BuffaloFeeds » MAKE Magazine

MAKE Magazine (20 unread)

NEWS FROM THE FUTURE – Drone Pilot Discovers “River of Meat Blood”

Posted: January 27th, 2012, 4:00pm MST by Phillip Torrone

This was one of our predictions for 2012, not the rivers of blood, but drones being used by "citizen journalists" more and more - I think this is a good example, even if accidental. My friend Johngineer posted up a great list of "The future of Drones".
Fused Filament Printing with Water-Soluble Support

Posted: January 27th, 2012, 2:00pm MST by Sean Ragan

Veteran Thingiverse user Tony Buser has printed a model (intended to be an approximation of the fractal Hilbert curve) using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a support material. Once everything is printed and cooled, the PVA is dissolved away in a glass of water, leaving only the polylactic acid (PLA) model. This technique, when perfected, should [...]
Got Weekend Plans? How About a Visit to the Materials Library?

Posted: January 27th, 2012, 10:00am MST by Sean Ragan

Two years ago I wrote about what a delight it was to discover the UT-Austin School of Architecture’s Materials Lab when I was on campus there, and it seems appropriate to resurrect the topic in honor of our theme this month. Kevin Kelly just posted a roundup of major materials libraries around the USA over [...]
In the Maker Shed: Teleclaw – Telerobotic Gripper Kit

Posted: January 27th, 2012, 9:00am MST by Michael Castor

Need a hand? Build your own with the Telerobotic Gripper Kit from the Maker Shed! This kit includes everything you need to make the Teleclaw featured in MAKE: Volume 27, right down to the batteries.
Smartphone-Controlled Ball Launcher

Posted: January 27th, 2012, 8:00am MST by John Baichtal

Andrew and his brother built this great ping-pong ball launcher out of salvaged and repurposed parts. I especially like the 13-ball hopper made from two paper towel tubes taped together, and the clever K’Nex-controlled release mechanism. The launcher is controlled with an Arduino connected to a computer and activated via a remote desktop app from [...]
Railroad Spike Oyster Knives

Posted: January 27th, 2012, 7:00am MST by Sean Ragan

I like these hand-forged oyster knives from Kirk Davis and Michael Waller of Carolina Shuckers enough to actually consider eating a raw oyster, so long as I got to use one to open it, first. Reminds me of the work of Tai Goo. [via Dude Craft] More:Railroad Spike Rope Dart
Shawls Made from the Silk of Over One Million Spiders

Posted: January 26th, 2012, 9:48pm MST by bluemollusc

Simon Peers and Nicholas Godley teamed up to create materials from the silk produced from Golden Orb Spiders in Madagascar. They collected 1.2 million of these spiders and extracted their silk over the course of three years to create two golden silk capes. This shawl is the world’s largest piece of spider-silk cloth ever created, [...]
Build the Tiny Wanderer from MAKE Volume 29

Posted: January 26th, 2012, 8:03pm MST by Goli Mohammadi

Looking for a great starter robot project? Doug Paradis is an active member of the Dallas Personal Robotics Group, and last year, they were looking for a way to help their beginner members strengthen their robot-building chops. Thus, the Tiny Wanderer was born. We produced a series of lessons covering 5 topics needed to make [...]
ShapeShift Electroactive Polymer Sheets

Posted: January 26th, 2012, 2:02pm MST by Sean Ragan

DIY methods for electroactive polymer actuators are hard to come by, and none of them are kitchen-counter simple. But compared to the wet chemical methods circulating in the academic research community, the purely mechanical process documented in this video from the Swiss ShapeShift project is relatively accessible. Click here to skip the how-to and go [...]
Shrewbot, a Robot With Whiskers

Posted: January 26th, 2012, 12:00pm MST by John Baichtal

When the whiskers touch an object this causes them to vibrate and the vibration pattern is picked up by sensitive cells in the hair follicle at the base of the whisker. These patterns are turned into an electrical signal which is sent to the brain, enabling the mammal to make instant decisions about its environment [...]
Drum Controller Parts Harvesting

Posted: January 7th, 2012, 10:00pm MST by Chris Connors
Today’s dumpscore included a Guitar Hero drum controller. I don’t have any use for it as a controller, but I’ve been curious what’s inside this type of device. There were also about a half-dozen guitar controllers for various game systems, but I wasn’t as interested in those.

When I got home, I cleared off the table and grabbed a screwdriver. A half hour later, I had a nice neat pile of the electronic parts, and the rest of it was in the recycle bin. There was some neat telescoping tube in the stand, but I don’t have an immediate use for that, and don’t have enough of it to bother storing for future use.

