Cigar boxes are great containers for loads of things. I had a bunch on hand after going to the local wine shops and asking for donated cigar boxes. Inspired by the Rock and Roll Speakers project in Fashioning Technology, it seemed like a good idea to have my students build their own music player embedded in a cigar box. This is a major project, taking several weeks, though it probably could be done by an individual in an afternoon without introducing many of the concepts we've worked on.

Box preparation
The boxes are pretty well made, and we found that we could sand them and coat them with spray paint. Boxes with colorful printed designs can be left unpainted. We have a vinyl cutter, so a lot of class time has gone into making custom multicolor stickers from photos. We're using the Threshold tool in Gimp to convert the image to a high contrast black and white, and then importing it to Open Office Draw to add a border. Having a border makes the sticker weeding process much easier.

Speaker insert
Using some scrap cardboard a metal ruler, utility knife, and careful measurement, we made an insert to hold the speakers and cover up the electronics. The speakers sound much better when enclosed. Just putting them inside the box improves their sound even without the cardboard insert. The speakers are secured to the cardboard with hot melt glue, and some students are making speaker grilles for further protection.

The user interface to the R1 radio is both familiar and unique. Roll up and down for volume or scroll left to right to tune. It's brilliant in its simplicity and rather stylish in a contoured minimalist design. [via GeekyGadgets]

An analog radio is one of most important product for a blind people. In the using a behavior of how people manipulated rather than burying all of interaction in to the product. So adjusting radio to the right station would require a new kind of manipulation rather than simply tuning a knob. 'R1' has designed for them to control the radio more intuitively. By using a wheel structure user can control the radio by physical movement. The 'R1' allowed users to turn gadget on or off and to control volume and tuning simply by physically rolling the radio forward, backward and sideways.

My cell phone has a little eye molded into the case for attaching a lanyard strap. I want my A/V remotes to have the same thing so that if I should decide that I want to tie one of them to, say, the leg of my coffee table, I won't be driven to the same lengths as this guy.

Console hacker extraordinaire Benjamin J. Heckendorn (aka Ben Heck) built this one-off PS3 Slim laptop for portable gaming without compromise. Along with the PS3 Slim, Ben incorporated a Gateway 1775W widescreen LCD display and had a little extra room left over for cable storage.

Related:
Interview with Ben Heck
HOW TO - Design a 2D robo-hand & Atari 800 laptop
HOW TO - Make a Wii laptop
Archive: Benjamin J. Heckendorn

[thanks, Thomas!]

A number of folks have been working determinedly at getting video recording capabilities functioning on the Palm Pre since it's debut. Well, it would seem that the long wait is over. The recently released software is homebrew and a little rough around the edges, but apparently does record 320x480px@30fps. It doesn't take full advantage of the Pre's hardware, but it's a start.

[via IntoMobile]

Tokyo-based Ubiquitous Entertainment has built the iPhone ARider, a portable head-mounted navigation prototype. It attaches to a standard bike helmet and is capable of delivering visuals via a Scalar Corporation T3-A retractable HMD. With the glut of AR apps hitting the market you'll likely see a lot more HMD projects showing up in the near future. If you know of or are working on an AR physical computing project and would like to share, please leave a comment.

21th Century "Chonmage" ARider [via zikkir]

If you've ever been stuck on a cross-country flight and needed something to prop up your mobile while you watched a movie, then you'll love this clever adjustable folding stand from the creator of the iPhone Paper Clip Stand. The design itself is ripe for modification. Laser-etched business cards anyone?

[via iPhone Atlas]

Want to show a movie outdoors, but don't have a white wall to project it on? David Banks over at geekdad has you covered with this tutorial on how to build a portable outdoor movie theater screen. Perfect for hosting that private Friday evening screening in the garden!

[via curbly]

Hayford Bempong, David Celestin and Michael Amankwanor from Accra Polytechnic set up a local Maker Faire Africa radio station. The group announced upcoming activities, broadcasting at 101.7 FM, and could be heard up to a couple thousand meters away using gear they designed and fabricated from scratch.

