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DIY

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helicopters

Indoor R-C Helicopters Go DIY, Use Spare Electronics Parts

Forget the Picoo Z's, no matter how much fun they are they can't be as cool as making and flying your own indoor remote-control 'copter. And over at this site there's a set of instructions that'll help you DIY, assuming you have some spare CD drive motors and servos lying around, and are happy with soldering and detailed rotor-carving. The instructions even say how to add a wireless cam beneath the fuselage... useful for, um, imaging the precise moment you crash it into your cat? I suspect more nefarious purposes. Still, it's a full cyclic-control aircraft, so it should be extremely flyable. [Heliproject via Hacknmod]

10:30 AM on Fri Sep 5 2008
By Kit Eaton
6,538 views, 10 comments

Latest by leuch3rd: i saw this years ago! its awesome!!! more »

leds

DIY Scrolling LED Business Cards Miss Point of Business Cards, Still Cool

Over at Instructables is this DIY project that will let you make your own slender electronic business cards with built-in LED display. They're pretty cool, displaying a number of different scrolling data messages at the push of a button, and apparently cost just about $5 per card. The "slender" description means you'll have to be good at soldering surface-mount components, though. To me it's a cool project that will impress people, but kinda misses the point of business cards: easily disseminating your contact info. An LCD QR-code business card— now that's something I'd fancy. Head over to Instructables if you've got the LED maker-urge. [Instructables]

9:45 AM on Wed Sep 3 2008
By Kit Eaton
1,867 views, 15 comments

Latest by ajmernone: for anyone wondering the QR code said [gizmodo.com] scanned it with my iphone more »

mods

DIY Mini Multi-Platform Console Mod

Retro gaming fans that enjoy a good DIY project will certainly get a kick out of the latest work of a console modder that goes by the name "Bacteria." Basically, he has devised a way to cannibalize those Plug-n-Play TV gaming units into interchangeable cartridges that can be plugged into a single, portable system (he also claims that a GBA add-on is currently in the works). Unfortunately, Bacteria continues to be uninterested in details like aesthetics and ergonomics (as we first noticed in his previous project), but that is something you can probably correct should you decide to take on the mod yourself. Hit the link for the complete instructions. [Modded by Bacteria]

2:00 PM on Tue Sep 2 2008
By Sean Fallon
1,902 views, 17 comments

Latest by Edi_bOMB: He sucks at arkanoid... that's all i can remember after seeing the video. more »

diy

Build Your Own Large Hadron Collider in 1.62 x 10^28 Easy Steps

Want to build the most complex machine human kind has ever produced? All you'll need is €6 billion, enough real estate to hold your 17-mile-long ring, a staff of international geniuses, and these plans (free!). The 115MB of documentation just made available by the Journal of Instrumentation has all you need to understand the inner workings of all the major LHC components, from the EMCAL super modules to the ionizing gas straw tubes to the calorimeter end-caps. And the schematics within are, just like everything else large-hadron related, beautiful. More »

1:15 PM on Tue Aug 26 2008
By John Mahoney
12,382 views, 53 comments

Latest by wolfenstein-3d: @ottermann: LoL, you sir are the kind of people i expect to see on sites like this. I'm at work more »

robots

Sassy DIY Talking Robot Tells You How to Assemble Sassy DIY Talking Robot


This sassy little thing is the brainchild of L. Scott Hudson, who recently participated in MAKE's Dorkbot Austin robot building event. This gal is kind of like the Twitter box bot we wrote about this week (also a MAKE find), but it's got the added bonus of moxie. It also gives you step-by-step self-assembly instructions in the video. See? Robots are ready to start building themselves. Earth: Doomed. More »

12:00 PM on Sun Aug 24 2008
By Jack Loftus
2,008 views, 5 comments

Latest by L: Hey, thanks for the Link! Hopefully I will have her Motor Controller programming completed this weekend, and her Robot Arms assembled more »

diy

Build Your Own Waterproof iPod Video Boombox

Popular Mechanics has a great DIY feature, showing you how to build a waterproof video boombox for your iPod. Making use of an iPod touch, some old speakers, an 8" personal video player screen, video cables, gorilla tape and a hard camera case, Anthony Verducci has created a waterproof video case for the iPod that he believes is the first to float. More »

