BEAM robot building techniques allow you to build fun and simple little robots with lots of room for stylizing. BEAM robots can move anywhere from a fraction of an inch to a couple of feet, depending on how big their capacitors are. You can also use batteries. For these two projects, we’ll use what’s known […]
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This fume extractor is based on the mini fume extractor that was made by Marc de Vinck. This is basically a fume extractor mounted onto a third-hand tool. In other words, this is just a thing you can do with the mini fume extractor. If you want a fume extractor to be 1-5 inches away […]
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Most EL wire displays are static, because they use an inverter that simply turns the EL wire on (i.e. constant-on). Sound-reactive inverters are available, but most of these are only “single channel”, so the wires are either all on or all off. To really make your display dynamic you need an inverter with multiple output […]
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In early 2011 my robot club, the Dallas Personal Robotics Group, was looking for a way to help our beginning members build up their skills. To this end, we produced a series of lessons covering 5 topics needed to make a simple, programmable robot: making PCBs with the toner transfer method, programming ATtiny microprocessors, laying […]
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About 2 months ago, after years of begging and pleading from my family, I reluctantly agreed to get another cat from the local shelter. We already have a menagerie of beasts that share our home, but for some reason they felt we needed another. I admit, I do like our new addition to the family. […]
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By John Baichtal and Adam Wolf Do you remember those classic video game arcades filled with rattling quarters, 8-bit songs, and flashing lights? You can reclaim that excitement in your own living room with this Coffee Table MAME Console. In 1997, Italian software developer Nicola Salmoria released the first iteration of MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine […]
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When I read the Geekcon 2010 call for projects, I thought, what the hack — I’ll do it. Inspired by Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, I decided to let creativity into my life, and start inventing things. I watched Sterling Johnson’s magnificent “Giant Stinson Beach Bubbles” clip on YouTube, and when I described it to […]
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