One thing we’ve encountered in Weekend Projects, our weekly beginning electronics series is that there are several ways to fabricate the same circuit. Working from a schematic, some may choose to quickly test a circuit on breadboard, while others may opt for a more-permanent perfboard solution. And some will want to etch their own PCBs – a very rewarding experience. Since we’ve now worked with every type of through-hole circuit board, I thought it would be fun to issue another challenge. It’s quite simple: build any of our board-based Weekend Projects on a different type of circuit board than the one originally demonstrated in the project. For example, build a perfboard project on stripboard, transfer an etched circuit design to breadboard, and so forth. 
The first dozen challengers to write in with pictures of their circuit board mods will receive a coveted Maker’s Notebook. Applicable projects include the Whack-a-Mole Game, Wearable Light Organ, 555 Timer Ball Whacker, Light Theremin, Treasure Finder, and the self-synthesizing Luna Mod Looper. This challenge will run through the end of the year, or until we run out of notebooks, whichever comes first. So get making and send us your story! Sign up below for the Weekend Projects Newsletter to access the projects before anybody else does, get tips, see other makers’ builds, and more. Sign Up for the “Weekend Projects” Newsletter More:
See all of the RadioShack Weekend Projects posts (to date)  
This is a surgical instrument designed, originally, for operating inside the ear. Unlike regular tweezers or forceps, the action of the jaws is “disconnected” from the action of the handles by a long, sliding linkage that allows the jaws to be passed through a very narrow opening, and a long distance inside that opening, and still operated without impediment. The tool is described as having “crocodile” or “alligator” action, goes variously by “ear, “aural,” “polypus,” “otology,” and/or “otological” forceps, and is a member of a general class of similar instruments known as “Hartmann forceps.” Obviously, they should not be inserted into the ear except by qualified medical personnel; hobbyists and craftspeople favor them for light grasping and other delicate manipulations through a narrow aperture, such as building ships in bottles. Truth be told, I am hard-put to imagine another routine use for them besides building stuff inside bottles. Here I am, for instance, using them to attach Lego elements to a model spaceship under construction inside an empty vodka bottle: 
However, I can think of any number of random, non-routine, “one-off” jobs, in my own work, where these would’ve been just what the doctor ordered, if only I had a pair on-hand at the time: pulling wires through narrow runs and panel openings, starting bolts through holes in pipes from the inside, fishing dropped screws out of the bottoms of cases packed with electronics too sensitive to expose to magnets, etc., etc. 
The good folks at MicroMark sent me two pair ear forceps—one in their large size of 12″ nominal length, and one medium-sized of 5.5″ nominal length. The larger tool can work up to 9″ inside a 0.195″ opening, and the medium-sized tool up to 4.5″ inside a 0.160″ opening. Both designs are tapered up near the handles, and I measure the real lengths from the bases of these tapers, to the tips of the jaws, as 11″ and 5.25″, respectively. MicroMark’s smallest forceps, which I did not review, are advertised with a 2.5″ reach and a working diameter of 7/32″.  Because they are intended for use in a surgical theater, they are extremely durable, well-made, and precise. They’re made from polished stainless steel and feel good in the hand. They are a pleasure to use, and are certain to be appreciated by anybody who enjoys close, precise work. The large size sells for $29.95, the medium for $19.95, and the small for $17.95. MicroMark also sells a “tight spot” scissor of the same design and dimensions as the medium-sized ear forceps, but with cutting blades, instead of jaws, at the tip.
