MAKE: Blog: DIY Projects Archives

Archive: DIY Projects

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December 3, 2007

HOW TO - Buy items confiscated at airports

Scizzors0045-1
You can get scissors and knives BY THE POUND for as low as $10 or even 25 cents! What a great gift this holiday season! Here's a list of all the surplus property sales and auctions from state and local governments - this is where all the confiscated items from the airport end up - [via] Link.

Pictured here, fantastic spider sculptures made from TSA confiscated scissors!

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Dec 3, 2007 01:00 AM
DIY Projects | Permalink | Comments (4)

December 1, 2007

Conductive paint LED helmet

Matt lit up his cool bike helmet with LEDs and conductive paint. Check out his neat graf tag, too! - Link.

Related:
LED bike helmet - Link.
HOWTO - Make a LED bike light system - Link.
Solar-powered bike helmet - Link.

Posted by Becky Stern | Dec 1, 2007 09:00 AM
Bicycles, DIY Projects, Electronics, Wearables | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 30, 2007

LED Christmas Lights and how to fix them

Ledbulbs
David writes in -

Here's page & description of how LED Christmas lights work. I found this site while searching for a way to repair a string of LED lights. This answered a lot of questions I had, like why the LED lights flicker, and why there is no obvious transformer or voltage converter in the string.
They also have a page on incandescent Christmas lights and how to troubleshoot/repair them.

LED Christmas Lights and how to fix them - Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Nov 30, 2007 09:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Holiday projects | Permalink | Comments (3)

DIY Meter information station

Sdsc01094-Full
Sdsc01125-Full
This is an implementation and expansion of the 'Net Meter Data' project from Tom Igoe. The original project can be found in 'Making Things Talk' and MAKE 11, nice work LeLand! - Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Nov 30, 2007 07:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oscilloscope clock

Jon sent in this nice oscilloscope clock that uses a four-tube oscilloscope with PIC and DAC for clock vectors - Link.

Related:

Scope-500
Oscilloscope clock - Link.

140646127 97Df0092Eb B
Oscilloscope alarm clock project... - Link.

Oclock-04-20-07-1
$35 AVR Oscilloscope clock kit - Link.

Img 1600-1
Img 1603-1
AVR Oscilloscope clock - Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Nov 30, 2007 06:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics | Permalink | Comments (1)

DIY "Dirt-E" bike conversion

Rolling Chassis
Bike Assembled
Play In Snow
FrankG the prolific e-modder writes in -

This page details the initial mods and configuration of a low power Dirt-E Bike (electric powered). The central idea was to resurrect a trashed Kawasaki KE-175 that I salvaged from a scrap yard into a more modern ride.

DIY "Dirt-E" bike conversion - Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Nov 30, 2007 05:00 AM
DIY Projects, Green, Transportation | Permalink | Comments (0)

DIY Can cooler mod

376612001 9574E314Cd
376612008 078E018564
Here's a mod for a can cooler using a rapid prototyping machine (a Genisys xs 3D printer) and a foam can cozy, thanks Ken! - Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Nov 30, 2007 01:00 AM
DIY Projects | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hacking the Tassimo single-serve coffee machine

Tassimo Pods2
Tassimo Placing Crema Barcode Small
Tdisc Brew Measurements Small
Chris writes in -

I've been working on reverse-engineering the Braun Tassimo T1200/T1400 hot beverage system from its barcoded T-DISC brewing pods. The barcodes are used to "program" the machine to make a particular beverage using a specific amount of water at a particular temperature and for a certain duration of time. My efforts have been directed at discovering a "map" between the barcodes and how the machine controls its brewing processes. I haven't been entirely successful yet - I've managed to decode the barcodes, and have run some experiments to try and surface some patterns - no dice! Nonetheless, I'd like to put the idea out to Makers to get their feedback and ideas.

Hacking the Tassimo single-serve coffee machine - Link.

Make 453
DIY Coffee collects five hot MAKE magazine projects to supercharge your java:

Home-Build Coffee Roaster
Bottomless Espresso Portafilter
Toaster Tea Popper
Perfect Espresso Temperature Hack
Web-Fired Coffee with X10 Automation

Got a jones for caffeine and technology? Mod your espresso machine to dial in the perfect shot, with precise temperature control and a filter hack that kicks out maximum tasty crema. Roast your own with a hand-built custom coffee roaster. Hack a toaster timer to perfect-brew your tea every time. And fire up your coffee pot from the internet using X10 automation. Using home-grown techniques and off-the-shelf parts, caffeine junkies will find everything they need to overclock the fix from their favorite shade-grown beverage - Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Nov 30, 2007 12:00 AM
DIY Projects | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 29, 2007

NES stuck inside its controller

This very cool hack puts an entire old school NES system inside one of it's controllers with two RCA outputs for video and sound into a TV. Included games are Tetris, Contra, and about 70 more titles. The Nintentdo logo on the front of the controller is backlit with a red glow. Finally, the whole thing was made as a birthday present for the maker's girlfriend. How cool is that?

