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Human-shaped bed

A maker sent me a photo of this amazing human-shaped bed (art) -- anyone know more about it?

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Playing music using Dominoes

Here's a low-tech way to share some holiday joy. Jared Lyon used a bunch of dominoes and some strategically placed bells to play the song 'Carol of the Bells' as the dominoes fell down. Fun stuff! [via neatorama]

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Favorite MAKE video series for 2009

What were your favorite videos that we did for 2009? There were too many to post each one, so please vote by the series and then tell us what your favorite episodes were in the comments.

What was your favorite MAKE video series for 2009?(polling)

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How-To: Bass drum microphone shock mount

Instructables user brainparts built this acoustically-isolated microphone mounting ring for his kick drum using bungee cords and a short slice of 6" aluminum pipe, all for about $20. He says if he were to do it again, he'd just use PVC pipe for the ring.

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Best projects of 2009, MAKE magazine

What were your favorite project in the magazine this past year? All of the major projects are listed below. Vote for your faves. And PLEASE tell us know in comments if you actually built any of projects and what your experience was, if you were happy with the results, etc.

What is your favorite MAKE magazine project of 2009?(answers)

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Learn to write games using Python

Interested in learning how to program, or know someone who is? Then you might want to check out Al Sweigart's free book, Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python. Now in it's second edition, the Creative Commons-licensed book was written to help anyone, young or old, learn to program in the powerful Python language.

From the introduction:

Programming isn't hard. But it is hard to find learning materials that teach you to do interesting things with programming. Other computer books go over many topics that most newbie coders don't need. This book will teach you how to program your own computer games. You will learn a useful skill and have fun games to show for it!
This book is for:

Anyone who wants to teach themselves computer programming, even if they have no previous experience programming.
Kids and teenagers who want to learn computer programming by creating games. Kids as young as 9 or 10 years old should be able to follow along.
Adults and teachers who wish to teach others programming.
Anyone, young or old, who wants to learn how to program by learning a professional programming language.

It looks like it could be a great place for a budding programmer to start, and since it available online for free, why not check it out? [via O'Reilly Radar]

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Felt control panel

I'm working on a felt electronics control panel. It has two knobs and four pushbuttons. I first needle felt a little cylinder, then bore out a channel in which to fit a standard button or knob. They're delightfully fuzzy, yet firm to the touch. See more at my Flickr.
More:
Big Fluff Pi vs. Music-Industrial Complex

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Piano that speaks!

By way of Alden Hart at HacDC comes this amazing computer-controlled analog piano that speaks, *almost* comprehensible English, when a frequency spectrum of a child reading the text of the Proclamation of the European Environmental Criminal Court is transferred to robot fingers that press the piano's keys. Creepy. Cool. [Thanks, Alden!]

Speaking Piano - Now with (somewhat decent) captions!

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Lamp turns on with floaty magnet

I'm digging the way you turn on this fiat lux lamp by designers Constance Guisset and Grégory Cid. In place of the standard light switch, you place an orb under the lamp, which then (presumably) uses a magnetic field to hold it in place. When you are done, you simply pull it away and the light goes out.

I think it would be awesome to make this into a timer for the light- the lamp could have a control system that slowly lowers the orb, until it gets far enough away that it drops to the floor and shuts off the light. Anyone want to try it? [via notcot]

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Cool CNC-friendly desk lamp design

Pedro Mealha was inspired by those 3D plywood dinosaur kits when he designed this lamp, called rhizome, the armature of which is a great example of the emerging "router aesthetics" Bruce Sterling wrote about back in MAKE Volume 11. I also like the wooden race and exposed ball-bearings that let it pivot at the base. Now if we can just persuade him to post the DXF files on Thingiverse... [via Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories]

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Tesla tornado xmas tree

Instructables user mrfixits writes:

This Tesla Tornado is made using a Subaru blower fan motor, complete with its 3-position speed switch mounted on the base. The blower motor has a flywheel fabricated out of Lexan with 6 neodymium magnets mounted in it. It magnetically couples with 6 magnets in the Tesla Pump disc pack, which is inside the vortex tube. The Tesla pump discs are magnetically driven by the blower motor flywheel magnets, so there is no direct connection. The pump disc pack is self-centering, and there is no rotating shaft, shaft bearings, or seals required.

Because nothing says xmas like the slurp of that water pump! Great walkthrough of the building of this Tesla Tornado.