2:45 PM on Sat Aug 23 2008
By Adrian Covert
3,544 views, 16 comments

Latest by cmantito: @ryanobo66: I've used this concept myself a few times -- I dock my iPod in some speakers in the bathroom more »

braille

B&D Messenger Helps the Blind Read SMS

The B&D messenger, designed by Okada Noriaki, bills itself as a way for both blind and deaf people to communicate via text message. Though there are several Braille phone products already in the market, Noriaki device is much smaller in size and pretty inexpensive. On one side of the gadget is twelve points that rise and fall in braille lettering; on the other side is a small LCD screen and a regular numerical touch pad. Users must connect the B&D messenger to a computer for it to receive and translate texts. More »

12:30 PM on Sat Aug 23 2008
By Elaine Chow
1,723 views, 14 comments

Latest by ViperBorg: If you are blind, how are you going to put that together? more »

playing gizmo god

How to Transplant a Sony Reader Display Into a Dying Kindle

The mad scientist behind this hack was faced with a problem. His beloved Amazon Kindle had a shattered screen and was all but dead. Distraught, he thought to himself: "what if I could sacrifice a Sony reader and perform and unholy cross species screen transplant? Yeah, it just might work because the e-ink screens on both devices are nearly identical." More »

7:50 PM on Fri Aug 22 2008
By Sean Fallon
7,182 views, 16 comments

Latest by markarian: Has anyone found the Holy Grail hack yet of tethering to the Kindle's free EVDO? more »

make it stop

Furby Gurdy Circuit Bent Instrument Brings Our Nightmares to Life

The hurdy gurdy is one of, if not the coolest old-timey instruments. Great sound, beautiful craftsmanship, not a lot of talent required to get a basic sound out of it, and so on. But David Cranmer's Furby Gurdy turns all of that on its head, replacing the dulcet hurdy tones with the synchronized moans of four brutally scalped Furbies wailing in unison. The rig can also be used as a sequencer using an appropriately anachronistic screw and rotating cam mechanism. The whole spectacle gets shown off on video, if you dare. More »

3:00 PM on Thu Aug 21 2008
By John Mahoney
10,102 views, 29 comments

Latest by N/A: just made my day more »

retromodo

Czech Photographer's Cameras Made From Trash Still Capture Pretty Ladies Just Fine

No, this isn't an alternate Waterworld costume for Dennis Hopper—it's Miroslav Tichy, posing with one of his amazing trash cams, which he fabricated from paper towel tubes, thread spools, rubber bands and other bits of detritus and has used since the 1950s. Now in his 80s, Tichy and his works have only recently (as far as the art world goes) been discovered. And like all good photographers, he trained his intentionally imperfect camera rigs on the considerably more refined female form. More »

12:40 PM on Thu Aug 21 2008
By John Mahoney
38,873 views, 37 comments

Latest by badhatharry: @dkoemans: sowl. more »

modding

Bloo Balls Custom PC Case Mod is a Whole New Kind of Punk

This custom case mod made for Bit-Tech is just eye-grabbingly bizarre... from the outside alone. Built by a guy called Craig, Bloo Balls was over a year in the making, which included and a whole lot of careful design, redesign and fabrication. There's a mass of careful plexiglass-carving in there, including a hand-made, custom-crafted liquid cooling system for both P4 processor and northbridge. Plumbing and CPUs don't often mix, which is why the build included one fried motherboard. Check out the gallery: it's amazing, inside and out. So amazing, it almost warrants its own genre name... we're just wondering what to call it. More »

5:52 AM on Thu Aug 21 2008
By Kit Eaton
9,184 views, 76 comments

Latest by N/A: It reminds me of those little water games that u drop the coins in, ya know, the things that they more »

led

Electronic Sandwich...Thanks Mom?

While the refined carbohydrates of Wonder bread coupled with the classic duo of butter from crushed peanuts and the fruit that comes in a jar have powered America's youth for generations, the digital era has ushered in a new use for food. Namely, not eating it. This "electronic sandwich" transforms the binary bliss of PB&J into pretty much just binary, and when you add a bit of power, the sandwich lights up: More »

12:00 PM on Wed Aug 20 2008
By Mark Wilson
4,632 views, 22 comments

Latest by Wraithen: Electric sandwich? Looks more like a chip butty to me ;) more »

diy

Make Your Own R/C Hovercraft Out of Old Junk

My guess is that most of the guys out there would love their own R/C hovercraft, but the bottom line is that not everyone can afford a fancy commercial version. Well, if you have some junk lying around the house, some time on your hands, and you don't mind a hovercraft that is butt friggin' ugly, you can build your own R/C model for under $50 (depending on what kind of junk you have lying around) and the instructions from Project Hovercraft. More »

