Tape Sculpture Contest
Check out the cool entries in Scotch’s “Off The Roll” packing tape sculpture contest. If you’re interested in entering, the deadline is the end of February.
Contest
555 Contest is Almost Over
For those of you interested in submitting a 555-based project to the contest, I hope you get a lot of work done soon because Monday, March 1st marks the deadline. The prizes are considerable, so don’t hesitate!
Open Source Ecology: Interview with Founder Marcin Jakubowski
The Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) won our Green Project Contest at the beginning of 2011, garnering the most votes of all the eco-friendly projects submitted. Marcin Jakubowski founded Open Source Ecology, a network of farmers, engineers, and supporter, whose main project is GVCS, “an open source, low-cost, high performance technological platform that allows for […]
Make It Last Build Series #3: Prototyping the Stepper Driver
The goal for this week is to prototype the driver circuit for the two stepper motors. Check out the Make It Last Build Series landing page for full info, prize details, and info about the first two builds in the series. A pin of a microcontroller can source enough current to power an LED, but […]
The Math of V-Plotter Design
In response to our latest Make It Last Build Series project, the Drawbot, Bill Ola Rasmussen posted a link to this piece he wrote on the math involved in V-plotter design. Thanks, Bill! What is the optimal configuration of control lines for an area to be plotted? Obviously, we can’t have a drawing area above […]
555 contest prizes piling up
If you’re considering NOT entering the 555 contest, be sure to peep their list of prizes before you make that decision. There’s a pro Eagle license from Element 14, a scope and DMMs from Extech, XMEGA dev kits, XuLA boards, a Nexus S phone from Google, a couple of Fluke DMMs, a SumoBot competition kit […]
Make It Last Build Series #3: Building the Drawbot controller
As discussed in the first post, the Drawbot is a rig for drawing algorithmic designs on a wall. The mechanism is made up of two motorized spools holding monofilament, which is connected to a marker; the two motors tug on the marker, and gravity tensions the line. The friction between the marker tip and the […]