Make: Online: Kits Archives

Kits Archive: Kits

February 8, 2010

In the Maker Shed: Open Heart kit V2.0

The Open Heart kit V2.0 is a matrix of individually addressable LEDs that allow you to create customizable animations when connected to your favorite micro controller. Attach it temporarily to fabrics with headers that you simply push through, or sew it into a project with conductive fabric for a more permanent setup.

February 6, 2010

ChumbyChimp and Po

Back when I got my Chumby Guts kit a few months ago, I imagined that it would be pretty funny to set up it up Teletubby style with the screen in the belly of a plushie. At the time, I didn't have a suitable doll to sacrifice at the alter of maker fun, but like Kent Barnes, I did have the box it came in. I like the alarm clock features, and enjoy being chirped awake. Eventually, though, the box kind of wore out, and my Chumby Guts lay loose on the night table.

Sunsue heard my call for a sacrificial Teletubby and found me a Po doll. When I saw it, I realized that this one would not work, since it is smaller than the ones my daughter used to have. It does have an interesting voice box, so that will come in handy some other day. A bit later, I fell upon a Build A Bear monkey at the Duxbury Mall. In his first invasive surgery, I found the heart, bar code and a monkey voice box with a dead battery. After swapping out the dead battery, I hid the voice box in my daughter's school bag, where it occasionally went off (ooh ooh aaah aah) as she bumped the bag. It now sits atop her social studies teacher's desk as a warning signal for those about to get a detention.

The monkey looked like he was on a starvation diet for a couple of weeks, as his stuffing sat in a bag in the cave as waited for the right moment to do the next operation. Eventually I got tired of loose ChumGutz on the night table and got together with my neighbor, Robin. She's pretty crafty and I figured would have some good techniques for the project. We went over and got to it. A few snips in the belly and monkey boy had gastric bypass of a kind. We hot melt glued the screen in place. Then I removed the speakers from the plastic holder and fit the circuit board inside the body behind the screen. I thought that I would have the switch loose, but left it attached over the power input and usb connectors. We re-stuffed him and he became ChumbyChimp. He is pretty happy to hang out with Po, and even gets to spend a little time with Creepy Baby.

This is the third iteration for my Chumby Guts, and I suppose that it will be a somewhat transitional situation. It would be useful to sew an old PDA stylus into his hand. That way it will always be easy to make accurate selections on the screen. I would like to put in some iMac ball speakers left over from the 50 iMacs project into the body instead of the nice little box speakers it came with. It would also be neat to add a switch to the hand with either a tactile switch or some conductive thread. I would definitely like to explore battery power, if only to add a bit of portability between locations in the house. The kitchen counter is a decent location, and with the right widgets ChumbyChimp really adds to the room.

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January 29, 2010

$2000 homemade airplane

800px-Pietenpol.air.camper.g-buco.arp.jpg

When I was about 12 years old, and still living in Dallas, my dad bundled me into the car one day and drove me out to Love Field to meet my great uncle, Troy, who was, at the time, touring the United States, visiting every city named "Troy," in a light plane he built himself. I remember the way the plywood skin of the plane looked and smelled from the inside. I remember Troy showing us his "auto pilot," which was a set of three ropes he could loop over the control stick to maintain level flight while he ate a meal. Troy finished his tour and flew back to his home in Alaska, and five years later was killed in a pile-up on a fog-shrouded highway. Troy was something of a maker legend in my family--besides the plane, he built his lakeside geodesic dome-home and all the furniture in it, including a pool table. He built a fleet of canoes--one named for each of his daughters and grand-daughters--to sail on the same lake. He even built the lake itself, or at least the dam that formed it. That afternoon at the airport was the only time I ever met him.

And although I don't think I'd ever try to build a functional airplane myself, the experience left me with fair-sized soft spot for those who do. So I got a huge kick out of Chuck Gantzer's page describing the building and flying of his Pietenpol AirCamper NX770CG. The AirCamper was first designed by one Bernard Pietenpol, who in 1928, with no more than an eighth-grade formal education, set out to build a "common man's airplane" with hardware store and scavenged parts. Today his son and grandson are still selling plans. [via Boing Boing]

January 28, 2010

In the Maker Shed: LED Lightbrick kit

The LED Lightbrick kit includes all the components needed to make your own version of the project that was featured in MAKE, Volume 18. Once assembled, the circuit board is ready to be cast into a finished interactive nightlight. (Casting and mold-making materials not supplied with kit)

January 25, 2010

The Nebulophone Arduino-based stylus synth

Yet still another sweet piece of kit debuted at Austin's monthly Handmade Music event - the Nebulophone from Bleep Labs incorporates a digital synth running on Arduino compatible hardware with a stylophone-like PCB keyboard. Additional features include a light-controlled analog filter, LFO, and IR-synced arpeggiator - want want! Code + schematics can be found over at Bleep Labs.

