Kits

Make: Projects – POSC handheld audio oscillator

When you first turn the POSC on, the LED will light for a fraction of a second. If you’ve got it hooked up to an amplifier, it’ll also squawk for a second. Playing it is as easy as licking your finger and tapping, rubbing, pressing, or smearing it across the two contacts. The amount of incident light on the photoresistor controls the frequency, so experiment with playing it under different lighting conditions. Jim and Kat have produced a bunch of software for digital post-processing of the POSC signal. For mroe info, see the Sonodrome website.

Continue Reading June 28th, 2010June 16th, 2015 Sean Michael Ragan2

Kits & Kitmakers: Al Linke’s DIY Magic Mirror

Al Linke has just thrown down the gauntlet by entering his DIY Magic Mirror in our Gadget Freak Design contest! Al’s prototype won the Tech Grand Prize in our 2008 DIY Halloween Contest, and the kit he’s developed is for sale now in Makers Market. It features a Sleeping-Beauty style floating, talking face in a gilt-framed mirror with an amazingly wide variety of integrated and integrable functions–even a breathalyzer!

Continue Reading June 28th, 2010 Sean Michael Ragan

New in the Maker Shed: Simon kit

You remember Simon, right? This through-hole soldering kit will bring back memories as you try to match the colored patterns. Plus, its ATmega168 microcontroller is re-programmable, so you can come up with your own games using the Arduino IDE and an FTDI board.

Continue Reading June 27th, 2010 Maker Shed

New in the Maker Shed: Reinventing Edison Lightbulb kit

Reinventing Edison: Build Your Own Lightbulb Kit is a fun science kit designed to excite and engage experimenters of all ages as they recreate the experiments that lead to the development of the first real light bulb. Build your own working light bulb using the included safety vacuum chamber and a number of different filament materials including carbon and tungsten.

Continue Reading June 22nd, 2010 Maker Shed4

Kits & Kitmakers: Andrew Argyle’s Sputnik I Nixie Clock

Andrew Argyle’s original Sputnik I clock was featured way back in MAKE Volume 03. Since then Andrew, aka GlowingTech, has done very well selling fully assembled Nixie clocks, kits to make Nixie clocks, and individual and bundled components. The kit pictured here is based on an article published in the October 2006 issue of Nuts and Volts, and includes everything needed to make a 6-tube Nixie clock, less the case, for $100.

If you’re sitting on a clever idea for an electronics kit, why not enter it in our Gadget Freak Design Contest? Besides the publicity, you could win $1000 to help get your idea off the ground, as well as a free pass to sell your kit in Makers Market.

Continue Reading June 21st, 2010 Sean Michael Ragan

Maker Business: SpikenzieLabs

SpikenzieLabs make some of my favorite kits, including the Povard, and the VoiceShield. I love meeting the makers behind the kits, and I got a chance to meet Mark and Andy at Maker Faire this year. They are awesome guys, read on for their Maker Business story.

Continue Reading June 20th, 2010 John Edgar Park

Sew-through PCBs for soft circuit designers

Meredith Scheff’ has developed a clever way to make flexible PCBs with conductive pads that can simply be sewn through with conductive thread, or soldered onto like traditional PCB pads. She has inexpensive starter kits for sale in Makers Market.

Continue Reading June 19th, 2010 Sean Michael Ragan2