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D.I.Y. Flame Tree: Brett Levine (video)

Brett Levine has been fascinated by fire since he was a boy, coming close to setting his house on fire several times during his learning process. His latest creation, the DIY Flame Tree, is a freeform construction of copper tubing with gaseous vents that can be lit for visual effect. Maker Faire Bay Area 2011 participants were invited to created their own additions to the work and then stand behind the fence to watch the pyrotechnic results of their labors.

Continue Reading Becky Stern6
Building your own Fritzing components

Building your own Fritzing components

Today’s metaphorical yak is the representation in Fritzing of a $0.95 part, a knob potentiometer. Fritzing is a wonderful Open Source tool for designing electronic circuits. Its only shortcoming is that its library of components is not yet complete enough that it can be used to design all circuits. In my case, it’s lacking the SD card reader that I’m using, analog sticks and… this small $0.95 potentiometer. Well, in fact, for the potentiometer, I could have easily used one of the stock components from Fritzing that is close enough, but for my first component design, I wanted to start with a fairly simple part so I went ahead with it anyways, with the hope of having a better fit in the end.

Continue Reading Brian Jepson4
How-To: Coffee Can Radar

How-To: Coffee Can Radar

The MIT Open Courseware (OCW) radar materials from Dr. Gregory L. Charvat (and peers) that Matt blogged about back in February have just been released! This is hands-on education that my father, for one, spent a few years of his life (and no small amount of money) to acquire at a fancy university in the late 1960s.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan10
In the Maker Shed: Reinventing Edison – Build Your Own Light Bulb Kit

In the Maker Shed: Reinventing Edison – Build Your Own Light Bulb Kit

The Build Your Own Light Bulb Kit, from the Maker Shed, is a fun science kit designed to excite and engage experimenters of all ages. Recreate Edison’s experiments that lead to the development of the first real light bulb. The kit contains everything (except batteries) you need to build your own working light bulb using the included vacuum chamber and a number of different filament materials including carbon and tungsten.

Continue Reading Maker Shed10