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How (analog) traffic lights work

MAKE subscriber Joe Kerman sent us a link to this video about how mechanical controllers for traffic lights work. This is from a Canadian kid's TV show from the late 80s (I think), called the Acme School of Stuff. I watched a number of other episodes on YouTube and found them pretty engaging and educational. [Thanks, Joe!]

Traffic Signals

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Commodore 64 synth chip emulated on an AVR

Because of its classic sounds & serial-controllability, the Commodore 64's Sound Interface Device (SID) chip is much sought after by many synth DIYers. Instead of plucking one from a vintage piece of computing history, Christoph recreated the SID's functionality in firmware using an ATMega8 chip. The resulting emulator can be controlled via serial protocol - an Arduino shield was even designed to do just that.

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Awesome flying drawbridge

This thing is called the "Slauerhoffbrug," and it lives in Leeuwarden in the Netherlands. The road section is lifted on a single massive counterbalanced arm up to 90 degrees in the air. There's a good photo gallery, including aerial views, over on frozenly.com. [via Neatorama]

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Amazing sound sculptures from motors & more

Zimoun's art makes use of motors and other machine hardware en masse to create some strange and quite elegant installations. [via EMSL]

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Christmas Tree responds to Twitter mentions

Alpay Kasal's Twitter-enabled "Twistmas" twee tree responds to specific keyword mentions by lighting corresponding ornaments - After designing a Twitter based installation for GE Healthcare, I looked forward to putting some Arduino's and LED's to work on a personal project. While speaking with Psytek, a founder of a hackerspace in Brooklyn called AlphaOneLabs, we decided an interactive Christmas tree would be a lot of fun. He bought a tree. I hunted for clear ornaments to stick the led's into, and after coming up dry, we set out to make our own. I thought this would be the easy part, it wasn't, I underestimated the elusive nature of ornaments in the wild. Eventually I found "golf display cases" at The Container Store.Read more of the story over at LitStudios and check out a live feed of the tree in action at Alpha One Labs

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New in the Maker Shed: Thingamagoop 2

Make, mod, hack, and bend your own analog noise monster with the new Thingamagoop 2 kit from the Maker Shed! It's a great kit for beginners, since it includes detailed instructions and photos of each step of the build. Advanced users can taking advantage of the Arduino integration, control voltage in and out, or just bend it like crazy!

Features

Analog VCO controlled by analog or digital signal from Arduino. (A separate Arduino board is not required)
Sample and hold, Arpeggios, noise, and bit crush effects with open source code so you can program your own sounds!
All the analog sounds of the original Thingamagoop.
Controllable LEDacle - Ramp and random waveforms with rate control.
New modulators - Square wave amplitude modulator and triangle wave pulse width modulator.
Tough, stomp box type body with silk screened graphics in 3 different styles.
Easy to access battery - No more screws!
Much fuller and louder speaker
CV in and out
Arduino Programmer jack. Easily hook an Arduino board up to the Thingamagoop 2
Kit now comes with a pre-drilled enclosure

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Solar charge battery powered toys...

Jeff writes in with a quickie solar project...
I recently purchased two remote control cars for my nephews from a dollar store.  The cars came with three rechargeable AA batteries and also a cheap AC charger that connects to the car, but unfortunately grew hot when plugged in (a classic wall wart). So I'm giving them the cars with a solar panel and withholding the AC chargers. The best part is how easy it was to make it all work as I piggy-backed on the car's built-in charging circuit.

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Happy birthday, Linus!

Today is the birthday of Linus Torvalds. Linus is the creator of Linux, the free software kernel that helped make the open source software revolution happen. Happy birthday, Linus!

In addition to being a grandmaster hacker, he also has a great sense of humor:

GFDL-licensed image from Wikipedia

Second image by Picasa user Chris.

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Help us brainstorm Make: Online, 2010

It's probably no surprise to anyone who hangs out here that we love what we do at Maker Media and we're always looking to do it better, to reinvent ourselves, to grow and expand, while staying creative and true to our mission, which is, ultimately, to serve YOU, the greater maker community. We're now in the process of planning what we want to do on Make: Online for 2010.

Since one of our internal themes for the year is "Maker Community," and how we can expand our relationships with individuals and groups in the wider maker/hacker/DIY communities, we thought we'd ask all of you to help us brainstorm the year. What would YOU like to see more of on Make: Online in 2010?

