I knew I was going to be a Mad Scientist for Halloween this year and I wanted a cool prop for my laboratory (aka garage work bench). As an electrical engineer, I was always fascinated by the electric "Jacob's Ladder" displays (or, more accurately, high voltage traveling arc). It really is the definitive mad scientist accessory, even though it really serves no (mad) scientific purpose other than demonstrating how high voltage can ionize air and jump large gaps. However, the rapidly rising white hot plasma and its buzzing and crackling sound cannot be beat.
However, there was an obvious reluctance to actually use high voltage. So he made a simulated Jacob's Ladder with EL wire, a SparkFun EL Sequencer, an Arduino & Wave Shield along with a Lego enclosure.
Mike Chambers built this excellent looking arduino-based speed detector. An Arduino measures the time it takes an object to travel between two points, which is then relayed back to a computer (or smart phone), where it is converted into average speed and presented in a clear manner. The concept for the project is simple, however he wins big points for putting it all together into a working package. [via Arduino Blog]
This month, the iotaCenter, an organization devoted to experimental screen arts, is hosting the Live Visual Performance 2010 (LVP2010) festival, in collaboration with Los Angeles Video Artists (LAVA) and Barcelona-based mad-actions. The festival is described as "a celebration of animators, VJs, and other artists who create and manipulate visuals in front of a live audience," and it's got several great-looking performances and workshops that make me wish I lived in Los Angeles.
An older visualist I once spoke with saw no commonality between the abstract "lumia" that he creates (and which the iotaCenter curates) and the work of today's dance club VJs — in his view, he's an abstract expressionist in the high art tradition of Jackson Pollock, while VJs are just popular entertainers. In contrast, I'm very happy to see the iotaCenter embrace current live visual performance, appreciate the creativity and depth that its practitioners bring to it, and place it in its fascinating historical context.
Jeff Potter, author of Cooking For Geeks, appeared on the Today Show recently to show off a cool way to orange up your brownies:
The work started a few weeks before my appearance. A phone call, after seeing the piece on my book in USA Today: "Would you be interested in being on the Today Show?" Of course. Then there's a flurry of short emails: "What can you show our viewers in five minutes? Something fun, visual, and interesting?" They had a copy of the book and suggested "Brownies In An Orange." Fun? Check. Visual? Check. Interesting? Depends. There's not a lot of deep connections to food science here (well, caramelization, oven temp, and how flavors go together). But viewers just want to be entertained, and the producers know what will work on their show. Check.
A FPV (First Person View) vision system installed in an R/C model plane
Since we're all a bunch of overgrown geeky kids here at MAKE, we're thrilled to announce that November is Maker Hobbies month! We're not tremendously comfortable with the idea of limiting what constitutes a "maker hobby," since a maker can be anybody who's enthusiastic about any type of DIY and exploring any form of "technology on your time." But at the same time, there are undeniably certain hobbies that are far more prevalent amongst our readership. They include hobby robots, Legos, SF and fantasy miniatures and tabletop gaming, cosplay, scale modeling, model rockets, R/C vehicles, model trains. And cooking and homebrewing.
So we'll be covering all this in the coming month. And, we want to hear about your hobbies. What do you like to do to relax, express your creativity and show off your technical prowess, and to reconnect with your inner adolescent? Let us know in the comments below. And, if you have a hobby you're passionate about that you might like to share in a post, especially if it's something unique that doesn't get a lot of ink and electrons, drop us a line and we can talk about it.
I love it when people get really, really serious about the preparation of drinks. Beverage and spirits writer Camper English is such a person. He has done some interesting experiments with freezing large pieces of crystal-clear ice at home (he reports boiling it first does not work), and freezing bottles of liqueur inside large blocks of it. His latest brainchild is this ice cube with a pocket of food color frozen inside, which is slowly released as the ice melts. The potential permutations on this trick are numerous: different colors in different cubes, different colors in the same cube, colors that react with citric acid in the drink and fade awhile after being released, etc., etc. [via NOTCOT]
I'm digging Julien Berther's faux sinking boat/sculpture, titled 'Love love'. Apparently it's actually seaworthy, and he has toured it around Europe. I wonder what it would look like if it actually sunk? [via gizmodo]
Australian Mark Clohesy's workshop shed looks pretty sweet. He has over 1,500 tools, 2 oscilloscopes, darkroom equipment, a microscope, plus an air mattress for when he's "in the dog house."
