Super high-power LED draws 8 amps, burns foam, plastic
This is the PT54 PhlatLight from Luminus Devices, Inc. It’s intended for use in portable video projectors. More photos of the setup here. [via Hacked Gadgets]
Science
DIY science is the perfect way to use your creative skills and learn something new. With the right supplies, some determination, and a curious mind, you can create amazing experiments that open up a whole world of possibilities. At home-made laboratories or tech workshops, makers from all backgrounds can explore new ideas by finding ways to study their environment in novel ways – allowing them to make breathtaking discoveries!
“Balloon accelerator” from Dyson bladeless fans
I haven’t much use for those fancy new “Air Multiplier” bladeless fans by British entrepreneur James Dyson, but this publicity stunt, in which dozens of the units are used to guide a neutral-buoyancy balloon around a complex warehouse “race track,” is admittedly pretty cool.
A better Geiger-Müller mood lamp
Ãœbermaker Michal Zalewski is at it again: MAKE #21 featured a project for a Geiger-Mueller mood lamp that changed colors in response to background radioactivity. Unfortunately, this project relied on hard-to-identify and somewhat pricey components, and the color transitions seemed rather harsh. So, here’s my completely different take on the same concept. Michal’s mood lamp […]
Homemade Play Kitchen
Erin Woodward, who runs the blog Sutton Grace, has created a fabulous play kitchen for her daughter out of an old entertainment center. You know, the kind you see for sale at almost every garage sale you’ve ever been to in the burbs. Although the one she used in her reuse project was a bit […]
Maker Faire Detroit: BigDog interview
There are just two weeks left before the first-ever Maker Faire Detroit, taking place on July 31 and August 1 at The Henry Ford. Motor City is a Maker City, and it’s exciting to see it all coming together. Among the creative projects coming to the Faire is the gloriously pedal-powered BigDog (pictured above), which […]
Visual structure of a zen rock garden
Just ran across this fascinating little paper published in Nature back in 2002 by Gert J. Van Tonder, Michael J. Lyons, and Yoshimichi Ejima. In it, the authors apply a simple shape analysis to the layout of the 15 boulders in Japan’s most famous karesansui (or “Zen garden,” as they are often called in the West) at the RyÅan-ji temple in Kyoto. The technique they use is called “medial axis transformation,” which, by my understanding, basically means that they took the Voronoi diagram of the boulders in the garden as viewed from above. The paper’s authors explain their method with an elegant analogy:
Humble Homes, Simple Shacks… preview and giveaway
Our pal Derek “Deek” Diedricksen, of Tiny Yellow House and RelaxShacks.com, sent us a video tour of his 100% indie-produced, “trash-funded” book, Humble Homes, Simple Shacks, Cozy Cottages, Ramshackle Retreats, Funky Forts, and Whatever Else We Could Squeeze in Here. The book is a hoot and an inspiration, crammed with Deek’s designs — from practical […]
