The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for digital gadgetry, open code, smart hacks, and more. Processing power to the people!
It’s a full-size chair version of one of those little wooden toys with segmented legs that collapses when you release the internal tension. I’ve heard them called “swoon toys.” This furniture-scale version called Lazy Chair, by UK designers Fresh West, stands back up rather more slowly than the toys; it takes about 45 seconds in the video above. There’s also a click-to-collapse Flash version at the designer’s website. [via NOTCOT]
I don’t know how long they’ve been available, but Timothy J. Silverman’s lovely photo (uppermost) just alerted me to the existence of these dual-reading dial calipers that simultaneously report inches and meters on the main scale and the dial. I do remember wanting such an instrument a couple of years ago and Googling around trying to find one with no success. The version pictured immediately above (and, I think, in Timothy’s photo) is this Chinese model imported by TFT Tools, but many other models are available.
Smartphones are great remotes. Check out this lightweight Bluetooth enabled novelty lamp mod by Bitartist. Tricked out with a AVRtiny2313 and Bluetooth module, you can turn the lamp on and off via a mobile app. It will also perform double duty by notifying you of incoming calls.
I purchased a 405nm laser diode…off ebay just recently and needed a case to mount it in. So I have turned this from a length of aluminium tube for the body and two pieces of aluminium bar for the front and back closures. The front closure doubles as a heat-sink. Everything’s held together with grub-screws. Runs off two AAA batteries which just fit inside.
I’ve come across a few different ways to attach a lens to a smartphone and I have to say that this macro lens mod from Bangalore maker Bharath P has got to be one of the more novel. Using some epoxy putty he mounted a lens from a cheap pair of binoculars directly ahead of the camera lens on a Nexus One by adhering it to a salvaged mini-jack plug.
I’m generally not much of a kit-buyer, but it seems like each one Windell and Lenore release is better than the last. They almost had me with the Bulbdial clock; I will probably not be able to resist the new Egg-Bot kit. They’re taking preorders now, and the first kits are supposed to ship at the end of this month. Looks like new orders are already backed up into October.
It has no display, and that’s not a stylus–it’s a pen. So you can write important numbers on the paper card pictured, left, and snap it into the clear display pocket on the phone’s back. Available in five subdued colors from John’s Phone, of the Netherlands. I’m tempted. [via Boing Boing]
