OMG! It's here! The Best of Instructables, the latest from Make: Books, is on its way to Maker Faire Austin and a few copies have found their way to the Maker Media and Instructables offices. Here's Instructables's Eric J. Wilhelm and the Instructables robot enjoying their first peeks. I hope the robot's happy. Eric says:

My copy of Best of Instructables Book just arrived! All work here at Instructables HQ has essentially stopped, so if the servers go down, send me an email or something...

Here are a few tidbits about the book:

* 336 pages, 6-5/8 x 9-3/8, same dimensions as The Best of MAKE and MAKE magazine.
* Over 120 projects!
* Projects cover everything from food hacking and making home furnishings from junk to building robots and CNC milling machines. And in-between you'll find projects on arts, crafts, costume-making, tool tips, themed photo galleries, and tons more.
* There are also the results of the Community Choice contest winners (the best of Instructables as voted by its members) and links to their projects.
* There are key user comments from the site throughout, called User Notes, and even a section in the back for you to keep your own User Notes as you build the projects.

We tried to involve the Instructables community as much as possible in the creation of the book (we were in direct communication with several hundred authors!). We hope the results do this maker community proud. It was a thrill ride to be sure.

The Best of Instructables is available in the Maker Shed at a pre-release price of 29.99. We also have a landing page where we'll be putting up material related to the book. And Eric J. Wilhelm himself will be guest blogging here soon in celebration of the book's release. So stay tuned...

Music courtesy of BELL [Thanks!]

The End Result:

Bonus: Free Makers Notebook


Purchase any Mechamo kit by Gakken in the Maker SHED and receive a FREE Makers Notebook! Make sure to add the Makers Notebook to your shopping cart and use the promo code "GKKN08" at checkout. Hurry before it's too late!

What you need for the Mechamo Build:

Mechamo Kit - Available in the Maker SHED
(6) AA Batteries

Tools you need:

None!

Gakken is known for their high-quality kits, and this is no exception. All you need is an hour or two of free time and nothing else. Everything is included in the kit. No, wait! You need 6 'AA' batteries!

The included instructions are in Japanese. That could be a problem, but we have the English version available to download [PDF]. We translated the parts list too [PDF]. Problem solved!

When you are done building the Mechamo Crab, you might want to hack it a bit. I added a doll head, some circuit-bent audio form a toy horse, and 2 LEDs for eyes. Finally, I added a few bolts and washers to hold the head on. It was easy to make and the end results are a lot of fun.

A few detailed pictures of the hack

Doll head filled with good stuff!

Here is a detail of the washers and bolts I added to the top of the Crab. This holds the head on well, and it is easy to remove.

The sound is from a toy horse that was headed for the trash. I found a place to add a wire and the sound changed from a horse to a robot monster. Simple circuit bending!

Hope you liked the video! Happy Halloween!

More:

DIY Halloween contest! This is the BIG ONE!!!!

Even as I type this, the inky pages of our forthcoming Make: Books title, The Best of Instructables, are fluming their way through giant printing presses. Having been a printer for many years, I can hear the sounds and smell the ink from here. The book will be released at Maker Faire Austin, Oct 18th and 19th. We'll have a display of book projects in the Maker Shed and will be doing demos. The Instructables crew will also be doing demos in their area.

Putting this book together was an amazing process. We worked with all of the Instructables authors, several hundred people, to get their permissions, have them fix mistakes in their projects, take better photos, fact-check our layouts, etc. This proved to be very time-consuming and tedious, but it was also very inspiring. Everyone was so helpful and supportive. We got all sorts of encouragement and positive feedback, which kept us going as we burned oil late into the night. It really felt like the book was a nexus for several hundred people, enthused about DIY and the maker movement, to come together to make something truly great as an expression of that enthusiasm. When I read Phillip's wonderful piece here a few days ago, We can make things better..., I actually got a little verklempt. Maybe it was the sleep deprivation, but we were finishing up a project, this book, where I really experienced the power of that "can do" spirit, as a ground truth, and it really made me feel hopeful in a time that so many things seem to be coming unglued. Unglued? No problem. I've got the right adhesives and the C-clamps we need. I'll have this fixed a jiffy!

