Alessandro Volta’s was born on February 18th, 1775. He is known for several great discoveries, including the Voltaic Pile, which is an early type of battery. In the spirit of experimenting with electricity, I decided to check out the EX-150 by Gakken. I have used a lot of electronic learning kits, and this is by […]
This was another fun week in the Maker Shed. We started off with our How-to Tuesday: Arduino 101 the button. These Arduino tutorials are getting a lot of positive feedback. Look for a lot more Arduino tutorials in the next few weeks. Next, I opened up my Designing Automata Kit and checked out what was […]
This is the second installment of a series about programming our favorite little micro-controller, the Arduino. Last week I covered connecting and blinking an LED. This week I will discuss connecting a push button that controls the LED. This is the simplest way to use a button. However, it isn’t always the best way since […]
Later this week I will have a detailed build and video of the Aurorarium kit from the Maker Shed. It looks like a cool kit that I should be able to hack or modify to make it even more unique. The Aurorarium is another kit made by Gakken, so my expectations are high. Create your […]
It was a busy week in the Maker Shed. We announced 2 new kits, the Deluxe learn to solder kit and the Arduino controlled servo robot. We had a lot of great builds and reviews too! We started the week with my How-to Tuesday: Arduino 101 blink an LED, which seemed to be very popular […]
The complete walkthrough is available at http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/01/howto_tuesday_getting_started_with.html
This week I am going to show you how to get up and running with the 3pi by Pololu. I will be going through all the steps needed to upload the line following program that is included from Pololu. Getting started with the 3pi isn’t too difficult, but there are a few applications and drivers that need to be installed.
I decided to make a quick video of me building the Plug-in Bread-Board Power Supply from the Maker Shed (http://www.makershed.com). This power supply makes a great addition to anyones electronics lab. Here’s why:
This power supply module plugs straight into common bread boards, allowing you to cleanly and easily power your board with a wall wart plug or with wires into screw terminals. It features a variable voltage regulator that can be set to output 3.3 or 5V with a jumper, or any voltage if a potentiometer is added. The input has a rectifier that accepts AC or DC (polarity doesn’t matter)–just make sure the input is about 2V greater than the output you want. Skill level: beginner.
