Pliers

Using a Kinect as an Infrared Camera

Using a Kinect as an Infrared Camera

The Kinect is a peripheral for the Xbox 360 console that allows a user to interact with the Xbox 360 without touching a controller. A general description of the Kinect is that it is a depth camera. This means that you can place objects in front of it, and it will compute the distance from […]

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Make: Compressed Air Rockets Kit

Make: Compressed Air Rockets Kit

Building this rocket launcher is a breeze, and folks are always amazed at how it shoots reusable paper rockets 200–300 feet high. The launcher is made from PVC pipe. You pressurize its chamber to 75psi with about 18 strokes of a bicycle pump, then release all the pressure in a split second through an electric […]

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Extreme LED Throwies

Extreme LED Throwies

LED throwies are cheery glow-dots you can make in seconds from simple components and stick to any ferro-magnetic surface. But that’s just the beginning — here’s how to hack and modify them. First make a basic LED throwie, and chain them up into big throwie “bugs.” Then learn to hack the throwie with an On-Off […]

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Lumia Lunchbox Laser

Lumia Lunchbox Laser

Back in the 1970s, my friend Wayne Gillis and I used to do light shows at science fiction conventions. We had the usual panoply of overhead, slide, and custom-made projectors, and a single, very expensive, helium-neon laser from Edmund Scientific. Calling ourselves Light Opera, and later, Illuminatus, we performed at ConFusion conventions in Ann Arbor, […]

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High Voltage

High Voltage

I would like to show a few things Where to get a flyback 1. How to build a 555 timer driver circuit High voltage safety Dangers of this project Typical application

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Simple Van de Graaff Generator

Simple Van de Graaff Generator

When I was younger, I spent hours perusing Bill Beaty’s electrostatics web pages. At the time, I didn’t achieve any real successes trying to build his high-voltage contraptions, and so my interest waned. Years later, I saw someone online use a soda can as a collector for their Van de Graaff generator, and all my […]

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Bottle Radio

Bottle Radio

Crystal radio technology has been around for many years. This “bottle radio” take on a crystal radio requires no power source, operates on the power from radio waves, and receives signal from a long wire antenna. As radio stations slowly move away from the AM band, the “window of opportunity” to experience this remarkable technology […]

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