Gizmodo: maker

Simple Hack Adds Power-Charge USB Slot to VGA Socket

Kit Eaton — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 10:10:09 EST

Sometimes the simplest hacks are the most useful: If you've got a laptop with limited USB ports and you're in the market for something small and handy to let you charge a device over USB, then this is for you. All it takes is a male-male VGA adapter, a spare USB socket and some accurate soldering: it's all in the Instructable. Neat. [Instructables]

Awesome Mod Adds 3D Animated Imaging to Viewmaster Toy

Kit Eaton — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:30:13 EST

I was never jealous of my friends who had those Viewmaster slide-viewer toys when I was a kid—they just seemed kinda boring, but I would have been jealous if the toy was as clever as this mod. This guy's taken the toy and added an Arduino-driven display unit, accelerometers and a Bluetooth connection to a PC so that it generates animated color-based chromadepth 3D imagery. There's even push-button control of the imagery, which reacts when you shake it. Waaaaay better than clicking through boring 20 3D-ish static cartoon frames, though the psychological effects its psychedelicness may cause hasn't been tested. [MickeyMann via Makezine]

Etch-A-Sketch Mod Adds Memory, Ability to Reproduce Your Art

Kit Eaton — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST

Rakesh Reddy's Remember-it-All mod brings Etch-a-Sketch nearly up to the 21st Century, by adding a memory and stepper motors to the toy. It ends up being a tad like the Etch-a-Sketch clock, but niftily when you switch it into record mode it copies your every move into memory. Throw a switch and your crappy straight-line art is recreated in front of your eyes. I say nearly 21st Century, 'cause a truly modern mod would automagically create the art for you, but this is still fun, and you can DIY it by following Rakesh's instructions. [DesignNews via MAKE]

DIY Telepresence Robot Lets You Work At Work In Your Undies

Kit Eaton — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 07:00:14 EST

Telepresence robots pop up in different guises, including the Rovio (which lacks a screen to truly telepresence your image), but now there's this DIY project to follow to build your own. At core Sparky the robot has a Mac-Mini, motorized carriage and a Make controller board—though you can use an arduino—and some custom software that works around Skype. Buy the gear, or cobble together your own from spare odds and sods, and you too can work at work while simultaneously sprawling on your sofa in your undies. Like we do. [Instructables via Hacknmod]

DIY Magic Mirror Makes Disney's Look Positively Low Tech

Kit Eaton — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:15:00 EDT

This is for those of you who got a shiver when the magic mirror spoke to the witch in Snow White... or rather, it's the sort of thing that'll give your kids a shiver in this electronic age. A guy called Al has hooked up an old PC, an LCD screen, an Arduino board and a slew of sensors to give his daughters their very own interactive digital magic mirror.

It's got selectable Princess, Halloween and Pirate modes, touch panel control and web connectivity (he's clearly hoping the girls'll be in finance: one touch panel reports on how his stocks are doing... badly it seems). Awesomeness all 'round.

There's an Instructable so you can try to follow in his footsteps, though since it's sophisticated stuff I wouldn't let your kids know what you're up to until you're well on the road to making it all work. That way you'll avoid treading the yellow brick road to disappointment city if it all goes horribly wrong. [Instructables via Makezine]

Teeny Web Server is Smaller Than a Business Card, and Way More Useful

Kit Eaton — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:15:00 EDT

Hackaday's running a cute little electronics project at the mo (well, if you think electronics can be cute) which shows you how to build a fully working web server on a circuit board no bigger than a business card, in plan at least. It's capable of serving up web pages and files and instead of using tricky-to-access EEPROMs it runs from code stored on a FAT-formatted SD card—easily accessible by PC. Check it out: it's pretty fascinating, and is a project you can follow...assuming you're darn good at delicate soldering work, and are into DIY electronics. Just don't go sewing the board to any clothing. [Hackaday via BBG]

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

Kit Eaton — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 10:30:00 EDT

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]

2008 Maker Faire Announced

Kit Eaton — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:43:26 EDT

DIY gadgeteers, fire up your engines: the dates for Make magazine's first 2008 Maker Faire have been unveiled as May 3rd and 4th. The San Mateo County Fairgrounds in San Mateo, California will again be the venue. Expect to see all sorts of wonderful (and weird) DIY science, arts, crafts and engineering projects in action, just like last year. We'll be keeping you posted, of course, but if you want to go there in person remember that discount ticket sales end April 25th. [Maker Faire]

Maker Faire Roundup - Look at All the Fun!

Jason Chen — Mon, 21 May 2007 14:00:17 EDT

Hey folks, while you were busy doing chores and spending time with the kids, we were off galavanting around Maker Faire in San Mateo with all kinds of crazy craftsmen! We know you couldn't be there yourselves, so live vicariously through our pictures.

Some of our favorites:

•The guys from Eepybird (Coke + Mentos)
•The Racing Cupcakes
•The Pong Watch! More!
•The Real Digg Button
•The Giant Nose Picker
•The Phil Torrone!
•The Justin.TV!
•The Steam R2D2
•The 3D Printer printing Spiderman

– Jason Chen

Gallery [Gizmodo]

Candle Maker Gadget Makes Candles Out Of Old Candles

Jason Chen — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 11:25:59 EDT

Have you ever finished burning a candle and wondered what to do with the wax left over? We sure haven't—because we're dudes! But if your wife has this problem, gift them one of these candle makers that pound the leftover parts of various other candles into an all-new candle, ready for the burning. After about 1,000 candles you can make back the money you spent buying this thing for $34.88.

An uncle of mine tried the same idea a few years ago, except instead of candles he used dogs. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Spilsbury via Popgadget]