Make: Online: March 2009 Archives

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Archives: March 2009

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March 30, 2009

Homemade, laser-cut computer speakers

I love this gorgeous set of computer speakers, with masonitecomponents cut out on a laser cutter and veneered. And the B3N drivers he used look sweet.

B3 Mini Array Computer Speakers DIY

Make: Outreach Project Pack

One aspect of Make: Outreach that we're particularly excited about is the Project Pack. As those of you in the maker community know, MAKE magazine and Make: television celebrate the do-it-yourself approach towards technology, and events like Maker Faire and Make: Day present a means of engaging with others interested in doing the same.

But chances are you know someone who looks at all things DIY as unfamiliar, or even daunting and intimidating. This is where the Project Pack comes in handy. You can find it, along with the Outreach Toolkit, by clicking on the Outreach Tools tab at the top of the Make: Outreach website.

The Project Pack is a PDF file containing full instructions for four simple, cost-effective projects, each inspired by a project featured in Make: television's Maker Workshop, and perfect for incorporating the MAKE message into everyday situations.

If you don't have room for a full-sized Portable Trebuchet from Make: television Episode 106, check out the Desktop Trebuchet project in the Project Pack, which uses some pencils, rubber bands, and paper clips.

If you were a fan of the Mini Robots that John Park built in the Maker Workshop on Episode 108 of Make: television, but want to start at the basics of robotics and circuitry, check out the instructions for a Simple Motor.

If you were fascinated by the Cigar Box Guitar from MAKE magazine, Vol 04, or Episode 110 of Make: television but aren't quite ready to hack a tape deck into an amplifier, check out the simple Recycled Instruments project.

All of these projects were designed with the idea that DIY is an empowering process, which will encourage the maker spirit in both experienced makers and those who are building these projects for the first time. Strong partnerships make for great outreach, and the Project Pack is perfect for instructing and inspiring participation in creative activities.

So check it out, and if you build any of the projects, let us know how it went!

Take the Make: Online Survey. Get free stuff!

As you likely know, Make: Online is made possible by ads and sponsorship. Getting these advertisers is an important part of keeping Make: Online in business and in a position to offer the content and features that we we want, and that YOU want. We also like the idea (as does our advertising partners, Federated Media) of targeting advertisers that sell goods and services you might actually want to buy. To get to know more about our readership, we do periodic surveys.

Yeah, we know. Surveys! Joy! To make it more... uh... fun, we have a drawing. Just fill out this short Make: Online Reader Survey [The surveying is now closed. Thanks for participating]. As a thank you, we will be giving away to 10 Maker's Notebook to randomly-chosen readers who complete it.

Important: Make sure you leave your email address at the end of the survey if you want to be in the drawing (your email address is for giveaway purposes only.) Thanks!

Felix's Machines

I found this really interesting video on YouTube that was filmed by Tom Swindell. Felix Thirn created the amazing mechanical piece of art featured in the video. Other credits go to the Director Tom Mansfield, and Editor Chris Barnet. Great work!

More about Felix's Machines

Dorkbot NYC April 1

Douglas Repetto writes:

The 1,618,033rd dorkbot-nyc meeting will take place at 7pm on Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 at Location One in SoHo.

Featuring the divine and proportionate:

Erik Sanner: Paintings that Move, Spring Planting, and How to Enjoy Traffic Cones

Why make art when every day we encounter strikingly beautiful, impenetrable objects of infinite interpretation? The aesthetic practice of traffic cone viewing is as rewarding as visiting a gallery or museum. However, by simultaneously engaging in traffic cone appreciation and collaborative artmaking, I believe we can each experience a unique "hey!" moment.

Daniela Kostova & Olivia Robinson: Waste to Work

Waste to Work explores the transformation of labor into electric power, using sweat as the link. Sweat is the perfect medium: it is an electrolyte that can be used to make galvanic batteries - "waste" that can be harvested from our labors - and remains an extremely personal commodity that holds our scent, essential salts, fats, pheromones. This project has multiple phases: building sweat batteries and sweat harvesting suits.

Breck Baldwin & Splinter: The Towel

The Towel is a scratch built model airplane consisting of foam, trash, $100 worth of motor/prop/rc gear etc and 3 hours building time. It flies great and its primary goal is to channel everyone's inner 8 year old. It also serves as the foundation for an excellent night flier (to be demonstrated), aerial video vehicle and has excellent repairability and crash tolerance.

Dorkbot-NYC meeting
When: 01 April 2009, 7-9pm
Where: Location One, Greene st north of Canal
$$$: $FREE$

Return of the Circular Oscillator

Zebranalogic's Circular Oscillator design reaches new heights of cylindrical synthesis - and wow, it sounds kind of angry about it :( I suppose that's just the squarewaves talkin' … and growling. Either way, it's quite a jump from the Circular Oscillator VII and I'm guessing assembly must be a bit tricky for the PCB/knobs at the unit's mid-length. Nicely done.

