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Archive: Made On Earth
July 2, 2008
Dynohub multi-pole alternator
Gotwind is a Ben Jandrell's (Shropshire, England) DIY site for renewable energy projects. The site has a number of cool projects and technical info and tutorials. Here's an excerpt from his page on the Sturmey Archer GH6 Dynohub:
The Sturmey Archer GH6 Dynohub was designed as a means of generating electrical lighting power for bicycles during the second world war. It seemed to me as the perfect 'off the shelf' small scale experimental alternator.
It was in production for almost four decades, first making an appearance in 1943.It was a 6 volt 3 Watt unit incorporating a 20 pole ring magnet with a stator having a continuous winding.
The GH6 was withdrawn from production in 1984, but can still be found at scrap yards, established bike shops or eBay.
The main feature of the dynohub was that it reached it's rated output at only 12 mph (with a 26" wheel) this equates to a mere 60 rpm, as compared to other alternators requiring 200 + rpm to get any where near there rated output.
This low speed design was ideal for use in small scale wind production, along with it's excellent bearings, it could be mounted easily on one side of the unit.
The name dynohub is a little misleading suggesting that the unit is a dynamo - it is actually a multi pole alternator that would produce alternating current, fine for lighting bulbs, but not so for battery charging. A bridge rectifier would be needed to convert the alternating current (AC) to a more useful Direct current (DC).
He also has a page on servicing the Dynohub, useful if you buy one on eBay that needs some refurbishment.
The Sturmey Archer GH6 Dynohub
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
Jul 2, 2008 02:00 PM
Green, Made On Earth |
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Cardboard bike
A product design student at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK wanted to address the problem of prevalent bike theft so he created this bike for around US$30. It doesn't say whether this was just for the frame or for everything. And no, it doesn't melt in a rainstorm. He used hexacomb board, which is waterproof. No much to look at, but if it gets your groceries home...
Cardboard bike aims to put brakes on theives [via Inhabitat]
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
Jul 2, 2008 12:00 PM
Bicycles, Green, Made On Earth |
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July 1, 2008
Bizarre car accidents
Dark Roasted Blend has a gallery of seriously strange and guiltily entertaining car accidents.
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
Jul 1, 2008 02:00 PM
Made On Earth, Mobile |
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June 30, 2008
Record player turned into train tracks while its needle drives over them
Although we've seen train car record players before such the kind that "drive" over the record platter itself and play tracks as it moves in a circle. This "Sound Chaser" is actually a train track made from old records that have been spliced together to look like a real track. As the train drives over them, it plays the jumbled songs and you can even dance in unison with the player as it scuttles around on the floor.
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
Jun 30, 2008 05:00 AM
Arts, Made On Earth, Music |
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June 27, 2008
Bucket-borne hydroelectric generator
From the MAKE Flickr photo pool:
Pico Hydroelectric Generator in 5 gallon bucket developed by Sam Redfield and tested at La Florida in Guatemala. The generator is meant to be a very small, cheap, low impact generator designed to be used with existing gravity fed irrigation, fresh water, or waste water systems.
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
Jun 27, 2008 02:00 PM
Green, Made On Earth |
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Wave Synth 2.0 adds sound to watery chaos
The "WaveSynth 2.0" by Leo Peschta is a digital instrument that creates sound through the use of mechanical valves in a water basin and an array of sensors to detect the pattern and movement of the waves. The resulting data is sent to a computer which then synthesizes the data into a sound composition. Nice construction and more info on the valves construction at the link below.
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
Jun 27, 2008 05:00 AM
Made On Earth, Music, Robotics, Science |
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June 26, 2008
Homemade airplane from farmer in China flies!
This appears to be a video of a homemade airplane made in China by a farmer called the "Shanzhai huaxiangji" via Kottke. It's hard to tell what's actually going on, it could be a fake but there are some interesting things about what it's called -- more about the airplane (name) here. "Shanzhai" means homemade or counterfeit and there are tons of other "Shanzhai" projects literally floating around! This could be a Shanzhai Shanzhai if it's fake!
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jun 26, 2008 10:00 AM
Made On Earth, Transportation |
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June 22, 2008
Internet dating wedding cakes get you hitched
Did you meet your significant other on the Internet? This couple decided to take the advent of their Internet-meeting and eventual wedding to the ultimate level by baking two laptop-shaped wedding cakes, attaching their profiles to the screens, and even connecting them together with a candy ethernet cable with hearts on the plugs. Pretty "sweet" way to proclaim your digital love.
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
Jun 22, 2008 04:00 AM
Computers, Crafts, Made On Earth |
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June 16, 2008
Astro Boy poster gets the ticket every time
This 10 x 7 foot poster of Astro Boy pixel art is made from 138,000 recycled Tokyo Metro tickets and was created to mark the opening of Tokyo's new Fukutoshin subway line. Really nice design with subway appropriate materials to boot.
