With an empty Pringles can and some lens and body covers, Photocritic devised a way to make a reliable extension tube for taking macro photos. You can make the tube for a few bucks worth of materials - unless you have spares, in which case it's free. Once it's made, you just wrap a standard lens in fabric, shove it backwards in the tube, and slide it in and out of the tube to adjust focus, similar to how a bellows would function. The photo above, which he took of a match head, really illustrates how cool this is, especially when you consider the cost.

Extreme Macro Photography on a budget

Reminder - 20% off everything at the Maker Shed Store (only one day left)

Shed
Reminder - 20% off *everything* at the Maker Shed Store (only one day left)! Just use the code "dogdays" at the checkout and you'll get 20% off your entire order.

Since it's 20% off everything, this is likely the best time to pick up an Arudino - if you've been thinking about getting in to electronics, programming micro-controllers this is it. If that doesn't float your boat, check out all our products (sorted by most popular).

Ok, fine - here's a video of dancing robot dogs.

My DIY Pedicab Saga: DIY Discrimination?

Short version of the story: I may fail at starting a pedicab company because city officials don't like my DIY version, get nervous, and possibly break the law when you put them on film. Please keep this in mind when trying to get your DIY projects past any bureaucrats!

5-minute video version (visually boring for first minute):

The longer story:
There are 2 ways to legally drive a pedicab in Austin, Texas: rent one nightly from an existing shop or start your own pedicab company.

Should you want to start your own, there are 2 real barriers: insurance and obtaining a pedicab. For more detail, here's a guide I've found very helpful.

Unless you've got a pot of gold to explore self-insurance options, there's no way around writing a sizable check for the insurance side of things. However, I thought I might have some ideas about how to build a better (cheaper, safer, greener) pedicab.

With this in mind, I went to work and built a pedicab. Then, I made the mistake of trying to get my creation inspected.

After my third design and third failed inspection, it began to become clear to me that this wasn't a matter of proving any specific technical point or placing my rear reflector in the correct configuration: the pedicab inspector didn't like my idea of how to build, didn't like me, and wasn't about to allow my design on the road.

My favorite point of contention is the tires: the city has decided that I have to provide a weight rating for my rims, spokes, and tires. Never mind that:

There appears to be no such thing as a pedicab-specific tire

Most manufacturers don't rate bike tires for weight

No pedicab company has previously been asked to provide this information

My wheels are identical and tires equivalent to those in use by 20+ pedicabs in operation

These points don't matter, and I'm told that if I continue raising them all pedicabs will be grounded until they verify their tire's weight capacity. My inspector friend stresses that he'll be sure to inform other pedicabbers who is responsible for this (somehow meaning me). Looking at me as if I may be in need of hospitalization, I'm asked "why don't you just buy a pedicab?"

Oh, and one other important detail: it's been 25 days since I received my operating permit. Should I surpass 30 days, I lose my permit and have to start from scratch.

So, for visit #4 I've escalated to my inspector friend's boss. Having researched my state's eavesdropping laws, I'm accompanied to our meeting by my trusty companion and her digital camera. Because Texas is a one-party consent state, it's legal for me to record a conversation that I take part in without informing whoever I'm talking to.

Unfortunately, my government friends don't seem to realize this. When they figure out that they're being recorded (not exactly hard, considering we had the camera sitting in plain view), they immediately end the meeting, fail my cab without inspecting it, and refuse to allow me into their office. My insistence on a DIY creation is clearly such a threat to safety that they should contemplate calling the cops.

So, this leaves me in a bit of a pickle. My spine tingles at the idea of riding something I've built as my job, but the city's nostrils flare. I've got a few ideas for how to keep pushing this, and I'd appreciate any suggestions you have to add. I'll keep you updated on any progress I make or absurdities that occur, and I'll post the full specs and open-source the plans soon. Happy cycling, and be careful with those bureaucrats!

Disaster papercrafts

PaperKraft found these iconic disaster papercrafts, free to download!

August 29, 2008

Austin Event: Frankenbike

(image courtesy Austin Bike Zoo)

Apologies for the late notice, but there's a Frankenbike Saturday:

FrankenBike # 37 9am-7pm @ the Austin Bike Zoo @ 1706 E. 17th St 78702

Frankenbike is basically a big, cool bike part swap meet; good article about it here. Austin Bike Zoo does some amazing stuff,so swing by and check it out!

