Rick writes “A British equivalent to the Basic Stamp PIC micro controllers but cheaper. Free programming software and a good range of products for anyone who wants to control their world. Product can be purchased in USA and Australia.” Anyone use these? I’ve been trying to find something like this for beginners for a few projects. Link.
Make pal and Make faire participant Mark writes “…an extensive insight view of how I transferred my old digital camera (which would probably fetch only $30 on ebay or such) into a infrared camera. The whole idea is just that a lot of people probably have old cameras laying around, collecting dust, so why not make one of your old cameras an infrared one?”Link. Excellent how-to and documentation.
Great HOW TO by powderly on Instructables “The following is Instructions for assembling the first generation robot arm that my wife and I are developing for the Eyebeam Atelier AiR program as part of an animatronic self-portrait. This arm includes 4 degrees-of-freedom (DOF) from the wrist to the shoulder, runs at less than 20 W and is about 12 ounces. I am currently working on V2 with limit and home switches for each DOF, a single DOF hand and adding another 2 DOF to the shoulder. Motor control units for the arm are also currently being developed…”Link.
Raphael writes “One day, I bought a genesis game console with a few games. I got tired of playing Sonic and MicroMachines so I decided to build a reprogrammable cartridge. It can be used for many things, such as running demos, homebrew games and music on the real console.”Link.
Matt writes “CVS changed its firmware in more recent versions of the one-time-use camcorders, apparently to stop hacking. The old mathods/applications don’t work, so the camerahacking kids have been trying to sort it out. Here’s one tricky hardware method that some ppl have had success with.” This clever hack just uses a wire, then you’re all set to download the videos again. Link.
The 8th annual Vintage Computer Festival is being held on November 5th – 6th at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. The highlight of this year’s event is a Homebrew Computer Club retrospective featuring a panel of original members of the Club including Steve Wozniak, Lee Felsenstein, and others. [via] Link.
Here’s a blog devoted to making Railguns (Railguns utilize an electromagnetic force called the Lorentz force to propel an electrically conductive projectile that is initially part of the current path) – the site has tons of pictures, videos, and links. Link. In MAKE 01, we have a little less electrifying version, the Gauss Rifle.