This looks interesting – Stray Technologies is offering a USB-MIDI controllable kit based on the YM2149 sound generator IC, famed for its use in classic computer and game consoles – The chip is most well known for its use in the Apple II Mockingbird soundcards and Atari ST computers. The YM or the chip from […]
Hannah, aka Plusea, is something of a legend in the soft-circuits community. We have covered her open-source work in soft circuits and sensors many, many times before. She has no fewer than 37 tutorials published on Instructables, 28 of them “featured,” almost al of which cover low-cost soft-circuit devices of her own design. Now she is selling kits for a few of her more popular soft sensor inventions, none of which will set you back more than $15. Shown above is her Neoprene Bend Sensor Kit.
Indie makers RLT Industries of New Braunfels, TX, sell this lovely wooden model kit of the classic “south-pointing chariot” mechanism: Set the chariot down with the vane pointing in an arbitrary direction–south, north, whatever–and a geared differential connected to the wheels will keep it pointing the same direction regardless of which way the chariot turns. […]
The Open Heart kit V2.0 is a matrix of individually addressable LEDs that allow you to create customizable animations when connected to your favorite micro controller. Attach it temporarily to fabrics with headers that you simply push through, or sew it into a project with conductive fabric for a more permanent setup. It’s “Charlieplexed” so you need only 6 wires to control the 27 LEDs
I’ve been hiring Angus Hines of Carrolton, VA, for a couple of months now for all my contract laser-cutting, and I can’t say enough good things about him. But, heck, I’ve never met him, so let’s focus on the empirical: Angus consistently quotes me about half what the big-laser cutters want to charge on the same jobs. (Hopefully he knows that, and I haven’t just shot myself in the foot by pointing it out.) Seriously, Angus himself says, “one of my goals is to help bring the price of DIY tech down to a more reasonable level.”
Now Angus is offering a kit of all the acrylic parts for the open-source Fab@Home Model 2 3D printer at about 75% of what the Fab@Home preferred vendors are charging. [Thanks, Angus!]
This clever clock kit from EMSL has an analog-style face, but no hands. Instead, kinda like a sundial, it has a “gnomon” that sticks up in the middle. Three rings of inward-pointing LEDs are positioned around the rim, each a different color and each at a different angle relative to the face. The blue ring is at the shallowest angle, and thus casts the longest shadow representing the “seconds” hand. The red ring is at the steepest angle and casts the shortest shadow to make the “hours” hand. The green ring, in the middle, is minutes. Check the video above, courtesy YouTube user amandachou, to see it in action.
The “Bulbdial” clock is available as a kit with four different case options, but the clear/black variety shown above is definitely my favorite because it shows off the cool retro-futurist logo on the circuit board. Here’s a time-lapse video of YouTuber jcorsaro building one from a kit.
A few weeks ago, I picked up a LC-Style Guitar kit from the Maker Shed. I have always wanted this style of guitar, and the fact that it’s a kit made me want it even more. The fist step to assembling the guitar is to finish all the wood components, and that’s where I’m asking […]