The book should be available by Halloween, and will be for sale at Maker Faire. You can pre-order a copy in the Shed at a pre-release price of $29.99 (regular price will be $34.99). The Maker Shed page also has links to some PDF excerpts from the book. The Instructables site also has a discussion area for the book.

The Best of Instructables Volume I
Our Price: $34.99
Sale Price: $29.99

More good stuff the folks @ Solarbotics -

A solar-powered, night-activated dazzler. Comes with four high-intensity LEDs that "PUMMM" when the lights go out. That is, they turn on STRONG, then slowly fade away.

Grab this cool kit for Halloween. Sound activated, the ghost flashes his little red LED eyes, vibrates and makes scary sounds! Easy and fun to build. Hack it!

Hmmm … an alternate enclosure might be a good start … spooky canned peas anyone? - Animated Ghost Kit

Prepare to get your fun on with the most versatile self-contained Arduino add-on yet - Mr. Hoeken's Danger Shield -

The Danger Shield is an add-on for the Arduino micro controller board. It contains a variety of fun and useful electronic circuits that you can use to do fun and useful things. It is a fully self-contained shield. You plug it into your Arduino, and you can immediately start using it. No extra things to hook up, no external components. Just a really rad board ready to rock. Soldering required.

• 3x Linear sliders w/ integrated LEDs (independently hooked up to PWM)
  
• 3x Pushbuttons
  
• 2x Indicator LEDs (each with a PWM)
  
• 1x Piezo buzzer (for making noise!)
  
• 1x Temperature sensor
  
• 1x Light sensor
  
• 1x Knock sensor
  
• 1x 7 segment LED (with shift register)
  
• Power LED and reset button

If you've had your Maker's Notebook for awhile, you've likely ended up with a tassel where the bookmark used to be. The ends of the ribbon markers are not finished or glued and so they fray over time. This is easily fixed. Just dab little beads of white glue along the leading edge (after trimming the fray). It'll dry clear and your bookmark will remain intact.

Related:

• GeekDad's Maker's Notebook review
• Maker's Notebook online home
• Maker's Notebook Pocket - CRAFT Video Podcast
• Maker's Notebook released at Maker Faire
  
• More on the Maker's Notebook
• Cats like the Maker's Notebook too!

In the Maker Shed:

Mini Breadboards, assorted colors
Half the size of a half-size breadboard, this is perfect for tiny projects and for sticking onto the top of Arduino protoshields - available in 5 different colors!

Half-Size Breadboard

• Measures 3.3” x 2.1”
  
• 1 terminal strip with (300 tie points)
  
• 2 distribution strips (100 tie points)

Solderless Breadboard

• Measures 2.14" x 6.5".
  
• 830 Total Tie Points:
  
• 1 Terminal Strip (630 Tie Points)
  
• 2 Distribution Strips (100 Tie Points each)

Solderless Breadboard Jumper Wire Kit

• 140 color-code insulated jumper wires: 14 different lengths
  
• Each jumper wire is pre-stripped and pre-formed
  
• 22 AWG

Oh yes, we did -

Perfect for many electronics projects, this mint tin is branded with our Make motto, "If You Can't Open It, You Don't Own It".
We even took out those pesky mints! Get 'em while they last and send us your project photos!

MAKE contributor, and host of the upcoming Make: TV, John Edgar Park, is digging his Maker's Notebook:

I'm not sure how exactly I'm going to modify mine, but I'm interested in cutting out some of those rectangles on the front, since they've got a raised "perforation" to them, they're just begging for it. I'd also like to electrify one, and do something with magnets...

I'm using this one to do sketches and note taking for Make Magazine projects, appropriately. I'm very proud of my kustom pinstripe lettering. OK, it's actually stickers from a Mini Cooper ad, but doesn't it look neat-o?!

Maker's Notebook

Related:

• GeekDad's Maker's Notebook review
• Maker's Notebook online home
• Maker's Notebook Pocket - CRAFT Video Podcast
• Maker's Notebook released at Maker Faire
  
• More on the Maker's Notebook
• Cats like the Maker's Notebook too!