In the game controller, I confirmed my suspicion that there would be some piezo elements. These are neat devices that generate an electric signal when are bumped or deformed. They are also capable of making a sound when a pulse of electricity is sent to them.

As speakers, piezos are used in lots of things, including many smoke alarms, newer computer modems, motherboards, and things that go “chirp.” My guess is that there’s one in my car’s alarm. They’re made of metal, so don’t degrade as easily as a paper speaker membrane.

Piezos are also used to gather vibration signals, and can be found in some guitar pickups. In the Cigar Box Guitar article in MAKE Volume 04 a piezo is used as a pickup. The sensor in the Secret Knock Gumball Machine from MAKE Volume 25 is also a piezo.

Some will likely take offense at my shredding what may have been a usable game controller, but I did see that the snare wires were broken. One set of wires was frayed, and the other had a broken plug. This is probably the reason it ended up at the dump. If I were interested in fixing it, the repair would have been fairly easy with a new length of wire for one and a plug for the other.

One other feature of this parts harvest is that I was careful to remove each piece with as little permanent damage as possible. Rather than cutting and breaking things apart, I pulled the connectors and passed the wires out of the tubes or untaped them. It would be possible to reconstruct this drum kit on a new stand, and it could work just fine. The only thing that I really destroyed was cutting the rubber holders that attached the three drum pads to their bases. I was a little pressed for time, and had the whole decommissioning process complete within a half hour.

In my recent Arduino experimentation, I’ve been messing around with piezos as a sound output device, and have gotten it to play some recognizable tunes and tones. How would you use the guts of a drum kit? Have you done successful (or not) experiments with piezo elements? Have you built a new drum set out of the components that I found in this one? Post up in the comments and let us know!

More:
- Collin’s Lab: Homebrew Piezo
- Intern’s Corner: Naked piezo pickup for Cigar Box Guitar
Building The MakerGear Mosaic 3D Printer Part VII: The Electronics

Posted: January 7th, 2012, 4:33pm MST by Sean Michael Ragan
This is the seventh and final installment of my ongoing series on building the MakerGear Mosaic 3D printer.

This part covers installation and wiring of the electronics that control the printer. First, the Arduino and attached RAMP shield are mounted on the printer frame. Second, connections from the build platform wiring harness, the extruder wiring harness, and other components are clipped to the PCB. Finally, the power supplies are connected, and formal assembly of the printer is complete.

There’s still a bit to do to get it up and running, and the details of just how to do that will vary with the details of the computer and software you use. Marcus Dobeck and Rick Pollack have prepared a Getting Started PDF that’s got me most of the way there, already. Thanks to Marcus, Rick, Karen Pollack, Richard Goodwin and everyone else who offered advice and answered questions during the build. Stay tuned for more updates about how to get it printing, and look for the Mosaic to feature in some very cool desktop manufacturing coverage we’ve got planned for the coming year.

More:
MAKE Volume 29: DIY Superhuman

Posted: January 6th, 2012, 5:00pm MST by Becky Stern

Enclosure: [download]

We have the technology (to quote The Six Million Dollar Man), but commercial tools for exploring, assisting, and augmenting our bodies really can approach a price tag of $6 million. Medical and assistive tech manufacturers must pay not just for R&D, but for expensive clinical trials, regulatory compliance, and liability — and doesn’t help with low pricing that these devices are typically paid for through insurance, rather than purchased directly. But many gadgets that restore people’s abilities or enable new “superpowers” are surprisingly easy to make, and for tiny fractions of the costs of off-the-shelf equivalents. MAKE 29, the “DIY Superhuman” issue, explains how.

On newsstands now! >> Buy or Subscribe

Subscribe to the MAKE Magazine Extras podcast in iTunes, download the m4v video directly, or watch it on YouTube or Vimeo.
News From The Future – The Drones Have Drones

Posted: January 6th, 2012, 4:00pm MST by Phillip Torrone

DailyTech – The Navy Unveils “Cicada”: Now Even the Drones Have Drones.

The U.S. Navy Research Lab’s Tempest Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) may not be the mother of all drones, but it is the mother of two drones, at least. A Hoisted up to 53,000 feet onto a high-flying trajectory via releasable balloon, the Tempest UAV “gives birth” in flight, launching a pair of mini “Cicada” drones.

The tiny Cicadas are an exercise in efficiency, with their logic boards doubling as wings. The Cicada UAVs are gliders, complete with smartphone-like two-axis gyroscopes and GPS circuits for navigation.

