DIY Haunts is a cool contest sponsored by Jameco Electronics and MAKE that challenges makers to utilize sound, light, and movement to create the ultimate Halloween decoration. But you have to build it... quickly! Our deadline is midnight, November 2nd. With less than a week remaining, here's what you need to participate: Throughout the contest we've updated participants with a series of newsletters talking about the contest and our optional project, the Spooky Fun Tombstone that lights up, splits open, and emits ghastly noises! We discussed cutting the styrofoam with nichrome wire, wiring up LEDs, the servo, and the motion sensor, adding audio to your project and programming the Arduino. Good luck, and be sure to submit your entry when you're done! DIY Haunts Newsletters DIY Haunts Prizes - Grand Prize: The Grand Prize Winner will receive one Stingray Robot, one MAKE magazine Halloween Issue, $50 Gift Certificate redeemable at Maker Shed, and a Jameco Electronics T-shirt. Total estimated retail value of Grand Prize is $374.94.
- Second Prize: Second Prize Winner will receive one Lego Mindstorms kit, one MAKE Magazine Halloween issue, and a Jameco Electronics T-Shirt. Total estimated retail value of Second Prize is $304.94.
- Third Prize: Third Prize Winner will receive one MAKE Circuit Breaker Leatherman ES4, one MAKE Magazine Halloween Issue, and a Jameco Electronics T-shirt. Total estimated retail value of Third Prize is $60.99.
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Over in the MAKE Forums, Chad Oliver has a question about the safety of using a kitchen oven for both reflow soldering and cooking. Anyone know what to do? Let him know over in the forums! I need to be able to do reflow soldering, but a toaster oven or skillet isn't really suitable - I travel a lot, and space is tight. The proposed solution: put a block of aluminium (roughly half an inch thick) on one of the elements on a kitchen stove, and protect all the other elements from lead splashes etc using tinfoil. Attach a thermocouple to the aluminium block to measure temperature, and use an arduino to implement a PID algorithm and signal when to turn the stove on or off. I'd stand by the stove, watch the arduino, and control the stove as directed. The Question: is this idea safe, specifically in regards to lead poisoning? Please note that I'm not placing the pcb directly onto the stove, and the stovetop should be fully covered by tinfoil. But I don't know anything about the effects of fumes or other things that could go wrong. Photo by Flickr user rileyporter. Read the Full Story » | More on MAKE » | Comments » | Read more articles in Electronics | Digg this! 
Two fun and simple project contributions to Make: Projects this week both involve mods. The first is the above-pictured retrofitted microscope by Christoph Ziimmermann (nuess0r) from Switzerland. Christoph had access to a solid, classic microscope, but wanted to amp up its usability by adding lights. The mod ended up costing him a paltry $8. The second comes from Sindri Diego of Iceland, and is a simple camera mod to produce cool bokeh effects. Bokeh comes from the Japanese word for "blur," and by making a cover for your lens, you can snap shots where the blurred lights in your image take on whatever shape you want. The picture below (taken in a mirror using the bokeh attachment) shows the attachment and the effect at the same time. 
Got a cool hack, mod, or project build to share with the community? Head on over to Make: Projects and make it happen! Thanks, in advance. Read the Full Story » | More on MAKE » | Comments » | Read more articles in hacks | Digg this! Andrew, a MAKE subscriber from Glen Ellyn, IL, sent us a link to this in-store T-shirt tank that Kevin from Workshop 88 (a makerspace in the Western Chicago Suburbs) built. It's a working tank, complete with headlights and a swiveling turret, made out of things like paint buckets and cedar edging. The T-shirt cannon was based on a design from MAKE. All of this was done out of materials at the home improvement store where he works, for an inter-store competition. The chassis of the tank is a lumber cart. The powerhouse behind it is a 3000 watt Honda generator fitted into the back. I added a long tail pipe to the end of the muffler to vent the exhaust out the back for the driver. Hooked up to the generator are the two front lamps, which are 250w halogen work lights painted black with high temp paint. It also powers the small air compressor in the front which is used to fill the PVC tank before the gun is fired. The filling system includes a modified tire filler with built in gauge so the driver can see and adjust the pressure as needed. Ride of the Valkyries More:
T-Shirt cannon Weekend Project
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 You know Adam Savage as the co-host of the terrific MythBusters television show, but did you also know that Adam has a career as an effects designer and model maker for the movie industry? His sci-fi creations can be seen in movies such as movies Galaxy Quest, Bicentennial Man, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, The Matrix Reloaded and Space Cowboys, and others.
