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Archive: DIY Projects
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December 11, 2007
Arduino-powered holiday lights
I wanted to take control of the lights on my Christmas tree this year, so I read everything I could about interfacing an LED matrix. The idea was to have a setup where I could turn individual lights on and off, and run a little program that did something more than your typical strand of lights. All of my Googling led me to the Maxim 7219 chip, which can control up to 64 LEDs using only 3 pins on the Arduino. I used one of Paul Badger's Arduino-compatible Bare Bones Boards to run the whole show.If you get really ambituous, you can cascade multiple 7219s and LED matrixes, so you can have a lot of lights. But I ended up getting lazy, and only built one matrix of 64 lights. I followed the diagram on page 1 of tomek ness' tutorial to build the LED matrix (be sure to read this bug report for an important update). There may be better ways to do it, but I laid out the matrix as a web of wires, using wire strippers to cut into the wire and push some insulation out of the way before I wrapped each LED's leads around the exposed wire. Then I soldered it in place, put some heatshrink wrap around the joint, and ended up with a not-too-shabby LED matrix. Once that was done, I again turned to tomek's tutorial, and hooked the Arduino up to the 7219 and the 7219 up to the matrix. tomek also has some source code available that I was able to modify for my needs. You can find my code right here.
The video above gives you an overview of the project. After the jump, you can see a high-speed video showing how I put one of the rows together (stripping, soldering, shrinking). I'll post some more on this project soon--stay tuned for details on how I got this talking to my Nokia phone over Bluetooth.
Hackszine.com: Arduino-powered holiday lights - Link.
Related:
Get Arduino @ the Maker store - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 11, 2007 05:00 AM
Arduino, DIY Projects, Holiday projects |
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December 10, 2007
Herr von Slatt's car carrier conversion
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In preparation for work on his steam-powered car, MAKE pal Jake von Slatt went Medieval on a 29' Cobra Sierra mobile home and turned it into a 21' (chop, chop) car carrier. And just in time, too. On the day he finished the project, he found (and bought) on eBay a replica of a 1929 Mercedes Gazelle built on a Volkswagen Beetle chassis. This car will make a very lovely steamer, indeed.
Car Carrier Trailer - Link
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
Dec 10, 2007 04:00 PM
DIY Projects, Mobile |
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Clock gift guide! - A gift guide for Makers who like to build clocks
Today's gift guide is timely, it's all about clock and clock kits! I think clocks are one of the best gifts you can give, more so if they're kits! Here's a round up of my favorite clock kits, I've made a few of these and we've had them on MAKE, enjoy!
AVR Oscilloscope clock
Price: $24.95
Buy: Dutchtronix - Link.
This AVR Oscilloscope clock is available as a kit, using all through-hole components. The kit included ALL components necessary to assemble the board shown, including a preprogrammed ATmega168 microcontroller. It does not include an oscilloscope. It also includes connectors for the Power and RS-232 headers on the board. The user can use these connectors to build the power and serial communication cables.
Solderless LED Clock Kit -Blue (or red)
Price: $34.95
Buy: Maker store- Link.
With the LEDkit solderless clock kit, you create a giant -- 9" x 5" -- super bright self-standing clock only 1/8" thick that keeps accurate time -- even during power failures up to 1 minute. Change the brightness at the push of a button. The digits fade smoothly when the time changes -- minimizing distraction. Automatically synchronize multiple clocks. Easy to assemble & no soldering required! The unique wiring pattern doesn't need a traditional PCB with tiny parallel tracks on it. You simply twist the LED leads directly to other leads. Only six conductors enter the panel! Also available with Red LEDs. Requires 60Hz (USA/Canada) electrical power.
Wooden clocks
Price: $19.00 to $149.00
Buy: wooden-gear-clocks.com - Link.
The Serpentine wooden gear clock is a wooden gear clock. It's whimsical curves offer an artistic contrast to the more traditional Ascent clock. You can build this wooden gear clock can be built from our ready-to-assemble kit. Or, you can use a scroll saw to cut the parts from our do-it-yourself patterns. This wooden clock is driven by a 2-3 lb weight, and is regulated by a 48" pendulum. The Serpentine runs over 26 hours per winding. It has hour, minute, and second hands. The Serpentine clock is about 26" tall, 6" deep, and about 12" wide.
The Ascent wooden gear clock is the first wooden gear clock produced by Jeff Schierenbeck at Wooden-Gear-Clocks.com. Its classic lines give it a very traditional look. You can build this wooden gear clock can be built from our ready-to-assemble kit. Or, you can use a scroll saw to cut the parts from our do-it-yourself patterns. This wooden clock is driven by a 2 lb weight, and is regulated by a 48" pendulum. The Ascent runs about 19 hours per winding. It has hour, minute, and second hands. The Ascent clock is about 26" tall, 6" deep, and about 12" wide.
