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Archive: DIY Projects
July 19, 2008
Temperature sensor + Arduino
Daniel writes-
Today I am going to show you how to build a simple temperature sensor using one LM35 Precision Temperature Sensor and Arduino, so you can hookup on your future projects. The circuit will send serial information about the temperature so you can use on your computer, change the code as you will. I’m planning to build a temperature sensor with max/min + clock + LCD
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jul 19, 2008 12:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Open source hardware |
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July 18, 2008
HOW TO - Build a one-motor walker
I featured Jerome Demer's ingenious little one-motor walker in my book Absolute Beginner's Guide to Building Robots. I've been hoping he'd put up an Instructable and he finally has. This is a bit of a finicky mechanical build, but worth the effort. It uses a standard BEAM bicore circuit as its brain (via the 74HCT240 chip).
How to build the one motor walker!
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Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
Jul 18, 2008 04:00 PM
DIY Projects, Instructables, Robotics |
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Citizen Engineer - Phones: SIM card & payphone hacking
Citizen Engineer is an online video series about open source hardware, electronics, art and hacking. The first video debuted at "The Last HOPE" conference today in New York City. Volume 1is about phones: SIM card & payphone hacking. Learn how a SIM card works (the small card inside GSM cell phones) make a SIM card reader, view deleted messages, phone book entries and clone/crack a SIM card. Modify a "retired" payphone so it can be used as a home telephone and for VoIP (Skype). Then learn how to modify the hacked payphone so it accepts quarters - and lastly, use a Redbox to make "free phone" calls from the modified coin-accepting payphone...
Around the 12 minute mark it gets really exciting.
HD version @ Vimeo for close ups of all the soldering action or view the gallery photos.
More:
Want to build your own SIM card reader? The SIM card reader/writer is available at Adafruit Industries, it is for experimentation and investigation of SIM & Smart cards. Once the kit is built, accompanying software can be used to read and write from the card. Together they can be used to backup stored SIM card data, recover deleted SMS's and phone contacts, examine the last 10 phone numbers dialed, etc. (Despite being called a SIM reader, it can also write to SIM cards). Source, schematics and software included.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jul 18, 2008 11:30 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics |
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Add pitch bends to your old walkman
Here's a nice how-to on pitch bending a standard cassette walkman. This hack uses a photocell as a tripper pot on the device. Check out the link for instructions on how to put this together.
Primer: Pitch-Bending a Walkman
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
Jul 18, 2008 09:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Music |
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Obnoxious noise maker will scare your neighbors
This "obnoxious noise maker" called the "Ubnox-O-Phone" by its maker is a combination of a sound generator and Ruby Guitar Amp who's schematic can be downloaded from their site. The whole project only cost $35 so it's a pretty cheap way to annoy people. Check out the video at the link below.
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
Jul 18, 2008 08:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Music |
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PVC Pipe & duct tape canoe
Ben writes-
It's amazing how a simple idea can take on a life of its own once you start. Have a desire to build a boat for fishing at your local lakes and a bunch of American Ingenuity? Build a boat out of things American, Duct Tape, PVC pipe, and plastic.I wanted a boat that would allow me to cast into the shore instead of from the shore. Being a mechanical engineer, one thing led to another and as the years passed I decided I would build a skin-on-frame kayak. The final kayak would be wood framed and fabric skinned. I searched for additional ideas and eventually made a balsa and tissue paper model of an 18 footer. Not wanting to invest more money and time than necessary in a prototype, I began thinking of a simple and quick way to test a design.
Again one thing led to another, and my son Daniel and I came up with the idea of a PVC pipe frame, duct tape for fastening the pipes together, and 4 mil construction plastic for a test skin. We arrived at an initial design that would use 10 foot sections of PVC pipe, since that was the length available at our local stores. Since fishing was the primary aim for this boat, shorter and wider would be more maneuverable.
