The energy for a mouse-trap powered cars is stored in the mouse trap spring and it drives a wheel by some arrangement such as a string connected from the trap’s jaws. There was a competition among the mechanical engineers at my University to build a mouse trap car that could travel the furthest. There were plenty of different designs. The winners had a design that released energy from the spring slowly and had only two wheels. Thanks Stuartcw! Link.
If you ever wanted to use an Xbox controller on your Windows PC, here’s how. Exports ~32 controls to Windows: Up to 24 digital buttons, 7 axes(X, Y, Z, RX, RY, RZ, Slider) in Windows 2000/XP, 6 axes(X, Y, Z, RX, RZ, Slider) in 98/ME, POV hat switch with 8 directions Link.
Atari-style joysticks were the de facto standard for game controllers in the eighties. The design was first used in early Atari game consoles but got soon adopted by most home computers of the 8-bit era, best known examples including Commodore, Amstrad, Spectravideo and MSX. I still own a couple of Competition Pro sticks and just love the precise and tactile touch they provide. And here’s how to make one… Link.
Noah has mapped the bumpiness of the streets of Cambridge using an accelerometer he made. Schematics, source and more on his site. It would be great to have these types of maps if cars could record this data so cities would know where all the potholes are. Link.
Here’s a social PDF linking site. Folks can tag PDF link they like and it can be a social library of sorta. It would be great to do this with text files too and then sync them to devices and computers used for ebook reading. I tend to like PDFs on Tablet PCs, but it’s still not the greatest way to read content I think. Link.
The following notes grew out of a search for a good pattern for sewing a cycling jersey using non-lycra fabric. I’m not a great fan of lycra jerseys for touring, preferring a somewhat looser fit and a fabric that doesn’t feel like a wet plastic bag after I sweat in it all day long. Wool is good for cold weather, and polyester for warmer conditions. Link.
Another good how-to. These hints are worth gold! Some close friends, engineers, technicians and the like were admired with the quality achieved by this process. Again, the motivation arised after veryfing that in the brazilian market is very hard to find materials for doing an industry-grade PCB at home. There are those nasty pens (using them sucks)…there are transfer sheets (‘Letraset’ a load of work for doing a pcb) and finally there aren´t those special transfer papers, imported and mainly USA made. Even if we got them here, their cost would be prohibitive. Link.
