Year: 2010

Nixie tubes + concrete block = cool clock

Nixie tubes + concrete block = cool clock

Check out Norwegian maker Hans Jørgen Grimstad’s concrete & nixie clock. (The video shows some sort of test, not the regular clock operation.) Hans’s website is in Norwegian, and Google Translate doesn’t savvy Norwegian very well, so its operation is somewhat mysterious. However, I do see that there’s an XBee involved. Hans, would you care […]

Beautiful overengineered tape dispenser

Beautiful overengineered tape dispenser

There’s a great thing that happens, every so often, when people have access to machine tools: They go a little bit nuts. They’re bumping along one day, doing what they do, and some mundane object crosses them for the last time. This or that thing never works as well as it should, or breaks too easily, or gets misplaced once too often, and it occurs to them: Hey, I could fix that–and not just for myself, for today or for the next couple of weeks or months, but for the rest of my natural life and possibly those of my descendants for the foreseeable future of the species. And something like this solid 6061 aluminum Scotch tape dispenser from Henry Herndon is the result. The sea may be vast, our boats may be small and constantly buffeted by the gales of an indifferent universe ruled by a howling demon of entropy, but that Scotch-tape-dispenser-problem is fixed now, by God. On to the next thing.

USB host mode on Nexus One

Normally, when you connect your Android mobile to your PC you’re mounting it as a device. If you want to do it the other way around, you’re going to have to put the interface into USB host mode. Android hacker Sven Killig has got his Nexus One running in host mode and has connected all sorts of interesting devices to it. In addition to a USB keyboard, mouse, webcam, he’s also got an external monitor running X.

DIY liquid nitrogen generator

DIY liquid nitrogen generator

One of the more intriguing exhibits at this year’s Maker Faire Bay Area was Ben Krasnow’s liquid nitrogen generator rig. Ben built the entire assembly, for under $500, with parts he scrounged (over a year) on eBay. In this video, shot at the Faire, intrepid reporter Circuit Girl, aka Jeri Ellsworth, interviews Ben. We apologize […]