Pam of GIngerbread Snowflakes shares an easy way to create small scale saori weaving projects on the go with a mini loom and yarn scraps. I loved reading about the freeform style of saori. Self expression in it’s purist form. And because it is almost a form of meditation, it can heal and restore the […]
My family and I went to the wonderful NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Open House this weekend. Among the many fascinating sights they shared with the public, this was our favorite. The mobility test platform for the Curiosity rover. With its rocker-bogie passive balance suspension system, this bot does not consider large rocks to be much of an obstacle. At 20″, its wheels are twice the size of those of its predecessors, including the forever-stuck Spirit. Plus, there was a woman from JPL controlling it from an iPhone.
Cornell undergraduates Brian Harding and Cat Jubinski built a portable face recognition system for their capstone ECE 4760 project: “Our design consists of an Atmel ATmega644 8-bit microcontroller, a C3088 camera module with an OmniVision OV6620 CMOS image sensor, Atmel’s AT45DB321D Serial Dataflash, a Varitronix MDLS16264 LCD module for output, a 9-volt battery, and a small wooden structure for chin support.” The system is hooked up to a computer to train the pattern-recognition algorithm, but from then on it can enroll new users, delete old users, and recognize up to 20 enrolled users as a standalone system.
Jeffrey Nelson bought the SX2 HiTorque Mini Mill but didn’t want to drop $125 for the tachometer add-on, so built his own. I knew before purchasing this mill that it had a tachometer display port on it much like the SC2 Lathe has. I also knew there was no way in hell I was going […]
Preview some of the exciting projects upcoming at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011 in this preview video by MAKE video intern Cameron Caywood.
We have covered septuagenarian Palestine, TX, resident Pat Delany’s DIY multimachine, which is mostly built from recycled auto parts, before. Following on the success of that design, Pat has branched out, researching and promulgating three more simple build-it-yourself tool designs: A treadle-powered electrical generator, a simple compound lever drill press, and—most interesting to me—a lathe made from cast concrete and aligned with wedges sawn flush after the concrete has set up. Engineering for Change has a good overview of the story and the available online resources. [Thanks, Jake!]
Preview some of the exciting projects upcoming at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011 in this preview video by MAKE video intern Cameron Caywood.
