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If you love to build your own computer system and pimp them out you should check out the new show called Mod Men. They take some stock computer parts and mash them into some cool creations. Custom paint, milling machines and more is what they use to take ordinary computer systems over the top. My favorite part of the first 2 episodes is at 9:04 of episode 2 where they show you how to make a cheap computer mouse look like it has a carbon fiber cover. All they use is some paint and a cheap non-slip mat. The results are impressive.
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Via: Instructables “The robot is essentially a simple pendulum, with the pivot at the wheel axle. The bottom part of the robot’s body is significantly heavier than the upper part of it. This serves as a counter weight, keeping the entire body upright, hence the balancing act. DC Geared Motors are used instead of the a normal DC Motors. They are better suited for this project due to the fact that it produces low RPM, and have enough torque to drive the robot. You will later find out that the robot could end up becoming quite heavy.”
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Remember all the people warning you never to look directly at the sun because you will go blind. Well believe me when I say do not look into the barrel of this gun because it will make you blind. This DIY Pulse Laser Gun was built by Patrick Priebe who you might remember from the Iron Man Repulsor Light Laser Glove Project. This is what you get when you convert a ton of energy into light energy in a fraction of a second. Looks fun enough to build but I probably won’t since I would probably end up with a few holes in my hand or something. *UPDATE* Patrick has been overwhelmed by inquiries about this gun, it takes about 70 hours to make one. He will be making another one for sale but since it isn’t a trivial task it will take a month or two. “It holds a small pulse laser head, capable of generating aMW-pulse of coherent infra-red light. One shot can punch through a razorblade, plastic, 5mm styrofoam when focussed. Effective range on 3m (dark surfaces)…you will see a stinging flame and a 5mm stain will remain on target. The goal was, to create handheld device…AS COMPACT as possible. Its 320mm long and weights about 2 pounds. Materials used: Plexi for the center-plate, and brass / aluminum for the casing. Each and every part, handmade…took about 70 hours of work.”
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It can be challenging to get motivated to keep on a consistent exercise routine. I find it much easier to get into the groove when there is something interesting to keep your mind active. Lior Elazary has developed a great Interactive Punching Bag which is based around an Arduino microcontroller system. The sensor is a great idea and could be made from a few things around the house (assuming you have some conductive foam laying around). If you have a secret room in your gym you could set a secret punch sequence to unlock the door! “The sensors are built using aluminum foil and conductive foam (I learned this technique from the Robot Builder Bonanza. I have the first version of this book, but I hope they kept it in this version as well). Cut two rectangles of aluminum (the size of the sensor), and solder two connectors to this. The bag has 3 modes, which you select in the beginning (all lights go on, and you punch on the light to select the mode). For now the LEDs are placed one in the left top, right top, and sternum. “
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Sorry for the lack of contests the past few weeks… The prize this week is a remote control helicopter, when you are taking a break from designing your next great project fly this around to inspire some creativity. This contest will run for one week (March 5 – 11, 2011). Ending time is based on central standard time. To enter, identify the item pictured above and give an example of what can be done with it. Please do not give the answer in the comments. Send an email to contest @ hackedgadgets.com with “Name the Thing Contest” as the subject, and the message body consisting of:
The winner will be chosen at random from all of the correct entries. ———————————–———- Added April 10, 2011 The item to guess was RADIO SHACK TV SCOREBOARD The winner is Cliff H. (there were 117 entries) ————————————–———- Below is a picture of the prize.
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Taking things apart and making them better always gives me a great feeling. Have a look at this Teddy Ruxpin Robot that DJ Sures put together. Reminds me of the Furby hacks we saw years ago. You can see that the Teddy Ruxpin has the typical inexpensive mechanical bits that make all of these toys come to life. With the skin pulled off this thing looks a bit freaky. “I had to modify the head in this robot to move its mouth, open its eyes, move its head. The standard mechanism was very primitive and consisted of only one motor. So designing a mechanism by reusing the parts was a challenge. Animating the arms was interesting also. His fur is too tight to allow the arms to move forward, so I chose an up and down motion. They are also controlled by servos.“
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This is a cool project that is based on the LOL Shield for the Arduino. “The Lol Shield Theatre is a combination of software and hardware, a web site and an arduino Lol Shield. First I built a web app that allows you to create and view animations using 9 x 14 pixels, the same amount of pixels on the Lol Shield. The interface is pretty much all javascript, no crazy flash and Jquery was an enormous help in this project. The site builds an xml file that is stored in a database and can be reached through a rest API.” |
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