Third up in this month’s Design Studio series is San Francisco’s very own Chronicle Books, which boasts an abundance of bestselling titles over a broad range of topics, including art and design, food, fiction, travel, and children’s books, in addition to some fabulously playful stationary and journals. Designer Suzanne LaGasa was our gracious hostess, taking […]
If you’ve ever seen the Emmy-award-winning British geek sitcom The IT Crowd, you’ve probably spent half of your time scanning the background to pick out all of the great nerd collectibles and high-techery crammed into every scene. On the Channel4 website for the show, they have a zoomable, pannable tour of the IT basement and […]
Just a friendly reminder to those of you who are polishing up your entries for the Gadget Freak Design Contest: The deadline is tonight at 11:59 PM California time. The grand prize is $1000 cash and a free storefront in Makers Market. When you enter, be sure to upload finished or in-process project shots or video to the contest Flickr pool!
Pet owners who want to spend a day hiking, at the beach, shopping at the mall or even a weekend far from home can build an automatic pet feeder to dispense water and dry food at a preset time. Tom Thompson, Julie Redmond, Curtis Siebenaller and Nathan Woodworth at Colorado State University explain how to combine electronic and mechanical devices to do just that.
Another great entry in our Gadget Freak Design Contest! Stephen Melvin of Sure Electronics retrofit his DeWalt DC527 area work light with two high-brightness 10W LEDs instead of the 13W CFL it is designed to use. Guesstimating from the photos I’d say he’s getting about 100W worth of light, by incandescent standards, out of the mod.
My project is a portable greenhouse / seed starter that has high tech features and collapses for easy storage. Since a standard greenhouse can overheat if it is closed up or get too cold if it is opened up, mine includes an automatic vent that controls to a user selectable temperature. The user first selects a temperature between 60 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit, by 5 degree increments. Then the greenhouse’s built in sensors and microcontroller automatically adjust how much the vent is opened or closed to help maintain that temperature. And because of its ultra low power design the whole thing can run 24/7 for about a month on just four penlight (AA) batteries!
From squirrels on wheels to pigs with wigs the whimsical knit toy world of crafter Anna Hrachovec of Mochimochi Land comes together in her new book, Knitting Mochimochi. As a frequent contributer to CRAFT, I’ve always enjoyed the cute knit toys Anna creates. She blows my mind even more with this book where 20 new […]