We put our first prototype in the water in the summer of 2007 and it sat a little lower in the water than we wanted. The next design, shown in this article, was widened from 30 inches to 36 inches but the keel form stayed the same. Each boat was put in the water for less than $25.00. In addition to the change in width, we added the use of brackets formed from PVC pipe to help hold the pieces in the proper position, since the duct tape lashing on the original design had allowed two joints to shift slightly.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jul 18, 2008 04:00 AM
DIY Projects, Transportation |
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DIY: Seat made from bike parts and crutches
What do you do with your crutches after that nasty crash on bicycle? Well, if the wheels are still in good shape you could always make your own stool to commemorate the occasion. Then again, you can find old crutches and some wheels in the recycling and/or garbage and forgo the whole bicycle accident part.
Learn how to make a Seat made from bike parts and crutches
Posted by Marc de Vinck |
Jul 18, 2008 02:00 AM
Bicycles, DIY Projects, Furniture, Instructables |
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DIY: Lithium Polymer Battery Charger
This DIY battery charger is based on a Lipo Charger designed by Scott Henion. This is a perfect charger for RC enthusiasts, and robot makers. Check out the website for a few more pictures and a schematic.
Learn how to make your own Lipo Charger
Posted by Marc de Vinck |
Jul 18, 2008 01:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics |
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July 17, 2008
Turn your old lamps into spy gear
This project turns a vintage "Planet Lamp" into a parabolic microphone for recording and uses a CMoy, low power amplifier circuit for the microphone. The whole project runs runs from a 9 volt battery. Check out the link for circuit diagrams and instructions for this project.
The Lamp - Parabolic Microphone
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
Jul 17, 2008 06:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Furniture |
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HOW TO - illuminate arcade buttons
Arcade-style pushbutton switches are fairly roomy and easily drillable - perfect for adding LED enhancement - Make your own DIY Glowing Pushbutton Switches
More:
HOW TO - Make your own illuminated buttons
Posted by Collin Cunningham |
Jul 17, 2008 05:30 AM
DIY Projects |
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What You're Reading in MAKE Vol 1-14!
Here are the most read articles of all time in MAKE volumes 1 through 14.
If you're a MAKE subscriber, you get the digital edition for free - MAKE Digital Edition is a vivid replica of the print edition of MAKE, it offers an experience very much like the print magazine plus many additional benefits, such as online searching, embedded multimedia and printing. Please note that MAKE Digital Edition can be viewed from any web browser (i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc.) and requires NO DOWNLOADING of software NO weird DRM'ed PDFs - you get instant access to your entire MAKE collection!
Click any of the links below and start reading MAKE now. Or subscribe and get started a little later! Use the code CMAKE to get $5 off (USA only).
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jul 17, 2008 12:00 AM
DIY Projects |
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July 16, 2008
Glowing night stand charging station
Dave Rocamora turned his old Ikea night table into a charging station for his gadgets, and made it an elegant lamp at the same time. He made a nice instructable about it, too, so with not much more than a router and utility knife, you can achieve the same look.
Posted by Becky Stern |
Jul 16, 2008 09:00 PM
DIY Projects, Furniture, Gadgets, Instructables |
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Arduino VGA demo
Sebastian Tomczak has been playing around with controlling VGA output from an Arduino. Using Max/MSP to process audio and send data to the Arduino and a standard VGA output to send sync data to the monitor, he's been able to put together some cool video effects.You can grab the Max patch and Arduino code from Sebastian's post. I dig the effect - it reminds me of the cool C64 demos kids used to make.
More:
Arduino TV.
Arduino @ The Maker Shed store.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jul 16, 2008 08:00 AM
Arduino, DIY Projects, Electronics, Open source hardware |
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Glowing VHS tape USB hub will make you remember the good old days
Ah, a blast from the video storage past. The now dead VHS tape gets remixed as a 4 port USB hub thanks to a clever maker who even decided to use the incoming power line from the USB port to create this glowing blue backlight. So next time you are thinking of dumping your old tapes, think again and turn them into something your friends will envy.
