The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for bikes, rockets, R/C vehicles, toys and other diversions.
The Bop It memory toy has seen many iterations, always with neat triggers. It’s a fun toy, especially for those with a more tactile memory (I was always great at Bop It and terrible at Simon). But the thing is annoying as hell unless you’re the one playing it, so Instructables user jzzsxm added a […]
This is an illustration from physics professor Peter Alway’s 1995 book Rockets of the World. That little black-and-yellow smudge in the second row, that’s the V-2. Hit the jump for mega-size. Click on the picture to zoom or download the full 3,322×5,079 image here. It’s quite amazing what a monster the Saturn V still is, […]
Before receiving Moxie’s book, I Felt Awesome, I had never seen her magnetic Katamari Damacy playset! The prince’s ball has magnets in each white nub for attracting small toys fitted with paper clips or jump rings. The video demonstration features the a cappella vocal stylings of Mr. Paul Palinkas, whose rendition of the Katamari theme […]
David Powell, Jeremy Ashinghurst, Paul King, and Jason McMahon from the Harford Hackerspace in Baltimore have rebuilt/repowered a Tron Legacy Identity Disc using a Netduino (adding lots of extra LEDs in the process). They’ve posted a complete project writeup at Coding4Fun
Or desk piano, for that matter. No actual keyboard required. Gotta say, choosing Thelonious Monk or whomever that is riffing away on the soundtrack is a bit disingenuous, as the virtual keyboards shown in the infrared footage don’t even have semitone keys. According to YouTuber petermmoz’s first comment, however, the software does actually include the “black” keys; they’ve just turned them off to make it easier for beginners to play. [via Boing Boing]
We’ve mentioned Indian maker Arvind Gupta’s clever and charming work before, in both the magazine and here online. If you haven’t seen his videos and website, you’re in for a treat. In this time of giant big-box store plastic monster toys that kids will likely play with for the entire duration of Christmas day and […]
Matt Melis and Kevin Burke of Cleveland’s NASA Glenn Research Center narrate this remarkable 45-minute video highlights compilation of some 30 high-speed clips recorded by the 125 cameras–most of them film-based—that documented each space shuttle launch. Most of this footage was recorded for engineering purposes and, as part of an ongoing effort to commemorate the shuttle program, is now being re-cut for public appreciation. Space, engineering, and photography enthusiasts will completely geek out over this video, and anyone with a pair of eyes is certain to at least enjoy it. If you can, you should watch the whole thing. If you don’t have time, you should at least scan forward to 21:00 to watch the super-slow-motion close-range shot, taken from the support structure, of the entire vehicle as it passes by. Also, I’d personally recommend the wide-angle footage at 31:10 for absolute aesthetic beauty, as well as the booster plumes passing in front of the sun at 34:50. [Thanks, Rachel!]
