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Remake Archive: Remake

February 8, 2010

Parabola, a wooden ball launcher

I think I could watch this ball-launching sculpture for a long time. Called parabola, it was created by youtube user MechanicalSculptor. I wonder how long it took to design a system that can launch balls with such precision? [via Hacked Gadgets]

February 7, 2010

Computer chip earrings

Il 430Xn.102098423
These are lovely.

Pt 2527
I also like these fishing lure earrings from CRAFT volume 03...

And of course, iPhone home button earrings...

February 5, 2010

Brewing Open Mate, an open source mate soda

Over at Hack Pittsburgh, we are running an experiment to try and brew an open-source version of the highly caffeinated Club Mate soda drink. The first version uses Chai Mate tea mix, cane sugar, and caffeine powder, but already we have suggestions to improve the next batch.

It's actually pretty easy to make soda, even if you don't have fancy equipment like a soda keg and CO2 tank. If you are interested in trying it out, Becky has you covered with the DIY soda episode of the CRAFT Video. Already have a favorite recipe? Share it with us in the comments!

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February 4, 2010

Not that kind of resistance

My then-girlfriend-and-now-justfriend Melody made this little diorama for her study partner when she was getting her undergraduate EE degree at UT-Austin back in 2003. There's one more pic on my old personal webpage. It was I who advised her on the spelling; in retrospect, I'm pretty sure it should be "le" instead of "la."

Pac-Man shelves

I dunno why you'd set it up to be NOM-ing your flatscreen TV, but I do like the look of this, er, "Puck-Man" shelving unit from Italian firm Ginepro Design. Would be an easy remake, too, especially if you've got access to a CNC mill. [via Slippery Brick]

Hip keyrack uses magnets to clasp keys

I'm digging this wooden key rack concept by designer Thomas Bedós Bonaterra. Rather than using a mundane fastener such as a hook or Lego brick, his version relies on a hidden magnet to fasten your keys to the key rack. I wonder if it will support the unwieldy set of keys that I carry around? [via notcot]

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January 30, 2010

myPod looks like a neat pad

Need a unique spot for your studio/workshop/cave? Perhaps you could get inspired to incubate your latest crazy ideas inside one of these. They're being pitched as an environmentally benign alternative to commuting and less expensive to heating a whole house for a home office. These appear to be production models with standardization of design and materials. Anybody have other versions we can see? Do you or your neighbor have one we can view? [Via StumbleUpon]

January 29, 2010

Panning time lapse using a kitchen timer

From the MAKE Flickr pool:

Flickr user rtadlock made this stylish panning timelapse camera using an old kitchen timer, and it came out beautifully!

If you need inspiration on how to make your own, check out the Time-lapse panning article in MAKE, Volume 15, page 159. Happy snapping!

Retro Thing's hackable USB joystick

Touchscreen and computer vision interfaces are slowly starting to replace the traditional game controllers in next generation systems. Today's Wiimote will be tomorrow's joystick. Speaking of joysticks, the guys over at Retro Thing are producing some pretty cool classic Atari-style joysticks using clear plastic and a USB interface. Besides being an awesome retro game controller, the USB controller board is fully hackable and comes with labeled solder points to connect up to 8 additional control~~ler~~s (buttons, switches). Perfect for a homebrew MAME cabinet or tabletop build.

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January 28, 2010

Physical color picker

Here's a neat concept idea by Jinsun Park, a physical Color Picker. It is kind of like the color picker tool in a paint program, except for physical objects. Though the design won't work as proposed (for starts, you would need CMYK ink in the pen to be able to draw), it seems like the optical scanner part could be made to work. I think all you would need is a white light source (maybe a selection of different LEDs?) and either a color light sensor or some photocells with light gels on them. Think it would work? Have you already made one? [via core77]

Update: As an anonymous commenter points out, the Sparkfun module I linked to already contains an LED, so you could just use it as-is. If you want to make your own, check out this project.

January 25, 2010

A virtual dog for a real cat

Hans Ruber designed the virtual dog Miku for an installation, then set it up for his cat to play with. Lucky cat! [via codeanticode]

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January 24, 2010

Post-disaster shelters

Around the world, people are preparing systems to deploy in emergencies like the earthquake in Haiti, the Asian tsunami of a few years ago, and other situations such as hurricanes, floods, fires, and the aftermath of war. Medical personnel are crucial, but their stuff needs to be with them, and they need a place to work. Below are a number of shelters that can be delivered and set up in places of need around the world. The people developing these systems are working hard, often with little funding and driven by their passion to create better designs. These projects are all in some phase of the design process, and each could have its place in a variety of challenging situations. Each community has its own traditions of architecture, and the materials available vary by region. The designers of long-term structures need to remain sensitive to these local realities.

Containers 2 Clinics

Containers to Clinics converts surplus shipping containers into medical clinics. These robustly-built facilities can be used to jump start an existing community infrastructure, and then be transferred to another needy community as the first matures.

C2C retrofits portable shipping containers into health clinics with high-quality equipment, medicines, and medical staff. The clinics are transported to under-served areas of the developing world to administer primary healthcare to women and children.

C2C's clinics are designed with diagnostic, lighting, and climate-control technologies appropriate for low-resource settings and reflect local cultural traditions and health education needs. By repurposing shipping containers, C2C exports access to better health around the world and closes the gap between available treatments and the women and children who desperately need them.

