Build a Better Music Interface: Railfans (as in Trains)
Railfans are building life-size, full-scale railroad cabs that look and function like the real thing, then projecting scenery onto their wall. And for music, you can hack their USB controller to turn it into a music / video / VJ controller, using either the Windows SDK (for hard coding) or a Mac app called junXion (for simple MIDI, useful with Max/MSP/Jitter, audio and VJ apps etc.) Aside from the train controller interface, you could use their I/O box to build any controller you wanted. There are other I/O boxes that use USB, but theirs has an unusual number of ins and outs, saving you basic stamp programming. And it’s also comparatively cheap. They also make bunches of custom controllers, keyboards, everything… Link.
Neat lamp a MAKE Flickr pool member made – the base and top are poplar, while the dowels are oak. I used very small dowels to hold the base together (you can barely see them as spots near the bottommost CD). The bottom two layers of the base are hollow, and there’s a piece of round plexiglass to hold everything in. The light is a standard cold cathode tube used for case modding. This thing is freakin’ heavy, since there’s over 200 CDs. 
This is a really cool attempt for a DIY image intensifier- MAKE Flickr pool member BenSinclair writes “I took a Bushnell night vision monocular and crammed it into an eyepiece for use as an image intensifier on an astronomical telescope. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t improve the image enough”. 
Here’s a good MAKER challenge, if you want to help hack a Nintendo DS check this – Tom Wilburn continues to document music-making using a Nintendo DS and Nintendo’s bizarre game, ElectroPlankton. Since we last checked in with him, he’s gotten further content up, plus an evolving table-of-contents. There’s just one hitch: it’d be great to get audio into the Nintendo DS via a cable instead of the mic. Thomas tried hacking the built-in jack, but with less-than-desirable results. Any experienced benders out there wanna help out? Any word on headsets for the DS? Give him or me a holler and let us know. 
Skype for Pocket PC is out (beta) – Version 1.2 offers the ability to make Skype to Skype calls, Skype Out calls, instant message chats and to send and receive voicemail. We also worked hard to provide good voice quality. For the best sound quality we recommend you use earphones, a device with a CPU of at least 300MHz as well as built-in WiFi. 
The midiGun is a MIDI controller in a gun. Not a real gun, but one covered in slightly camp flouro green plastic, lots of knobs and switches, a crossfader on the bottom of the barrel, a laser sight and lots more, detailed on this chart. It’s designed using a Doepfer pocket electronics module to control DJ software. [
This might be an easy and fun way for a MAKER out there to pick up $5,000 – Wirelessly network-enable your machine or device with a Lantronix WiPort … and you could win $5,000. What could you engineer or enhance with one of our WiPort 802.11 wireless device servers? Show us! 