Hello there, here are your daily updates from the MAKE blog - 2009/02/03.
Remake: Encouraging Kids to Become MakersOne of the pleasant surprises in the growth of MAKE Magazine is that the magazine has a strong appeal among teens. We hear stories from parents about how engaged their son or daughter is by the projects in the magazine. We hear the same from teachers. One thing we've been doing is organizing Maker visits in some Bay Area schools. Last week, Michelle Hlubinka, who has coordinated Education Day at Maker Faire, took at group of makers to the Head-Royce School in Oakland. Here's Michelle's writeup on the visit: We did two assemblies to all of the 6-12th graders, a total of 488 students plus probably a couple dozen of their teachers, and then we also did a short "bonus round" with two classes of fourth graders (another 40 kids), who are studying electricity now so they were especially tuned into how our demos worked. The best though was a response from one of the students, as reported by his parent to his teacher: Vince said that today was the "best day of the entire school year." He was enthralled with the "Make" guys and knows that he "wants to be those guys." Thanks for getting one teenager very, very excited about the future. Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Kids | Digg this! Interview with toy modder Dustin Cantrell ToyCyte, the toy culture collector's site, has an interview with Dustin Cantrell. Dustin did the T.W.E.R.P. toy hack, which we blogged about last year, which crossed a ThingamaKIT with a Mad*L vinyl toy. Now, Dustin has crossed a Dunny toy with a plasma globe. The Plasma Dunny is kind of my way of exploring our relationship with technology. The science of the plasma globe comes from Nikola Tesla's observations and experiments with finding ways to use evacuated glass tubes to observe high-voltage phenomena. I think it's interesting that his work and discovery, which at the time must have seemed like some kind of magic, has been reduced to a cheap, Chinese-made novelty toys to be sold in malls at stores like Spencer's Gifts. More: Uses for plastic bottles    This Instructable has a bunch of ideas for reusing plastic (PET) bottles. Some of them are obvious (a grain scoop and a parts bins), some are more novel (a mosquito trap and a plant coldframe). Above are biscuit/cookie cutter, a butter churn, an LED light bulb, and an electric fence insulator. Toolbox: Portable workbench  My friend, and fellow Dorkbot DC and HacDC cohort, R. Mark Adams made this simple portable workbench out of plywood and basic hardware. He added some nifty features, like a wire spooler underneath the hinged top (with tool storage inside), two working angles (a drafting angle and a flat-top work surface) using hinged "ears" to raise and lower the top, a built-in power bar inside, and alligator-clip "third hands" that clip onto the sides wherever you need them. Mark writes: I built the bench over a couple of days, with a total cost of about $30, including the red plastic tool holder. Everything came from the local big-box home store (Home Depot) and fit easily in my car, which is more of a consideration now that I have a Mini.  The side view of the bench, showing the hinged ears (front right), the clip-on third hands, and the plastic tool holders.  The power bar mounted inside the back wall of the frame (here with the box shown upside down).  The solder and wire spooler. You feed the solder and other wires out through a hole drilled in the top, and you can pull out as much as needed while soldering, and it all stays neatly in place. More: 3D printed remote controlled helicopter Shapeways member buho29 printed out parts for a tiny remote controlled helicopter on Shapeways. The parts cost $25 and there were some issues with one of the connection points, balance and with the model getting dirty from oil. But, he 3D printed a helicopter! Of course he still had to do the assembly, and will need some more R&D to get it just right and added off the shelf parts to his design. But..he 3D printed a helicopter. I for one can not wait what the next versions will look like!Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this! Tweet-a-Watt, A twittering power meter VOTE!
The response to this year's Greener Gadgets Design Competition was phenomenal. Entries came in from all over the world, and we were thrilled at the display of creativity and (deep) green design thinking. We've just published the Top 50 Semi-Finalists, and wanted to send this email to express our appreciation for your registration and participation. Congratulations to the designers who made it this far, and thanks to everyone for signing up and for sharing your designs with GreenerGadgets. We invite you now to visit the Top 50 Gallery at www.core77.com/greenergadgets and to vote for your favorites. Tell your friends, leave comments, and help the judges decide which entries will make it to the stage for the live judging at the Greener Gadgets Conference in New York City on February 27th. Thank you again for entering, and good luck to the Top 50! Project links: See it live! DIY cable light connectorsMAKE contributor Bill Bumgarner has posted another great home project, and it's chock full of fun things like a tap & die, drill press, and cross-sliding vise (and lasers): While making my own low voltage cable light fixtures, I searched high and low for a little piece of hardware that would elegantly connect between the suspension cables and the wires down to the lights. Best quote: "Every drill should come with lasers." Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!It's Groundhog Day - MAKE something!It's Groundhog Day and Punxsutawney Phil, everyone's favorite weather-related groundhog, has seen his shadow, predicting six more weeks of winter. Here are some ideas for celebrating! Embrace the cold Build a snow fort, or turn your back yard into an ice rink. Make some crepes Photo is "Grand Marnier crêpe, flambé @ Crêpérie Des Artes, Paris" by Flickr user ilmungo. February second is also Candlmas, a Christian holiday observed in many ways, one of which is making crepes. Delicious! Shadow puppets Learn some basic shadow puppets over at Instructables. Put winter out of your mind by reading about traditional Indonesian Wayang Kulit, theater incorporating ornate leather shadow puppets. Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Holiday projects | Digg this!1 terabyte RAID in a MacBook ProDamien Stolarz, co-author of the upcoming iPhone Hacks and author of Car PC Hacks, has crammed two hard drives into his MacBook and likes to live on the edge: I bought two nominally 500GB hard drives (amusingly, each enclosure contained a different manufacturer - one Hitachi and one Samsung). 1 Terabyte raid in my 17″ Mac Book Pro Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Computers | Digg this!Dewanatron folk synth-strumentsLeon and Brian Dewan of Dewanatron demonstrate the Dual Primate Console, a decidedly unique 2-player instrument capable of some very interesting percussive sequences - Each side of this instrument is operated by one primate. Each side has identical controls, except for a single tempo control on the side. The lower manual contains four synthesizers with four independent ADSR envelope generators. Interlocking rhythmical elements can be generated by dialing numbers into a voltage reservoir, then assigning this number to any of four electronic counters on the upper manual. If the number 8 is dialed into the reservoir and assigned to each of the four synthesizers on the lower manual, the machine will distribute the four sounds across eight pulses produced by the internal clock. The counters can hold separate numbers, so the machine can play any number up to 16 against any other number. There are four horizontal rows of knobs and switches on the lower manual: two employ pairs of frequency modulating oscillators, the other two filtered noise. The upper manual has its own envelope generator and filter to shape sounds from external sources, and is played with push buttons that allow the internal clock to trigger it.  About a year ago I had the pleasure of observing a performance by the talented Dewanatron duo, wherein they demonstrated a few instruments from their very awesome collection. As you can derive from the above example it was a highly enjoyable event for a synth-DIYer like myself. The Dewan's instruments combine warm tones of analog electronics with fine aesthetics of handcrafted wood enclosures. Their description of their work as "Folk Synthesizers" seems to sum it up best - Now that manufactured instruments that are mass produced have long outnumbered hand made instruments, the latter have been classified as folk instruments. The purpose of this is to elevate the status of mass produced objects above that of the folk object, which is generally considered to be of inferior quality. Of course folk instruments, being unstandardized, have a freedom of range in form, character, choice of materials and quality of workmanship that mass produced objects can only dream about.Very very well put - Dewanatron Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Music | Digg this! Hello, "my name is" Android appI was browsing through the Android market on my G1 phone, and came across this gem from onlythoughtworks: My Name Is Weighing in at a mere 51 Kb, it won't take up much of the G1's limited space for applications, yet supplies endless customizable fun (now I just need a way to attach the G1 to my shirt). My only complaint is the lack of a font setting, which would enable a full Inigo Montoya experience. (Related: ThinkGeek's Hello My Name Is Inigo Montoya T-Shirt). "My Name Is" is available for free download in the Application section of the Android Market, which can be found on Android devices. Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Mobile | Digg this!Laser cutter classes @ NYCResistor
In this two hour class, we'll walk through all the steps from idea to pressing the "go" button on the laser. We'll cover safety and basic design skills in Inkscape and you'll learn how to do a burninate test to find out if something is laserable. After the two hours, you'll have time to prototype something until 3pm! After learning the basics, each student will create their own design and lasercut it on the laser! A $10 lab fee is included in the ticket price and covers 12" x 12" of acrylic or wood and time on the laser cutter to cut and etch it.Sure to be a great experience for NYCers interested in the precision manufacturing capabilities of such a device - a dream tool for so many maker-centric applications (professional front panels, custom parts, etc, etc) Even if you're not able to attend, consider getting to know the open source vector graphics software Inkscape, the recommended app for laser-cut art templates. - Fire The Lazzzor! Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Events | Digg this! Connecting a relay to Arduino
After fielding a few questions about connecting relays to an Arduino, Anachrocomputer drew up this basic schematic for proper wiring. Why use a relay with an Arduino board? Sparkfun recently posted a nice tutorial on using relays to control mains supply power - strongly recommended for those interested in controlling 'wall powered' devices - Controlling Big, Mean, Devices Update: Anachrocomputer adds - Another reason to use a relay is for electrical isolation. The switching contacts of a relay are completely isolated from the coil, and hence from the Arduino. The only link is by the magnetic field, Pseudo-3D video conferencingChris Harrison and Scott E. Hudson of CMU's Human Computer Interaction Institute developed a technique for simulating a 3D video conferencing experience using standard webcam equipment. Previous research efforts have explored the use of 3D in telecommunication, and show that the additional realism can enrich the video conference experience. However, existing systems require complex sensor and cameras setups that make them infeasible for widespread adoption. We present a method for producing a pseudo-3D experience using only a single generic webcam at each end. This means nearly any computer currently able to video conference can use our technique, making it readily adoptable. Although using comparatively simple techniques, the 3D result is convincing. The hack works by using two techniques. First, the user's image is subtracted from the background. This allows the person's image to be rendered in a separate plane, and perspective transformations can be applied to simulate a different camera perspective, even though the webcam is stationary. Second, the head position of the viewer is constantly tracked so that the system can adjust the received image based on where the viewer moves her head. The result is that you can move your head to the left or right and it appears as if you can see around the person you are speaking to. Newton's Reflecting Telescope Kit
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