Single tube Nixie clock
Price: $75 to $125
Buy: OHARARP - Link.
Tired of high priced Nixie Clocks and Tubes? Wanna show off your inner Geek? Well then, check out our feature packed Single Tube IN-14 Nixie Tube Clock. This clock was specfically designed to sit on top of your PC and to be powered from the USB port. To our knowledge its the first of its type to include these features:
- Black PCB Soldermask
- 5V USB Power (PC Powered)
- 120VAC Wall Wart Adapter (AC Powered)
- 32KHz Quartz Timing Source
- .22F Super Capacitor Backup
- Enhanced Crossfading Control
- Clock comes fully assembled
Nixie clock development kit
Price: $125+
Buy: TubeHobby - Link.
NCDB V1.3 is a GPS Nixie Clock without enclosure. Clock contains main board and tube's board with IN-8-2 nixie tubes. Board is fully assembled, ultrasonically washed and tested...This flexible, professionally designed development board is an ideal platform for any nixie clock project. Board has standard connectors for the tubes and adjustable power supply so any nixie tubes may be used. Tubes are driven directly (no cheap multiplexing) so you will get brighter digits. Visual effects prevents Nixie tubes from cathode poisoning. Nixie clock's firmware automatically detects GPS receiver and start display time and date from the satellite.
Zeta Nixie clocks!
Price: ~ $200
Buy: Zetalink - Link.
Under $200-ish Nixie tube clock kits - The GeekKlok is a truly amazing designer clock, created by AWARD-WINNING DESIGNER Raymond Weisling. This clock is for geeks and nerds and gadget lovers, so it has many features not found in the typical Nixie clock, and in fact not found in most clocks of any kind.
Alarm clock / countdown timer kit
Price: $40+
Buy: - Link.
A limited edition kit to build the countdown timer, featuring a fully functional alarm clock and stopwatch, these kits are not only fun to build but also provide a practical device for everyday use.
Binary clock kit
Price: $49
Buy: HobbyTron - Link.
This clock will be lots of fun and it is beautiful. Comes with wood-grained plastic cabinet including transformer. Exciting to build and use. Astound your friends by reading the time in binary numbers just like used in computer circuitry. It includes 10 TTL Integrate Circuits, power supply with voltage regulator and uses binary coding system. It is AC Operated and comes with 80 page instruction manual. This comprehensive advanced project contains a series of digital logic experiences covering Transistor-Transistor Logic (TTL) and the binary numbering system. Binary counters, AND, OR & NAND gates are discussed in detail. Areas of electronics theory include pulse shaping, transistors, rectification and transformers. Comes with very thorough manual for theory and construction.
Gift certificate to Klockit
Price: Whatever you want
Buy: Klockit - Link.
Klockit has just about every clock part needed and tons and tons of kits - give a gift certificate to your clock maker!
Have others? Post up in the comments!!
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 10, 2007 03:00 PM
Announcements, DIY Projects, Kits |
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HOW TO - Make an OAWR (obstacle avoiding walking robot)
Clement writes in -
Here's a little walking robot which uses it's whiskers to help it navigate around obstacles. (OAWR) - Obstacle Avoiding Walking Robot. I've tried to make it super easy with step by step instructions on:
- the necessary parts. (almost all available at home depot)
- different options for cutting the plastic pieces (scrollsaw, laser cutter, buying online via Ponoko (www.ponoko.com/showroom/ClementFletchersPlace/419).
- Illustrated assembly instructions.
- Troubleshooting guide.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 10, 2007 01:00 PM
DIY Projects, Robotics |
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Turning a flash camera into a coin toss
The latest Gadget Freak from design news is up! -
Joe Groele of Allegany, N.Y., took a flash camera, added a few electronic components and turned it into a coin-tossing gadget. He converted the flash into a strobe, then he ran the electricity through a coil to create a magnetic field. “The changing magnetic field causes an electric current in the coin, called an eddy current, which produces an opposite magnetic field,” says Groele. The nifty current makes the coin repel off the coil and into the air, thus tossing the coin.Turning a flash camera into a coin toss - Link.The process of turning a camera into a coin flipper came with a few blips. Groele ran a few bumpy tests before a slight nudging of the coin turned into a full toss. Most notably, he discovered that working with high voltages “can be painful.” He also says he should have been “more careful drilling holes in fragile plastic.” Lastly, he found out he didn’t have to destroy nearly as many cameras as he expected. But after numerous trials, he hit pay dirt: a contraption that routinely flips a coin.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 10, 2007 11:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics |
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U-Disp - An open source USB display
U-Disp - An open source USB display -
The u-disp is an Open Sourced project consisting of two parts. The first part is a circuit board with eight seven-segment displays,a micro controller and an USB interface to connect it to your computer. The second part is a software that runs in the background as a Windows Service on the computer. The software collect information from your computer and/or external sources like Digg.com, your web sites hit counter or some stock values. This information is then shown on the display(s).U-Disp - Link & Instructable.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 10, 2007 07:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Instructables, Open source hardware |
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| Comments (7)
Control a modular synth with a Wiimote
Max and Luis show how they control a modular synth with a Wiimote, thanks Dnny!