January 22, 2010

SimSam circuit gets a bit glitchy

Another interesting sound project which made its public debut at Handmade Music Austin - the SimSam sample rate cruncher designed by Dann Green of 4ms Pedals.

Unveiled at the beginner's class at Handmade Music Austin #4 (Jan 2010), the SimSam is a "sample-rate cruncher" that's glitchy as all get-out, but only costs about $8 in parts (including pcb and battery snap). It's an effect with an input and output jack; and it's a noise-maker since a jumper shorts the output back into the input when nothing is plugged into the input jack. We built 28 SimSam's in a couple hours at the workshop... heh heh.. thats a lot of messed up sounds...

Schematic, layout and code available @ 4ms Projects.

January 20, 2010

In the Maker Shed: Trippy RGB Waves Kit

Wave you hand over a completed Trippy RGB Waves kit, and watch the 'trippy' light show begin. Even when left alone, these little lights will still slowly cycle through an ever-changing display of colors. It's a great kit for beginners, since it's inexpensive and easy to solder together.

January 19, 2010

In the Maker Shed: Wee Blinky kit

The Wee Blinky is a simple LED flasher kit that you can easily build, even without any previous soldering experience. It's tiny, it blinks, and it's a great kit to hone your soldering skills since it's cheap too!

January 18, 2010

In the Maker Shed: LED Art kit

The LED Art kit displays an eerie, shifting pattern of abstract colored light on a framed, translucent screen. The projected image has a fluid-like quality; it's like a solid-state lava lamp, and is a great "mood piece" for any room. These easy-to-assemble kits use color-changing LEDs that slowly cycle through combinations of red, green, and blue light, which interact to create endlessly evolving patterns.

January 15, 2010

In the Maker Shed: Truth Wristband kit

Admittedly, the Truth Wrist Band kit will not work on your pets. So if your mutt has been using up all the solder, you might need a different form of interrogation. However, if the culprit is human, this kit will work quite well!

A wearable device that dynamically reflects your psycho-emotional response to the world, promoting internal states to be externalized and made into interactive forms of expression. Measuring the galvanic skin response (a marker of emotional arousal commonly used in lie detector tests), this device's lights turn from blue to red as the wearer becomes aroused. Ask the wearer an evocative question and reveal his or her inner Truth.

January 11, 2010

Digital clock with no ICs

The Transistor Clock is made using only discrete components--194 transistors, 566 diodes, 400 resistors, 87 capacitors, and absolutely no integrated circuits. It's available as an open-source kit from KABtronics. [via Hack a Day]

January 10, 2010

1918 Erector ad

From the photostream of Flickr user thoth-god.

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January 2, 2010

In the Maker Shed: No soldering required bundle

The 'No soldering required' bundle is for anyone that doesn't want to solder, yet still enjoys electronics. Yep, there are people who don't want to solder?! It's true! Luckily for them, there are some really fun electronic kits that don't require any soldering at all! Just remember these kits are a lot of fun to build, even if you are a soldering pro.

The No soldering required bundle includes:

(1) Blinkybug Kit $14.99 value
(1) LED Clock Kit [Red] $26.95 value
(1) LED Art Kit $14.95 value
(1) Maker's Notebook $19.99 value

All for the discounted price of $57. That's 25% off the price if you purchased these items individually.

December 30, 2009

In the Maker Shed: Chumby Guts

We still have a few more Chumby guts ready for you to hack, modify, or you can just make a cool enclosure and enjoy. What's a Chumby? Glad you asked! It's an amazing little piece of technology that lets you get what's best on the web and delivers it right to you on it's 3.5" touch screen LCD. You can play games, check the weather, twitter, news, music, and even watch YouTube videos. All of this is done via you home's wireless Internet connection. Get 'em while you can, we have very limited stock!

