After last week's Teach Your Family to Solder announcement, I couldn't help but think of this cool little project as perfect soldering practice. The Rock 'N' Roll Speakers first appeared on the pages of our sister publication CRAFT in Volume 07 as a sneak peek excerpt from one of our books, Fashioning Technology by Syuzi Pakhchyan. This set of lo-fi travel speakers are driven by a simple power amplifier circuit and a tilt switch, so you turn them on and off by tilting them. When both speakers are visible, they're on, and when only one is visible, they're off. The speakers are built into cut and folded mat board. Here's a look under the hood:
Here is the full project for you shared through our Digital Edition. Naturally, the best soldering practice is one that yields a super cool end product.
This DIY Intro to Smart Crafting is an invaluable resource that walks you through the materials and tools you can use, gives technical primers on everything from LEDs to soldering to troubleshooting, and then offers 12 innovative projects of wearables, home goods, and toys you can make. The book is filled with clear, instructive photos for anyone who wants to expand their crafting horizons. There's really no other book out there like it. You can also check out the Fashioning Technology community site for tutorials, resources, and forum discussions.
Re: MAKE IT! is a three day festival of installations, music, and workshops highlighting the spirit of DIY culture. The festival celebrates the innovative use of custom-built, re-purposed, and recycled technology to create art, presented in environments and performances that reflect self-reliance, innovation, collaboration, and community participation.
Re: Make It! will take place at the Santa Fe Complex (Santa Fe, NM) on August 7th 5PM - 10PM, August 8th NOON - 10PM, and August 9th NOON - 8PM.
In this Ignite talk, social roboticist Heather Knight talks about her work at JPL. The talk feels a bit rushed, but you can explore more about the projects she mentions at her website (link below).
From MAKE magazine: In MAKE, Volume 19: Robots, Rovers, and Drones, learn how to make a model plane with an autopilot and a built-in robot brain. We'll also show you how to make a comfortable chair and footstool out of a single sheet of plywood, a bicyclist's vest that shows how fast you're going, and projects that introduce you to servomotors. All this, and plenty more, in MAKE, Volume 19! If you're a subscriber, your copy should be shipping in the next few days; newsstand date is August 18th.
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Science Fair project FOR THE WIN! According to a piece on Wired Science, a 16-year-old high school student, Daniel Burd, from Waterloo, Ontario, has figured out a way to quickly decompose plastic (like that used in shopping bags) by letting bacteria eat it. He presented his findings at the high school science fair.
The Record reports that Burd mixed landfill dirt with yeast and tap water, then added ground plastic and let it stew. The plastic indeed decomposed more quickly than it would in nature; after experimenting with different temperatures and configurations, Burd isolated the microbial munchers. One came from the bacterial genus Pseudomonas, and the other from the genus Sphingomonas.
I like how the piece ends:
Amazing stuff. I'll try to get an interview with this young man who may have managed to solve one of the most intractable environmental dilemmas of our time. And I can't help but wonder whether his high school already had its prom. If he doesn't get to be king, there's no justice in this world.
V8 Supercar driver Rick Kelly is a R/C model cars fan and he recently built the Red Bull Mojet T40, a 1:10 scale replica of the Thrust SSC machine that set the World Land Speed Record on 15 October 1997.
This R/C car is powered by two jet engines, and in May, Rick tried, without success, to break the world land speed record for a remote control car currently held by Nic Case.
Every other week, MAKE's awesome interns tell about the projects they're building in the Make: Labs, the trouble they've gotten into, and what they'll make next.
By Eric Chu, engineering intern
Hammers have been used for millions of years, evolving from a primitive stone tool to the combinations of metals, woods, and plastics commonly seen today. Here's my version in solid steel.
I made this steel hammer in my beginner's manual machining class, for the class final. This is no ordinary hammer. It's roughly twice the weight and size of a normal hammer, so it has lots of power behind it when swung! I made it using a manual lathe and utilizing most of the lathe's tools. Check out my results:
The hammer is actually made of 2 parts: the head and the handle.
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Artist Oscar Diez created this amazing calendar, made of different types of paper and special inks, which is carefully designed to slowly color in the days of the month by capillary action, in real time, over the course of each month. Via Boing Boing.
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Instructables user mountainmanna has noticed that used mini-blinds are perfect for re-purposing as plant markers. They're lightweight, rustproof, designed to hold up to continued sun exposure, and have a nice treated surface that takes ink or pencil very well. Her tutorial shows you how to cut them up for use.
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I have probably been washing clothes in this hand-powered washing machine for over 25 years. It has two funnels inside the tank that serve as plungers, agitating the water every time the handle is pumped.
