Here’s another super-simple mod from Weekend Projects, our beginner-friendly electronics series where we introduce you to projects you can make in a weekend. Actually, the Solar TV Remote should only take you a couple of hours once you’ve gathered all your parts.
Michael Margolis is the author of Arduino Cookbook, a collection of projects utilizing the physical computing platform of Arduino. He was on hand at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011 to discuss Arduino and his book, published by O’Reilly Media.
Bruce Parker, former Chief Scientist and eleven-year veteran of NOAA’s National Ocean Service, wrote this fascinating article in the September issue of Physics Today. It covers the technical history
of the science of tide prediction leading up to the beautiful mechanical computers developed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to quickly extrapolate recorded tide patterns into useful predictions, and goes on to explain how those computers were critical in planning the Normandy landings.
Inspired by Hektor the spraycan robot and following in the footsteps of the AS220 Drawbot and Harvey Moon’s Drawing Machine, Edinburgh maker Sandy Nobel’s Polargraph puts a spin on the hanging drawing machine. Using a dual-polar coordinate system instead of the standard cartesian gives the machine its unique name and particular style.
Depending on the color of the marble, this elaborate computer controlled marble sorter will open a particular gate to select a marble of similar color. Further on down the line marbles are combined into sets and then deposited back into the hopper where the process starts anew. It’s very mesmerizing in a zen garden meets executive plaything way.
Conference co-chair of the Open Hardware Summit, Alicia Gibb, brought a wonderful surprise to this year’s event – handcrafted silver pendants made by her father, James Gibb. This is my new favorite necklace! James cut each of ten Open Hardware logo gears to make these beautiful pendants, wouldn’t you like one? Show support in the comments if you’d like to see these made more widely available.
Unless your application is critical, cheap liquid paint stripper from the hardware store (not the gel, paste, or color-changing varieties) is a fine substitute for commercial acrylic solvent cement. Comparing one MSDS to another, we see that each product is about 75 wt% dichloromethane (AKA methylene chloride), which is the “active ingredient” that softens the plastic and allows it to weld. Purpose-made acrylic solvent is a bit thinner, in my experience, and evaporates a little faster, and contains trace amounts of acrylic monomer that may result in a slightly stronger bond, but for most practical purposes I have not found these qualities to justify paying twice as much for it.
