The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for bikes, rockets, R/C vehicles, toys and other diversions.
J44 outlines his steps for converting a basic gaming light gun into a custom Laser Tag-like system, including gun and head mounted ‘hit’ detectors (a la Photon) – I hope many of you will find this instructable useful and will go on to build your own duino taggers. There is much scope for improving and […]
Interesting article from MacArthur fellow Erik Demaine covering the history of origami-style models that include curved folds. Shown above is “Concentric Circular Tower” by late UCSC Professor and noted computer scientist David A. Huffman (Wikipedia), whose curved-origami work was covered posthumously by the New York Times in 2004. The Flickr curved fold pool is chock-a-block with fascinating models of this type.
There’s a funny thing about dads’ toys. Very often, kids borrow dad’s supposedly grown-up toys and dad plays with toys designed for a much younger demographic. With that in mind, we present the Gifts for Dads list, filled with stuff that may appeal to more than one generation in your household.
LEGO minifig patent from 1979! [via @grantimahara] Update: A reader writes in with this clarification: Its not a patent but a design, in the legal sense (and practical). The difference is subtle, a patent is protects something like an apparatus (thing), a method of doing this apparatus and possibly how to operate said apparatus (let’s […]
Korean product design firm MintPass came up with these great concept designs for real calculators that imitate their software implementations. [via Boing Boing]
Maker Aki Mimoto wrote in to let us know about his exciting new Arduino/VR/Web app mashup. He’s wired up his wife’s bike on a stationary platform to an Arduino using a reed sensor. Using the sensor data from the bike, along with data from a head mounted display (HMD), Ari is able to accurately pinpoint his position within Google Street View.
This week’s flashback is as fun as it is useful, brought to you by our own Make: Online contributing writer and the host of Make: television, John Edgar Park. Originally appearing on the pages of MAKE Volume 12, the Lego Recharger helps keep your gadgets all juiced up and stores your keys too. How incredibly […]
