Edwin Wise is no stranger to the pages of MAKE magazine, and special effects are his specialty. It's only natural that he contributed a couple of DIYs to our Halloween Special Issue back in 2007, including the Hot Glue Spider Web Gun and the classic animatronic prop, the Flying Crank Ghost:
In Volume 13, he offered up the super-loud Boom Stick, a two-stage, chamber-sealing, quick-exhaust, piston-valve air cannon that you can build out of common plumbing components. The Boom Stick straight up assaults the startle reflex of any nearby victim. A nice companion piece is the Vortex Cannon project Edwin wrote for Volume 15. Here's a video of the Vortex Cannons so you can check them out in action:
Last, but not least, in Volume 16, Edwin provided us with the Chladni Plate project, where you use a broken speaker, bits of wire, and tape to prepare a coneless voice coil driver, then use it to generate standing waves on a sheet of metal, making sound visible!
We checked in with Edwin this week to see what effects he's been brewing up, and here's what he said:
"What am I up to, huh? I continue to write stuff for Make magazine. I have another article coming out in issue 19, for example, though at only four issues a year there's only so much I can do there.
My 800-lb gorilla project each year is that I do FX, acting, and stuff for Scare for a Cure. This haunt is a direct descendant of Richard Garriot's Britannia Manor (which was a BIG DEAL in Austin, but ended in 1994, and was then continued in spirit by Wild Basin's Haunted Trails, which I joined in 2000, but ended in 2005). [Check out images and details of the transformation of the 2008 haunt, World of Horrorcraft on Edwin's site.]
I'm also working, in the background, on a variety of projects -- some electronics for the haunt, some physical projects, and one computer program that is a wiki that makes it easy to write how-to articles and link/embed research and supporting information from around the web. Unfortunately, software takes a lot of time and that's one resource I'm usually short on, so I don't think it will be up and running until the end of this year.
This wiki/database program that I'm targeting for my own blog and project documentation (and as a forum for other similar makers) was actually conceived as a way to track changes and connections, and comment on, government information such as the federal budget, a project from the League of Technical Voters, "Connect the Dots."
Anyway, I'm busy. Always. This doesn't even count my background activities of ballroom dancing, tai chi, and social stuff!"
Thanks, Edwin! Keep up with Edwin on his site, simreal.com. And for back issues of MAKE, including the classic Halloween issue, head on over to the Maker Shed.
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Tom Igoe just sent me this really cool project that he made on the Arduino Mega and in Processing. He used (2) 8x8 LED matrices and an Arduino Mega to recreate Pong. Next, he ported the Arduino code over to Processing. He said it took 10 minutes to port the entire code. That's fast! You can see the LED matrices in action in my post from yesterday. Check out the link for detailed instructions of both projects, a video, and the source code. Thanks Tom!
When I start learning a new platform, I have a simple rule: If you don't know what to do with it, make pong. What I love about pong is that it's a simple rule set, easy to understand, and implementable on just about anything with a pixel display. You can generally implement it in a day or less on any platform. And it's a great example of engaging interaction. People understand what's going on right away, and, when implemented well, it's just challenging enough to keep you engaged for several minutes at least. That's good interaction, to me.
The Wired How-To Wiki has a piece on Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Your Old Gadgets. So far, it's mainly about the recycling part, but hey, it's a wiki, so you can add your own ideas for reusing old gadgets.
We've been having a bit of a tech-crush here at MAKE, on pneumatic tube systems. We wrote about it in a recent Lost Knowledge column, talked about it on Make: Talk, and Dale went to Molly Wright Steenson's inspiring talk at ETech. In this San Jose Ignite video, entitled "It Really is a Series of Tubes," Molly presents a wonderful survey of pneumatic technologies of the 1800s, all in five minutes.
In case you missed last night's Nightline segment on the DIY movement and MAKE, featuring Mister Jalopy and Mark Frauenfelder and scenes from Make: television and Maker Faire, ABC News now has it on their website. It's the "Do It Yourself" segment.
What do you get if you cross a full-featured PC with a microcontroller? Trossen Robotics is hoping you get a Roboard RB-100, a new breed of robot brains that is like a tricked-out microcontroller or an extremely svelte PC, take your... ah... PIC.
