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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• Updated: Tue, Jun 27 2006 3:17 PM

Hot wire foam cutter

In DIY Projects
GotMarko writes in with a hot wire foam cutter made from some posts on MAKE/Instructables - "A hot wire foam cutter and the jig I used to cut 4-inch styrofoam balls in half...Instead of the CD case project box, I just used a three wide plastic outlet box from HD to hold the dimmer and transformer. I cut the tabs off the sides since they were just in the way. Since I had some 1-by material around, I used that to make a small bow for holding the cutting wire. Twine around the top is used to tension the wire and can be adjusted as the wire heats and lengthens." - Link. Related:
Hot wire foam cutter - Link.[Read More] [Comments]

Easy Button with recordable audio

In DIY Projects
MAKE Flickr photo pool member Coloradocrim writes - "I did a simple circuit-bend on an easy button about 3 months ago. The most common question I get is "Can you change what the easy button says when you press it?" I haven't seen anyone else online who has done this, so here are some pics. You can see a more complete description of what I did and view a video of the finished product here." - Link & photos. Previous:

• Circuit bending is easy - Link.
• Easy Button Hack - Link.

[Read More] [Comments]

headLamp: Computer controlled LED lamp

In DIY Projects
Zach writes - "headLamp is about 300 leds soldered into a metal colander (like you use for straining noodles), which happens to be the perfect size and shape for a lamp. The leds form 7 seperate segments of red, green, and blue. These segments are wired to a circuit and controlled by the parallel port. A manual lamp interface as well as an iTunes plugin were written." - Link.[Read More] [Comments]

Fading Eyes LED project

In DIY Projects
Design News has its latest "Gadget freak" how to up, build a fading LED for spooky projects - "Partial to things that go bump in the night, Bill built a circuit that slowly illuminates and fades a pair of red LEDs. It consists of two op amps, one producing a slow rising and falling voltage (3 - 6V) and the other functioning as a voltage comparator. In operation, a linear 3V ramping waveform is generated at pin 1 of the LM1458 IC and buffered with an emitter follower transistor stage. Make the rate adjustable by using a 100K potentiometer in place of the 47K resistor at pin 2. Install it in a skull as a Halloween prop or if spooky things aren't your thing, use it as a fancy power indicator for a home appliance." - Link.[Read More] [Comments]

PCB creation process

In DIY Projects
Bob posted up a follow up to the previous PCB post - his photo resist PCB process - "Don't be scared away with this method. It's easy! The only thing I do different is I use regular ordinary fluorescent lights ($8.00 at WalMart for a small fixture with bulb). Exposure times go from 90 seconds to 10 minutes but it works just the same. I don't have much in the way of descriptions but I have pictures of every step I use here" - Link.[Read More] [Comments]

HOW TO - Make a high performance flying wing for $20

Chris writes - "Here are cool electric planes made from $4.00 Wal-Mart toy planes. The best plane for the money and easy to build, check out the gallery to see how many have been built." - Link.[Read More] [Comments]

$10 Digital camera

Quick and easy guide on modding the disposable cameras for reuse - "Turn a "disposable" 10 dollar digital camera from RitzCamera, CVS, or Walgreens into one you can use over and over, just like a normal digital camera." - Link. Related:
Tons of other disposable camera projects - Link.[Read More] [Comments]

RS-232 Laser transceiver

In DIY Projects
Laser transmitter from Electronics Australia - "Laser based projects used to be expensive, until the development of solid state lasers. This project is designed for the entry level laser experimenter. The circuit allows any two computers with serial (RS-232) communication capability to communicate over 200 meters using a laser beam. A low cost transmitter only circuit is also presented here for use in one way communication and other laser based projects." - Link.[Read More] [Comments]

HOW TO - Photo etch circuit boards

In DIY Projects
Alan writes "This article goes through the steps required to photo etch your own copper clad circuit boards. There is a relatively small amount of hardware that is required and the steps are quite simple. If you have done the toner transfer method in the past why not move to the next level?" - Link.[Read More] [Comments]

Pinewood derby video car (with suspension)

In DIY Projects
Skot123 writes "This year my eldest sons Cub Scout pack had an open division. I believe the cars that the kids race should be their own creation. So after serving as a safety monitor for the creation of the true car. I created a video car with my younger children." - Link.[Read More] [Comments]

Tv-B-Gone hat

In DIY Projects

w yah - our Jake, here at MAKE made a TV-B-Gone, here's how you can make one too! - "This is a hat with integrated Tv-B-Gone and a couple added features such as rapid fire mode which will turn off (and on) the most common tvs more frequently and constant on mode which will repeat the off codes for all tvs indefinitely." - Link. Related:
You can get the TV-B-Gone in our MAKE store! - Link.[Read More] [Comments]

LED POV helmet

In DIY Projects
MAKE Flickr photo pool member Elemenoh writes "This is my "Light Emitting Diode Persistence of Vision Helmet". I made it for my Gizmology class this semester. On the end of the black arm is a vertical row of 8 red LEDs that are attached to a chip which controls the rate at which they flash. You can program short text messages into the chip via 3 buttons on it's side. When the LED POV flasher is on I then flip a switch on the helmet to engage the motor which spins the LEDs around my head. When in the dark the flashing LEDs combined with the rotational movement give the illusion of red letters floating around my head in a halo-like fashion. I can't capture the red letters with a still or video camera so you will have to see it in person. I will have a step-by-step DIY tutorial posted on The Ominous Moo so you can make one yourself!" - Link.[Read More] [Comments]

