Technology

Robotic Fish Uses only One Servo

Robotic Fish Uses only One Servo

At the Center for Biorobotics in Estonia, Eszter Ozsvald built a mechanical fish named A.riel that can model the movements of actual fish surprisingly well, and using only one servo inside a carefully made silicon-based mold. It took many iterations before the final product, but found that in the end she could develop the same vortex patterns as actual fish. Her site has extensive documentation on the build process and is definitely worth a look for the mold-making processes alone.

Continue Reading Michael Colombo

Back in the Maker Shed: Ultimate Microcontroller Pack

It’s been a while but the most popular version of the Ultimate Microcontroller Pack is back in stock in the Maker Shed! The Ultimate Microcontroller Pack with Arduino Uno includes everything you need to dive right into the world of microcontollers. The 100+ components include everything from servos to an LCD screen to allow you to complete nearly any online tutorial without having to source individual parts.

Continue Reading Michael Castor
Printable Robot Spider

Printable Robot Spider

Enviably agile and purposeful, the mobile robot makes its way through grounds rendered off-limits to humans as the result of a chemical accident. Depressions, ruts and other obstacles are no match for this eight-legged high-tech journeyman. Its mission: with a camera and measurement equipment on board, it will provide emergency responders with an image of […]

Continue Reading John Baichtal2

How-To: Hack Addressable Christmas Lights into a 7×7 Display

John Graham-Cumming created this sleek 7×7 LED display by hacking up a string of addressable Christmas lights from GE. Starting from Robert Quattlebaum’s excellent tutorial, he mounted an Arduino Pro and GE Color Effects G-35 Christmas lights inside a frame and diffused the light with a cutting board. I especially like how he used servo arms to secure the backing to the frame. He coded the Arduino so that custom messages and patterns can be displayed and in the video above he shows it displaying “Thanks GE” for making these hackable Christmas lights.

Continue Reading Matt Richardson4

Capacitive Touch Mirror Controller

Using a pair of capacitive touch styli inside a cylindrical mirror, a team from the Ochanomizu University have built a system for displaying and controlling interactive anamorphic images on the iPad. By taking advantage of the iPad’s capacitive touchscreen, the device allows a user to rotate and view images of objects that appear to float within the mirror.

Continue Reading Adam Flaherty2
MAKE Flickr Pool Weekly Roundup

MAKE Flickr Pool Weekly Roundup

This week’s MAKE Flickr pool roundup is full of great Halloween memories. Our featured image, recalling Wednesday’s Cardboard Clone Trooper, is an equally-impressive cardboard Master Chief costume from user jek in the box. For sheer comedy value, my personal fave is user Unconverted’s QR code costume, lowermost, followed in close second by hine’s costume squid hat. And, somehow, to me, Chris Connors’ untitled skull-scrubbing shot sums up the maker Halloween experience quite nicely.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan2
Crank Your Panavise in Turbo Mode

Crank Your Panavise in Turbo Mode

We’ve previously covered a popular mod to the Panavise Jr., which makes it easier to quickly open and close the tool. Even the people at Panavise liked the idea so much that they started manufacturing it. Chris from The New Hobbyist has taken this mod to “a whole ‘nother” level with his 3D printed drill bit which allows him to use the speed of his drill to open an close the vise. Getting the design right on his so-called “Panavise Jr. Speed Winder” took six revisions, but his persistence paid off and now Chris is sharing his design with us slow-winding folks. Thank you, sir!

Continue Reading Matt Richardson12