The idea was originally for construction in wood. It came from a village technology handbook. I built mine out of iron and cement, and came up with the funnel plunger idea. The rectangular tank uses a special sheet metal with holes for plastering called Hi-rib. It is sealed with a cement-base sealer.
My method is to soak the clothes in detergent and water overnight, pump them for about 5 minutes in the morning, rinse them twice and hang them up on the clothesline.
In an unusual expression of love for a classic flick, Jason Urban decked out his etching press with glow-in-the-dark tape, all vector-style. ... and here I was thinking Tron-folk read their texts on wireframed Kindles :/ More pics for the viewing over at Printeresting. [via Geekologie]
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Rubber-power.com has some really nice, quick and easy-to-build rubber-band-powered model planes designed by MAKE subscriber Darcy Whyte. There are free, downloadable instructions on the site and info and video on building, flying, and repairing these simple model planes.
Planetone shares plans to build the Morphatron, a big ol' analog vocoder and formidable soldering project -
I designed it from scratch, although I did investigate as many vocoder schematics I could get my hands on. I focused on using easily obtainable components that are inexpensive, and I tried to keep the circuit as simple as possible without sacrificing functionality.
A vocoder basically has two inputs and one output. The first input is the program (usually a connected to a microphone) and the second input receives a carrier signal (usually a keyboard). The program signal is then fed to an analysis section, which extracts the spectral information from the sound and applies it to the carrier signal. This vocoder will analise the signal on 14 bands, but the design can easily be modified to include more channels, or actually fewer (if you are in a hurry).
Though not exactly a beginner's project, much of the assembly involves building multiples of the same board - making the whole seem a bit less daunting. Schematic, steps, and demo available on the project's instructable.
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I got a nice response, both here and on Twitter, to my Lost Knowledge column on wire-wrapping. Folks had memories, both fond and otherwise, of wrapping circuits. In the comments, Tai Oliphant posted a link to his Z80 computer project, which was wire-wrapped (with over 350' of 30-gauge wire!).
Simon Kirby sends word of a hot new group destined for stardom and driven by solenoids. Ladies & gents, put your hands together for - Cybraphon!
[...] a robotic orchestra in a large display cabinet, inspired by 19th century automata. The unusual feature of Cybraphon is that it is emotional. It's mood is shaped by how popular it is online, as it obsessively googles for itself, tracks it's facebook friends, checks it's myspace page, and updates it's twitter feed 24 hours a day. If it's feeling popular (for example if it finds it's been covered in MAKE), then it will play more upbeat music. However, just like a real band it is addicted to its own celebrity so there will be an inevitable crash in its mood if its fame does not constantly increase.
Give the band an ego boost by checking out the demo track plus plenty of video from the build on the project's blog.
Maker Bhautik Joshi built this excellent tilt-shift lens using a T-mount adapter, rubber pipe coupling, and a medium format lens found on eBay. It may not be as precise as a conventional tilt-shift lens, but it does produce an excellent image at a fraction of the cost.
We've missed our buddy I-Wei Huang, aka Crabfu, who's been busy getting the hang of raising ShrimpFu (aka his adorable baby son). While he hasn't been building any bots (at least that he's showing us), he's been keeping busy between diaper changes with painting on his iPhone. I love that you can see the painting process in these videos. I learned something about layering, shading, and detailing watching these. He's got plenty more on his blog.
Last week I banned my dog from using my soldering iron since she used up all my solder. Well, that hasn't stopped her from learning how to program a video game on the XGS AVR 8-Bit Development System. There isn't any soldering required, so I guess it's OK. The only question I have now is, "When do I get a chance to play?"
For the next week, or until supplies run out, both XGS Development systems are 15% off. Pick your favorite flavor, either the AVR 8-Bit system or the 16-Bit PIC, both are yummy!
These kits were designed with the philosophy that you don't want to waste time trying to figure things out. Each kit takes you step by step, saving you time, so you can learn quickly and have fun doing it! They include everything you need to get started right away.
Please Note: Not every dog will be able to program the XGS Development system, but most humans will, even beginners.
This is a fun little amp that is easy to solder and was designed to fit into almost any box. I stuffed mine into the same box that was used for shipping it to my house! Solder it up, pick a box, and plug it in!
Another great soft circuit tutorial by Hannah Perner-Wilson:
Pressure sensors on your fingertips intended for use by children and their piano teachers to visualize the difference between "p" piano (soft) and "f" forte (hard). The pressure sensitive layers of fabric in the fingertips of these gloves are stretchy so that they can fit tightly.
The sensors are made from stretch conductive fabric and piezoresistive Eeonyx fabric. The glove is connected to the Arduino via metal snaps and a fabric cable made from sewn conductive thread traces.
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