[via]
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
Jun 16, 2008 05:00 AM
Arts, Made On Earth |
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June 11, 2008
Wooden bike gallery
More "cocopunk" goodness, here a round-up of wooden bikes from around the world on Kevin Kelly's Street Use.
Related:
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
Jun 11, 2008 12:00 PM
Bicycles, Green, Made On Earth |
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Hops trellis from a tree
On EMS Labs, Lenore shows a simple way that her dad rigged a trellis for growing hops, using some scrap soaker hose, antenna wire, and a handy tree as the main structure.
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
Jun 11, 2008 11:00 AM
Green, Made On Earth |
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June 9, 2008
Tunnel built underneath the Atlantic Ocean connects up London and NYC
The "Telectroscope" is a large-scale optical device connected up to a "secret" tunnel that was built underneath the Atlantic ocean, connecting New York City and London, England. The project was designed and implemented by artist Paul St. George and translates his interest with late 19th century industrialization and optical communication devices into an attraction for the whole family. If you are in NYC or London, you can visit one of the the tunnel entrances until June 15th. More info at the link below.
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
Jun 9, 2008 06:00 AM
Arts, Made On Earth |
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Plastic knife lamp cuts through the fancy
This lamp is built from 121 recycled plastic knives collected over the course of countless BVD group lunches from a fried chicken restaurant. Pretty funny that it actually resembles something that people would pay a lot of money for, but costs less than the lunches it was taken from.
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
Jun 9, 2008 04:00 AM
Furniture, Made On Earth |
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May 30, 2008
Giant seven segment clock provides room lighting as well
This giant digital overhead clock by Realities:United and titled "Contemporary Architecture" was commissioned by NYC gallery, Artists Space and showed time overhead in a big way as well as provided room lighting. Check out the time-lapse video link below to see how it worked.
Contemporary Architecture Video
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
May 30, 2008 10:00 AM
Arts, Made On Earth |
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Traffic light design from the past uses analog thinking
This traffic signal design from 1936 by Charles Marshall (called the "Marshalite") was used in Australia for about 30 years and utilized 2 motorized rotors to point at colored sections of red, green, and yellow for the corresponding result. Using the standard clock face metaphor, the displays showed "signal phase timing" clearly on their faces.
[via]
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
May 30, 2008 09:00 AM
Made On Earth, Transportation |
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Abyssal synth takes you to new sonic heights
This custom built synth, called the "Abyssal" by Atomosynth (who we covered in Make back in the fall) is an analog, photo-noise and oscillating filter synth that features one square wave and saw waveform generator with a large pitch range, from subsonic to ultrasonic sound. Everything is controlled from a large photocell visible from the front that allows it to work as a photo "Theramin". Pretty cool videos of it in action at the link below.
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
May 30, 2008 08:00 AM
Made On Earth, Makers, Music |
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May 27, 2008
Audio cubes control the music
These "Audio Cubes" sport IR sensors on their faces to detect distance and communicate with their neighbors. They also have USB ports, rechargeable batteries, and audio in/out ports. Although cool, the price tag isn't cheap, so we here at Make know that someone could hack their own version together pretty easily.
[via]
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
May 27, 2008 06:00 AM
Made On Earth, Music |
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May 22, 2008
Kevin Kelly on BBtv
Boing Boing TV did a really nice two-part interview with MAKE contributor, Whole Earth Catalog and Review editor, and Wired co-founder (and one of my personal heroes) Kevin Kelly. While not mainline Make: Blog fare, Kevin talks about a number of things makers might find interesting: nomadic photojournalism (and how you can take good pictures with any kind of camera), his photography book, Asia Grace (one of the most awe-inspiring collection of images I have ever seen), cross-country bike touring, art journaling/haiku biking, living your life as if you only have six months left to live, and Kevin's concept for making a living doing what you love, supported by 1,000 True Fans.
BTW: Kevin also does two of our favorite websites: Street Use and Cool Tools
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
May 22, 2008 07:00 PM
Made On Earth, Makers, Photography |
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May 20, 2008
Seismic glass art
This is a functional glass seismograph for measuring earthquakes. It stands about 40" tall, and is about 48" wide installed. It measures vibrations along the x and y axes (side to side), as well as the z axis (up and down), on three helicorders. Ideally, it should be bolted into bedrock for accuracy...
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
May 20, 2008 02:48 PM
Arts, Made On Earth, Science |
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May 19, 2008
1440 rpms v8 LEGO engine
1440 rpms v8 LEGO engine via Jalopnik. The maker writes -
I upgraded the engine to a double cam setup and voila, promptly got 440rpms more. For now i'm running the engine completly unlubed. If i optimize it a bit further i think i can make it to 1600 rpms. I wonder how an inline 4 would go..... (insert manical evil scientist laughter here...)
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
May 19, 2008 08:00 AM
LEGO, Made On Earth |
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Phillip Torrone
Senior Editor
Tel: 707-827-7311
Gareth Branwyn
Robot Maker
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Video Maker
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