Take digital photos through a microscope without any special lens or adapter

Nickp writes "You can use an ordinary digital camera to take pictures through a telescope or microscope, without any special adapters or lenses. The secret is to use "macro mode", a feature nearly all cameras have nowadays. It's intended to take closeup pictures of things only a few inches away from the lens, but since that's the apparent distance of what you see through a scope, it works for that as well." - Link.[Read More] [Comments]

50W LED acrylic cube light

In DIY Projects
Alex writes "Neo^3 is a 1'x1'x1' clear acrylic cube jammed with 50W of colored LED lighting. I decided the kitchen in my new apartment was kinda drab, so I built this in an afternoon to light it up a bit. My inner dork screamed, "You can't stop there!", and so I went on to build a wireless serial link and a PWM controller for the 17-channel display. Enjoy!" - Link.[Read More] [Comments]

TV-Filter

In Art
Aram writes "TV-Filter allows to downsample an ongoing tv-show to 6 by 8 pixels in realtime. A translucent projection folie is mounted on a 5 cm deep cardboard grid. The color and intensity of each pixel is determined by the correspondend part of the tv screen on the backside. The different color information of each tv line get mixed to an average color value on each 4 by 4 cm pixel. In this way it is thinkable to reduce every high definition screen to a pleasant information density. " - Link.[Read More] [Comments]

Cooking... with your car

Trebuchet03 writes "Using some waste heat in from your engine bay to cook a meal on your way home. After I showed this to a few people, I found out that there is a book called "Manifold Destiny" on this very subject. I have not read it yet, but I'm told that there are quite a few recipe's with locations and times (miles)." - Link.[Read More] [Comments]

$6 MP3 player deconstruction

In DIY Projects
Remember all those cheap (under $10) MP3 players we posted up? Here's the $6 16MB MP3 player taken apart and if you're really motivated, you could likely pick up a new flash memory chips and upgrade it... I think it could make a good device for a talking sign or other project that needs audio... - Link.[Read More] [Comments]

HOW TO - Build a Low-Cost, Extended-Range RFID Skimmer

In DIY Projects
Here's how to build a low cost RFID skimmer (it reads the contents of a RFID tag) - wow! "In this study we show that the modeling predictions are quite accurate. We show how to build a portable, extended-range RFID skimmer, using only electronics hobbyist supplies and tools. Our skimmer is able to read ISO-14443 tags from a distance of $ \approx$ 25cm, uses a lightweight 40cm-diameter copper-tube antenna, is powered by a 12V battery--and requires a budget of $ \approx$ $100. We believe that, with some more effort, we can reach ranges of $ \approx$ 35cm, using the same skills, tools, and budget." [via] - Link.[Read More] [Comments]

DIY Backyard Theater

In DIY Projects
Our pal Mike at Popular Science's h2.0 has a fun DIY Backyard Theate - Link and how to.[Read More] [Comments]

Portable 8-Bit Nintendo

In DIY Projects
I really like this portable 8-Bit Nintendo from Fastmhz, uses an old NES and a PSPOne screen - Link.[Read More] [Comments]

Surface mount component remover

Here's a video on removing surface mount components using a clothes iron - [via] - Link.[Read More] [Comments]

2 fun new things in the MAKE: Store

In Announcements The MAKE store just added a couple fun items ---
MiniPOV v2 Kit - Inexpensive Persistence of Vision
A second generation of original MiniPOV, Adafruit Industries upgraded this toy to make it easier for people to build: no microcontroller-programming device is needed, and the source code is in C not assembly. And it includes high quality PCBs and LEDs. The MiniPOV v2 project was designed as an ideal starting place for anyone who wants to: learn how to solder; learn how to assemble simple kits; learn how to program microcontrollers; and make blinky stuff. - Link.
TV-B-Gone by Cornfield Electronics
Your TV-B-Gone universal remote control fits in your pocket only has a power button that allows you to switch a TV on or off. It fits in your pocket, so that you have it handy whenever you need it wherever you go: Bars (Zap), restaurants (Zap), Laundromats (Zap, Zaaap), etc. Our MAKE team has a few clever mods we'll posting to make super-duper TV-B-Gones, so pick one up and get ready! - Link. Visit the MAKE store - Link.
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Ethernet controlled LED Panel

In DIY Projects
Here's a pretty cool looking LED panel project that can be controlled over ethernet - the site is in German (view the translated link) and includes source, eagle files - Link & translated.[Read More] [Comments]

Tensegrity tower

In Crafts
In MAKE 06 William Gurstelle shows you how to build "tensegrity models" - a "needle tower" sculpture from dowels and elastic cord that seems to defy the laws of physics. MAKE 06 - Page 100 (subscribers read it now)... - Here are some photos from MAKE Flickr photo pool member Drinkumbrella of a newly made tower.[Read More] [Comments]

Pimp my Rubik's Cube

In DIY Projects
Robotrix writes "Tired of the same ol' cube? Looking for a slightly more challenging option? Looking for a slightly more street-cred-enhancing option? Look no further." - Link.[Read More] [Comments]