The Roboard RB-100 is a new breed of robotics controller: a fusion of a traditional microcontroller and a full function computer. Think of it as an OS capable microcontroller on steroids, boasting a 32bit x86 CPU running at 1000MHz and 256MB DRAM. The ability to load an operating system of your choice and have direct access to I/O, Comm ports, USB, and networking opens this controller up to a wide range of robotics based applications. Our Roboard Starter Kit comes with just about everything you need to implement this feature rich controller in your next robotics project! All you need to supply is a 1-2gb Micro-SD card to load an OS onto, 6-24v, and a robot!
* Powerful Computer dedicated to robotics applications.
* Starter Kit includes Interface Cables and Mini PCI VGA Card.
* Based on the Vortex86DX, a 32bit x86 CPU running at 1000MHz with 256MB DRAM
* Compatible with Windows, Linux and DOS
* Open Source C++ Library for Roboard's unique I/O functions (sensors, actuators, etc.)
* A perfect solution for Microsoft Robotics Studio development.
* Only 2 watts of power consumption!
* Tiny size measuring in at only 96 x 56 mm
The Roboard Starter Set, which includes the RB-100 and nine different power and data cables, sells for $299.
The Memsic 2125 accelerometer from the Maker Shed is a low cost, dual-axis thermal accelerometer capable of measuring tilt, acceleration, rotation, and vibration with a range of ±2 g. It's a great addition to many robotic projects, and is compatible with most micro-controllers, including the Arduino.
Pull out your dusty nifty knitter, some surgical tubing, a small liquid pump, and you've got yourself this mesmerizing little "fluid sculpture". I just keep watching it over and over, and thinking of new possibilities for shapes and patterns! Apparently the creators will be at Maker Faire in May; I'm looking forward to seeing it in person! Via Pixelsumo.
Make: television received a warm welcome from the folks at Seattlest.com last week. Thanks for the feedback about the episodes, we're always interest in hearing people's reaction. Here's a snippet:
Make debuts on Seattle TV this weekend. We've seen the first two episodes of the show (you can see some clips and episodes here), and the first one airing at 11 a.m. Saturday on KCTS was a little deflating. It just wasn't what we were hoping for, and seemed to opt for Burning Man-style spectacle over substance every time. We've also seen the second episode, though, and all is well with the world: it's awesome. That one doesn't air until April 4, so set your TiVo now. It won't kill you to watch the first episode as well, but know that things get better quickly. (LINK)
While conducting historical research for the recent MAKE presents: The Transistor video, I came across references to an earlier iteration of the device apparently created way back in 1933 - a full 14 years before Bell Labs researchers had a working model. What makes the discovery even more compelling and inspiring is the fact that its inventor, Robert Adams, was only 13 years old when he made it. Though no patents or publications were created describing its functionality, Adams is said to have built multiple crystal radios utilizing the device. Though Dr. Robert George Adams passed away in 2006, his website documents some of his work -
Two different methods of interconnection between the two crystals were employed -
1. By copper wire from a crystal mounted in a crystal cup, the other end of which is connected to the crystal set proper. 2. By direct physical contact (under small pressure) in an assembly of two crystal cup holders with vertical mounting brackets secured to a small insulated base board.
Connections to this small module of two crystals was achieved with the use of the then available vertical cantilever type cats whisker holders, providing stable connections to the central junction and input and output points. The words 'emitter', 'base', 'collector' hadn't yet been born for this new device, which, of course, was destined to become known today as a "transistor".
Inspired by Adams' story and my experience building a homebrew LED, I've begun experimenting with carborundum to create my own point-contact transistor. As I'm sure readers out there have more experience in the field of crystal detectors and similar, I'd love to hear of any ideas/experiences/opinions regarding DIY transistors in general - be sure to share any you may have in the comments below. Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!
Macetech shares details on removing PCB resist with a laser cutter -
It's easy to remove most of the residue using water and a paper towel. I used to use alcohol because it removed the residue almost instantly, but I found that it also eroded the paint mask too much. Water alone doesn't get enough of the residue off, so you need a very mild abrasive polish. The best I've found for the purpose is ordinary toothpaste, although I forgot to bring it to Techshop and used some plastic polish instead. This also works fine, but it has a wax which needs to be removed with a grease-cutting soap before you attempt to etch the copper.
His test board was a revised version of the Stealth USB Capslocker project. Read on for his specific settings for the Epilog and more process pics at his blog.