  David Lang, something of a reluctant maker, is on a journey, intensively immersing himself in maker culture and learning as many DIY skills as he can, through a generous arrangement with our pals at TechShop. He’s regularly chronicling his efforts in this column — what he’s learning, who he’s meeting, and what hurdles he’s clearing (um… or not). –Gareth
The holidays. There’s nothing like a little time with family to give you an honest assessment of yourself. My experience this past week was especially illuminating. Having lived across the country from my family for many years, the holidays always involved a lot of explaining of what I was up to. This year, I had the unique challenge of trying to explain my quest to start making things. I realized the complexity of this when, in reference to the Zero to Maker column, my younger brother asked me, “So, David, how’s your writing going?” “It’s going pretty well!” I replied, genuinely excited that he’d taken notice to what I was doing, “I’m really learning a lot and enjoying the process. Have you been reading the updates?” “Yeah, they’re really good,” he replied. He had a pleasantly surprised and slightly impressed tone to his voice. “Wow. Thanks, bro. Did you read the last one about the side project I was working on?” I asked. I was really curious. I don’t get that much feedback on it, especially from people outside the MAKE community, so I really wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. “Uh… No I didn’t actually read that one, yet.” He replied. The confidence drained from his voice. I sensed he may have been bluffing with his enthusiasm for my writing, so I pressed him, “I see. So which ones have you read?” “Well… to be honest, I haven’t read them recently. I try to read them. It’s just that, well, sometimes you start getting all technical and you lose me.” Interesting. Too technical? I hadn’t really thought about that. Of course, he could have just pulled that out as an excuse, but I thought it was valid enough to investigate further. I asked my mom what she thought and she, too, that there was too much maker jargon to follow along. This was a bit of a blow. Not a huge one, though, as I’m getting fairly used to being the least informed person in the room, but I thought this might be something I could work on. As a new-maker who’s had the privilege of getting such an intensive, whirlwind tour of the maker world, I should be doing a better job of translating this experience to other new-makers. I thought back to my journey over the past few months. I looked at my first post and then compared it with my most recent. My brother and mom were right. My tone and word choice had changed. Things that are obvious to me now – what “CAD” or “CNC” stand for or that I can vector-cut acrylic with a laser cutter but needed a water jet to cut metal – are the same things that the pre-maker me would have gotten tripped up over. I wondered how much of what I’d learned could be attributed to understanding more of the vocabulary. Before I started this column and my crash-course in making, I had still been paying attention. I had been to a few Maker Faire’s and read the MAKE website. So even then, I was starting to get comfortable with the lingo. I thought back to when I had first heard about Maker Faire in 2009 – to the specific conversation and recommendation to attend. I didn’t understand what “Maker” meant. I had to ask twice. And now I’m the one repeating, explaining what a Maker Faire is. No matter how many times I try, I’m never able to capture the magic of it. It’s still something I think you have to see to understand. It turns out that “make” is the 69th most common word in the English language. The word means something completely different to me than it did in 2009. I need to do a better job of explaining that new definition to other. So, my question to all of you is: How do you define “making?” More:
Follow David’s Zero to Maker journey  
Nyle Steiner of SparkBangBuzz never fails to impress with his old-fashioned hand-on approach to electronics. Whether he’s improvising memristors from bits of junk he picked up off the ground, building audio oscillators using blobs of zinc instead of transistors or tubes, or whipping up an atmospheric-nitrogen laser using a few scraps of aluminum and a power supply, Nyle’s projects always serve to remind me that electronics is about much, much more than just soldering together components that came out of a factory somewhere. This project is no exception. Most people think of a thermocouple as a junction of two dissimilar metals. In fact, the only metal in the thermocouples that make up Nyle’s small, radial thermoelectric generator is copper, strategically oxidized in places to form a layer of CuO that provides the necessary dielectric junction. Nyle writes: I have spent my entire life reading whatever technical books and articles I could find and can recall seeing only one book that tells how to make something like this and none that explain how this device works…Touching the two oxidized wires together forms a junction of copper oxide to copper oxide. This is not where the action is. The copper oxide on both wires should be thought of as one solid conductor between the two copper wires – a very short one at that. This can now be seen as the classic two thermocouples back to back circuit. We have a copper – copper oxide junction on the hot wire and an opposing copper oxide – copper junction on the cold wire…It is easy to wonder how this device could work at all because of the copper oxide, that is between the two wires, being almost an insulator. Copper oxide however, also acts like a thermistor with a very high negative temperature coefficient. Even the “cold” wire still gets hot enough that the resistance of the copper oxide drops relatively to a very low value – enabling current to flow.
See all our past coverage of Nyle’s work here. [Thanks, Eric!]  
At the end of every semester, NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program opens house and shows the public the latest in their students’ work in physical computing, interactive media, and design. Above is a smattering of the types of projects and people you can expect to find at an ITP show (full disclosure: Matt Richardson and I are current students and will be in attendance). 
