We’re dying to hear about some of the cool and interesting makery our readers got for presents this year.
Erik Utter’s lucky 2 1/2 year old son got this awesome Pluginator 5000, a switch, patch, and plug box, built by dad. Erik writes on Google+:
I designed the panel in AutoCAD and had it laser cut and engraved by a fabricator on anodized aluminum. I added the connectors, built a box, and wired up some functions for the buttons and switches. For now, there are blinky lights, vibrating motors, and the robot even speaks messages that I can record. When he gets a little older I might add a micro controller to make it even more interesting!
[via Boing Boing]
So what tools, kits, how-to books, homemade projects, or other MAKE-related gifts did you get (or give)?
30 thoughts on “So, What Did Santa Make You?”
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The only making-related thing that I got was the book: “How to Paint Citadel Tanks” from Games Workshop. Also 40K-related, I got the new Dark Eldar and Black Templars codexes.
Cheapest tablet PC!
Ainol Novo7 Basic Tablet PC 7 Inch Android 3.2 Dual Camera 8GB HDMI 1080P Black http://dwz.im/987f
I got me the Getting Started with Arduino kit, a Adafruit Motor shield, the LCD shield, a RGB LCD, and finally a grab bag of LED’s. What shall I make with all of my new wonders? Got to learn first.
None, but I did get a kick-ass recipe book of traditional Scots recipes, and a Dremel 300 series…
So I guess I’ll be using that to make a lot.
My family approaches Christmas as some kind of making competition. For example one of my brothers hand made and stenciled this wooden crate. And it’s just the box the gift came in. No wonder it’s a stressful holiday.
What sort of gift was in it? And what was some of the other stuff you all made and exchanged?
My cousin brought a musical gift box to our Christmas party. It was decorated with EL wire which flashed in sync with the music being played.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Musically-Animated-Gift-Box/
taking a cue from Becky Stern’s quick robot ornament- We made our first (hopefully it will become a annual event) tree ornament.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/110685672831752742434/posts
I got a panavise jr., a new multimeter, and a dremel flex shaft! i personally built my brother a little mouse-style interface device using a teensy microcontroller and a parallax 5-way switch. He has mentioned before that he likes the touchpoint style mouse joysticks on a thinkpad. I didn’t get time to write up anything related to the build yet, but i did take a few pics.
I made my wife an Arduflake (Arduino + snow flake shield). She is just getting into soldering and wants to learn how to code. What could be better than coding up 6 LED’s on a home made etched board?
http://www.instructables.com/id/ArduFlake-Turn-you-Arduino-into-the-best-gift-of-/
That is awesome, Michael. I might do that as a separate blog post.
Time has been the biggest maker gift so far. I’ve been on something of a repair frenzy. Two sewing machines in as many days are now working. The Z stage on one makerbot is much more secure (the heat sensor is fritzed on the other). I made a hat at a family party, and helped my niece make her own hat, showed my nephew how to make multitouch gloves. Tonight I sewed another fleece hat. Santa did fill my stocking with a bunch of LED tea candles, some batteries and a couple of lights and alarms that are triggered by magnets. Just one book of note- 30 Arduino Experiments for the Evil Genius
I stayed up late Christmas Eve and worked into Christmas morning building myself a Pixie2 CW transceiver. On Christmas morning I was listening to faint Morse code sent from who knows where (especially since I can’t comprehend Morse faster than 5 words per minute).
An artisan maker friend built me a Panto-router, for making 1/2 or 1/3 scale routered ‘stuff’! I’m considering donating it to @artisansasylum so more makers can make use of it.
Grandfather gifted me his old techtronix o-scope!