As mentioned before, we're doing a Best of Instructables book. Instructables ran a contest on the site to find the 50 best Instructables, as voted on by the users. The results are now on the site. Congrats to the winners. Their projects will be listed in the book (some of them will be featured as full projects) and they'll each get a copy of the book when it's published.

We want to add value to the book by having some material that's not on the Instructables site (or anywhere else). We plan on running sidebars on some of the projects with tips from folks who've built them and can offer interesting tips, alternative build techniques, or just cool, amusing, or cautionary tales about the project. So, to collect some of these, Maker Media is running a contest.

Write up your tips/stories and send then to me at gareth@makezine.com. The submission can be about any Instructable, not just the ones we're running in the book. The Make: Books team will look over all of the submissions and award three winners. All three winners will get copies of The Maker's Notebook, MAKE rubber bands, and Maker's Notebook sticker sheets. The winning submissions (and other entries) will be considered for inclusion in The Best of Instructables. If we use your submission, you'll get a comp copy of the book it when it comes out.

In the Maker Shed:

Pick up The Maker's Notebook ($19.99) for all your ideas, diagrams, patterns, and great references in the back.

Certainly a unique take on robotic kits, the Twitchie awaits your creative 'touch' -

Twitchie is an open source multi-purpose robot kit. It has the capacity to frighten and scare, but also the power to love and care! It's a regular pathos-o-matic! Grown men scream! Maternal instincts long dormant, suddenly activated! It's a robot unlike any other, and you can make one with this kit. Cover your Twitchie any way you'd like to make it truly unique.

Features

• 3 Servos
  
• 6 Laser cut wooden parts
  
• 1 circuit board
  
• 1 ATMEGA168 preloaded with Lillypad [Arduino] firmware and Twitchie software
  
• 1 set of various electronic parts such as LEDs, capacitors and resistors
  
• 1 printed manual

Check out a clip of Twitchie in action @ the Maker Faire -

An easy-to-use 6 digit display kit updated via your computer over serial/USB connection -

The USB7 expands most computers with a USB connected 6-digit seven-segment display. Supporting letters, numbers, and a range of punctuation, the USB7 benefits any project requiring highly visible information.
Using common a USB cable for both communication and power, the USB7 requires no special or bulky cables and with a simple virtual-serial port protocol, sending regular ASCII characters is all that's required to control the USB7s full output capacity.
Based on the AVR-CDC project, the USB7 is supported by Windows XP, Windows 2000, OS X, and many Linux variants.

• Simple to use
  
  • The USB interface provides all of the communications and power to the display.
    
  • Simple ASCII data over the virtual serial port controls all of the displays functions.
  
  
• Easy to assemble
  
  • All through hole parts.
    
  • An easy kit contains all of the required parts, including a pre-programmed microcontroller.
    
  • Standard 0.56" common-anode display format allows versatility in display selection.
    
  • Comes in standard green readout.

Owen of Critter and Guitari shares tips on building a keyboard/case for the Arduino Pocket Piano synthesizer shield. Using the described button-dowel approach allows one to raise the key inputs without any soldering or expensive panel mount replacement parts - good stuff. - Felt Button Enclosure for the Pocket Piano

Arduino Pocket Piano Synth Kit

Syuzi Pakhchyan, author of our first Craft: Projects book, Fashioning Technology, was a guest on New Hampshire Public Radio's "Word of Mouth" program. You can hear the webcast of it here.

Buy Fashioning Technology by Syuzi Pakhchyan in the Maker Shed today!

This book demonstrates how to blend sewing and assembly techniques with traditional electronics to assemble simple circuits using conductive thread, solder joints for snaps, and switches for buttons. With the sewing machine as a viable substitute for the soldering iron, you can craft a new generation of objects that are interactive, quirky, and fashion-conscious.

Look for Fashioning Technology Kits soon this Summer in the Maker Shed! For now, check out the rest of our CRAFT Kits.