In MAKE Volume 24, Adam shares his model making skills in the form of an article titled "Hard Shell Molds." In the piece, he takes you step-by-step through the process of making a hard shell, or "mother mold," that can be used to make resin casts of large props (such as a futuristic ray gun). The process is quite detailed, finicky, and time-consuming, but Adam's directions are clear and thorough. I found the photos of the mold itself to be quite beautiful — a true work of art, even though its purpose is strictly utilitarian. Back in MAKE Volume 08 Adam wrote a primer on how to make molds for casting small objects. It's a simpler process than making a hard shell mold, and a great place to get started if you want to learn about silicone mold making. You can read an intro to the article here. Unfortunately, MAKE Volume 08 is sold out, but if you subscribe to MAKE, you'll get full access to all 24 issues in digital format.
Check out MAKE Volume 24:  MAKE blasts into orbit and beyond with our DIY SPACE issue. Put your own satellite in orbit, launch a stratosphere balloon probe, and analyze galaxies for $20 with an easy spectrograph! We talk to the rocket mavericks reinventing the space industry, and renegade NASA hackers making smartphone robots and Lego satellites. This, plus a full payload of other cool DIY projects, from a helium-balloon camera that's better than Google Earth, to an electromagnetic levitator that shoots aluminum rings, and much more. MAKE Volume 24, on sale now.
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Read the Full Story » | More on MAKE » | Comments » | Read more articles in Arts | Digg this! Your humble correspondent as Dead Cthulhu, blogging. The mask, talons, and wings were purchased accessories. The talons and wings were intended to be "dragon" accessories, and they were given a light coat of spray paint to better match the mask, which of course is "Cthulhu-specific." The shirt and pants are from a Ghillie suit that I bought at the local military surplus store. I wore two pillows underneath the top to make me fat. There's shameful video of an uncharacteristically inebriated Cthulhu vogueing here.
Make: Online editor-in-chief Gareth Branwyn as Chia Gar! Gareth sez: : I used plastic greenery from the craft store hot-glued to a latex bald cap and then used a light brown cream make-up to color my head pseudo-terra cotta color. My beard was colored first with spray-on temp hair color, then sprigs of greenery were attached with spirit gum. The styrofoam head-form was a godsend. I thought to ask for it at the costume shop as an afterthought, as I was checking out. They sold one to me for $1.99. I figured I would just stuff the bald cap with newspaper and build a crude stand for that. But the build turned out to be very finicky, fragile, and time-consuming, and it really needed the consistent shape and solid foundation. I don't know if it would have been successful without the head-form. The costume was a big success and I got lots of compliments on it, so it was worth the many hours of work and all the frustration. I managed to get the wig back of the head-form after an evening of partying and it now sits on the console cabinet in my living room as a curious art object. There's a couple more photos over in Gar's Flickr set.
Make: Online Associate Editor Becky Stern as La Roux's Elly Jackson. This from Becky's recent post on CRAFT: Last year on the MAKE YouTube channel, commenters started saying I looked like the singer from the English synth-pop duo La Roux. Here's how to get the Mondrian jacket look from the video for their song Bulletproof. The costume tutorial includes plans for a remake of Jean-Charles de Castelbajac's jacket design. You can also make your own "neo cameo" necklace with a laser cutter and these files on Thingiverse. Check out the rest of the photos in her Flickr set.
Director of Digital Media Shawn Connally, her husband and two boys. From Halloween 2008. Lots more photos here.
MAKE/CRAFT Editorial Assistant Laura Cochrane in 2009, left, and 2008. Inspired by this post over on CRAFT, Laura dressed as an owl last year. I printed out the feather templates and eye mask (but I obviously had to increase the size of the mask, since I'm not a 5-year-old). I bought a cheap tank-top style dress to use as the base, and I was happy with the results! The year before, I was Jareth from Labyrinth. My mom gave me the leather gloves, and I made the pendent from silver and gold Fimo dough. The thing that really made the costume though, was the crystal ball - I found an acrylic ball at TAP Plastics.