Here's what comes in each kit:

3.5'' LCD (320hx240v 16bpp TFT) with Touch Screen
Texas Instruments TSC2100 Programmable Touchscreen Controller with Stereo DAC
Plastic Front Bezel
Gasket
Aluminum Frame
4 x Screws to attach Aluminum Frame to Front Bezel
350MHz Freescale iMX21 MC94MX21DVKN3 ARM9 controller Motherboard Circuit Card Assembly with Samsung 64MB SDRAM on 32-bit data path and Hynix HY27US 64MB NAND Flash ROM
Kionix KXP74-1050 3-axis accelerometer
Daughtercard Circuit Card Assembly
Three USB 2.0 full speed ports, one internal, two external
Chumbilical Flex Cable from Daughter card CCA to Motherboard CCA
Wifi Riser Circuit Card Assembly
USB Wifi Dongle based on the Xterasys 3135G 802.11g USB Wifi adapter (ralink chipset)
Flex Cable for Wifi Riser CCA to Motherboard CCA
3 x Screws for Wifi Riser CCA to Motherboard CCA
3 x Standoffs for screws for Wifi Riser CCA to Motherboard CCA
2 x 2W StereoSpeakers
4 x Screws for Speaker to Plastic Speaker Holder
Plastic Speaker Holder
Switch for Bend Sensor
Plastic Switch Holder
2 wire cable with 2 pin connector (from Daughterboard CCA to switch)
2 x Screws to Attach Switch to Plastic Switch Holder
12 V DC 1A Power Supply
Built-in microphone

(Note: actual parts may vary slightly due to manufacturing and availability)

December 29, 2009

New in the Maker Shed: Thingamagoop 2

Make, mod, hack, and bend your own analog noise monster with the new Thingamagoop 2 kit from the Maker Shed! It's a great kit for beginners, since it includes detailed instructions and photos of each step of the build. Advanced users can taking advantage of the Arduino integration, control voltage in and out, or just bend it like crazy!

Features

Analog VCO controlled by analog or digital signal from Arduino. (A separate Arduino board is not required)
Sample and hold, Arpeggios, noise, and bit crush effects with open source code so you can program your own sounds!
All the analog sounds of the original Thingamagoop.
Controllable LEDacle - Ramp and random waveforms with rate control.
New modulators - Square wave amplitude modulator and triangle wave pulse width modulator.
Tough, stomp box type body with silk screened graphics in 3 different styles.

Easy to access battery - No more screws!
Much fuller and louder speaker
CV in and out
Arduino Programmer jack. Easily hook an Arduino board up to the Thingamagoop 2
Kit now comes with a pre-drilled enclosure

December 23, 2009

In the Maker Shed: Blinkybug Kit

The Blinkybugs are here! These little electro-mechanical insects respond to movement, wind, and vibrations by blinking their LED eyes. Blinkybugs are fun for all ages...and addicting too!

December 22, 2009

New in the Maker Shed: Solar Grasshopper Kit

The snap-together Solar Grasshopper kit uses solar energy to generate electricity and propel itself around. It's an easy to assemble electronics project that's great for first-time experimenters with little or no experience. Ages 10 and up.

December 21, 2009

Multiple Peggy2s displaying serial video

Ian from weezey.com wired up a couple of Peggy2 light emitting pegboard kits to an Arduino and with a couple of tweaks to some existing code managed to get the display to run across both units. [via hackaday]

The code changes were actually quite simple, I made a second header and data array so that the second Peggy2 has a different header that it acts on to change it's state and then coded that into the sketch for the second Peggy2. I looked at changing the TWI address first but I think the Arduino code would need to be modified for that and right now it just spews data without modification and I didn't want to mess with that yet.

December 18, 2009

New in the Maker Shed: Atari punk console kit

The Atari Punk Console kit is a simple and fun sound generator that would make the perfect stocking stuffer for anyone that likes beeps, blips, and boops. The original circuit was developed by Forrest M. Mims III, and was coined the 'Atari Punk Console' by Kaustic Machines due to the similarity of the sounds it makes to an Atari 2600. Please note: An enclosure is not included, but you could use almost anything! Still not sure what to use, a Make project tin would make a perfect enclosure.

Maker Shed holiday shipping deadlines! Need something shipped in time for Christmas? Here is what you need to know!

Orders placed by Saturday December 19th, Midnight (Pacific) ---> SHIP 2-DAY
Orders placed by Monday December 21st, Midnight (Pacific) ---> SHIP OVERNIGHT

In the Maker Shed: Advanced Arduino Starter Kit

Bridging the gap between the "real world" and your computer, the Advanced Arduino Starter Kit from the Maker Shed takes you further into the world of physical computing. We've included all sorts of cool electronic parts this time, along with our best selling Making Things Talk book by Tom Igoe. You'll experience what the tens of thousands of engineers, designers, artists and hobbyists already know about this awesome and educational prototyping platform.

In the Maker Shed:

Arduino Family
Make: Arduino