ShopBot “sings” Joy to the World
Hope everyone is having a fine Christmas eve. Here’s a little holiday mood music, from our friends at ShopBot. [Thanks, Bill Young!]
Robotics
Making a robot can be an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s the perfect combination of creativity, engineering and problem solving. However, if you’re just getting started in robotics, it can also be overwhelming. To make things easier for those who are just starting out, we’ve put together some tips and tricks to help makers bring robots to life! From the basics of assembling your robot to software implementation, these pointers will give you everything you need to get started on your robotic adventure!
Solenoid xylophone
Spotted in the MAKE Flickr pool from user Leadtowill, this MIDI-speaking 8-note electromechanical xylophone. Here it is playing “Ode to Joy.”
Vending machine sits where Zoltar once did
In MAKE Volume 21, tinkerer Roger Hess wrote about the working replica he made of the Zoltar fortune teller machine from the movie Big. Perhaps we ought to put Roger in touch with Rye Playland, the location of that particular scene. As you can see from this photo from Scouting New York, a Pepsi machine […]
Simple homebrew robot gripper
Peter Jacob of Lets Make Robots put together this incredibly detailed tutorial on how to make a simple robot gripper by hand using a cheap micro servo, plexiglass, rotary tool, and a tiny blowtorch.
Make It Last Build Series: The robot plants are in bloom!
We asked MAKE illustrator Damien Scogin to create some drawings so that folks could better understand the functioning of the basic robot plant design we’re using in the Micochip/Energizer Make It Last Build Series, Project #2: The Robot Plant. As we’ve said, you don’t have to make yours this way, this is just one idea, […]
Kinect-powered autonomous quadrotor
Man, and I thought the hacks on the Wii sensor bar came fast and furious. Amazing what people are doing with the Xbox Kinect and how viral all of these hacks quickly become. This one, an autonomous quadrotor, uses the Kinect Sensor for navigation and obstacle avoidance. It was done as part of the STARMAC […]
Top 10: Steam power!
With a very few notable exceptions, there was really nothing punk about The Fad Which Shall Not be Named. Steampop might really have been a better word. Fortunately, the steam in these posts is not, generally, even aspiring to punk status, although the word itself may, regrettably, appear a couple times in the copy on the linked pages. Please accept our apologies–we were excited–and enjoy this hot steamy content entirely on its own merits.