Here are a few of the things we already have in the pipeline:

* A redesign of the website
* More guest author stints (who would you like to see guest-author?)
* More guest columns, a la George Hart's Math Mondays
* Expansion of the Make: Science Room, with more, exciting projects, videos, etc.
* More in-depth how-tos in Make: Projects
* More instructional videos, a la MAKE Presents, perhaps a series on mechanical engineering
* Support for Make: Electronics, with instructional videos, step-by-step projects, kits in the Shed, etc.

Now, tell us about YOUR ideal Make: Online in 2010...

(We'll choose three posters and give them a free Maker's Notebook, so they can sketch out their year in DIY.)

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DIY Flashlamp-pumped organic dye laser

My friend Jon Singer has been experimenting with creating a relatively-cheap, straightforward flashlamp-pumped dye laser. This first-blush version uses caps he bought on eBay. As he refines the design, he hopes to avoid as many commercial components as possible. This proof-of-concept build was attempting to answer the musical question: Is a dozen Joules enough to threshold a dye? Answer: yes.

Toward a Straightforward DIY Flashlamp-Pumped Organic Dye Laser -- Step 1, First Proof of Principle: A Minimalist Machine

Jon also recently called me, excited, 'cause he'd managed to get three dyes to oscillate in the same cuvette to create RGB laser light! The guy's a monster. Half the time, I don't really understand what he's talking about, but I always feel smarter for having done so. See his "RGB 'White' Dye Laser Light from a Single Cuvette" research report here.

More:
Homegrown laser crystals
El cheapo mirror mounts

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Party popper "Claymore"

Clever design from Thingiverse user vik, which lets you mount and simultaneously fire a devastating barrage of nine party poppers at unsuspecting revelers. "I should've marked it with FRONT TOWARD FRIENDS," he comments.

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Math Monday: Giant SOMA puzzle

Giant SOMA puzzle
By George Hart for the Museum of Mathematics

The seven-piece SOMA puzzle has been a classic since Piet Hein invented it in the 1930s. The Math Museum has a giant SOMA, one meter on each side, for visitors to play with. This one is stuffed with foam so you can climb on your creations.

It is easy to glue together 27 wood cubes to make your own set. There are seven pieces to the puzzle --- all the possible ways to have at most four blocks and at least one bend. Note that two of the pieces are mirror images.

Once you make a set of pieces, you can challenge your spatial abilities by assembling them into many different constructions. Here are a just a few things you can make, each with the same seven pieces.

It is a fun group activity to make a much larger SOMA by assembling cardboard boxes. Instructions are online here.

More:
Math Monday: Tie your bagel in a knot!
Math Monday: Playing card constructions
Introducing "Math Monday"

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LEGO minifig group costume

This LEGO minifig group costume has some amusing making-of photos, and the costumes turned out great! [via EMSL]

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Fab radio looks fabulous

David Mellis, of Arduino fame, wrote in to share this radio that he built with Dana Gordon. Noting that most personal fabrication projects seem to be aimed at niche markets, they designed a radio that could be enjoyed by anyone. Their hope is to enable individuals to produce and sell small-scale products profitably. They have an excellent write-up on their website, complete with schematics, board designs and drawings.

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Make paper conductive using simple carbon nanotube ink

Ordinary copy paper can be made highly conductive by treating it with a simple water-based dispersion of carbon nanotubes. Bing Hu and other graduate students under Stanford researcher Yi Cui published a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) describing the use of such conductive paper to create high-performing prototype supercapacitors, batteries, and fuel cells. He also studied the wear resistance of the nanotube ink and found that it bonds very tightly to the paper; his data show that soaking, rinsing, and wringing-out in water does not significantly affect the properties of the treated paper. The supplementary information for his PNAS paper is freely available for download and describes his experimental methods in detail, including the recipe for his ink and the trick of reloading a commercial highlighter with it. [via Science Daily]

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Handmade telescope

I received the most special gift this Christmas. My husband, Chris, was holed up in our garage most nights since November, feverishly working on a secret project for me. He's never attempted woodworking before, but tackled this project with absolute determination. I'm a huge space geek, and have been fascinated with the night sky almost all of my life. I've talked of wanting a good telescope, and it would have been very easy for him to just make a stop by the store to pick one up. That he spent weeks working on this for me makes it the most special gift I've ever received.