[via AfriGadget]

Who doesn't love MJ's fat little iPod (is that a 3rd Gen?) grafted into a lovely 1940s radio cabinet, complete with a Panasonic turntable and Mac mini to rip old vinyl to MP3s, and the original working radio buttons hacked to control the iPod. Journalist and author Kurt Andersen, the host of public radio's Studio 360 (and former editor of Spy magazine), recently visited Mister Jalopy's Garage for an interview and grabbed this video of the World's Biggest iPod in action.

More at Hooptyrides.com.

This fantastic music video from Reyna Perez entitled "Love Love Love" was shot entirely on an iPhone 3GS. Though not the first music video shot using a cameraphone, this video features quality production courtesy of the fine folks at m ss ng p eces and an enchanting song by Ms. Perez.

[via boingboing]

Justin Huynh sent in this:

At Maker Faire a couple weeks ago, Matt and I showed off the Open Source Gameboy and OpenBerry, and in the tradition of hacking together arduino versions of cool handheld gadgets, Matt put together the Open Source PSP with two player ping-pong on it. It's got two inputshields and a touchshield slide, sitting on a triplewide extender which is all hooked up to the arduino. Here's a link to the blog and youtube.

Michael Jackson's death caused radio's roboprogrammers to take a back seat for a while. Increasingly, over the past few decades, broadcast radio has ceased to be a local affair. As the FCC regulations on local ownership of media outlets has faded towards corporate behemoths, radio programming more and more these days is done by databases and distant decision makers. For those of us who remember real radio dj's who made personal decisions about what song would come next, this has driven us more towards our own music collection, rather than being stuck listening to the corporate drivel. Pandora and Last.fm are okay, but they lack the personal touch.

With Michael Jackson's death announcement, the clacker driven music machine was taken off line, if only for a few hours and only on a few stations. Human beings again ruled the airwaves of some radio stations.

"It's a good reminder of what live radio can do, of the role that radio can play in bringing a community together,'' said Scott Fybush, editor of Northeast Radio Watch in Rochester, N.Y.

Many stations no longer have live announcers, using canned voices for part or all of the day, and so can't react to a major news event, he said.

DJ Deirdre Dagata, 39, has been working at Mix 98.5 part time since May, after being replaced at Kiss 108 by recorded programming the month before. And yesterday, she was back in action for the biggest radio day in memory.

Dagata was in constant motion during her 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift. Sitting in an elevated office chair in front of four computer screens, she punched blinking phone lines, tapped on keys, and slid knobs - simultaneously editing recorded calls and fielding a steady stream of new ones from listeners who wanted to share stories about Jackson.

Back in the day, I recall listening to the radio knowing something unique was happening. The radio announcers had their own tastes in music, and they helped to create a following around their musical tastes. Sometimes there was dead air as the dj missed the cue for a variety of human reasons, some more innocent than others. This caused me to volunteer at and work at several radio stations in the 1980's and 1990's. I actually chose my university because I liked the on air feel of the campus radio station, which turned out to be a very influential organization for me. At the station, I did on-air work, production of public service announcements, newscasts, dj training, and eventually became Program Director. The audience's active listenership of the music and programming was exciting to be involved with.

Back then, radio was a public service to be provided to the community, not just a marketing opportunity. Almost radio programming was done with people at the microphones, nearly always they were playing actual records, tapes or cds. Even the commercials were created in-house, except those for national campaigns.

Do you miss real radio? There are a bunch of college radio stations around, and most of them depend on the student body and sometimes local community members to create their programming. With web streaming, it is possible to listen way beyond the broadcast range of your favorite station. WERS in Boston plays a good mix curated by communications students. KEXP in Seattle has a wonderful mix of live performances and genuine djs choosing the music they play. Transom and Youth Radio are helping to cultivate the new voices of radio that we need. Public Radio Exchange has a channel on XM radio, and features a mix of voices that you may not have heard before.