From an item called DIY Dangerous Toy - The Universel Cycle
Buddhist temple made from beer bottles
Bicycle table
I'm not ashamed to admit it: I'm a dude who crafts. I like altering books, journaling, papercraft, rubber stamping, mail art, making stickers, and... God help me for saying this ... "scrapbooking" (tho not the sucky kind, I tell myself).
So, I can totally dig this website, dedicated to men who like being crafty. From Paul's mission statement:
DudeCraft is an experiment in permission. The permission to learn and participate in crafts of all kinds. Building things from wood and steel is cool, to be sure, but so is knowing how to sew your own clothes, knit a scarf, and make something beautiful from an A4 sheet of paper. DudeCraft seeks to make it acceptable for men to participate in all crafts, not just the "manly" ones.
Flickr member Aud1073cH created this rather hot hybrid of guitar and Weird Sound Generator -
This is a synth guitar I built from a second hand First Act mini electric guitar that I stripped down, and rebuilt using Ray Wilson's WSG synth schematics. With only one Wacky/Weird/Zany voice, and without the oddness filter (it can plug into guitar pedals for effects and filters.) Two ribbon controllers on the neck control the wacky and weird oscillator frequencies. Controls where the pickup used to be effect the Zany oscillator, and switches near the neck control the wacky send and range. Its black with a metal flake flame paint job was my first flame project with the airbrush.
Excellently lengthy dual ribbon control! It's worth noting that "Oddness" (though not included here) is a great low pass filter and easily recreated on it's own from the project schematic. Click on for additional pics documenting the birth of said Synthitar. Read more | Permalink | Comments | Digg this!
On this week's Make: Talk, we'll be talking to Tom Igoe, one of the developers of Arduino (the extremely popular open source microcontroller), and the Area head of physical computing at the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), New York University. Tom is also the author of the amazing Making Things Talk (Make: Books). Mark is still on the road, so Dale and I will be joined "in the studio" by Goli Mohammadhi, Assoc Managing Editor of MAKE and CRAFT. In addition to talking to Tom, we'll present some news from the world of making, as well as some of our favorite tricks, tips, and tools of the week. Be sure to call in for prizes that we'll award during the program!
Making Things Talk Our Price: $29.99 Programming microcontrollers used to require an expensive development environment costing thousands of dollars and requiring professional electrical engineering expertise. Open-source physical computing platforms with simple i/o boards and development environments have led to new options for hobbyists, hackers, and makers. This book contains a series of projects that teach you what you need to know to get your creations talking to each other, connecting to the web, and forming networks of smart devices. Read reviews here and here.
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A couple weeks ago, I wrote about Pieter Michels' Flash bridge for Facebook Connect that allows you to access Facebook Connect services from within a Flash application. This week, Adobe and Facebook decided to release an official version of an AS3 Facebook API, so now there's an officially supported, feature complete way to access Facebook from a Flash-based Connect web site, a Facebook platform application, or a standalone AIR application.
There's decent library documentation provided by Adobe, but I recommend just digging in and examining the sample code that's been provided. It'll give you a better overview of the primary classes you'll be using and the initial steps you need to go through to authenticate and pass user data to and from Facebook.
If you're coming to our website after seeing the ABC News Nightline episode, welcome! We know Nightline viewers are a smart and curious bunch, so we thought we'd use this opportunity to introduce you (and others who might be new to MAKE) to what we do and why. We've got a lot of different things going on and are tremendously excited about the work we do and the global community of do-it-yourself (DIY) enthusiasts we collaborate with on our many projects.
Maker Media is the name of our company, we're a division of O'Reilly Media, the highly regarded technology publisher. Under the Maker Media umbrella, we produce the quarterly MAKE magazine, run two busy websites, Make: Online and CRAFT, produce annual DIY festivals, called Maker Faires, run a store, called Maker Shed, and we work with Twin Cities Public Television who produce the popular Make: television program on PBS.
MAKE magazine is how we got started in all of this. It's a quarterly technology projects magazine and a sort of house organ for the maker/DIY movement. Projects in the magazine range from old-school balsa wood and tissue-paper airplanes to what to do with old high-tech gadgets to building autonomous robots from techno-junk. Our current issue, Volume 17, is on "Lost Knowledge," and looks at the technology of the past and features projects that celebrate its marvels. The upcoming issue, ReMake: America, will explore sustainability and prospering through challenging times using DIY technology and good ol' human ingenuity. We produce both a print and a digital edition of our magazine. You can subscribe here and find back issues here.
