This winter, my dad and I took up the project of building a simple pedal-powered cell phone charger to mount on my bicycle. Cell phones are small potatoes in the big picture of energy consumption, but the apparatus we built could be a very practical concept for those on self-supported bike tours or those living […]
One of my favorite things at this year’s Maker Faire was iFixIt’s repair area. They had obviously worked their butts off to create a really cool environment conducive to teaching people about fixing their own cars, home appliances and electronics gear. They had awesome displays, like physical exploded view “diagrams” of handheld devices, using the […]
Makers is a beautiful hardbound book that introduces you to a brigade of citizen engineers making their own cameras, clocks, airplanes, submarines, musical instruments, weapons, medical equipment, energy- saving devices, robots, and houses. They create their own tools to explore the outer atmosphere, the deep sea, and the behavior of tiny flies in their backyard. […]
During Maker Faire, people of all stripes were riding these crazy junkcycles around. I took a moment to speak with Tom Kabat, their creator on Sunday. Tom and his bikes were a mainstay of Bike Town, an area of Maker Faire that featured many bike builders and their projects. A former serious cyclist who still […]
I made this minimalist table lamp from three ready-made components: 1) a burner tripod lab stand from The Science Company, 2) a 5″ globe incandescent light bulb, and 3) a socket extension cord from the hardware store. It works and looks great, and the total cost is about $20 US. The 5″ globe light bulbs […]
At Maker Faire, we saw loads of really cool projects. The BeanCat was a clever one, a skid steer chair controlled by a Wii Nunchuck held by the user in a bean bag chair. The Beancat is an all-wheel drive, battery powered bean bag chair, controlled by a Wii nunchuk. Getting a drink from the […]
Just ran across this post on CiboMahto’s blog detailing how to control an inexpensive analog clock mechanism with an Arduino. The mechanical bit is quite simple. The clock functions in a similar fashion to a stepper motor, in the sense that you charge an electric coil to get the mechanical bit to move forward a […]