High-tech pet neglect

I love that this guy's project blog is called Scoop My Cat Box, and the subtitle is: "One man's quest to offload his responsibilities onto the internet." So far, he's working on two projects, the titular robo cat box, and an Arduino and ultrasonic range-finder-based water dish that lets you know, over the innerwebs, how much is (or isn't) in your cat's dish. I love the last line of the video: "In no time, your friends will know exactly how much you neglect your cat."

Ultrasonic cat dish

MakeNYC meeting - 4/8/09

Manhattan area makers, get your reassembly on -

Make:NYC Meeting 12 - Wednesday April 8th, 6:30PM

Is it just me or is it getting warm outside? Celebrate spring with us at the next Make:NYC meeting!

Challenge: Reconstruct the beast!

Teams will get a box full of parts from a disassembled item. Item must be reconstructed in working order -- or else! ... or else you can help each other and I'm sure we'll get it figured out.

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!

Location:

Bug Labs
598 Broadway at Houston
4th floor
New York, NY 10012

6/B/D/F/V to Bleeker-Lafayette
R/W to Prince

Meeting time is 6:30PM.

Get Make: Online delivered by email

Did you know that you can get Make: Online delivered to your inbox each day? Feedblitz, the service that we use, does a really nice job of formatting the content. You get the entire day's worth of web content in a single digest email.

Make: Daily Mail gives you an internally-linked "What's In This Issue" table of contents, content ratings and recommendations, through Outbrain, and the ability to email individual items. You can even have the articles spoken to you, by machines of loving grace (with slightly funky inflections). Apps like Flickr slide show, YouTube and Vimeo vids play right in the email.

To sign up for Make: Daily Mail, enter your email address in the field on the right "rail" of the site, right below the iTunes Podcast link, or click here to go to the Feedblitz sign-up page.

Automatic motorized marble run

From the MAKE Flickr pool

Carl gives an old-fashioned marble a shot of electric oomph with this upgrade -

Arduino with motor shield controlling a continuous rotation servo. The wheel turns when marbles are detected by the infrared phototransistor and LED pair next to the wheel.

Full set here, includes Arduino source and demo video.

Neat - I'm guessing it would only take a bit more power and leverage to quickly turn this into an 'outdoors only' toy. Check out more project pics in the Flickr set.

Successful amateur EVE space radio bounce

A group of German amateur radio hobbyists has successfully bounced a radio signal off the planet Venus, over 31 million miles (50 million km) away, and received it back on Earth (Earth-Venus-Earth = EVE). Peter Guelzow (DB2OS), President of AMSAT-DL, writes:

On March 25th, 2009, a team from the German space organisation AMSAT-DL reached another milestone on its way to its own interplanetary probe towards planet Mars.
The ground station at the Bochum observatory transmitted radio signals to Venus. After traveling almost 100 million kilometers, and a round trip delay of about 5 minutes, they were clearly received as echoes from the surface of Venus.

Receiving these planetary echoes is a first for Germany and Europe. In addition, this is the farthest distance crossed by radio amateurs, over 100 times further than echoes from the moon (EME reflections).

For receiving the EVE signals, an FFT analysis with an integration time of 5 minutes was used. After integrating for 2 minutes only, the reflected signals were clearly visible in the display. Despite the bad weather, signals from Venus could be detected from 1038UT until the planet reached the local horizon.

The 2.4 GHz high power amplifier used for this achievement is described in the current AMSAT-DL journal.
This represented a crucial test for a final key component of the planned P5-A Mars mission. By receiving echoes from Venus, the ground and command station for the Mars probe has been cleared for operational use and the AMSAT team is now gearing up for building the P5-A space probe.

For financing the actual construction and launch, AMSAT-DL is currently
in negotiation with the DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt) amongst others, to obtain financial support for the remaining budget of 20 Mil Euros.

AMSAT-DL wants to show that low-cost interplanetary exploration is possible with its approach.

AMSAT-DL

Disable downloaded-file warnings in Leopard

As far as downloaded files are concerned, the latest version of OS X seems to have taken a cue or two from Redmond. Eric Meyer figured out a fix for this that will allow you to selectively disable the downloaded file warnings for certain file types. Here's his take on the problem:

One of the things that I've found mind-bendingly annoying about Leopard (besides its complete refusal to allow classic window management) is the "this file was downloaded from the internet, are you sure you want to open it?" dialog box. Yes, damn it: I just downloaded the file with the express intent of opening it. Stop bothering me. Keep it up and I might mistake you for PC.

Assuming you can use good judgement without the need for an alert box, the solution is a simple XML preferences file edit. You can disable the nag on text, html, images, or whatever file types you commonly download and open.

Selectively Disabling Downloaded-File Warnings in Leopard

Arduino Minisumo 01

I really like this little sumo bot based on the ever-popular Arduino microcontroller. The bot features line sensing, obstacle detection, and a nice interface board for the geared motors. Check out the website for more information and the source code.

