The R/C Beetle Battle is one way to get rid of a bug phobia!

“Have you ever thought about to control your beetle fighting with friends. The Remote Controle Beetles let you and your friends to experience the Beetle’s Battle.”

Via: RedFerret

(more…)

I guess I lead a sheltered life since I didn’t know about the “cornstarch reaction“. Make sure you watch the end of the first video. The last video is cute…

“Due to its dilatant behavior, cornstarch suspended in water is not a good analog for modeling a Newtonian lower crust. However, workers have suggested that crystal-rich magmas behave in a dilatant manner (Smith, 1997; 2000), as evidenced by brittle fractures in igneous intrusions that are cross-cut by fluid flow of the same material. This implies that a cornstarch suspension could be a useful analog for modeling deformation and flow in crystal-rich magmas, and that this type of flow may be important in the modeling of all igneous intrusions as crystal content increases with time.”

This home made VR R/C car is quit well done, it seem to be quite responsive.

“A gyroscope is mount on the video headset. the movement of the head control the movement of the onboard cam”

If you are looking to get your feet wet with PIC microcontroller USB functionality, this article by Sylvain Ferrand is a great place to start. To keep on top of developments in this area I would suggest subscribing to this magazine, what will it cost you? Nothing, it’s free!

“PIC 18F4550 and 18F2550 are powerful microcontrollers including a full-speed USB V2.0 compliant interface . With these MCU it’s very easy for the hobbyist to design USB devices with very few components. This schematic is very simple, only few additionals components are needed. It’s a self powered USB device. ”

The Soap mouse looks very interesting. I wonder how long before it is a commercial product?

“Soap is a pointing device based on hardware found in a mouse, yet works in mid-air. Soap consists of an optical sensor device moving freely inside a hull made of fabric. As the user applies pressure from the outside, the optical sensor moves independent from the hull. The optical sensor perceives this relative motion and reports it as position input. Soap offers many of the benefits of optical mice, such as high-accuracy sensing. We have tried soap for a variety of application scenarios, including wall display interaction, Windows Media Center, slide presentation, and interactive video games”

Thanks for the tip Chris H.

Here is a simple circuit to make some dancing LED lights.

“Here is a simple circuit which can be used for decoration purposes or as an indicator. Flashing or dancing speed of LEDs can be adjusted and various dancing patterns of lights can be formed.
The circuit consists of two astable multivibrators. One multivibrator is formed by transistors T1 and T2 while the other astable multivibrator is formed by T3 and T4. Duty cycle of each multivibrator can be varied by changing RC time constant. This can be done through potentiometers VR1 and VR2 to produce different dancing pattern of LEDs. “

Remember the Big Wheel bikes? Well forget all about those… this Hemi Powered Trike may look like the Big Wheel we knew as kids but that is where the similarities end.

“It’s no surprise that the competition’s winning design appeals to the big kid in all of us. While Canadian Marcus Braun has even decked his Big-Wheel-style custom trike out with handle bar tassels and garish Early Learning Centre livery, the spec sheet is pure adult reading. With a Hemi mounted behind the driver, the trike is counter-balanced by a four-foot front wheel and needs Goodyear racing slicks to gain traction. Eight straight-cut exhaust stacks should make for chaos at the kindergarten.”

(more…)