If you’re in the New York area, come check out the variety of creations ITP has to offer: ITP Winter Show 2011
Sunday, 12/18 2 – 6 pm
Monday, 12/19 5 – 9 pm
721 Broadway 4th floor NYC More Projects from ITP:  We’re giving away amazing kits from our new Make: Ultimate Kit Guide EVERY DAY — thousands of dollars worth of merchandise, including MakerBots!
To celebrate the release of our latest publication, the Make: Ultimate Kit Guide 2012 (and its companion website), we’re giving away at least one of the cool kits reviewed in the issue each day during the holiday season. Today, we’re giving away our third MakerBot Thing-O-Matic (a $1,300 value!), featured on the cover of the Ultimate Kit Guide. Here’s Make: Labs intern Eric Chu’s review of Thing-O-Matic from the issue: If you want to get into 3D printing but don't know where to start, the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic Kit is the way to go. It’s a complete kit, so you need no additional parts, and a large user community can back you up if problems pop up (not to mention Thingiverse, where you can find awesome open source designs). It took me about 20 hours to build the Thing-O-Matic and start printing, and I improved its accuracy with more tuning, calibrating, and tinkering with settings in the ReplicatorG software. If you have any trouble, read the discussion at the bottom of every build step. I’ve since 3D-printed many fun and handy things (everyone loves a 3D-printed gift!) and the MakerBot is now by far the most-used machine at Make: Labs.
To be eligible for today's giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment below in this post. The entry period for today's prize will be until 11:59pm PST tonight. We’ll choose one person at random, you'll be notified by email, and you’ll have 48 hours to respond. The Winners List is kept on the Giveaway landing page. That’s it! No purchase necessary or anything else to do. Please leave only one comment per giveaway. You can enter as many giveaways as you like until you win. This giveaway is for US residents only. You also must be 18 years old to enter (Kids: Ask your parents to enter). See the Kit-A-Day Giveaway landing page for full sweepstakes details and Official Rules. Important Note: If you enter this drawing, when it’s over, please check the place where you registered to comment (eg. Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter). Some people are winning these kits and then not responding when we send them a message using the available means of contacting them. We want to make sure you get your giveaway! Winner Announced on Make: Live! The winner of this MakerBot will be announced on tomorrow night’s holiday episode of Make: Live! Tune in to find out who won!  
When I first got to play with the EZ-Robot Controller I thought it was just another microcontroller. I assumed I would have to take time to learn it’s programming syntax and the on-board Bluetooth would be hard to set up. I was wrong. Wonderfully wrong. Once I paired the device to my computer and fired up the EZ-Builder software, I was greeted by a friendly drag and drop environment. I hooked the EZ-Robot Controller up to a Boe-Bot chassis and proceeded to play around. In under 5 minutes I was able to have my crude-looking robot chase my dog around using voice commands! I was and still am blown away by the simplicity of the system and how even complicated things like object tracking and face detection (bring your own camera and servos) are built into the software. After spending several hours with the system without realizing it because I was having so much fun, I knew we had to get this in the Maker Shed. The EZ-Robot Controller and it’s creator DJ Sures were featured in Make:Volume 27 and are constantly popping up on tech sites with a new and exciting robot. The newest robot to make the rounds has been the Omnibot 2000. 
Normally, I would list the features of the the EZ-Robot Controller here but they are so numerous you’ll have to read them on the Maker Shed product page. If you are the least bit interested in building robots, hacking toys, and giving “brain transplants” I urge you to check this thing out. Just add your own wireless PC camera, sensors, and servos to bring your creation to life. You won’t be disappointed!  
Love Hultén‘s R-Kaid-6 packs the Maximus Arcade MAME frontend, and cooly, you can stack the controllers on top of the console when you’re not playing. [Via Geeky Gadgets]  
Radio whiz Greg Charvat just published this video showing off a very cool experiment with the low-cost coffee can radar system he and co-workers developed, in the fall of 2010, for MIT’s open courseware initiative. In the video, Greg describes and demonstrates a simple circuit that causes a red/green LED on the receiving antenna to glow one color when the amplitude of the received wave is positive, and another when it is negative. Moving the LED back and forth in front of the transmitter, while taking a long-exposure photograph, gives a visual map of the wavefront in space. Impressive! [Thanks, Greg!] More:  | 
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