With podcasting and the great suite of computer software and hardware available for free, just about everybody has the radio recording studio in their laptop, desktop, cellphone and digital camera that I had in my bedroom as a high school kid. If you want to broadcast, you may want to build your own transmitter. Sending out your homebrew radio programming out to your house or close neighbors could be a neat experience. You could record some short pieces like songs, jokes, or seque buffers, drop them into your music library and set your music player loose, sending your personalized radio program out to the transmitter.

Radio used to be a LOT of fun as a listener and programmer. Now the tools are much easier to get and use for us regular folks. Hopefully, the corporations will lighten up on their centralized programming and return to the human touch of radio, but even if they don't we can realize that we can choose what radio we listen to or create. If you have any stories of making your own or listening to real radio, pirate or otherwise, tell us in the comments.

How to View your Webcam on your iTouch or iPhone

Do you have a phone with a touch screen? Have you tried out some music applications and found the thing a bit awkward to hold? Last year I saw some people messing with guitar application on their phones at the Boston Fab Lab and it got me thinking. When I finally got around to getting a phone, making a PhoneTar was up high on the list of things I 'needed' it for. I did some early testing with the laser cutter for sizing and fit, and the project sat for a while.

When I saw the video of "Kids," the project got reactivated.

Mine is the G1 model of PhoneTar, and though I haven't found many instrument apps for it, I have found that it works fairly well as a stabilizer when taking pictures. It can also work on the dashboard as a way of holding the phone while showing maps, but it would need a way different profile for that.

Want to give it a try? Here is a zip file with the Open Office Draw document I used to cut the part and a pdf of it as well: PhoneTar-G1Tar.zip

To turn it into an iPhoneTar, iTouchTar or possibly a BerryTar wouldn't be too hard, you would need to get measurements of your phone, and change the size and possibly the location of the hole. Different models will have alternate locations for the headphone jack as well.

Looking into the future for the project, I see a need for the right hand to do something. A module down there for strumming or touching contacts would be nice, and could probably be connected to the phone with bluetooth or usb. It would also be nice to have a sound scoop behind the speaker so that it directs the audio towards the audience. A mounted amplifier would be festive as well. It could also be configured for use with the Arduino and Drawdio, both of which can be found in the Maker Shed.

This is not intended to be about a finished project, but rather a step in the Design Process. It does work, but there are many ways it could go from here. My hope is to stir you to action (if you are so inclined) and imagine a new way of seeing your music, phone or other devices. If these ideas gets you thinking, give it a shot and let us know what you come up with!

A group of student makers took kite arial photography to a new level: weather balloon photography. They certainly are undercutting NASA's budget, spending very little on their project, and fabricating most of the structure and electronics themselves.

Check out Gareth's previous entry on the project.

Mail Online has a decent writeup. Nice of them to copyright the photos for the students, isn't it?

Building the electronic sensor components from scratch, Gerard Marull Paretas, Sergi Saballs Vil, Martm Gasull Morcillo and Jaume Puigmiquel Casamort were able to send their heavy duty £43 latex balloon to the edge of space and take readings of its ascent.

Under the guidance of teacher Jordi Fanals Oriol, the budding scientists, all aged 18 to 19, followed the progress of their balloon using hi-tech sensors communicating with Google Earth.

'Meteotek was our experiment to see if we could accurately measure the Earth's atmospheric conditions at 30,000 metres, take pictures to prove the experiment and then recover the instruments attached to the balloon after its deflation,' said team leader Paretas, 18.

'We were overwhelmed at our results, especially the photographs. To send our handmade craft to the edge of space is incredible.'

Their use of Google Earth was integrated into the project and provides some nice mashups of their data.

It's great to see the progress of their build in photos and text on their blog. Their site also provides a choice to use Google translate, which helps people from other cultures access their work.

Thanks Tom!

If you want to record what's going on inside a vehicle while it's moving, you've probably noticed the various difficulties regarding space and stabilization. Instructables user Pretty Idiot Productions shows us how to use s big sponge and some grippy rubber (the kind you put under your rug) to make a camera rig.