Control sound with light! -

This is an electronics kit suitable for beginners but it DOES require some soldering. With very few parts you can build a tiny solar powered theremin enclosed in an ALTOIDS or like mint tin (NOT INCLUDED). So when the oil runs out, the ice caps melt and civilization crumbles to dust, thanks to the Heliophone, we will still have electronic music :-)

More:

Build: Solar Theremin

The other day, Gareth pointed to Kevin Kelly's review of our Chemistry book "The Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments," and we've been watching the popularity of the book rise as more people find out about it. Of course, we're happy that people are buying the book, but we're thrilled that people are so interested in making their own home chemistry labs.

Over on Cool Tool, Kevin Kelly has written a great review of the Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments. In the piece, Kevin also talks about the amazing and long out of print Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments (1960), which many of us remember from our youth. He writes:

The Golden Book encouraged playing around with molecules, with no agenda beyond demonstrating the power, principles, and diversity of chemical reactions. The Illustrated Guide on the other hand is a basement laboratory manual meant to teach you the basic working principles of chemistry. How to mix a molar solution. How to titrate. How to do quantitative sleuthing. It claims that if you go through all the chapters you'll be prepared to pass the college-level AP Chem Lab test. You would also be able to work in most laboratories. And of course, you would probably be able to follow most chemistry recipes from the internet, or at least to figure out what you need to make something chemistry-wise.

At the very least, this book should help cure any hysteria you -- or your kids -- might have about CHEMICALS. Sure, they can be dangerous, like your car. But we are surrounded by chemicals, and the only way to understand their real risks is to mess around with them.

...

Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments is a fantastic teacher for chemical literacy. It will show you or your kids how to work with chemicals, and why they are fun. Some of the experiments are visually entertaining. Others are scientifically important. It's got wise advice about the few bits of equipment you'll need for your lab. The Illustrated Guide very handily provides substitutions for ingredients whenever possible, so you can work around harder to acquire or expensive chemicals and gear. And it very conscientiously gives proper disposal instructions for substances at the end (the first I've ever seen in a chem book). The author is thrifty, using no more stuff then necessary, and always suggesting ways to purchase the minimum equipment.

Best home chemistry lab book

Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments
Our Price: $29.99

For students, DIY hobbyists, and science buffs, who can no longer get real chemistry sets, this one-of-a-kind guide explains how to set up and use a home chemistry lab, with step-by-step instructions for conducting experiments in basic chemistry. Learn how to smelt copper, purify alcohol, synthesize rayon, test for drugs and poisons, and much more. The book includes lessons on how to equip your home chemistry lab, master laboratory skills, and work safely in your lab, along with 17 hands-on chapters that include multiple laboratory sessions.

After a frustrating day at the office, it feels good to go make something that simply works.
(playing with a bunch of ultra-bright LEDs doesn't hurt either)

Peggy v1.0 kit

Syuzi Pakhchyan, the author of our first Craft: Projects title, Fashioning Technology, has created a nice site for the book with a community discussion area. If you're interested in the book and the types of projects it covers, please register in the forums and share your experiences building the projects.

Fashioning Technology

Buy Fashioning Technology by Syuzi Pakhchyan in the Maker Shed today!
This book demonstrates how to blend sewing and assembly techniques with traditional electronics to assemble simple circuits using conductive thread, solder joints for snaps, and switches for buttons. With the sewing machine as a viable substitute for the soldering iron, you can craft a new generation of objects that are interactive, quirky, and fashion-conscious.

Look for Fashioning Technology Kits soon this Summer in the Maker Shed! For now, check out the rest of our CRAFT Kits.

We at Maker Media are thrilled to announce that we're going to be doing a Best of Instructables, Volume 1. As part of the book, we want to get the Instructables community involved in choosing some of their favorite projects. The book will include both projects chosen by Maker Media and Instructables staffs and those Instructables chosen by the author community itself. Instructables is running a contest to determine the latter. Every item on the site, all 14,000 projects, now has a vote button. The top 50 most-voted entries will be listed in the book and the authors will get a free copy when it's published.

We're also looking for build experiences and stories surrounding Instructables projects. If you built a project and have some thoughts about it (that you've yet to post to the project's page) or an interesting story about an Instructable (it got you a date, got your arrested, helped you survive for days in the Australian outback, made you a hero in the eyes of your kids, etc.) please send them to me, gareth (@makezine.com), or you can also post them here in the Comments.