NES mini (entire NES system in controller) - Link, [via]

Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen | Nov 29, 2007 08:30 AM
DIY Projects | Permalink | Comments (1)

Dollar store parabolic microphone

Parabolicmic2
Liane sent in this handy little tutorial for how to make a homemade parabolic mic - Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Nov 29, 2007 05:00 AM
DIY Projects | Permalink | Comments (0)

Arduino NES to MIDI Project 1.0

This project converted a Nintendo Powerpad into a MIDI controller! - Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Nov 29, 2007 03:00 AM
Arduino, DIY Projects, Gaming | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Wooden menace - Robotic arm

Chris writes -

This project is a robotic arm made mostly from Wood. It cost less than $50 to make and has alot of the functionality that any normal robotic arm would have. It is controlled by a PIC MicroController and cloned PS1 controller.

The Wooden menace - Robotic arm - Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Nov 29, 2007 01:00 AM
DIY Projects, Robotics | Permalink | Comments (1)

November 28, 2007

Quick n' dirty respirator

Jake von Slatt has posted an update to his Gas Mask Respirator page at the Steampunk Workshop. He writes:

Sometimes when I'm working in the shop I just need to wear a respirator for a short period. For instance if I just need to walk into the paint area to shoot a second coat on a small part or make a quick cut on the table saw - read below to see why that's an issue for me.

Doning the powered respirator for these tasks takes much longer then the task itself. It's so much trouble that, more likely then not, I'll just try to hold my breath. This doesn't always work.

So I came up with this simple solution. I took a respirator cartidge and hot glued it to the mouthpiece of a diving snorkel. Now can pop this in my mouth and have both hands free for a quick operation, I just breath in through the cartridge and out through my nose.

Gas Mask Powered Respirator - Link

Posted by Gareth Branwyn | Nov 28, 2007 06:47 PM
DIY Projects, Toolbox | Permalink | Comments (3)

Sewing "spool spinner" from a PC fan

Our pals at Evil Mad Scientist Labs have posted a "5-minute Project" on creating a thread spool spinner for a sewing machine using an old (un-powered) PC cooling fan.

5-minute project: Spool spinner from an old fan - Link

Posted by Gareth Branwyn | Nov 28, 2007 01:56 PM
DIY Projects | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wood stove from an old computer case...

Im000046
Spiffy wood stove from an old computer case... Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Nov 28, 2007 12:00 PM
DIY Projects, Made On Earth | Permalink | Comments (2)

Wall mounted rolling sketchpad

Cover-Image-Img 4773
Pesky human writes -

I like to sketch on vertical surfaces. I came across some wide paper rolls and wanted to figure out a way to use them as sketch pads. 20 minutes and $10 worth of closet brackets and dowels later, mission was accomplished. If you are not drilling brick walls like this, you should be able to throw something like this together in about 10 minutes.

Wall mounted rolling sketchpad - Link.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Nov 28, 2007 11:00 AM
Arts, DIY Projects | Permalink | Comments (1)

LED Mag-Lite conversion

How to turn a Mag-Lite flashlight into a high-powered LED flashlight.

High-powered LED Mag-lite Conversion - Link

Posted by Gareth Branwyn | Nov 28, 2007 10:13 AM
DIY Projects, Instructables | Permalink | Comments (1)

USB-powered desktop cooler

A desktop fridge made from a peltier cooler which the builder insists can be powered through a USB port (though I wonder).

$5 Mini USB Fridge! - Link

Posted by Gareth Branwyn | Nov 28, 2007 09:35 AM
DIY Projects, Instructables | Permalink | Comments (5)

November 26, 2007

Motion-triggered paintball gun

Rather roughshod tutorial (e.g. I think he gets his wires crossed) on adding a motion detector trigger to a paintball gun using a BASIC Stamp HomeWork board, a laser pointer and a servo.

How to build motion detect to fire a paintball gun - [via] Link

Posted by Gareth Branwyn | Nov 26, 2007 07:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics | Permalink | Comments (3)

November 24, 2007

Track fingers with the Wiimote

Johnny Lee at Carnegie Mellon University figured out how to use the Wiimote's infrared camera to track his fingers, Minority Report style. Link.

(Thanks, Matt!)

Posted by Becky Stern | Nov 24, 2007 06:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Gaming | Permalink | Comments (3)

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