The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for bikes, rockets, R/C vehicles, toys and other diversions.
I stumbled across this powder coating make blog post a while ago and decided to build something similar. My first attempt worked well but I built an improved unit with a similar topology to commercial units. I’m in the process of building my third prototype now.
Meg of Elsie Marley shares a tutorial for making a tangram puzzle from balsa wood. I used to love playing with these when I was a kid, and I’m thinking I need to try my hand at it again and introduce my kids to the fun of a tangram puzzle.
Randy Sarafan writes: This Simple Bot was inspired by a work by artist James Rouvelle called Colony in which a bunch odd shaped ovals self-propel around their environment. It is my understanding that his bots were made by placing a vibrating motor freely inside of a Styrofoam ball that was then coated to give it […]
The ARM powered Motorola Droid controlled LEGO Mindstorms NXT robot called MultiCuber 777 solves a 7x7x7 V-CUBE 7 in 38 minutes 54 seconds.
My significant other was recently given one of these Woodbaby shoulder puppets by a friend of hers who frequents renaissance faires, where the Woodbaby is a popular commodity. The puppet features a strong magnet in its base that mates with a curved metal “shoulder plate” that goes under your clothing and keeps the figure firmly perched on your shoulder. The mechanical control cable (which, per this thread discussing a DIY version, are R/C airplane control surface push-rods) runs to a simple controller that can be concealed in a pocket and manipulated to make the figure turn its head and look around in a surprisingly life-like manner. More elaborate versions have additional controls like wings and blinking, light-up eyes. Flickr user JeffreyWiden made his own. Would be cool to see an electronic version with a wireless control fob.
O’Reilly author Alasdair Allan (Learning iPhone Programming and the upcoming Programming iPhone Sensors) talked about using the OpenCV framework for face detection at OSCON in Portland, Oregon. In the video above, Mac Slocum interviews Alasdair from the expo floor of OSCON. For more information on Alasdair’s talk, check out his summary and slides.
This monster robot, according to the NXTStep, packs 9 NXT bricks controlling 16 Power Functions motors. Sweet!