The Instructables Book Contest

Bring power to your prototypes with this convenient new kit -

This power supply module plugs straight into common bread boards, allowing you to cleanly and easily power your board with a wall wart plug or with wires into screw terminals. It features a variable voltage regulator that can be set to output 3.3 or 5V with a jumper, or any voltage if a potentiometer is added. The input has a rectifier that accepts AC or DC (polarity doesn't matter)--just make sure the input is about 2V greater than the output you want.

Join me, won't you? - as I travel back in time to assemble the New Edison Cup-style Phonograph.

Build a DIY sound and light device to stimulate your mental state -

Hack your Brain! Get comfortable, put on the glasses and headphones, close your eyes (the LEDs are bright!), and flick the power switch. Enjoy the hallucinations as you drift into deep meditation, ponder your inner world, and then come out after the 14-minute program feeling fabulous. Sound and Light Machines (SLMs) produce sound and light pulses at brain wave frequencies, which help people sleep, wake up, meditate, or experience whatever state of consciousness the machine is programmed for. With this kit you will build an SLM for much cheaper than you can buy one. You’ll do it the easy way, by hacking a microcontroller project that already exists: Adafruit’s Mini-POV kit which you can transform into an SLM simply by changing the firmware and some minor hardware. As seen in Make Vol. 10! Many, many thanks to Mitch Altman!

Yay! Philipp Lenssen's Google Apps Hacks just got reviewed on Slashdot by JR Peck, who had some kind words for the book:

Well, this book is an excellent introduction to Google's many on-line applications. I use many already and still learned of a couple new ones when I read this book. It also does bring all that instruction into one place, and provides a very user-friendly style of instruction. There is also a very nice feature, 8 sections that take the reader "Beyond Google...". Each of these sections informs the reader about alternative software that provides similar functionality to the Google software described in the preceding chapter. This is really a great resource and an unexpected bonus for anyone who reads the book.

Slashdot | Google Apps Hacks

(In the review, JR raises a good point about the definition of a Hack. We use the definition "A non-obvious solution to an interesting problem", although JR leans toward some other definitions mentioned in the review).

From the Maker Shed:

Google Apps Hacks by Philipp Lenssen - all about Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Presentations, and more!
Price: $29.99
Buy it in the Maker Shed

My cohort at Make: Books, Brian Jepson, and the book's author, Phillip Lenssen, have written a two-part piece on how they went about developing the book in, you guessed it, Google Docs. Here's Brian's recent post on Hackszine:

When Philipp Lenssen started writing Google Apps Hacks, we made up our minds that we'd develop the book in Google Docs. A while back, Philipp wrote up Part I of the story of how we made the book. From Writing a Book in Google Docs:

Currently, my editor Brian Jepson and I are collaboratively writing the book (tentatively titled) Google Office Hacks by O'Reilly using Google Docs. I wanted to outline the process we came up with, and maybe it's helpful for you too for certain needs.

I just wrote Part II of this story, and Philipp's posted it to the Google Blogoscoped blog. From From Google Docs to InDesign:

One of the tricky parts for us was getting the chapters into InDesign, the book layout program we use for our books and magazines. I know where we were coming from - Google Docs' HTML format - and where we were going to - InDesign's tagged text format.

From the Maker Shed:

Google Apps Hacks by Philipp Lenssen - all about Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Presentations, and more!
Price: $29.99
Buy it in the Maker Shed

• Maker's Notebook online home
• Maker's Notebook released at Maker Faire
  
• More on the Maker's Notebook
• Cats like the Maker's Notebook too!

Celebrate the electronic aesthetic while recycling -

Capacitor Robot Charms are built with electronic components salvaged from discarded TVs, VCRs, and computers. These are fun pieces that will hopefully generate awareness of the growing piles of E-Junk that are destined for our landfills.

Related:

Charming components

The making of a pinball game.

Pinball hall of fame - MAKE @ Vegas.

HOW TO - Make a Pinball Coffee Table.

Join me, won't you? as I explore the trials and tribulations which comprise the process best described as - Building the Magnetic Sculpture kit.

In the Maker Shed:
Magnetic Sculpture Kit