DIY Projects

Set up a portable XM Radio in your house…

Set up a portable XM Radio in your house…

Roady2 Pop 1Dissident75 shows how to set up a cheap xm radio in your house without buying the “home kit”. All done with cheaper/free parts. “This weekend I was bored and needed to do something. I had purchased a Roady2 XM Reciever for a exgirlfriend but broke up with her before giving it to her. Seemed like a shame to let it go to waste, and I had been curious about satellite radio for a while. Examining the package, it was a standard car install kit. Including the receiver, the antenna, 2 types of mounts (vent and pedestal), a tape adapter, dc power supply (cig lighter), and a few colored faceplate accents. Standard fare really. Useful for a car install but useless for a house install.” Link. In MAKE volume 01 we show how to make your own battery pack too (for XM radios).

HOW TO – Make a waterproof boombox backpack…

HOW TO – Make a waterproof boombox backpack…

89128433 D12D117864 MC Connors writes – “A student had a need for sound while running with his friends. Over several revisions, he has made several portable audio systems to provide entertainment at track meets and other running events. The latest is a waterproof boom pack made for a buddy now studying at West Point. He also has documentation of his computer aided design process for developing the files used to create the fabricated parts. If you would like to recreate his process and have access to Pro Desktop and a ShopBot, then check out the wiki here. His classmates computer aided design work is visible here.”

3D PDFS…

012006Acrobat3D 550X410This looks handy for collaborative CAD work, but a little pricey at $995 – “Adobe’s Acrobat 3D software lets people view three-dimensional objects with the Acrobat reader, append notes to the images and send them to colleagues. Typically, design engineers today create a two-dimensional image and send them via e-mail, Bhalla said. Having an embedded 3D image, which people can rotate to view and append with notes, will speed up the design collaboration process and reduce errors…” Link.

Let LEGO robot walk your dogbot

Let LEGO robot walk your dogbot

PetnrcxPavel and Richard writes – “Last summer, we had a a lot of fun controlling RoboSapien robot using the serial infrared tower from LEGO Mindstorms version 1.5 kit. However, this required the tower (and thus also a PC) to be in the robot vicinity. Still, thanks to the feedback from the new WowWee family robots owners, we were very keen on seeing that the same program with small modifications can be used for RoboSapien V2, RoboPet, and RoboRaptor …” Here’s how to walk your robo dog with a LEGO bot! [via] Link.

Video signal generation from a PIC chip

Video signal generation from a PIC chip

PicgamesysRichard writes “I have designed the hardware of the PIC game system to be able to run severla different kinds of games. It has two standard C64/Amiga/Atari joysticks and video and audio output. The processor is a PIC16F84 running at 12MHz. THe description of the hardware is placed on this separate page as it is the same for both of my PIC-based video games. So far I’ve only made two games, Pong and Tetris, but some day there might be more games for the system.” [via] Link.

HOW TO – Build a loft

HOW TO – Build a loft

200Px-Dsc02516Cape and Ray writes “The great thing about building a loft, is that it is entirely customizable. Dorm rooms are small and it’s nice to have some extra space, so we built a loft for storage. There are many other things you can do from simply raising a chair or sofa a small bit to building an entire second floor.” Link.

Etsy – Request something handmade

Etsy – Request something handmade

Alch
Etsy is experimenting with idea of requesting what you want made and having folks make it…love it! “If you want something made, create an Alchemy post describing what you want. You can post helpful pictures, set a deadline and a price range. People will then place bids, showing what they can do, for how much, and by when. As the person who made the listing, you choose which bid to accept and finalize the deal by agreeing to pay someone the specified price to make the item.” [via] Link.