The light-up shoes from your childhood are all grown up — these Luminous Lowtops are force-sensitive, full-color LED light-up shoes for adults. Each shoe has two embedded force-sensitive resistors (FSRs) — one under the heel and one under the ball of the foot — and up to 40 RGB LEDs that change color based on the FSR readings, giving brilliant visual effects when you walk, stomp, jump, or lean. And a mini Arduino runs the show, so you can imagine the possibilities for customizing the code!
This guide will show you how to build the Vector Weapon Enclosure (which is the default add-on to our Vector Weapon Kit in the Maker Shed).
Build yourself a star in a jar.
Build an Arduino clone using the MintDuino and then program it to visualize your heartbeat in combination with the Pulse Sensor AMPed. The five LEDs mounted to the lid of the tin will flash in sync with your heartbeat's rhythm. Does your heartbeat speed up when you don't tell the truth? When you play video games? When you meditate, can you slow your heartbeat down? Build the Beatband Sleeve and find out!
The MintDuino kit is a fantastic project to help you learn the basic circuitry of an Arduino clone, but it is not mechanically sturdy enough for most projects. This breadboard-to-perfboard project will provide a solution to make your MintDuino as strong as the tin it comes in! Plus, this board layout even allows a 9V battery to fit in the tin alongside the perfboard MintDuino.
Use household materials and simple electrolysis to make metal oxide powders for tinting paints and inks.
Make a better lamp timer that actually knows when it's dark outside, as well as, of course, knowing what time it is. Another smart project from Charles Platt, from his MAKE series Electronics Fun and Fundamentals.
The best part of haunted houses and amusement park rides is getting to see pictures of your friends screaming in terror.
Use EAGLE to design a bare bones Arduino board.
When it comes to generating sound from an Arduino, many users struggle to get beyond simple beeps. With a deeper understanding of the hardware, you can use Arduino to generate any waveform you can imagine, and manipulate it in real time, from "bit banging" to morphing and fading. Here's how.
The Bass Bump Headphone Amp is an audio accessory you can build to improve all of your private music listening. It has enough power to give clear sound and punchy dynamics through most any pair of headphones, or even a set of small speakers. The custom bass enhancement circuit lets you adjust the music’s critical low-frequency spectrum to your taste.
I just finished mentoring a high school student in the build of a 4×4×4 LED cube for his senior project. I was sitting at the desk, looking at a small pile of LEDs left over from the build, trying to think of something fun to do with them, when my three-year-old daughter walked in, sat down, and started playing with her Lite Brite. The pegs, I realized, looked just like LEDs, which was all the inspiration I needed. Let's build a clock!