Watching him get so excited about the project's progress and work through difficulties and come up with ingenious solutions of his own was so much fun. My only disappointment was that I couldn't be out in the garage working with him. When he unveiled the telescope on Christmas Eve, I was stunned and very excited. When I looked through the eye piece and gazed upon the moon - crystal clear and full of gorgeous craters - I started crying. We've already taken it out almost every night since Christmas Eve, and I can't wait to get it out to a truly isolated spot to really see what she can do!

There's just a little leftover staining to do, but otherwise the scope is complete and working beautifully. Now Chris thinks I should sew a nice dust cover for it.

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Stretch sensitive bracelet

Hannah Perner-Wilson made this stretch sensitive bracelet that doesn't light up until you wear it. It's knit from resistive and traditional yarn, and also uses conductive thread.

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Home in a garbage truck

This guy converted a garbage truck into a mobile home. I love the storage drawers, which have cut-outs in them for all of the kitchen tools and dinnerware so that it doesn't knock about when the house is in motion. [via Steven Robert's Facebook page]

Update: As several people have pointed out in comments, this is NOT a converted garbage truck, but an actual camper/mobile home called the TerraCross. Snopes even has a page on it. Regardless of what it's called, or how it was made, I still think the cut-out drawers, the original inspiration for posting it, are cool. But otherwise, sorry for the hoodwink.

A Story of Organization in Pictures

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Researchers create golden aluminum, black platinum, blue silver

Photos by Richard Baker, University of Rochester.

University of Rochester Associate Processor Chunlei Guo has developed a technique that uses a femtosecond laser to blast nanoscale features into the surface of a piece of metal--pretty much any metal. These tiny features interact selectively with white light to reflect a particular color--pretty much any color. It's also possible to achieve a near-perfect black finish and iridescence. If the process can be made economical (it's very slow at present, requiring about half an hour to treat a dime-sized area), it could be a complete game-changer when it comes to finishing metals. Guo gives the example of a bicycle factory that could use only a single laser to make parts of any color or color scheme.

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How-To: Composite video output for Chumby One

Bunnie's blog points out a rather sweet hack by xobs which swaps Chumby's LCD display for TV output. It requires new firmware + minimal hardware modding - def seems worth it for those looking for bigger display options. Read more in the Chumby wiki.

In the Maker Shed:

Chumby Guts

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LED Wine Charms Instructable

Eventually somebody loses track of what glass they're drinking out of at almost every dinner party I attend. That's what those little wine charms are for. I really dig this LED wine charm instructable from billr. They're geeky, festive, and yet another excuse to add an LED to something that would otherwise forgo illumination.

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Elegant interactive art from salvaged electronics

Thessia Machado's Interference - an interactive sculpture/instrument made with harvested electronic parts. You can modulate both the sounds and the images by shading the light on the photocells. The lcd screen (from a discarded pda) is excited directly by the voltage output from the oscillator.[via Califaudio]

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Ring Oscillator Pendant

When you connect an odd number of digital logic inverters in a ring, you'll get a Ring Oscillator - one of the simplest types. This configuration has no stable state, so the 1s and 0s chase each other around the ring, creating oscillations. Normally this isn't easy to visualize, but Make Flickr Pool contributor ellindsey000 made a pendant that illustrates the principle beautifully:

This actually looks much better in person -- I'm at the 26C3 conference, where someone (sorry, I'll try to get your name!) built a replica based on ellindsey000's photos. The LEDs are ultraviolet, causing different spots in the center marble (which contains uranium) to glow. What the video above doesn't show is that the UV LEDs are barely visible and the glow inside the marble seems to move almost as if it was a liquid.

The schematic matches the construction in circular symmetry - both are beautiful:

More pictures: complete gallery, including how it looks in daylight.

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Bluetooth keyboard hack for jailbroken iPhones

If you've got a jailbroken iPhone and want to use a bluetooth keyboard with it you can now download BTstack Keyboard in the Cydia Store. [via theiphoneblog]

More:

External keyboard for iPhone from our own iPhone Hacks--no jailbreaking needed!
iPhone PS/2 keyboard interface with Arduino

Physical keyboard for iPhone and an iPhone robot - WITH ARDUINO

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How-to: Using a 555 timer as an external clock for the Arduino

Here is another how-to from Jeff, this time he describes using a 555 timer as an external clock for the Arduino. It's a really interesting technique on how to get a fairly accurate external interrupt at lower frequencies.