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 10, 2007 06:00 AM
DIY Projects, Music |
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HOW TO - Use an Indy as a diskless network MP3 player
MAKE pal Mark writes in -
This weekend I finished a project concerning one of my all time favourite machines. The SGI Indy and I made a diskless network MP3 player out of it. This marvelous little machine still has life left in it! *^_^* Can you believe these now 15 year old machines have a digital out? The sound quality is truly amazing and the machine itself is now (after some modifications, also in the link) dead quiet.HOW TO - Use an Indy as a diskless network MP3 player - Link.Now this is a project I wanted to do for a long time, I'm not sure how many people are going to try this though. Netbooting a machine from a BSD fileserver including a root filesystem on NFS isn't everyone's idea of a fun weekend project I guess :-)
I think it still is an enjoyable read even for people not having an Indy lying around, it's also about having a second look at old stuff going to the garbage and such.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 10, 2007 05:00 AM
Computers, DIY Projects, Retro |
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December 9, 2007
Have you made a secret book?
It's the end of the weekend, have you made a secret compartment book yet? If you made one, leave a link to a picture of it in the comments!
Video - Link
PDF - Link
Subscribe - Link
Nathan Luoto has an awesome tutorial. It uses magnets to keep the book closed! - Link
Javier also made an awesome book! - Link
Posted by Bre Pettis |
Dec 9, 2007 04:14 AM
DIY Projects, Weekend Projects |
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December 7, 2007
Make a Secret Compartment Book - Weekend Projects Podcast
This weekend, make a secret compartment book project that you can give as a gift. This project is perfect for valuables or you could customize the compartment to fit a gift exactly.
Sponsored by Ponoko: Ponoko is a new concept that's perfect for Makeziners. Use it to make and promote your product ideas. Ponoko supplies the digital manufacturing technology and the materials, you supply the creativity. Plus you can sell your product ideas in their showroom. Ponoko is this week's sponsor of our weekend video podcast.
Make a design, upload it - have it cut on laser cutter and delivered to you.
If you're one of the first 10 Makeziners to make a product using Ponoko you'll get shipping for free.
Now *before* you grab up all the free shipping requests please please upload your designs and consider *making a product* a lot of folks out there uploaded designs but didn't get a product made (yet) that's ok - but ideally Ponoko would like to see more folks getting something made to take advantage of the free shipping, thanks.
Posted by Bre Pettis |
Dec 7, 2007 11:00 AM
DIY Projects, MAKE Podcast, Paper Crafts, Weekend Projects |
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Video circuit bending
Evan writes in -
A collection of some great video circuit bends. Some have schematics if you want to try them out at home. I stumbled across it a few weeks ago and I was able to make my own dirty mixer within a few minutes.Video circuit bending - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 7, 2007 03:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Imaging |
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| Comments (1)
Reprap supplies
Looking to make your own 3D printer? There are now two stores selling parts for RepRaps. The RRRF in the US and BitsFromBytes in the UK. BitsFromBytes just started selling plastic parts kits... Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 7, 2007 02:00 AM
DIY Projects, Open source hardware |
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DIY particle accelerator
Athousandleaves posted up a link to a DIY particle accelerator -
A HOME-MADE ACCELERATORDIY particle accelerator - Link (PDF).
Can Altineller
Kadikoy Anadolu Lisesi, Dr. Esat Isık Cad., Moda, Istanbul, TurkiyeThe topic discussed within this paper is a construction of an accelerator with amateur gadgets. The aim was the understanding of the research capabilities of such device. Nearly all equipment was supplied from the hobby market. Some experiments were carried out, and the results are presented; also some tips about construction are presented.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 7, 2007 01:00 AM
DIY Projects, Science |
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December 6, 2007
Make an automatic Xmas tree watering system? Winner!
Hey remember when we asked you to post up your ideas for an automatic Xmas tree watering system? Here's our winner! Stokes writes -
I had an idea involving an external reservoir but didn't require an air-tight container:Winner! Stokes email us! - Link.
An open-topped (or at least non-sealed) external reservoir is attached to the tree's water supply by a tube at the bottom. The reservoir is kept at the same height as the tree's supply. The water level in each container will remain level; you can easily see how much water the tree has, plus you can refill the external reservoir without having to crawl beneath the tree. If you use a larger or deeper reservoir, you can extend the time between refills substantially.
