MAKE Magazine
MAKE is a quarterly publication from O'Reilly for those who just can't stop tinkering, disassembling, re-creating, and inventing cool new uses for the technology in our lives. It's the first do-it-yourself magazine dedicated to the incorrigible and chronically incurable technology enthusiast in all of us. MAKE celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend technology any way you want.
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How-To: Build a Seismic Reflector
Living in the UK, Jim hadn't experienced an earthquake firsthand. After watching recent quakes unfold in Indonesia, he decided to create a device that would keep him aware of the Earth's seismic events. His Seismic Reflector uses a Processing-based software monitor which feeds data to very motoriz …
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Machine pin headers make for easy chip sockets
Fresh out of 8-pin DIP sockets, I broke off a couple rows of female machine pin headers as a substitute - using the chip itself to align the pins for soldering. That was about a month ago, and I've continued using them ever since. Though it seemed a bit 'kludgey' at first, this process has proven …
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How to make your own caffeinated alcohol beverage
If San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera gets his way a generation of club goers will miss out on the sickly sweet tang of caffeinated alcohol beverages like Sparks, Four-Loko, and Joose. Yet, all is not lost. A group of enterprising practitioners have seized the opportunity to handcraft a batc …
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Homebrew transistor experiments
Jim did some experimenting with homemade thin-film zinc oxide and zinc-tin oxide, developing his own homemade transistors devices -I did manage to achieve (with a liquid dielectric) voltage and current gain, as well as construct a functional astable oscillator using two of the devices constructed on …
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New in the Maker Shed: Robotic arm kit
With this award-winning Robotic arm kit, you can control the gripper, wrist, elbow, base rotation and motion, all from the tethered remote. The robotic arm has a vertical reach of 15", horizontal reach of 12.6", and lifting capacity of 100g. Features include a searchlight on the gripper and an audib …
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DIY bike repair stand
We love bikes, just check out all our bicycle related entries. Unfortunately, sometimes our bikes break, and when they do it's a lot easier to repair them if you have a stand. Too expensive? Then make you own bicycle repair stand with a few parts form the hardware store. I've needed a repair stand …
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The vibrobots of Norway
Nifty video (in Norwegian) of DIYer Morten Skogly showing off some of his vibrobot creations on a Norwegian TV show. Vibrobots (Tekno S03E04) Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Robotics | Digg this!
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Introducing the Multixylophoniomnibus, an augmented xylophone
Spotted in the MAKE Flickr pool: ITP students Hana, Ania, and Greg built this augmented xylophone, the multixylophoniomnibus. Despite having a basically unpronounceable name, the project looks nice and they have a very in-depth review of the process that they went through in order to produce a wor …
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Make an LVDT with soda straws
It's the McLVDT, a linear variable differential transfomer, made from McDonald's straws. The creator writes: I made a primary coil on a normal sized straw, and made two secondary coils on the outside of the larger McDonald's straw. Since the McStraw is large-bore (perfect for those thick high calor …
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Car launching!
Now why didn't we think of this? Bill Gurstelle writes: It is exactly what it sounds like. This year several cars, trucks, and two school buses were launched. I'm absolutely going to be there next year. Car Launching Read more | Permalink | Comments | …
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"Polaroid" mini-vase
From designer Jung Hwa Jin, the "Polaroid Flower Vase:" ...a small planter that recalls the nostalgic form of polaroid, with the plant becoming the focus of the "picture." The planter is suspended with a clothespin on the end of a cord, with a small embedded lamp illuminating its subject. [Thanks …
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Homemade transistor from a photocell?
Like many of us, Nyle Steiner has long aspired to building a homemade transistor. While considering possible way to achieve this, he stumbled upon the interesting idea of building a FET transistor from a cadmium sulfide photocell. Normally used to detect light, the photocell is pretty close to wha …
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Open source hardware and the web...
Limor Fried and I spoke at the Web 2.0 Expo New York 2009 today... Here's a description of our talk and our slides! Open source hardware is a term slowly working its way into many new projects and efforts, but what is it? There are a few definitions, some of which come from open source software, wh …
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Alex Rider Dream Gadget Contest launches today!
It's here! The Alex Rider Dream Gadget Contest launches today! Put on your thinking caps and dream up some awesome gadgets! To celebrate the release of the newest Alex Rider book, Crocodile Tears, and the Kids of All Ages edition of MAKE (both at bookstores today), we're thrilled to be running this …
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Alex Rider book giveaway: Crocodile Tears
The Alex Rider Dream Gadget Contest launches TODAY! We're giving away two copies of the newest Alex Rider book, Crocodile Tears, by Anthony Horowitz! The book comes out today as well, so win one here before others have a chance to scoop them up in stores. Just leave a comment in this post and tell u …
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Tetris meets Arduino
Like Tetris, but tired of playing it alone in the dark on your Game Boy? Well, now you can rejoice, for Luyza Pereira and Bettina Hiel have brought Tetris into the era of physical computing with their installation Tetris meets Arduino. The result is about what one would expect, and with the additi …
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SPARK Project #3, Post #1
For my third and final SPARK project, I'm going to continue building on lessons learned from Project 1 and Project 2. I've found Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2 to be a powerful tool, but getting started is not a trivial process. Despite a sophisticated IDE, configuring and building running systems can b …
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How-To: Upright electric bass from a 2x4
Mark just boinged a link to this cool magazine how-to from 1961 (.pdf) by Roy L. Clough, Jr. It's hosted at Cigar Box Nation. [via Boing Boing] Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Music | …
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Build a clone of the MiniMoog filter
Yusynth has a nice PCB layout for building a classic voltage-controlled Moog filter. This particular iteration appeared in MiniMoog synths, utilizing Robert Moog's signature transistor ladder design for sweet, sweet analog sounds. Read more | Permalink | Comments | …
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Make: Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Santa Claus Machines
Santa's got the coolest tools. How else could he and his elves build all those gifts in time? Now, thanks to custom fabrication services, we can all get access to the Santa Claus Machines. From bespoke action figures, to interplanetary terrain models, from one-of-a-kind sneakers, to tailor-made mach …
MAKE Magazine
