Turn anything into a drum set with your Arduino and this simple kit. Some makers build custom drum sets from fine hardwoods, while others take the easy route and make practice sets from mouse pads and sheet metal. Instead of building my own, I used the included piezo elements to trick out my Rock Band […]
Gwydion ap Dafydd of Konkreet Labs shoehorned a MeeBlip synthesizer into a copy of that Mary Hahn’s venerable classic Praktisches Kochbuch. Much as I hate to see Mary Hahn’s work used as a means to an end, there’s no denying the cool factor of the hog-butchering diagram with the glowing eye. [Thanks, Gwydion!]
Much to my mother’s chagrin, my Dad always held the philosophy of “Use it until you wear it out.” It made some of our stuff look shabby, but it stretched dollars and made for good learning experiences. One day the engine on our trusty Snapper lawnmower seized up. At this point I was around 12 years old, and past the point of just handing tools to Dad while he worked on something (though being the tool gopher is an important mill to be pulled through in and of itself), but now diving into the heady space of troubleshooting. Minor problems consisted of re-sewing the grass bag’s opening so its elastic cuff would fit snugly over the chute, or having to coax the engine back to life come springtime.
Digital Meets Physical will bring makers, software hackers, and DIY geeks together for two days of outrageous fun, using the Netduino platform and other fun toys to build our brains out. We’ll be hacking at the AS220 Labs, a hackerspace where tools, technology and inspiration abound. With no less than 10 top quality watering holes within spitting distance, power breaks and refueling will be top notch.
My friend Jeff Wilson alerted me to this awesomely large Lomo-styled photo booth his colleague Matt Frank built for his wedding. The camera-shaped enclosure houses a Mac running PhotoBooth, a monitor for instant feedback, halogen lighting, and a hacked Easy button sending serial commands (via Arduino) to the computer. He has an excellent how-to here […]
Longtime MAKE pal (and Volume 17 cover-guy) Jake von Slatt shows us an easy way to hack an old pair of eyeglass lenses into a set of goggles for use around the shop, or when driving through the desert in an art car with no name. Good to hear from you, Jake! Keep ’em coming!
Because color can differ wildly from one monitor to another, many designers and publishers rely on proprietary colorimeters to calibrate their displays. Software developer and electrical engineer Richard Hughes has been working on his own open source colorimeter he calls ColorHug. Along with the Linux software (also open source), it takes about a minute for ColorHug to take several hundred measurements and create an ICC color profile, which can be read by other operating systems.