Pictured to her right as Tramaine de Senna, as Pris from Blade Runner. "Since we were wearing the same wig," Laura says, "we decided to have a photo shoot together."
 CRAFT contributing writer Lish Dorset as an "old-timey" video iPod in 2006.
MAKE/CRAFT Production Designer Gerry Arrington's son, Ethan, as classic movie popcorn and pterrifying pteradactyl. p; Happy Halloween from all of us at MAKE and CRAFT! Read the Full Story » | More on MAKE » | Comments » | Read more articles in Halloween | Digg this! Minneapolitan Michael Krumpus programmed his son's halloween costume to flash LEDs in random patterns. Like many parents, we make hand-made costumes for our kids instead of buying cheaply-made (and expensive) costumes based on licensed characters. This year, my youngest son wanted to be a robot. My wife did a great job making the costume, but I just had to add some cool electronics to take it to the next level.
The electronics are nothing fancy -- a simple Atmel ATtiny13 microcontroller that interfaces with two 74HC595 shift registers to light up LEDs randomly. The technical details are below, but in the process of building this, I was really struck by how electronics and computing are being embedded into everything. This week I was making a TODO list and one of the items was "finish source code for robot costume". Building stuff for Halloween? Just a gentle reminder to check out our DIY Haunts Halloween contest, which ends November 2nd. Read the Full Story » | More on MAKE » | Comments » | Read more articles in Halloween | Digg this! 
Ian Page writes: For the last 8 years, whenever my cell phone received a call or text it would vibrate in my pocket. 'Bondage Happens' is a device I wear on my head that is connected to my cell phone. Whenever I receive a call or text the phone will vibrate and the device will inject a little bit of lemon juice into my mouth, thereby conditioning me to salivate when I get a phone call. I will wear the device for 2 weeks, starting Friday October 22nd.
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Jeff of MightyOhm has a nice writeup about Scot Satre, who in 2004 achieved his dream of designing and producing his own application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Instead of learning how to fabricate transistors himself, he used a service called MOSIS. MOSIS works by splitting the set-up cost of making integrated circuits among many people, by combining all of their designs onto a single wafter. This is similar to what sites like BatchPCB do for circuit board production. While I don't predict that individuals will start flocking to make their own chips (it still costs tens of thousands of dollars), it is in the range of what dedicated groups could probably afford to do. I actually got to use this service once, as part of an honors electronics class in college. We designed a test chip and sent it away for fabrication, however I graduated before it came back. I wonder if it worked! [via mightyohm] Read the Full Story » | More on MAKE » | Comments » | Read more articles in Electronics | Digg this!  Yesterday, we talked about TubeSats, but what about the more well-known CubeSats? They've actually been around for awhile and there have been a number of successful launches. Over at NASA Hack Space (a website that every DIY space enthusiast should have on their radar) , they have a round-up of recent developments in these "nano-sats," including links to articles on the Open Source Satellite Initiative.
CubeSat News 16 October 2010
Check out MAKE Volume 24: MAKE blasts into orbit and beyond with our DIY SPACE issue. Put your own satellite in orbit, launch a stratosphere balloon probe, and analyze galaxies for $20 with an easy spectrograph! We talk to the rocket mavericks reinventing the space industry, and renegade NASA hackers making smartphone robots and Lego satellites. This, plus a full payload of other cool DIY projects, from a helium-balloon camera that's better than Google Earth, to an electromagnetic levitator that shoots aluminum rings, and much more. MAKE Volume 24, on sale now. » BUY or SUBSCRIBE Read the Full Story » | More on MAKE » | Comments » | Read more articles in Science | Digg this! 
The da Vinci method: Shadow strokes @ The Economist... THE Mona Lisa's lure is so strong that Louvre Museum officials find it wise to keep her safely stowed behind bulletproof glass. She is let out of her protective cage once a year, for a whiff of fresh air. And this is when many a researcher would love to get their hands on Leonardo da Vinci's most famous muse, in order to find out more about how she was painted. For a long time, scientists and curators have wondered how da Vinci created shadows on her face with seemingly no brushstrokes or contours. Art experts call this shadowing technique sfumato—like the Italian word for smoke, fumo. Experts have long suspected sfumato shadowing has something to do with the glazes that da Vinci used above the paint layer. But proving this has been difficult because snatching a sample of the Mona Lisa's face for chemical analysis is, unsurprisingly, frowned upon.
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