There are lots of POV displays out there, lots have multi color LEDs that can display some impressive images. Gelstronic has built this  3D POV Display that has lots of tech going on. The addressable LEDs are setup in strips of varying heights. When spun this allows the display to create 3D images in color. A Parallax Propeller microcontroller powers the main display while an Arduino Pro Mini works with the ESC to keep things turning properly. To get power to the spinning portion of the board a wireless power module is used, this module can get about 10 watts of power through the air gap which is plenty for the LEDs.

When you think of a robot in your house you probably think of a Roomba. I want to see a milti function robot that is capable of doing more. Automation is great when it can do complex tasks unaided that help us out. Just imagine coming home to the dishes done, the floor cleaned and a cold beverage presented to you when you sit in the couch. This sounds like it could be the future if the Mini Spot gets developed.

This Edge Lit 481 Digital Voltmeter Display totally makes me want to build a clock with this mechanism. Can you imagine talking a measurement with this meter that oscillates, it would make a ton of noise. I can see this being great help if you were siting on a stable reading and waiting for something to avalanche.

Via: Hackaday

“These early NLS digital meters used a resistor dividing network and stepper relays to select the display digits. If you see one of these in operation you will hear a lot of mechanical relay noise as the range and digits are selected.”

 
jehugarcia shows us what is Inside the TESLA Model S Battery. There are lots of bolts holding the battery pack together. Why are they ripping apart this huge battery? To make smaller battery packs to power other electric cars. As you can see from the video this pack is built like a tank. It is not meant to be services since it is all glued together. With a bit of elbow grease they can get into it though. Nice to see they are taking lots of precautions when working with the discrete modules since they hold a ton of energy and could cause some major destruction! This obviously wouldn’t be worth it to take a new battery apart but this one was taken from a crashed car where the battery survived.  If you want some of these modules for your project you can get them at EV West.

This Gesture Controlled Lamp is powered by Raspberry Pi. An infrared camera is connected to the Raspberry Pi allowing the system to monitor for wand movements since the wand has an IR LED build into it. OpenCV is used to decipher the wand movements. There are a few simple gestures that are recognized to magically control the light.

Via: Make

“After a recent trip to Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter, my daughters and I decided to create a project that could use the interactive wands from the theme park, at home, to control our own props and gadgets. We called it Raspberry Potter because it was powered with a Raspberry Pi. We demonstrated the project last year at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Mini Maker Faire and this article — Ollivander’s Lamp — is the latest extension of that project.”

We have seen Paper Airplane making systems in the past, this one is super fast. Taking a stack of paper and jamming it through a set of rollers bending and folding as it goes makes for a very fast plane machine. The use is great, stack it full of flyers and fly them at your targets. Doing this from a tall building might be lots of fun!

Via: Hackaday

Mark Nesselhaus is building a computer the hard way, by using handfuls of transistors and cardboard.

“Attempt to build a computer using cardboard and brass paper fasteners as the base material for all of the logic circuits. Why? Well, the cardboard is free as my workplace puts it in the dumpster and I do not have the funds to buy better material. All of the electronic parts thus far were given to me by a friend who passed away and what better tribute than to build a computer. Except for the ALU all gates are either Nand or Nor using DTL. The transistors used are npn 2n2222 type or pnp 2n3906”