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
Jul 16, 2008 06:00 AM
Computers, DIY Projects |
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HOW TO - Circuit-bend a cheap voice recorder
GetLoFi has a nice rundown on how to get your bending with an inexpensive surplus "Saw III" voice recorder -
The device costs $2 and includes as set of 2 AAA Batteries! When it comes to bending there are a few interesting points and also some annoyances. The drawbacks include: no Loop Mode when play button is held, there is also a gap between each playback, and a audible beep at lower speeds before the audio starts. Despite the shortcomings there are a some very nice features. The recorded sample is stored even if batteries are taken out and the standard speed length of the sample is about 30 seconds.The batteries alone could cost you more - gotta love those surplus deals! - Circuit Bending a SAW III Sampler (Thanks, Doctor Popualr!)
More:
DIY Dub Siren for cheap
Posted by Collin Cunningham |
Jul 16, 2008 04:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Music |
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Build: The Wave Shield for Arduino
Controlling audio with a micro-controller can be difficult, really difficult. The Wave Shield, from LadyAda, makes it simple. There is a bunch of sample code on the LadyAda website to get you up and running fast once you build the kit.
The Wave Shield is just one component that will be integrated into an interactive piece that I will be documenting over the next few weeks for Make. I will reveal more about the project as soon as I figure it all out. However, I will tell you that it uses a Wave Shield, an Arduino, a Minty Boost, and Youtube.
You can purchase the Wave Shield on the adafruit industries website.
What You Get & What You Need
The kit is really complete. All you need is an Arduino, an SD memory card, and a few tools to complete the build.
Tools you need:
- Soldering Iron
- Solder
- Solder Wick or de-soldering tool (optional)
- Wire cutters
- Fume Extractor - Make you own
Step 1: Solder the SD Card component
The SD card holder is a surface mount component. Don't let that scare you, it is fairly easy to solder. All you have to do is solder the 4 "side tabs" first, then take your time and solder the rest of the pins. I had added too much solder to one of them and it created a "bridge". I heated it up and touched it with some solder wick and it was fine.
Apparently the (3) pins on the right side are not used, they are the really small ones, but I soldered them anyway.
Read full storyPosted by Marc de Vinck |
Jul 16, 2008 01:00 AM
Arduino, DIY Projects |
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July 15, 2008
ThingamaKIT
Customize your noise-generating robot-themed analog synth by building your own! The Bleep Labs popular Thingamagoop robot is now available in kit form as the ThingamaKIT, so you can make it entirely unique.
More:
Posted by Becky Stern |
Jul 15, 2008 09:00 PM
Arts, DIY Projects, Electronics, Kits |
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Guerilla guide to CNC machining
Michal Zalewski writes:
The page is a remarkably thorough guide to setting up a CNC robot workshop at home, and a first article in a series on CNC robotics. I created it simply because there are virtually no books or useful reference pages for people who want to get into @home fabrication without an extensive background in machining and materials science.
The page itself is devoid of images (although there are some rad ASCII illustrations), so to see some of Michal's work, visit his photo page.
Posted by Becky Stern |
Jul 15, 2008 07:00 PM
DIY Projects, Robotics, Toolbox |
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Watercool your PC for a few bucks
This project shows you how to build a custom cooling system for the 780i Striker II. Tons of great photos for this one but be careful to check your pipes for leaks before you install the system.
Water-Cooling the 780i Striker II with 3 x 8800 GTX
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
Jul 15, 2008 05:00 AM
Computers, DIY Projects |
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July 14, 2008
HOW TO - Laminar water jet
Now I know what it's called when a jet of water is smooth like a glass rod: laminar. Watch this video to learn more than you ever wanted about making a laminar jet of water from a normal one. Great for building your own fountains.
Posted by Becky Stern |
Jul 14, 2008 07:00 PM
DIY Projects |
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Phillip Torrone
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Tel: 707-827-7311
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Robot Maker
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Video Maker
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Sound Maker
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