The key here is an 'external clock'. Rather than have the Arduino keep track of when to perform the next task, you have an outside signal that says "Now!" and fires an interrupt which the Arduino responds to. If your source fires every 100 milliseconds, then 10 times a second, the Arduino will receive an interrupt which will stop any processing currently happening and immediately execute the interrupt handler. For every tick of the clock, the interrupt handler will execute.

In the Maker Shed:

Make: Arduino

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Maker Birthdays: Johannes Kepler

Happy Birthday Johannes Kepler! Kepler is best known for establishing laws of planetary motion (explained in the above vid series) which later helped form the basis of Isaac Newton's work on gravity. His research in the field of optics resulted in the invention of the "Keplerian" refracting telescope.

For more Keplerian info, check out JohannesKepler.info (natch!)

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Victorian Infographics

Victorian Infographics details here!

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"Invisible" semi-trailer

Transparentius, by noted Russian design firm Art Lebedev, consists of a semi-trailer equipped with a projector that displays the view from a forward-looking camera on the back of the trailer. [via Neatorama]

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Marvelous night for a (Saturnalian) moon dance

From the International Space Fellowship website:

To celebrate the holidays, the Cassini imaging team has created a video collection of "mutual events," which occur when one moon passes in front of another, as seen from the spacecraft. Imaging scientists use mutual event observations to refine their understanding of the dynamics of Saturn's moons. Digital image processing has enabled scientists to turn these routine observations into breathtaking displays of celestial motion. The original images were captured between Aug. 27 and Nov. 8, 2009.

[via Tim O'Reilly's Twitter feed]

Cassini Holiday Movies Showcase Dance of Saturn's Moons

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CRAFT weekly recap

Here are some of my favorites from CRAFT this week:

Bleach-Painted Skeleton Hoodie

Cranberry Prosecco Cocktail

Bara Brith: A Welsh Holiday Bread

Knitted Thyroid

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Flexible furniture

Part card trick, part slinky, the Flexible Love chair seems like it could be more than a novelty. The end pieces look shopbottable, but the bellows seems like it would take a lot of patience to cut, fold and glue.

FlexibleLove? furniture incorporates an 'accordion-like, honeycomb' structure to create durable furniture pieces produced from widely-available recycled materials. FlexibleLove furniture, such as FlexibleLove Earth 16, are made from recycled paper and recycled wood waste, and are produced using pre-existing manufacturing processes in order to reduce their overall impact on the environment.

The name "Flexible Love" was derived from the concept of a 'flexible love-seat' - seating that could hold from one to as many as sixteen individuals; changing length and shape with a simple pull at each end. A honeycomb structure, used throughout the entire Flexible Love line, produces an accordion-like result that allows each piece to be extended and collapsed with ease.

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Universe ring

Universe ring...

To22 created something nearly perfect. A continuous ring, delicately proportioned, beautifully polished and seemingly flawless. There is only one tiny imperfection. A speck, no larger than a piece of dust. At a glance, it is barely noticeable. Upon close examination, it appears intentional and more clearly defined. Only magnification reveals the actual object set within the miniature interior. It is a model of the known universe. Inspired by the writing of Stephen Hawking and loosely based on the anthropic theory to22 puts our daily pursuits into perspective and reminds us that we are always a part of something bigger.

In other news, after seeing this De Beers inflated the price of Universe to an astronomical amount and are having string theorist slaves in horrible working conditions make new universes around the clock.

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Cool maze-box on Thingiverse

Thingiverse user wizard23 designed this cool puzzle box (which he calls the "A-Mazing Box") using a custom Python script and Clifford Wolf's freeware OpenSCAD program, then printed it on a MakerBot. His script lets you import your own maze as a PNG so you can design one with a unique solution.

More: Make: Projects - Simple 3D models with OpenSCADOpenSCAD: Constructive solid geometry CAD at long last

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Audible EMF detector in steampunk style

JingleJoe's electromagnetic field detector looks quite awesome - This device uses a circuit that I constructed myself to detect electromagnetic fields. All flowing electricity gives off an electromagnetic field, with this device you can hear them all! They can be musical and harsh, the variety of electromagnetic sounds you can detect is limited only by the number of electronic doohickeys you own! As an added bonus it also detects ghosts.

The device has three outputs for displaying the electromagnetic fields to your human senses: a speaker, a stereo quarter-inch jack socket and an analog meter.More info over at the Hacked Gadgets forums.

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