Features:

• Record video with your point and shoot camera in complete darkness!
  
• Can also be used for macro photography or task lighting
  
• Low/High power setting
  

More about the ProdMod Video Light

Back in college, I took a few classes in electronic music. My evening with circuit bending had a lot of the experimental feel of those pre-MIDI days of music. The experimental nature of the evening and the music reminded me a lot of Laurie Anderson's United States Live 5 LP album that I unearthed recently from my record collection.

We started the evening by having people show some of the projects that they'd done and explain them as they played. After a while, it was time to crack into the toys and make our own creations.

Jimmie had some toy saxophones, which seemed to be calling out for audio input and output jacks, among other things. We also tried out photo cells and potentiometers on the various devices. I had made a recent search through piles of stuff, and had brought some old computer speakers, a small keyboard, and Jimmie's favorite, a hand held workout toy. It called out instructions to the exercisers and allowed for the user to change the tempo and instruments of the music.

A while ago, I got a small keyboard that had to be about 20 years old. It took five batteries and had a ROM chip that allowed it to play four songs. I opened it up, and started poking around with probe wires to see what I could get it to do. One of the ideas with circuit bending is to just see what you can get the circuit to do by jumping various points with wires, your fingers, photocells and potentiometers. Once you see where the locations are that will give interesting results, then you can construct some kind of interface system to take advantage of the new possibilities in the toy, keyboard, or other device.

Once I had found a bunch of neat locations, I soldered wires to the points and ran them to the outside of the case of the keyboard. By the end of the evening, I had about eight wires hanging out of the keyboard, that when touched with fingers will bring out various weirdness in the music. I sealed it back up with the original screws, leaving all the factory-built functions in place, threw it in my bag, and have been playing it off and on for a few days. It is much more fun to play than it was before being bent.

My evening at Willoughby and Baltic was well spent. The people were nice, curious, and patient in explaining what they'd done and what could be done. I got to hear some amazing sounds, met some neat people, and tried my hand at a new creative artform. While we were there, we talked about some of the history of electronic music, techniques of circuit bending, and performing with bent instruments. Everybody was receptive to the ideas of the others in the room, and we all got a chance to learn and do. The keyboard that I modified has provided me, some of my students, and my daughter quite a bit of enjoyment and wonderment. Right now, the wires are routed out of the case, and I'm considering what kind of breakout box to add so that it's a bit easier to operate.

You might check out some photos of the evening, or watch some videos.

Have you bent an instrument? What are your favorite techniques? 'What are some clever materials that can be used? Are there essential tools for bending circuits? Are there some good online resources that you like to turn to for technical or aesthetic guidance on your circuit bending projects? If you also go to an event listed on Make: Online, please let us know what happened! Add to the conversation in the comments, and contribute your photos and video to the MAKE Flickr pool.

Phil Clandillon sends this music video of The Mentalists playing Kids, originally by MGMT.

The Mentalists are an all female act based here in London. They've done this unusual cover of MGMT's "Kids" played entirely on their iPhones and iPod Touches, using apps from the application store.

What kinds of great music can you play on your iPhone, iTouch or Android phone? What other interactive applications work great on smart phones? Have you made a holder for your phone so its easier to play? Add your thoughts to the conversation in the comments, and please contribute your photos and videos to the MAKE Flickr pool.

After plenty of hours logged in front of the lens (and boom), Jack Black shares some basic audio-for-video recording tips.

Sure, if available, a boom mic is always a smart choice but the direct-to-mic backup track may be a bit of a challenge to dub later on. For an intentionally campy feel, I recommend overdubbing audio at the edit stage. It can be easier than one might imagine (and fun)

[via Califaudio]

Brad sends this about his son's gift project:

For Christmas this year, Lucas made his grandmom a battery powered amp for her guitar. This was a big project - first time with a soldering iron. Worked out well with only one minor burn. He did 80% of the soldering and drilled all the holes for the pots and LED. He turns 6 in Jan - seemed he should learn one last skill while he was still 5.