Several variants have been produced. The Cicada Mark I can be launched by firing it from a gun into the air. The Cicada Mark III is designed with special wings for improved range and stability, and is the model used by Tempest “mothership”. Cicada stands for Close-In Covert Autonomous Disposable Aircraft.

See our predictions for 2012, reporters will have drones too.
An Aussie Maker Faire

Posted: January 6th, 2012, 3:30pm MST by Sabrina Merlo

Austrailia’s very first Maker Faire is happening next Saturday, January 14th, at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne.

The Melbourne Mini Maker Faire is being organized by Paul Szymkowiak, Andy Gelme, and the members of Melbourne’s Connected Community Hackerspace. CCH is a not-for-profit association of hardware hobbyists and software programmers. They have a variety of digital fabrication tools and meet regularly out of a garage. A number of them, like Jon Oxer and Marc Alexander from freetronics.com, will be individual makers at the Faire.

Who else will be showing and sharing? The CCH’s Maker Faire blogroll is brimming with recent profiles of participating makers, like Malcolm Faed, Peter Barratt, Maria Meza, and Andee Napiorkowski. CCH is planning on around 30 makers, and are still open to accepting some last-minute entries.

MAKE contributor and noise maker Brian McNamara

MAKE will be there too… Author Brian McNamara will be crewing the MAKE table, and showing off some of his great musical instrument projects.

NOTE: We are looking for more Melbourne makers who might have a completed MAKE magazine project to show who would be game to help Brian at the MAKE table. Leave a comment below and we’ll ping you back!

If you just want to attend, tickets are free of charge—however they need you to register online in advance as numbers are strictly limited.
Tape Measure Notepad

Posted: January 6th, 2012, 3:00pm MST by Gareth Branwyn

Here’s a little measuring tape hack from the always-industrious Craig Smith:

…If you ever had a project with a lot of measuring in one area, with a lot of cutting in another, you’ll do this to your measuring tape. (Ever put up drywall?) By simply sanding the shine off of the plastic casing on a measuring tape, you have a writeable and erasable surface to jot down those numbers. Sanding just the corner surfaces are enough for most jobs, but I utilized the entire sticker area.

More:
Projects and Hacks by Craig Smith
Beating Heart Headband (video)

Posted: January 6th, 2012, 12:30pm MST by Becky Stern

Enclosure: [download]
In this episode of Becky’s Workshop, learn to make a headband that glows with your heart beat. First construct a stretchy headband from brocade and grosgrain ribbon, then embed the circuit boards and clip the sensor to your ear. You can find the Beating Heart Headband in MAKE v29, and see the complete how-to on Make: Projects.

Three key components of this project are available in the Maker Shed:
Subscribe to the CRAFT Podcast in iTunes, download the m4v video directly, or watch it on YouTube or Vimeo. Thanks to Britex Fabrics for the ribbon.

More:
DIY Prusa Flightcase

Posted: January 6th, 2012, 12:00pm MST by John Baichtal

Traveling with a fragile 3D printer can be tricky. MakerBot Industries recommends Pelican cases for their printers, which are pretty much rectangular. However, the RepRap Prusa’s shape is much odder, inducing Thingiverse user crankbmx to build a form-fitting case that even has room for the spool, and can print while fully within the case — peek through the window to watch it in action!
Instrumenting a 28-story NYC Apartment Building with Sensors

Posted: January 6th, 2012, 10:30am MST by Brian Jepson

Rob Faludi, author of Building Wireless Sensor Networks, writes:

The students in our NYU ITP Sensitive Buildings class presented terrific final projects last Tuesday. They spent their Fall making the most of a unique opportunity to invent prototypes for large-scale sensor/device networks, then tested out their creations in a landmark 28-story apartment building on New York’s Columbus Circle. The property owners had invited ITP to develop a variety of prototypes to enhance the livability, ecology and community of their building. Here’s what the students delivered in their first round…

Lots of cool projects in there: an Environmental Network, Exercise Monitoring, Postal Mail Chute, and Elevator Visualization: Sensitive Buildings: Final Projects
Lightboxes Shaped Like Polaroid Prints

Posted: January 6th, 2012, 10:01am MST by Sean Michael Ragan

Clever gimmick from Germans Jirko Bannas and Oliver Seltmann, who, under the name Lightboys, market a few different types of these wall- and ceiling-mounted “light pictures.” This one, with a frame designed to suggest a giant instant film print, is called Polaboy. [via Dude Craft]