DIY Projects

Ax-Man Surplus Stores – A “Makers” Heaven…

Ax-Man Surplus Stores – A “Makers” Heaven…

Img413 18Joe writes “I moved from Minneapolis a few years ago and miss this store so much. They resell industrial parts, wheels, motors, speakers, fabric, foam, bio-hazard suits and just about anything you can use to make. As you walk through Ax-man you’ll notice large motorized moving displays with baby doll parts and humourus descriptions accompanying there products. I bought some beautiful large hollywood style metal film cannisters there and sanded them down to make a portfolio case. I think the store owner would be a great interview for your mag. As a Make subscriber I would love to have this store listed amongst others that are great resources for “stuff”. Take a look at the tour section of the site to see this bazaar shop.” Link.

The Original Young Engineering Kits Program…

The Original Young Engineering Kits Program…

30816-71Edmund Scientific’s has a deal on kits for kids -subscription style…“Edmund’s Young Engineering Kits Program – this program consists of three fun and educational hands-on activity kits that will help the young ‘engineer’ to experience, create, and learn different aspects in the vast field of engineering! The kits will be shipped individually every other week to give you something to look forward to during this winter season. The Young Engineering Kits Program is a subtle and creative way to expose young persons to.Link.

Composing music with Electroplankton…

Composing music with Electroplankton…

200Px-Nintendo Ds, ElectroplanktonThomas Wilburn has a lot of great info on making music with one of my favorite “games” for the Nintendo DS he writes – “Composing with Electroplankton, part one: I started a one-man rock band for four reasons. I find the idea of one person onstage creating a lot of great noise on the fly to be very personally appealing. It has a kind of bizarre audacity…” tons of great tips and more – [via] Link.

First person model helicopter piloting…

First person model helicopter piloting…

S EyetopglassesheliThere are a lot of homemade versions of this lately, but here’s a really cool way to pilot your RC chopper – “HeliHobby’s True Vision is a state of the art device which includes a high quality sub-micro camera, sub-micro transmitter ( 2.4GHZ ), base receiver and coupled with EyeTops’s high resolution LCD Eyewear to give you the only True Vision when flying any size R/C Helicopter. True Vision is the only system which will allow you to fly your R/C Machine in first person view as well as third person virew simultaneously.” [via] Link.

Disassembly / modification of Kraft GamePad

Pad 01Some folks have received their Kraft game pad and started taking it apart – check out what some of our Makers are up to…“I’ve received my Kraft GamePad and despite not being “officially supported”, it works fine under OS X. Unfortunately, the Up-Down-Left-Right buttons map to a hatswitch, which means pressing [Left][Right] simultaneously doesn’t register properly. Is it this way under Windows, too? Anyway, the joystick reports having four unused buttons (6-10) and I’m already receiving requests from my family to “fix it or something.” Anyone taken a square-tip driver to the hard plastic box at the top of the unit and see what’s underneath? I’m looking for any tips before popping the case.” Link.

Stereo Encoder / Multiplexer

Stereo Encoder / Multiplexer

Pcb Stereo Enc1Spotted this on DIYlive…“This stereo encoder is the perfect solution for those looking for a high quality stereo sound transmission at a low cost. This stereo encoder produces an excellent crystal clear stereo sound and very good channel separation that can match with many more expensive stereo encoders that are available on the market. It is all possible thanks to a 38KHz quartz crystal that controls the 19kHz pilot tone, so you will never have to calibrate or re-adjust the circuit.” [via] Link.