Here’s a blog devoted to making Railguns (Railguns utilize an electromagnetic force called the Lorentz force to propel an electrically conductive projectile that is initially part of the current path) – the site has tons of pictures, videos, and links. Link. In MAKE 01, we have a little less electrifying version, the Gauss Rifle.
We posted about “Learning to use LEDs and Transistors” from Iguana labs awhile back, but it’s worth noting that their main tutorial section has a ton of HOW TOs to check out. From basic concepts, to a complete temperature sensor project. All around good resource to bookmark if you’re getting started in electronics. Link.
Wow, here’s a really cool looking project – it’s a Mac mini robot. It seems to be using an iSight to see, external battery pack for the mini and USB to control the 3 wheels on the bot for getting around. [via] Link and project page. This could potentially be a great robotics kit, you could call it…er, iRobot, well only if you use a Roomba for the locomotion.
Here’s a Simple two line output combiner – Sometimes there is need to combine the output of two line level audio sources to be fed to one input. A standard way in professional audio is to use a mixing desk, but on home audio system you might want to look for a simpler and less expensive alternative. Link.
MAKE Flickr photo pool member pftburger writes “I found a whole bunch of old display board panels at the local scrap yard, so i built a computer interface and set them in resin, now they can function as a simple VU meter, jumping to the music.” Link.
Master of the ‘teardown’, Eric Pratt from iSuppli Corp. specializes in stripping down gadgets and finding out how much they’re really worth…The Mac mini which retails for $499 is actually worth $283 in parts and labor. The 2 Gig iPod Nano retails for $199, but is actually worth $103 in parts and labor. The most expensive component is actually the iPod Nano’s 2 Gigs of memory. Eric finished up with a G4 exclusive teardown of the Game Boy Micro which retails for $100. The actual cost of the Micro is only $44. The screen on the GB Micro is actually the most expensive component. Link.
Here’s a great site that shows you how to upgrade Apple’s eMac. Overclock to 1.3Ghz, add a new hard drive, run dual screens and cut down on fan noise. These eMacs are usually pretty cheap on eBay too, so it might be worth grabbing one and sup’ing it up. [