DJTechTools' upcoming solder-free MIDI controller kit provides users with 16 arcade button triggers + LEDs and will apparently be released as an open source product at launch -

• Release Date: November 30th • Price: Aprox $125 for the Kit + Arcade Buttons ($2.50 each) optional wood case- $40 • Plug and Play-compatible device, compliant MIDI controller • USB powered • Must be assembled (no expertise required) • 16 programmable buttons • 16 programmable LEDs • Expandable to 20 programmable buttons and 4 analog controls • Limited-edition 200-piece run in this configuration (black PCB with blue LEDs)

Related:


Midibox rox your sox

MAKE contributor Michael Una posted a review of Highly Liquid's MD24 kit which converts MIDI events over to an array of 24 +5V outputs -

The new MD24 falls into the latter category. It takes a MIDI input and gives you 24 discrete +5V outputs that can be used to drive relays, transistors, or servo motors. Functionally, the MD24 is similar to HighlyLiquid's MSA-T or MSA-R kits, except that you now have 24 outputs instead of just 8- a significant improvement.

From the pages of MAKE:


Make - Volume 15 - Drumbot Activate!

Spikenzie Labs shares some glamour shots of the new Hardcopy Arduino prototyping board -

Designed to make a permanent version (or Hardcopy if you will) of your project once you have perfected it on a breadboard but without the expense of embedding your original Arduino into your project. The hardcopy also makes your project more reliable and robust. With the prototyping area integrated into the board with the microprocessor, your project will have fewer boards and fewer wires, and because of that, fewer mistakes and fewer shorts.

I'm old (never you mind the hard number). But I'm still a kid at heart and I love toys. And I'm not talking about motorcycles and cars and speed boats, aka "grown-up toys," I'm talking model rockets, radio-controlled anything, little toy soldiers, and board games. TOYS! The cool thing about being an adult, and being into the toys of youth, is that you've got a lot more money in your piggy bank! In this, our first Make: Gift Guide 2009, we'll look at a few top of the line traditional toys, with an emphasis on toys you build, mod, and hack. Please share with us in the comments what sorts of cool toys you'd like to see under the Christmas tree or Hanukkah bush this year.

Let's get started with the CupCake electronics assembly. I ordered the deluxe kit from batch #8, so most of the electronics were already assembled. Yay! Not that soldering isn't fun, but I'm happy to skip the soldering for this build and get to printing faster!

The stepper boards:

Not much to do here since the board is already soldered together. However, you do have to add the insulation-displacement connector (IDC) to the ribbon cables, and perform a simple test.

All you have to do is insert the ribbon cable into the plastic IDC connector and squeeze it closed. You might want to use some pliers to help snap the top down.

Take notice of the arrow on the connector. The brown wire is the index wire, and it should be directly above that arrow on both ends of the cable.

Rinse and repeat. You need to make three cables, each with an IDC connector on the end.

Features:

• Cool glowing blue tube with 8 digits, PM dot and alarm on/off indicator
• Adjustable brightness
• Alarm with volume adjust
• Precision watch crystal keeps time with under 20ppm (0.002%) error (< 2 seconds a day)
• Clear acrylic enclosure protects the clock from you, and you from the clock
• Battery backup will let the clock keep the time for up to 2 weeks without power
• Selectable 12h or 24h display
• Displays day and date on button press
• 10 minute snooze
• Integrated boost converter so it can run off of standard DC wall adapters, works in any country regardless of mains power
• Great for desk or night table use, the clock measures 4.9" x 2.9" x 1.3" (12.5cm x 7.4cm x 3.3cm)
• Completely open source hardware and software, ready to be hacked and modded!

The BigShot digital camera is a kit designed to teach kids how they work while they assemble and use it. It's being developed by Shree Nayar and his team at the Computer Vision Lab at Columbia University. From the site:

The camera gives us a powerful means to express ourselves and communicate with each other. Today, the camera is almost exclusively designed for, and marketed to, adults. A typical consumer digital camera comes with a sleek silver or black exterior and is densely packed with components and features. If one tries to open up one of these devices to study its innards, it is unlikely to function when put back together. We believe that camera manufacturers have largely overlooked an important demographic in kids and a compelling application in education.

The camera's not currently for sale since the group is still doing field tests, but they're off to a great start. I learned some things about digital cameras just by reading through the build instructions. [Thanks, Peter!]

MirlitronOne explains how to turn a Velleman MK107 LED Running Light kit into a simple 8-step sequencer for use with analog synthesizers. A handy kit hack, but it's also not too much work to build one from scratch.

Related:

Sequence it!!

You can get 'em from the Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories webstore. Update: Also available from The Maker Shed.

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)

Casper Electronics is currently taking PCB & kit pre-orders for the 4 voice synth/rhythm generator/effects processor beast better known as the Drone Lab. The v2 design sports 25 board-mount pots - good news for those who tire of tedious panel wiring. Knowing the designer (Pete Edwards), I'm guessing this'll be a fun one to mod/hack/bend as well.