Great project! Parts to love: scrounging parts out of otherwise dead or useless devices...teaching new skills to kids...making something that couldn't be bought...online documentation...photos...

What have you made lately? Did it work right the first time? Did you catch some pictures/video/audio of the process? What is your experience teaching kids about electricity, electronics, soldering, programming, hacking? What should people do or not do when they venture out into projects with kids? What workspace, tools or materials would you suggest? Show us your stuff! Add your comments and park your photos and video in the Make Flickr pool.

Do you have an extra mp3 player or four in the house? Do your kids like to hear your bedtime stories? How about archiving them and setting up your kid with an audio player that will allow him or her to play them back at any time? With a couple of computer speakers, or a DIY audiobear, your child can hear your voice telling your best stories at any time, night or day. After making the recordings, you may find that you have an heirloom audio session that can be passed down for generations.

There are plenty of ways to customize your Storybear, plush knobs, speakers, remote control, and you could make the doll yourself.

Each episode of MAKE: television includes in-depth profiles of prominent Makers. Here's a quick preview of an upcoming profile of Minneapolis Art on Wheels. Ali Momeni and his fleet of mobile video projectors transform public spaces into real-time sound and light shows on a massive scale.

View the clip above, get the M4V and/or subscribe in iTunes. Don't forget to leave a comment; we want to know your thoughts.

To find out broadcast times and dates in your city, call your local public television station and request "Viewer Services." Or just log on to www.makezine.tv, where we'll stream full episodes in January.

Check out the group Minneapolis Art on Wheels

Justin and Michael come from vinyl listening parents. At some point in the last decade or so, they were pressed into dragging their folks' record collection into the digital age. Between them, they have translated hundreds of records into computer friendly formats. Here are their tips on converting music.

Justin is a great guitar player, and his father Dan has the largest record collection of any person I know. I met Dan a long time ago at a party just after he returned from a trip to Africa where he had a hand in creating a documentary recording of Radio Freedom, the communications arm of the Anti Aparthied movement.

At that time I worked at the local college radio station, which was then using the call letters WUSM, we then have an outlet for world music, so I passed it on to the reggae guys at the Roots Radical Connection. The station has since changed its call letters twice and frequency once, but still has an enormous collection of vinyl. Reggae is still on Saturdays. Dan now spins at WRIU in Rhode Island.

Anyway, enough about Justin's Father. Justin is an accomplished musician, and student at Hampshire College. They have many neat media resources and projects. He has been particularly involved with the Hampedia (Hampshire-Wikipedia) project.

A few years ago while visiting, Justin was making digital copies of records in the collection. After making a recording, he was using a database to find the name of the album, titles of the songs and all kinds of stuff that would take a lot of time to enter by hand.

Justin says:

The most important part is the interface part. The one my dad uses is a cheap, puck-sized 1/8inch -> USB interface called an iMic (Griffin Tech.) which acts as a bare-bones digital preamp, boosting and translating the signal so that the computer can hear and read it. While it still functions, it's pretty archaic, and I'm sure there are some better, still cheap options out there, as well as much more expensive and complex ones.

Software wise, my dad uses Analog Ripper, which is a pretty solid Mac editor with a Track Hunter (for automatically dicing tracks by looking for spaces of silence) and decent iTunes integration. It was a little buggy at first, but it's good with updates. $20 shareware. Again, not a lot of thought went into the purchase, I went for cheap functionality and an easy system for a not-so-computer-literate baby boomer. But it's worth a look.

You can get pretty crazy with vinyl rips. Many audiophiles rip at 24 bit / 96 kHz, above the capabilities of most motherboards / sound cards, to make sure everything is captured. There's also ClickRepair software, which I believe is Windows-only. I haven't delved too deeply, as the 320kbps MP3s my dad rips sound good enough (at half CD quality) and fit on my iPod.

The database system I was using to automatically fill in track info is an Applescript (Mac only) which can grab CDDB info from a Safari page and translate it into iTunes. CDDB is a good resource for most albums although they don't have many rare or obscure LPs, so I do have to enter some info on most of my dad's rarities. Many scripts on that site are very cool, although they are Mac-only.