The second season of the Science Channel's series The Meteorite Men premieres tonight! Today, we're featuring an extended version of my Q&A with Geoff and Steve that appears in the current, DIY Space issue, of MAKE, Volume 24.
Q&A with The Meteorite Men Geoff Notkin and Steve Arnold hunt for visitors from outer space, but they aren't looking for little green men. Their treasure is of the geologic sort: meteorites that bring to Earth clues of astronomical and planetary development in the universe. Notkin and Arnold have searched for meteorites together for years, and now share their hunting adventures in the Science Channel's Meteorite Men television program. We checked in with the pair to get their tips and insights for DIY meteorite hunters.
What is the simplest form of meteorite hunting that the DIY enthusiast can tackle?
Meteorites fall randomly over the entire surface of the earth, so theoretically, you could search for them anywhere—even underwater if you happen to have your own submarine, and it wouldn't surprise us a bit if a couple of MAKE magazine readers have blueprints for a homemade mini-sub on the drawing board! But it's important to be realistic. The vast majority of meteorites contain a large amount of iron, and that iron will begin to rust in humid environments, eventually causing the meteorite to decompose. So, the DIY meteorite hunter might consider limiting his or her searches to arid environments where meteorites could last hundreds or even thousands of years. Open spaces with little plant growth are easier to hunt that forests and grasslands, which is one of the reasons why Antarctica, the dry lake beds of the American Southwest, and the deserts of Northwest Africa have produced so many meteorite finds. The easiest way to begin your own personal hunt is to head out to a barren area that is devoid of vegetation, with few indigenous rocks, and see if you can spot anything unusual.
Musician, furniture maker, director and general polymath Jonnie Common decided that we needed a x15 scale cassette tape for the 'Pherenzik Tear' promo video by Inspector Tapehead (in which we both play along with Chris Croasdale). So we set about making one, together. We knew the spools would have to turn so I hacked a couple of Walkmans leftover from the Tapehead Inspector project as a drive mechanism. 'How authentic!' you might say, except the resulting rotation was curiously much faster than that of a walkman. Oh well.
Lets Make Robots user fritsl wanted to play around with some old cell phone batteries, but needed a way to securely connect to them. His solution? Use a vacuum former, plastic, and some metal tabs from a switch to make a diy battery holder. He's got a nice demonstration on how to vacuum mold using a heat gun and what looks to be a plastic dinner plate. Great show!
Nice video of the theatricality and carnage that is the Chariot Races at World Maker Faire NY by Sara Kinney. Swimming Cities and Madagascar Institute sure put on a good show! There's a great little audio clip of Nick Normal explaining ArcAttack!'s musical Tesla coils at the end. I sure hope that was on purpose, because it's awesome.
There's a lot to like about this tutorial by Rain Noe over at Core77 about how to build upholstered benches called "banquettes," not the least of which is Rain's amusing and engaging prose style. His attention-grabbing opening line is one for the books.
A robot army's got to start somewhere, right? Not quite an army yet, but definitely in the minion category, Squirt, from cellbot hacker Michael Winter means business. Pesky vermin beware! [via cellbots.com]
Squirt is an autonomous robot which can communicate with an Android phone. Optionally, the phone can be used as a controller to drive the robot. Squirt's purpose is to water plants and chase away raccoons. It's also a technology demonstration to prove the feasibility of using a smart phone to control small irrigation and well systems.
MAKE subscriber Matt, from New Jersey, sent us the above photo with the subject "My Daughter Gets Me" and the message "Not a hack, not a build, just a very proud geek father." Indeed. But now you have to make something cool out it, Matt!
This tutorial covers how to talk to a knitting machine! Once the interface cable is made, we can create cool custom patterns and load them from a computer! Adventures in communicating with the Brother KH-930e knitting machine!
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