In all seriousness, the robot skeleton of Society of Robot’s soul-reaping rug-crawling Carpet Monkey v5 is pretty sweet. The claws are CNC-cut aluminum, the body is HDPE. It has no autonomous behaviors, so the guts are quite simple: two servos, a battery, and a small R/C receiver
The new UartSBee V3.1 from the Maker Shed is a dual use Xbee adapter / FTDI programmer. The USB port allows you to hook XBee modules up to your computer for programming and wireless linking. It’s like a little Swiss Army knife for Xbees and programming.
http://wp.me/p1CIX9-udv
Infrared light may be invisible to the human eye – but it’s usefulness in the world of electronics is easy to see. IR emitters & detectors can be used in a variety of different ways – most of us use them for wireless communication everyday.
This detailed post from modeling forum member Panzerpaul nicely shows off the skill and hard work that went into creating his radio-controlled replica of a WWII-era German tank destroyer commonly called a Hetzer. To house the R/C electronics and other guts, the hull has to be hollow.
Inspired by his friend’s couch on wheels, William Keller built this motorized La-Z-Boy to get around the Playa at Burning Man.
Here’s an elegant idea: A treaded “tank” type platform for your smartphone, controlled via the headphone jack. All the software lives in the phone, and can be downloaded, installed, modified, and shared as apps. It’s the work of Peter Seid and Phu Nguyen at Seattle’s Romotive, Inc. Their already-funded Kickstarter is still ongoing.
David Simpson was contacted by MAKE to create a spying device for MAKE Volume 16, so he came up with the Bug-In-A-Book project, a hacked together wireless listening device embedded in a hollowed out book. As Simpson explains at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011, a project using scavenged technology has flowered into a product with a kit that DIY folks can build and experience for themselves.
