Gadgets

Collin’s Lab: DIY iPad Stylus

Collin’s Lab: DIY iPad Stylus

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/05/collins_lab_diy_ipad_stylus.html

Fingertip input is great for most touchscreen usage like typing, web-browsing – all sorts of virtual button-pushing tasks. But for many people, drawing remains an activity best approached with a pen, pencil, brush, etc.

With a bit of conductive foam and wire, it’s surprisingly easy to make your own conductive stylus, suitable for use with iPhone, iPad and similar conductive touchscreen devices – and you’ll likely find it a lot more precise compared to regular fingertip input.

Continue Reading Makemagazineuser

Automatic coop door opener

The latest issue of MAKE, Volume 22, contains an automated chicken coop door opener project, by Alan Graham (Portland, OR). My geek BFF, Jeri Ellsworth, sent me a link to another, clever remote-controlled coop opener, put together by her friend “Slinky.” It uses a $5 power drill as the door winch and a Seeduino as […]

Continue Reading Gareth Branwyn4
Quantum dot image sensors set to change camera industry

Quantum dot image sensors set to change camera industry

Those of you who, like me, just recently managed to score the digital camera of your dreams will be very excited to learn that it’s possibly going to be obsolete real soon. Based on technology developed by University of Toronto professor Ted Sargent, who is now CTO at start-up InVisage, the new image sensor uses a matrix of nanoparticles embedded in a polymer film which can be simply “painted” onto the top of a low-cost wafer at room temperature. If the hype is to be believed, the new sensor offers four times the sensitivity of conventional CMOS image sensors at a dramatically reduced cost per chip. [Thanks, Glen!]

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan
Hollow spy bolts

Hollow spy bolts

Brian Dereu of Hollow Spy Coins showed us how to make this hollow dead-drop bolt for stashing secret messages back in MAKE 16. It’s not hard to do if you have access to the necessary equipment–a drill press, hacksaw, vise, grinder, and the appropriate taps and dies. But if you don’t have those tools, or you don’t have the time to use them, and you still want a spy bolt, Brian will gladly sell you one hand-made by his family and him for the not-unreasonable price of $37.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan6
Bulbdial clock has no moving parts, casts shadows for hands

Bulbdial clock has no moving parts, casts shadows for hands

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.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan