The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for bikes, rockets, R/C vehicles, toys and other diversions.
Turns out that the most useless machine (how-to coming up in MAKE Vol. 23) also makes a great cat toy! This Japanese version is sold as a bank that grabs a coin when you place it in the “bowl switch,” which is triggered by the cat in this video. [via Cute Overload]
This is a twitter experiment enabling twitter users real time interaction with a physical art installation. The installation is a pyramid made from 5000 marbles, triggered by 5000 tweets. On its way to the pyramid each marble falls into a marble run filled with ramps, tunnels, pinwheels. You will see your marbles way through the […]
Dubious practicality aside, you can’t deny this zany hybrid pedicab turns heads. Suspend your disbelief for a moment and marvel at the dual-action windmill/rotating sign’s purported ability to use the wind to assist the rider. If anything, it should attract copious potential customers.
Found in the MAKE Flickr Pool: This sweet whip by Peter Wagner of Davis, CA, packs an unaltered unicycle for the back wheel and seat, with a bolt-on front wheel if you need two. Famous Davis mayor, conservationist, artist and all-around thoughtful person, dear Julie Partansky (a twin like Myself!) gave me her old unicycle. […]
Imagine building a chess set 12′ on a side, with each piece its own robot. Oh yeah, and make it all out of Lego. Team Hassenplug’s Monster Chess packs 100,000 elements and 32 NXT bricks, and uses a laptop running a chess program to coordinate the robots. Want to see the game in person? It […]
We don’t usually cover much in the way of gaming news here, but my brother Kyle sent this item my way, noting the potential DIY aspect – Thanks to Rock Band 3’s new Pro mode for guitar, drums and, yes, keyboard, every single note on the game’s song list will be tracked. […] The good […]
Chris Shepherd has an easy way to connect multiple NXT bricks if you don’t want to bother with bluetooth. Each light sensor also has a small LED, allowing it to send out or receive signals. The added benefit? It looks cool when it lights up. (Of course it’s not really limited to six.) I have […]