The one benefit this has over the ones that rely on an air-tight reservoir is that there is less of a risk of leaking. A tiny air leak in an air-tight reservoir system could eventually overflow the container under the tree. This idea doesn't store as much water, though. You also need to put a hole in the bottom of the tree stand, which is additional work.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 6, 2007 05:00 PM
DIY Projects, Holiday projects |
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NerdKits - educational microcontroller kits
Interesting beginner electronic kit-
A NerdKit is a combination of electronic parts and wisdom, which together will teach you about digital electronics, embedded systems, and how to bridge computers with the "real world". The electronics world has changed dramatically in the past few decades. We want to make sure that it's still easy to get involved with modern technology, and to experience a challenging and rewarding hobby!NerdKits - educational microcontroller kits - Link.A NerdKit is appropriate for software hackers looking to branch out into electronics, and has educational material to allow even middle-schoolers and high-schoolers (ages 12+) looking for a fun challenge to learn by doing.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 6, 2007 12:00 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Kits |
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| Comments (2)
Beach glass
Craig & Cindy write in...
My whole life I’ve been fascinated with beach glass. Glass broken at the beach was eroded down by the sand, waves and time to make a smooth rounded piece of glass, as harmless as a marble. As a kid I would scour the surfline of Lake Superior for the small rounded frosty bits of glass, like little colorful gemstones found. Clear, green and brown were most common. Blue was quite rare and red even rarer. White porcelain was also hard to find. In my 20s I had a hate for beach glass when I cut my foot on a newly broken bottle. But soon after, I was back at the pebble populated surfline searching for rounded smooth ancient glass stones. Lately in the past few years, anything has been hard to find. Glass beverage containers on the beach have been replaced with aluminum & plastic. Many years and many pickers have scoured the 3’ shoreline of pebble deposit stripped clean. It’s good to know an entire generation may be free of a broken bottle accident at the beach, but it’s a shame that they will never treasure hunt the harmless colorful little glass stones at the water’s edge.I put together a large volume tumbler for smoothing broken glass. With a hammer and brick in a basin, I break bottles into small pebble size pieces. Then I load the tumbler with the glass, some coarse sand, some lava rock and water. Three days into the tumbling process and the result is looking good. Another five to eight days and my first batch should be ready. I may have to discreetly drop the bits as I walk along the shore, as I’m sure SOMEONE will have a problem with it. But as I see it, hunting harmless colorful little glass gemstones are a fond part of being a kid at the beach.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 6, 2007 11:00 AM
DIY Projects |
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HOW TO - Make a dial-gauge bicycle wheel building stand for $100
Chuck writes -
This article describes how to assemble an inexpensive, but very accurate, wheel building stand for bicycles. The stand uses a dial gauge indicator that is accurate to 1/1000th of an inch, but the complete stand can be finished for about $100. The low price is achieved by using inexpensive options for the primary parts: the overall platform of the tool, the wheel holding mechanism, the dial gauge, and the magnetic base for the gauge.HOW TO - Make a dial-gauge bicycle wheel building stand for $100, thanks Amp! - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 6, 2007 10:00 AM
Bicycles, DIY Projects |
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| Comments (5)
$5 Motorcycle camera mount
Quick and easy $5 motorcycle camera mount - Link.
Related:
Bicycam - A simple camera mount for bikes - Link.
HOW TO - Make a cheap $5 camera handlebar mount - Link.
HOW TO - Build a bicycle camera mount - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 6, 2007 07:57 AM
DIY Projects, Imaging, Instructables, Transportation |
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| Comments (2)
A free view of the world -- OpenAerialMap
David writes -
I thought you guys might be interested in putting up some balloons or kites and adding some open-source aerial data. You may also want to have a look at openstreetmap.org (which can overlay the aerial images) which is going to have full (10-year old) open-source/public-domain mapping coverage of the US sometime next year.A free view of the world -- OpenAerialMap - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 6, 2007 06:00 AM
DIY Projects, Flying, Imaging |
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| Comments (0)
December 5, 2007
HOW TO - Make an Arduino XMAS hitcounter
Tinkerlog writes -
Christmas is coming closer, so here is my contribution to put you in the right mood.HOW TO - Make an Arduino XMAS hitcounter - Link.It is a blog hitcounter, that rings a bell. Literally. It puts a smile on your face, every time someone hits your blog. And it is a great way to annoy your colleages or your girl friend.
It consists of an Arduino board, a bell, a servo and a couple of lines of code in c, python and php.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 5, 2007 10:00 AM
Arduino, DIY Projects, Electronics, Holiday projects, Open source hardware |
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| Comments (4)
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