January 23, 2010

Remake: MacBook hidden in an actual book

This thing is called "BookBook" and it's available from TwelveSouth for $80. Would be an easy remake, though, if you could find an appropriately-sized book. Besides the cool factor, disguising your expensive laptop as an old book has obvious security advantages. [via Geekologie]

January 22, 2010

Coffee bean cooler

The coffee connoisseurs in the crowd are probably familiar with the popcorn popper method of roasting your own beans. But anyone who's tried it has probably found the hot-potato method of transferring the roasted beans back and forth between two colanders, to arrest the roasting process, a little... inelegant. On Evil Mad Scientist, Windell shows how he turned an air popper into a cooler for cooling the beans down after they've come out of the roaster. And no, unfortunately, the same air popper cannot be used to for both the roasting and the cooling. You need two air poppers.

Roasting coffee at home: a DIY coffee bean cooler

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Check out all the coffee coverage on MAKE

January 18, 2010

Shelter 2.0: Distributed manufacturing for emergencies

Bill writes in to tell about Shelter 2.0, a fabbed structure system that aims to leverage distributed manufacturing and shipping to provide durable emergency structures to situations of need.

The Shelter 2.0 was designed by Robert Bridges as a CNC-cut emergency shelter in the Guggenheim/Sketchup contest in 2009. The idea was that it would be partway between a tent and a real house and could be dis-assembled and re-assembled using some interesting CNC-cut joinery to make it easy.
Since all the digital files needed to cut the Shelters are available for download under a Creative Commons, share alike, no commercial license, anyone in the world with a ShopBot CNC tool can cut one...that's 6000+ possible fabricators. The potential for a distributed manufacturing of even a fraction of this size to cut things like emergency housing is pretty powerful. Tools and materials could be shipped to the place they're needed and cut there, but more practically parts could be cut in regional clusters and shipped where they're needed in containers. With services like 100kGarages starting to assemble fabrication networks, it will become increasingly easy to get projects like this organized and rolling when the need arises. And with design files available in places like the Sketchup 3d warehouse, design refinement is faster and easier.

He and some others have ramped up their design iterations to develop a new end wall system. They shopbotted the parts and set it up over the weekend.

January 16, 2010

Are you ready for 72 hours?

Have you checked your emergency kit in a while? Back at the turn of the century, lots of people built survival kits in preparation for the excitement of Y2K. Perhaps you have moved since then, or maybe you never made one. After a natural or manmade disaster, the magic window is considered to be 72 hours for surviving the initial impact. Having a kit at the ready might increase your chances. Certainly while traveling, you can have a plan agreed upon with all of your group.

After a major disaster, it is unlikely that emergency response services will be able to immediately respond to everyone's needs, so it's important to be prepared to take care of yourself and your family. Plan to be on your own for at least the first 72 hours.

Do you have an emergency kit or plan? What does it consist of? Show us some pictures or tell in the comments what you would do in a sudden emergency.

Instant shelter: Just add water!

Concrete Canvas shelters look like an amazing way to deliver shelter to emergency situations. The building arrives in an airtight bag, is pulled out with a vehicle and inflated. The building can be deployed by just two people (and a bit of machinery) in 45 minutes. After squirting with water, the concrete impregnated fabric sets up and is ready for use in 24 hours. Covering it with an earthen berm helps keep it temperature controlled, and the interior can be kept as a sterile environment.

Concrete Canvas have developed two shelter variants, CCS25 and CCS54 (with 25sqm and 54sqm of floor space respectively). CCS structures have been designed to maximize their internal usable space. A standard CCS54 can accommodate up to 15 people according to Sphere Standards, Humanitarian and Disaster Response Charter. For longer term operations, CCS54 will accommodate 8 standard cots with free standing mosquito nets. The technology can be scaled up to provide even larger structures. Future product developments include shelters to be used for storage of vehicles and helicopters.

Have you worked with these concrete structures? How are they to use after construction?

January 11, 2010

Updated animated optical illusion tutorial

If last weeks' post on animated optical illusions left you scratching your head in confusion, then you might want to check out the scanimation-style tutorial by Paul of dude craft. He noticed some flaws in the previous tutorial, and took it upon himself to correct them.

Round pong, a pong game for circular oscilloscopes

Jon Stanley writes in to share his latest project, the entirely analog Round Pong. Built to be played in a vintage Heathkit oscilloscope with a circular screen, he developed some tricky circuitry to generate the classic game using a circle generator. Schematics and writeup for both this game and a more traditional rectangular pong game are on his website.

January 8, 2010

Lo-fi animation using record player and video camera

Here's a straightforward way to make an animation, it looks like it could be fun to make on a rainy day. Douglas Wise made a record player animation using a record player, digital video camera, and a carefully designed paper record. It is sort of like an electronically-assisted zoetrope.

Noting that the record player spins at 33 1/3 RPM, and that his camera takes video at 30fps, he calculated that the video camera would take 54 photos of the record during one revolution. So, he divided the paper into 54 sections, and drew one frame of the animation in each line. Once it was prepared, he turned the record on and started recording. He has a video of it running and a more in-depth explanation on his site. [via dudecraft]