And the word from Michael:

Ok, here are the requirements:

1) You have to really really really want the digitized copy of that vinyl, because by doing this you are about to open a black hole that will consume hours upon hours and spit out an mp3 or two.

2) Get a turntable and attach that to the best (hopefully tube) amplifier that you can find.
3) Using a 3.5mm stereo (headphone connector) to RCA (red and white) cable, connect the tape output (or whatever the output is on the amplifier) to the line in jack of your computer (usually labeled blue).

If you have to, you can use the mic in line, but that will give you grosser results, because it is usually pre-amplified.

4) Download Audacity
5) Start recording.
6) You will probably want to save to mp3 (download the LAME Mp3 codec package for audacity)
8) Add fade in's and fade out's to the beginning and end of the track.
7) At this point you have already dropped a chunk of time recording the tracks, but you will want to dump in some more time, cleaning up the pops and ticks imparted by the vinyl.

NOTES: From my experience many computers will add a really annoying background chatter to your recording.
Noise Abatement:
Grounding the heck out of everything usually helps
Find the computer with the best sound card possible
Sometimes older computers will have much nicer background noise properties (I do all of my recording on a PII HP pavilion, circa 1998) Just record on the old computer, and do the editing stuff on your super fast computer. This will allow you to multi task, with out the risk of destroying the song you are actively recording.

The time thing is the biggest problem, but definitely figure out how to do everything. The challenge of setting up a decent recording setup and dealing with noise is a really fun issue, and you will learn a lot in the process. Then when you know how to do everything move on to the next project.

P.S. If you buy the cable you are a pansy!! Make the cable yourself from dump-score components. (and shield the heck out of it while you are at it. I.e. wrap it in conductive material, and ground that to everything else)

I hope this helps,
Michael

So, have you got a bunch of black gold sitting in custom built cabinets in your parents house like I do? Are they getting eager to have your old record collection moved along so they can change their address to a place with fewer stairs and simpler upkeep? Did you work in college radio during the good old days of punk, new wave, techno or grunge when we could put a needle down on the record at the last second and still have it sound like we weren't winging it? Want to hear your old 45's or bootlegs? Digitize up your stuff and tell of your techniques in the comments!

When I shoot concerts, I often record audio off camera with a portable recorder. I needed a way to attach the recorder to the stand when I use a mic on top of a light stand. This bracket is made out of PVC pipe fitting, and will clamp onto the stand. If I extend the stand to get the mic 6' up, the recorder can still be lower so I can check settings easily.

Read more about the DIY: Stand clamp for portable recorder

The fourth day of 7 in 7 at ITP revealed Seasonal Salad Dress, Spammed!, Face the Web and "Cheating" Book Cover. Click on a picture to read about each one-day project in the 7 in 7 blog.

Days: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Instructables user avik writes:

I got my first Vespa about a year ago and have loved tooling around New York on it. From day one though I wanted to be able to listen to my iPod as I zip around but the idea of riding with headphones on in all that trafiic seems crazy. When I read on a Vespa forum that there is a secret compartment behind the two knee pads that are above the glove box I saw the opportunity to do a really cool mod to my scooter.

This instructable covers circuit design, custom 3D modeling, and modding existing components, all in order to tote some tunes on your ride.

Well, it won't win any awards for high-fidelity (or even middle-fidelity), but this Instructable, which turns a Hallmark audio greeting card and a mini cereal box into an iPod speaker, might be a fun kids project.

Make an iPod Speaker from a Hallmark Music Card

Adding a mobile interface to systems that traditionally required a user to be sitting at their desk will open up many new opportunities. The new touch screen interface will also change how we interact with those systems, creating all new ways to use technology.

As an example, traditional surveillance systems use a joystick or mouse to control camera positioning. With the iPhone, the user has the potential of a much more intuitive interface to drag the camera around and zoom in on things by pinching the picture.

via - tuaw - iPhone controlling surveillance equipment