Month: March 2011

Twitchie Scorpion

Twitchie Scorpion

I made this scorpion toy with a Twitchie Robot Kit. I’m really afraid of scorpions where I live in Arizona, so I thought a friendly toy would help me get used to them. I made his plush body from some fabric I had around, aiming to make him look like an Arizona bark scorpion, which are tan/yellowish/translucent. Twitchie is Arduino powered and comes pre-programmed, so it’s an excellent kit for beginners in robotics, because no programming is required! You can download and modify the code if you want, and it’s pretty light on the soldering, too. I’d recommend Twitchie for young makers (boys & girls, too!) interested in robotics or moving plush toys. You can buy the Twitchie Robot Kit in the Maker Shed:
http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MKTET2

Music is “At the Crack of Noon” by Shuutobi, http://shuutobi.com

Cool Modular Building Material

These modular bricks from the Brickstainable competition take my breath away. There’s a great and detailed post on the BLDGBLOG detailing two winners with amazing brick designs which allow buildings to be built to create microclimates “by allowing variable levels of porosity in the facade.” They’re quite literally cool! Be sure to check out the […]

Crowdsourced Arduino Q&A

Crowdsourced Arduino Q&A

Two weeks ago, we ran a Getting Started with Arduino book giveaway on our Make: Arduino page. If you’re not familiar with our Getting Started book, it’s the perfect introduction to Arduino, setting up the hardware and software, and doing the first few experiments to get Arduino to interact with the world around you. We […]