Excellent DIY iPod dock for tinkering on panocamera “I needed a quick way to test signal interactions with a microcontroller and an iPod, so for about $50 and an afternoon of soldering, I threw together an iPod dock/breakout box. Ingredients include a small breadboard, and a $15 cheapie usb charger cable, which when stripped of its plastic housing luckily has all 30 dock connector pins ready to solder.” Link.
Run Asterisk on a Windows machine, handy for on the go…“We have been touting how cool the Asterisk Open Source PBX is and especially how nice the Asterisk@Home installation package is for some time now. You are all excited to try it out but don’t have an extra machine, or maybe you are like us and want a way to show clients the web interface and the features but you don’t want to run Linux on your laptop or carry a second machine. Well now, with the help of a few free downloads, you can now do a complete installation into a virtual machine on your system…” Link.
The Tasmanian Conservation Trust put out a call to everyone to use the following pattern to knit small sweaters (or “jumpers”) for penguins in a case of a major oil spill. They received an overwhelming response, over 15,000 sweaters! According to the Conservation Trust,”In the case of a major oil spill, these jumpers will be used to help rehabilitate Little penguins (Eudyptula minor) that have been oil affected. Oil clogs the feathers of these tiny seagoing birds, and reduces their insulating and waterproofing qualities. Even worse, the penguins attempt to clean themselves by preening, and rapidly become poisoned.” [via] Link. (Additional news story from Australia.)
Felting is the art of matting wool. Any kind of knit that you want more durable can be done through felting. The process of felting can sometimes seem intimidating or complicated. I love this complete feltmaking process with photos for every step from the Handweavers Guild of America. You can use the felting technique for creating ipod cozies, bags, bookcovers, you name it! Link.
Make friend, the Lotharian, says,”This V8 Engine made entirely out of paper with the exception of a few parts (motor, wires, etc.), is fully functional. It features many moving parts which include: a compound crankshaft, a rapid cooling fan, 8 rods, 8 pistons and a complex compound gearbox. The engine is powered by 2 times 1.5V D Batteries and weighs 2.98kg. From start to finish this model took one year to design and construct. There is even a D.I.Y. kit in the works that will be released shortly.” Thanks Lotharian! [via] Link.
Rip writes “This site describes how to make an automatic pet watering bowl for under $15.00 using commonly available materials. The bowl is easier to use and clean than the commerical units available.” Link.
Trevor writes “Here’s a site related to the recent Make: 04 article on how to take high speed photographs. It is maintained by my High Speed Imaging teacher and has a bunch of circuits you can build for high speed photography, such as sound triggers and delays.” Link. Make article here, and our kit is now available as well.
