Welcome to the Drone Zone
Last week I put out a call for cool drone videos and that’s what I got. Lots of great footage of drones flying over some beautiful landscapes. Have a look.
Technology
My Eagle Project: Using Raspberry Pi to Deliver Education to Afghan Schools
As my Eagle Project, I’m using the Raspberry Pi platform to build computers for students at a girls’ school in Afghanistan. We’re raising the money online at Indiegogo, and will be building a special, pre-loaded Linux distribution with educational software. Trust in Education, a non-profit aid group, will be setting up a computer lab with the Pi-based computers.
Grab one of the First 1,000 Origami Folded Robots
Dash Robotics launches a fundraising campaign at Dragon Innovation for their bio-inspired origami folded robot.
Component of the Month: Relays
A relay enables a signal or pulse of electricity to switch on (or switch off) a separate flow of electricity. Often, a relay uses a low voltage or low current to control a higher voltage and/or higher current. The low voltage/low current signal can be initiated by a relatively small, economical switch, and can be carried to the relay by relatively cheap, small-gauge wire, at which point the relay controls a larger current near to the load. In a car, for example, turning the ignition switch sends a signal to a relay positioned close to the starter motor.
Building a LED Firefly Simulator
Twin Cities Maker recently participated in a local art festival, bringing with them three projects that had been created by members David Bryan, Riley Harrison, Cali Mastny, and Aaron Prust. Among them was Strange Attractor, a 6×4 panel of addressable RGB LEDs controlled by a Raspberry Pi microcontroller. The matrix is designed to mimic the flashes of fireflies, which tend to synch with other fireflies’ patterns, but also change their patterns based on ambient light.
Four More Awesome Projects Shared by MAKE Readers
“Your Projects” is a column that features some of the awesome creations our readers have been making. These projects from our readers come from the MAKE Google+ Community and beyond.
A 14-Inch Hard Drive Clock
While clocks made out of dead hard drives area wonderful use for discarded hardware, here is a much more interesting hard drive clock brought to us by [Bob Alexander] and a 1970s era Honeywell computer.
In the 60s, 70s, and 80s, computers didn’t have small removable hard drives like we do today. Instead, the hard drive was an entirely separate unit that contained large platters – 14 inches across in the case of the Honeywell 200 he used in his youth. In a fit of nostalgia for his younger years, [Bob] bought two of these 14 inch platters on the Internet to turn into clocks.