Make: Online is our award-winning website that you're reading right now. It is one of the most popular watering holes in cyberspace where makers, crafters, inventors, tinkers, and amateur technologists and scientists of all stripes come for breaking DIY stories, for original content on building, repairing, and making things, and for how-to project articles. We also have several popular video series that run every week, Weekend Projects, MAKE Presents, and How-To Tuesday, that present cool projects, kit builds, and explain (in plain English) how various technologies work. Here's a recent Weekend Project:
CRAFT is Make: Online's sister site, covering the new crafting revolution. This is NOT your mother's home economics, this is baking, weaving, sewing, knitting, refinishing, and decorating for a tech-savvy 21st century.
Maker Faire is our annual DIY festival, makers meet-up, show and tell, and celebration of creativity, invention, self-directed learning, and the joys of making. We've held Faires in the SF/Bay Area for the last four years and in Austin, TX for the last two. A Maker Faire UK also took place in Newcastle, UK last month, the first one over seas. Last year's Bay Area Faire attracted some 65,000 people. Apparently, there are more people interested in art cars, a life-size mousetrap game, human-powered carnival rides, rocketry and robots, Tesla coils and swap-o-ramas than you might think. This year's Bay Area Faire, May 30 & 31, is inspired by President Obama's shout-out to "the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things" in his Inaugural address, and his call to begin the "remaking of America."
The Maker Shed is easy to describe. Think of the coolest technology bookstore, museum gift shop, craft and electronics stores you can dream up -- and now roll them all into one. That's the idea behind the Maker Shed. It's a year-round online store and we also set up full-size retail operations at each of the Maker Faires. It's an irresistible collection of books, kits, robots, microcontrollers, science sets, electronics, craft tools and supplies, all curated by us, the people behind MAKE. It's all of the wondrous stuff we'd want to find in such a store.
To introduce you to MAKE and to the Maker Shed, we've put together a special "Welcome to MAKE" bundle. It includes a one-year subscription to MAKE (four issues), a copy of The Best of MAKE, a 380-page collection of our favorite projects from the first ten issues, and a copy of The Maker's Notebook, a unique project notebook, with plenty of high-quality graph paper for recording your projects and a reference section with weights, measures, facts, figures, and other indispensable info geared towards makers. The bundle saves you $41 off buying the items individually.
Make: television is the DIY series for a new generation! It celebrates all manner of "maker" - the inventors, artists, geeks, basement scientists and just plain folks who mix new and old technology to create newfangled marvels. The series encourages everyone to invent, re-invent, recycle, upcycle, and act up. Each half-hour episode inspires millions to think, create, and make cool, unusual, and useful objects in their lives. Some of the projects on the show have included a burrito blaster(!), a VCR-driven cat feeder, a cigar box guitar, a simple digital TV Antenna, a wind turbine, and how to on building solar-powered robots from junk and basic electronics. Make: television began showing nationwide on Public Television stations and online at makezine.tv in January 2009. All of the episodes are now available online. Here's a sample from the Maker Workshop, episode 108, on building miniature robots from very basic parts:
We hope you enjoy our offerings and will join us in our quest to put the joy of making back into our hectic modern lives. The full title of our magazine is "Make: technology on your time." We're all about taking control of our technology rather than having it overwhelm us. We do everything we can to learn about the technology in our lives, to improve upon it, make it our own, and to share what we've learned with the growing community of fellow makers. We hope you'll join us on this journey. And if you want to get a truly thrilling and eye-opening experience of the length and breadth of the maker community, come to next month's Maker Faire. We can assure you it's like nothing you've ever experienced and that you will come away truly inspired.
If you have questions about Maker Media or any of our projects, please feel free to ask in the comments feature below.
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To familiarize yourself in this kind of industrial application , knowing the proper indications of valves in an automation is a wisely action and will positively keep us in track. Thanks for sharing this information.Good Day!
To introduce you to MAKE and to the Maker Shed, we've put together a special 
To familiarize yourself in this kind of industrial application , knowing the proper indications of valves in an automation is a wisely action and will positively keep us in track. Thanks for sharing this information.Good Day!
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