6:40 PM on Mon Aug 18 2008
By Sean Fallon
9,166 views, 13 comments

Latest by rsjames: @grok666: Junkyard Wars! Man I loved that show.... more »

papercraft

Hit Coworkers From Afar and Burn the Evidence With DIY Paper Rocket Kit

USB rocket launchers are expensive and overrated, in my opinion. I say give me Luddite papercraft rocket launchers or give me death. So you'll excuse me when I say I downloaded the template for this DIY paper rocket launcher [PDF] from German design site Paper Puzzle Parade and made a small army this morning. The site says if you do "good work" the rocket should reach heights of about 15 feet! I sense a Cold War with my USB-armed office brethren brewing. [Paper Puzzle Parade via MAKE]

3:00 PM on Sun Aug 17 2008
By Jack Loftus
3,974 views, 3 comments

Latest by Con Seannery: That's nothing, you should try letting a bird loose in the office every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. more »

diy

DIY XR3 225 MPG Hybrid Car Kit Finally Finished, Hits the Road Soon for $25,000

When we last left gearhead Robert Q. Riley and his three-wheeled DIY 225 MPG XR3 car kit in March 2007, rumor had it drivers would be zipping around roadways in it by May. Turns out the DIY hybrid market is tougher than expected, because just this week word was the XR3 was finally finished and "coming soon"—again. And while the video of the completed car in action made me think of Centauri from The Last Starfighter for some reason, this futuristic looking kit actually uses readily available 21rst century innards to get from A to B. We hope "soon" this year doesn't mean "in one year" like it did in 2007. More »

2:00 PM on Sun Aug 17 2008
By Jack Loftus
17,097 views, 40 comments

Latest by macrumpton: @Simpsons-Movie-ruled: Google just invested a pile of cash in Aptera. Supposedly production is supposed to start this fall. more »

MacGyver Training

Cross "Hot-Wire My Car" Off the Bucket List With a Handy How-To

Hot-wiring a car isn't really on the list of things every boy should get handed down from their pappies, but when you find yourself in the Sahara and your Land Cruiser keys just got eaten by a lioness, you'll be happy you checked out this informative step-by-step guide. Yes, it's super illegal, so don't be an idiot; use only in case of safari disasters. [Wired How-To Wiki via Lifehacker]

10:40 AM on Fri Aug 15 2008
By John Mahoney
15,436 views, 22 comments

Latest by N/A: This would be good if one had the time and tools required to do this in the post-apocalyptic zombie world. Movies more »

nintendo

What the Wiimote Needs Now: More LEDs

Now that Nintendo's solving their Wiimote control issues, we can finally focus our intentions on superficial improvements. It's required some major soldering, but one modder has added all sorts of LED-based tweaks to his Wiimote. The first, seen here, Skittles-izes the player indicators by swapping out the now-drab blue LEDs for those of multiple colors. Our cup of tea? Not really. But the kids will love it. The second notable mod utilizes the Wiimote's rumble signal and maps an LED pulse to the shaking: More »

10:02 AM on Thu Aug 14 2008
By Mark Wilson
6,201 views, 16 comments

Latest by N/A: 'll be doing the wiimote led modification on my wiimotes. Diferent led colors for the players are neat!!! more »

weight lifting

Great Idea: Store Those Old CDs in Your Biceps!

As our favorite media become more and more digitally-based, that pile of CDs and DVDs is looking increasingly wasteful. Sure, you can sell some of your stuff on eBay or through a garage sale, but what about that bargain bin edition of Bach classics that's already sitting on your hard drive? Here's a clever use for the media that falls between the cracks. Dumbbells made of 150 CDs (75 on each side) weigh 10lbs a pop—not a bad amount for high rep semi-aerobic lifting. Plus, they look way more geek-hot than the mass-produced gunmetal crap you use at the gym. [Daily Danny via MAKE]

7:00 PM on Wed Aug 13 2008
By Mark Wilson
5,875 views, 29 comments

Latest by johnnyabnormal: My dumbbells use the decapitated heads of RIAA lawyers for weights...they're actually quite light, for obvious reasons. more »

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