Tools

Toolbox: Snowpocalypse edition

Toolbox: Snowpocalypse edition

In the Make: Online Toolbox, we focus mainly on tools that fly under the radar of more conventional tool coverage: in-depth tool-making projects, strange or specialty tools unique to a trade or craft that can be useful elsewhere, tools and techniques you may not know about, but once you do, and incorporate them into your […]

Exploring the business of making

For the next few months, in concert with our “Your Desktop Factory” themed issue of MAKE (Volume 21), we’re going to be exploring the world of “maker business,” turning your passion for making things into a means of making money. We’ll look at everything from casual commerce, selling small numbers of goods online, at places […]

In the Maker Shed: Open Heart kit V2.0

In the Maker Shed: Open Heart kit V2.0

The Open Heart kit V2.0 is a matrix of individually addressable LEDs that allow you to create customizable animations when connected to your favorite micro controller. Attach it temporarily to fabrics with headers that you simply push through, or sew it into a project with conductive fabric for a more permanent setup. It’s “Charlieplexed” so you need only 6 wires to control the 27 LEDs

Awesome workshop panorama

Awesome workshop panorama

Check out UK maker John Honniball’s sweet workshop panorama. This is an almost-360-degree panorama of my computer and electronics lab and workshop room. The four big CRT monitors that you can see were obtained from FreeCycle, as was the iMac. Far left is a Stag PPZ EPROM programmer. At the right-hand end are the HP […]

ChumbyChimp and Po

ChumbyChimp and Po

Back when I got my Chumby Guts kit a few months ago, I imagined that it would be pretty funny to set up it up Teletubby style with the screen in the belly of a plushie. At the time, I didn’t have a suitable doll to sacrifice at the alter of maker fun, but like Kent Barnes, I did have the box it came in. I like the alarm clock features, and enjoy being chirped awake. Eventually, though, the box kind of wore out, and my Chumby Guts lay loose on the night table.