YouTube Comment Snob

Christopher Finke wrote a Firefox extension called YouTube Comment Snob that hides the 90% drivel which graces the comment area beneath your favorite videos. It's basically a YouTube spam filter that allows you to optionally weed out comments based on characteristics like excessive (or lack of) capitalization, profanity, over-punctuation and a high incidence of spelling errors.

I'd be so stoked if someone took this idea and applied to blog comments in general. Just a quick glance at Slashdot, Drupal, Digg, Blogger, and Moveable Type shows that you can probably target a majority of sites by filtering through block-level elements beneath DIVs that have an id or class containing "comment".

YouTube Comment Snob [via BoingBoing]

HOW TO - make a paperclip puzzle

Paperclippuzzle

Sergey wrote up this neat instructable on making a simple puzzle from paperclips -

As a kid growing in Soviet Russia before Perestroika began, there were not that many toys, games and crafts available to you.

This puzzle is an example of the game that we were making using simple tools from father's toolbox and regular paper clips (bureaucracy provided infinite supply of paper-clips so they were quite easy to get)

As the author mentions, fun projects like this can definitely help one to think outside the box. One of the commenters mentions making a bigger version out of wire coat hangers - good idea! - Puzzle made of paper-clips

More:
Tensegrity Sphere
Paperclip art

Fhfcp8Yeumeyndx4Fj.Medium
HOW TO - Make a homade puzzle, or "Why I love my jigsaw"

Dot matrix business card

Tom Ward, whose work will appear in The Best of Instructables book we're currently editing, has just posted an awesome new "extreme business card." It uses a matrix of 5x15 0603 LEDs driven by a PIC16F57 MCU. He says you can get the parts cost down to about $5 each in quantity. Not the kind of card you'd give out on street corners, but if you *really* want to impress somebody...

Dot Matrix Business Card

World's largest SNES controller!

Giant Snes Controller-1
Giant Snes Build

Matt LaBoone writes us -

I was inspired by Kyle Downes (creator of the Giant NES coffee table) to make my own SNES Controller. I grew up more on the SNES, and figured that the Left and Right bumpers as well as the curved sides would give me a good challenge. I linked the pictures of the final controller, but I have 3 other posts documenting my progress pictures. I love the MAKE blog btw, I check it daily. I would love to hear everyone elses feedback!

my feedback? - Holy Wow! One could have a seriously intense game of ActRaiser on that! Matt says this beast took all Summer to build - not a long time considering the quality results. - Giant Snes table

More:
Largestnescontroller
World's largest NES controller

A simple Marx Generator

You may think a Marx Generator is a device for spitting out strident communist rhetoric, but it's actually a type of high-voltage circuit for spitting out HV pulses.

This is probably one to put in the "Don't Try this at Home" or "Touch = Die" file as we are dealing with current here that can kill. Nice photos of the pulses.

Build a simple Marx Generator

More:

Build your own Marx Generator

Mythbusters Adam on education issues

Images Mythbusters-Science-470-090
MythBuster Adam Savage: 3 ways to fix U.S. science education... Makers post up your suggestions in the comments!

The sound of 15 noisers noising

Rob sent us this vid from the Atari Punk Console workshop he tought @ Interaccess. Is it just me, or is the cacophony of 15 APCs noising at once actually kind of nice? The students look pretty enthralled by what they've made - very well done.

More:

Atari PCB console

End of Summer special - 20% discount in the Maker Shed with coupon code "dogdays"

Loud Objects Noise Toy kit

The Future of Money

Sussana-Ritual01

RCA: The Future of Money @ Core77 via Beyond the Beyond.

Students in the Design Interactions Department at the Royal College of Art were challenged to explore the future of money when it disappears as a physical currency...

Cash is dissapearing more and more and we are moving towards a cashless society where hard cash only exists on the blackmarket or to buy illegal services and goods. In third world countries ATM cash-machines are rarely available and people usually do not have bank-accounts. With mobile phone becoming ubiquitous, they are becoming more and more the wallet, however without any designed experience. Paying with Credit Cards or RFID cards is a very engineered and raw-data driven transaction, the experience and the process of buying a coffee or a car is basically the same. Very human interactions, gestures and rituals got totally lost or neglected through the introduction of e-money transactions.

What's interesting about many of these is you could build them now, mostly with Arduinos! If I had time I think I'd make the inflatable piggy bank, you'd just have a little air get pumped in each time someone swipes their credit card.

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