Related:

Build a drone synthesizer

Easy to build -- instructions are in Japanese but feature highly detailed assembly pictures (sorry, no English translation at this time). MAKE is proud to be the exclusive distributor in North America for these brilliant kits from Gakken.

Note: The original video is 45 seconds long....YouTube seemed to add a second just to make us look silly!

Clever trick alert: Joe put the Chumby on a scanner and traced the rounded-cornered bezel in CorelDraw to get an exact fit. It pops in there beautifully!

In the Maker Shed:

Chumby Guts

Joe's blog

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories, pioneers of the Cylon Jack-O-Lantern, just released a new Larson Scanner kit!

Today we're releasing a new open-source project and kit, which is an updated approach to the "Larson Scanner." The Larson scanner is named in honor of Glen A. Larson, the man responsible for producing both the original Battlestar Galactica and Knight Rider television shows, and consists of a set of red LEDs that scan back and forth.

Three years ago, we showed how to make a Cylon Jack-O-Lantern, in what has become one of our all-time most popular tutorials. The circuit for that project was based on a 555 timer, driving a 4017 decade counter, and has 6 pixels of resolution. To create the incandescent fading effect, we added low-pass transistor drivers. We also wrote up a version of that article for the 2007 MAKE Magazine Halloween special, which included a slightly nicer version of that same circuit.

And while it's been popular, we've always had some nagging reservations about it, and in particular its battery life. This year, we decided to do something about it and made a much better version of the Larson Scanner, and so here it is!

The kit is open source and designed to be hackable. Read more about the kit in their announcement.

From MAKE magazine:

DIY HALLOWEEN from MAKE & CRAFT!

DIY HALLOWEEN from the editors of MAKE and CRAFT brings you 40-plus DIY projects for the holiday that's made for makers. From the craftiest costumes to amazing animated props and the latest in computer-controlled haunted house effects.

Fortunately for me, Maker Faire Rhode Island was just a few days away. I knew that I'd be able to get my hands on a TV-B-Gone kit and build it at the soldering workshop. Maker Faire RI was a blast, and towards the end of the evening, I settled down with the iron and got to work.

Two great Drawdio videos from Ars Electronica Festival via leobard & Jay! Kit is available in the Maker Shed too!

Full Spectrum Engineering is selling a parts kit for printing circuit board etching resists. The kit includes -

Stainless Steel PCB CD Stencil

Special Inkjet PCB Resist Prefilled Inside a Black Refill Cartridge for Epson Artisan 50, Stylus RX580, RX595, RX680, R260, R280, R285, R290, R380

10x Double Sided 3.5"x2.5"x1/32" Copper Clad

So here's a random idea I had.

Most readers are probably familiar with Dave Gingery's series of books on building a set of homemade machine tools. The technique, basically, involves building an inexpensive homemade charcoal furnace and crucible for melting aluminum, then using traditional green-sand casting techniques to mold the various machine parts from wooden patterns. Much of the content of Gingery's books details the construction of these patterns.

As I have recently discovered, however, lost-foam casting is a much more accessible metal-casting technique than traditional green-sand. It requires no special flasks, no special sand, and no consideration of parting-line placement in designing patterns. Basically you make your pattern from styrofoam, bury it in sand, and pour hot aluminum into it. The foam vaporizes and diffuses into the sand, and you're left with a perfect aluminum duplicate. The only downside is that the pattern itself is destroyed, so if you screw up the casting or want more than one copy of a part you need a new pattern.

Here's what I'd like to see: Some enterprising soul with a CNC foam cutter could sell kits of the Gingery machine patterns ready-cut in XPS foam.

Then, if you wanted to build the Gingery tools, you wouldn't have to spend a lot of time learning the art of green-sand casting, or building the special tools required, or carpentering on the patterns themselves, most of which will only be used once anyway. You'd just buy a few ounces of pre-cut foam patterns in a kit, bury them in sand, and start pouring hot aluminum right away. Depending on sales volume, it might even be practical to make the foam patterns in conventional molds, the same way styrofoam packaging inserts are produced, at lower cost than CNC machining.

If you're interested, supportive, or (for your own unfathomable reasons) furious, feel free to sound off in the comments.

Twin Cities makers Adam Wolf and Matthew Beckler have created an interactive metronome kit that lets you tap your own beat directly on the PCB!

The Tactile Metronome is a tap-controlled metronome and "beat looper." "Syncopation machine." "Metronome with an attitude."

You tap the piezo speaker to set the frequency. The display shows the beats per minute, and the two buttons adjust the speed.

"Ehhh." "Boring," you say. Not so fast!

You can tap patterns into it, currently up to 11 beats long. As long as you tap the pattern in three times, it jumps in and continues beeping in that rhythm. The metronome can beep in three different tones, so you can play with more than one at a time.

Kits are available at the duo's web site wayneandlayne.com.

In this video, Rocketboom Tech correspondent Ellie Rountree visits with Limor at Adafruit!

I really like these "Metabots" posable mecha kits from EnjoyMobil. They are inexpensive but well-made, and the coolest part is that each of the seven printed designs is also available in an all white "prototype" version so you can decorate it yourself.