MAKE Magazine: Comments about Articles

Makey the robot

can Makey the robot work with also arduino UNO?

Zombie Survival Science Fair

Awesome, Ian! Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Zombie Survival Science Fair

Hi, Im Ian and I have been looking in all the make magazines I have for an idea for my grade 9 science fair, then I came across this MakeShift scenario and I thought about doing this. I checked it out with my science teacher and he thought it was an awsome thing to do. I am in the brainstorming part right now. I will send pics of my project when Im finished.

Solar pendulum

Hi Marc, The circuit is essentially just a switch which is triggered by the current induced when the magnet passes over the coil. If you'd like to read a thorough explanation of how it works, I'd suggest downloading this PDF from solarbotics, which goes into some detail on the working of the basic circuit. The extra capacitors on my version of the circuit were as you suspected, just there to make up the capacitance in the circuit to the required amount. I used mostly junk parts to build mine, so I had to work with what I had to hand. I hope that helps you! Good luck with the circuit, Owen

Solar pendulum

Hi there, Nice project. Just a couple of questions about this circuit. I'm new to electronics and like to try understand what I'm building. Is this essentially an astable multivibrator configuration ? I'm also wondering what the extra components you have wired in the photo of the build. I see 3 possibly 4 capacitors. Are they just wired to give the capacitance in the circuit ? Thanks Marc

Minor typo in the schematic

Thanks for your sharp eyes! We just posted a corrected schematic above.

Minor typo in the schematic

FYI: It appears the labels Tempo and Sound are reversed on the schematic. It's not a bit issue, but if you were hoping to replace the Sound pot with an photo resistor, for example, you might not get the results you expected.

Another tiny GPS

I also have that same GPS receiver and used to use it back in the day for navigation on my old laptops about 5 years ago, man how time flies. Ryan @ Portable Solar Power Systems

Fun with a photocell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwDMHcYwS2o

Schematic without programmer

I found a link to a schematic that doesn't include the programming input: http://www.instructables.com/files/orig/FGE/IKDL/GAKTU7C8/FGEIKDLGAKTU7C8.pdf

I have to say, I'm disappointed in the article. It doesn't have enough technical information -like the PSI required to make this work. I've tried doing the same, and had to raise my barrels significantly to get reasonable PSI, and it still doesn't work! Furthermore, I even switched toilets: the old (non-low flo) worked adequately, but the high gallon required sapped the barrels dry quickly. The new lo-flo toilet has the opposite: doesn't sap the water, but doesn't work either! Any follow-ups?

schedule 80 transparent pvc pipe

I have planning to buy 80 transparent pipe for complete this project as soon. But it was too much expensive than before as i have purchased. Any body interested to sell their 80 transparent pipe to me?? Harley Brake Pads

Box for this project?

Sorry, you have to make it yourself. The ends are perforated board. The sides are Lexan (polycarbonate). The top is ABS.

Box for this project?

Can anyone tell me where I can find a box/enclosure similar to the one pictured in this project? Thanks!

A Science Fair Project

As I read thru your column I was amazed at the number of those items I hacked in my youth. Having access to these and parents willing to let me take things apart and experiment was certainly a major influence in choosing engineering as a career. A number of years ago my oldest daughter decided at the last minute she wanted to be in the 4th Grade Science Fair. Scrambling to come up with an idea we turned to the collection of toys in the basement. When she was younger a made a simple set of wooden blocks with 1" thick maple,2 inches wide and multiples of 2 in length up to 8 inches. We used the blocks to conduct a block stacking experiment. Like sized blocks were drawn at random to see how high we could stack each size before the column collapsed. We conducted multiple runs of each size and came up with some nice bar charts to display the results. We also used the blocks for a hands on display at the science fair.