Features:

Weight: 332 g
Size: L=10cm W=10cm H=12cm
Sensors: Dual Front telemeter ranging, Dual Surface IR line sensing
Brain: Finite state machine baesd on Arduino duemilanove
Traction: Dual Solarbotics geared motor
Power supply: 6 AAA 800mAh NiMh Rechargeable battery

More about the Arduino Minisumo 01

In the Maker Shed:

Arduino Family
Make: Arduino

March 29, 2009

Maker Shed weekly wrap-up

We added a lot of new products to the Maker Shed this week. One of my favorite items is the XBee wireless module. Over the next few weeks we will be adding even more cool products, and building more kits. Are there any products from the Maker Shed that you would like to see us build? If so, leave your suggestions in the comments. Thanks!

Read full story

Shush your PC

Photo from Cnet.uk

Build the Ultimate Quiet PC has a number of suggestions, ranging from cheap to pricey.

Not got enough cash for a new case? Then you can modify your existing chassis. Among the best sound-deadening materials is the Acousti AcoustiPack Deluxe (v2) SE acoustic material kit... It's essentially a pack of sticky-back foam used to line the panels of your case. It comes in pre-cut packs for a small number of cases, but you can easily cut custom shapes with a pair of scissors.

Maximum PC has a decent article on quieting your computer.

The CPU is usually the hottest component in today's PCs; as such, it typically requires the most extravagant--and often the noisiest--cooling apparatus. Reducing the amount of noise emanating from your CPU's cooling system is a huge step toward muting your machine, so let's examine this hotspot first.

While stopping shy of a truly silent PC in the Maximum PC article, it does provide some handy ideas on how to get rid of that airport ambiance.

Their cover story on 50 Things Every PC Geek Should know is also worth taking a look at.

Silent PC Review also has a number of good resources for the sound weary computer operator.

What are your tricks to mute your machine? Tell us about it in the comments.

CRAFT weekly recap

This week on the CRAFT blog we saw:

CRAFT Video: LilyPad Arduino 101

Get started with the LilyPad Arduino! It's a sewable microcontroller that lets you embed lights, sounds, sensors, and much more into your wearables, perfect for clothing and accessories. In this video I'll show you how to attach the LilyPad and power supply to each other, and upload a basic program that blinks an LED. You can use Arduino with Windows, OS X, and Linux. Next time I'll show some more advanced topics including hooking up a sensor and using it to change the circuit's behavior.

Subscribe to the CRAFT Podcast in iTunes, or download the m4v (iPhone) or mov movie.

Download the code you'll need for Arduino to execute this example. It's also here:

In the Maker Shed:

Lilypad E-Sewing Kit

LilyPad Pro Kit

More:

Electronic Embroidery - CRAFT Video Podcast

Waffle shoes - Responding to a need

Image from InsideNikeRunning

Did you know that your sneakers are probably the result of a vision of insight at the breakfast table? Maybe you recall wearing shoes that looked like these back in the day. Bill Bowerman, was a successful track coach when he appropriated his wife's waffle iron one day after breakfast.

Bowerman and his wife often ate waffles for breakfast-not an unusual or special event for them. Yet one morning, while thinking about his shoe designs and eating waffles, Bowerman had a flash of inspiration. He ran into the garage with the waffle iron and poured rubber on it. With that one idea, Bill created Nike's now famous waffle sole. As it turned out, when placed on a lightweight shoe, the waffle sole gripped running tracks better than the established ripple sole. It soon became a major success story.

But makers beware:

Unfortunately, Bowerman's desire for perfection cost him his health - the effects of exposure to toxic chemicals in the adhesives caused irreparable damage to his nervous system.

While reviewing a textbook last week, I saw a reference to the waffle inspiration attributed to Bowerman's Nike cofounder Phil Knight. I hadn't heard the story at all before, and both Bowerman and Knight were unfamiliar names.

The inspiration moment is one that we should all be working towards as makers. We can nurture these flashes of insight, and do our best to capitalize on these glimmers of the future. Notebooks, blogs, Flickr collections, wikis and more are a great way to both explore and record our ideas. What are you doing to collect your greatest ideas? What can you do to develop your fantastic idea and bring it to market, or share it with the world?

You might also want to check out Adam Savage's article on moldmaking in MAKE, Volume 08, page 160. Let us know what you mold up!

Not so lazy Sunday... Flash Memory Hard Drive

There's still time to start making or just watch this week's Weekend Project: Flash Memory Hard Drive . You can view the video here, or subscribe in iTunes to get all our Weekend Projects and PDFs delivered each week.

Pedaling forward with Maya Pedal

Catherine sends this in about Maya Pedal, which helps create and supply bicycles and pedal-powered machines to communities in Guatemala.

Bicimáquinas (translates as "bicycle machines") are pedal-powered machines that act as an intermediate technology to assist the family economy in obtaining a higher production capacity in agriculture and in small business. Each bicimáquina is produced individually in our shop with a combination of old bikes, concrete, wood, and metal. So far we have developed several original designs that have proven to be both functional and economical.