If you’re tasked with bringing a sweet treat to a Halloween party this weekend, check out this fun twist on a traditional cake recipe from Brooke over at Cheeky Kitchen. She’s created black velvet cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting and topped the whole thing off with cool chocolate trees. More: How-To: Bloody Brain Cupcakes […]
his very clever design by Derek Engelhaupt has me looking around the house for something I can put tank treads on. The sofa, maybe?
It’s actually one of seven designs for homebrew treads collected on this page over at R/C Tank Combat, which looks to be an absolutely fascinating click-trap. [via Hack a Day]
Last week I posted about this cool twist-action irising jewelry box by Matt, from Seattle, WA, (aka Thingiverse user msruggles) and the first real prototype that user Linkreincarnate printed on his Up! personal 3D printer.
Since that time, Matthew LaBerge of Minneapolis, MN, (aka Thingiverse user labmat) has printed his own copy and posted a video showing off its mechanical action. Bonus points for the lovely blue color!
Matt’s printer–which he calls “IceBot One”–is a heavily customized rig using MakerBot electronics and components from what appears to be a salvaged CNC mill. Check out the deets in his Flickr stream.
It’s also worth noting that, since first posting his original design, msruggles has published a shortened version that will print faster and use less material.
While walking the show floor at the PayPal X Innovate 2010 developers conference today I came across this cool PayPal vending machine prototype. Ray Tanaka and his crew at PayPal Labs hacked together the multi-part system using a mechanical candy dispenser, a couple of Arduino Duemilanove, a WiShield, relay, proximity sensor, and LED display. The end result allows you to scan a QR code, make a payment, and acquire munchies using a smartphone. As you make your payment, the machine will tweet your purchase and notify a payment confirmation display.
Eric Brown and co-workers at the University of Chicago have just published their design for an entirely non-anthropomorphic robot gripper based on the “jamming” principle. The gripper consists of a spheroid balloon, filled with dry coffee grounds, which can be filled with air or evacuated through the arm. Adding air expands the balloon and lets the coffee grounds flow freely around an object; withdrawing it contracts the balloons and “jams” the grounds in place around that object.
My iPad deserves better than the ugly beige plastic cookbook holder I’ve been using to prop it up. Instead of splurging on an expensive pre-made one, I decided to build a one-of-a-kind brushed aluminum stand. A trip to my local hardware store yielded the channel aluminum, flat bar, and hardware fittings I’d need. Cutting, drilling, and finishing with my Dremel made this beauty come together in a single afternoon. The iPad is very secure in this stand, thanks to the angles involved and a bit of gravity.
However you care to aesthetically classify this lunchbox amp, it’s a cool, thoroughly detailed project which can be applied to any type of styling. It uses the 2 Watt Stereo Kit from Carl’s Electronics. Dieselpunk Stereophonic Amplifier More: Vintage headphone mod
