Are your soldering skills rusty or non-existent? The Maker Shed can help with the Learn to Solder kit! The kit has everything you need to build a flashing European-style siren including a 30W soldering iron, wire cutters, and lead-free solder.
This great-looking Stirling Engine Kit, from the Maker Shed, is as majestic as a piece of art and it’ll help you understand the basics of thermodynamics. Unlike internal combustion engines, Stirling engines run on an external heat source, which can be anything from combustible fuels to geothermal or solar energy! You can try 3 different experiments: the generator, the fan, and the car.
Matt demonstrates how he uses an Arduino to make a celebrity-silencing remote control for your TV. By decoding the closed captioning track in the video signal, the Arduino is able to look for keywords such as “PALIN” or “KARDASHIAN” and mute your TV, protecting your poor ears from having to hear about them ever again.
For more information, including the code, check out: http://blog.stage.makezine.com/archive/2011/08/enough-already-the-arduino-solution-to-overexposed-celebs.html
Last month, we announced, here on MAKE, a contest I was running, with my publisher. The winners have been selected in Chicago Review Press’s Practical Pyromaniac Clerihew Contest. The Practical Pyromaniac is my latest book.
While there are LED alternatives on the market for MR16 bulbs, the technology is still prohibitively expensive. I pulled one of the halogens and found the socket was simply two pieces of 19 gauge wire. I decided to free-form some circuits made of different colored LEDs around the thicker terminals.
Super Awesome Sylvia is back with an all new video about the LOL Shield! Take it away, Sylvia! For this build, we’re laughing out loud at how many LEDs we’re going to solder in for the LOL (Lots of LEDs) Shield by our good buddy, Jimmie Rodgers! Let’s go!
Evolve or die! The Game of Life Kit, from the Maker Shed, is a simple electronic project that plays Conway’s Game of Life. Invented by Jeff Conway in 1970, it’s a mathematical game that simulates “colonies” that grow or die based on how crowded or lonely they are, and it’s known for the way it creates a beautiful organic display out of randomness. Make one kit and keep it on your desk, or attach multiple kit modules together to create a large display.
