When assembling a proper laboratory, the gentleman or lady experimenter should be sure to include a Wimshurst electrostatic generating machine. This device will serve tirelessly in investigations into the field of natural philosophy, and provide interesting parlor games such as the “electric kiss.” Herein we will demonstrate the construction of such a spectacular device, with […]
By Annie Shao and Rachel McConnell There are pillows that look good, and there are pillows that feel good. For those inclined to add a little buzz to their home décor, try making this fun vib-illow. Take an arcade push button, a couple of batteries, and a cellphone vibrator and you’ve got a super simple […]
I love using old machine parts for my projects; often their workmanship surpasses that of anything new, and you can get them cheap or even free. Find a junkyard full of ancient, rusty industrial equipment, and you can build almost anything — or at least be inspired to, which is half the battle! But many […]
Who hasn’t dreamed about owning their own metal detector and searching for buried treasure, or at least a few dropped coins? In this project, we will build a metal detector based on a dual oscillator circuit. One oscillator is fixed, and the other varies depending upon the proximity of metal objects. The beat frequency between […]
Build a funky little free-range drumbot that roams, makes beats, and samples.
It all started with a small LCD salvaged from an old printer. I recruited my code-savvy older brother, Adam, and we soon had the LCD displaying text from an Arduino microcontroller. This was neat, but it was inconvenient having to plug the Arduino into a computer for reprogramming whenever we wanted to change the text. […]
For sous-vide and more — it controls both heating and cooling!
