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Flat Earth advocate dies after homemade rocket crashes
The saga of "Mad" Mike Hughes and his homebuilt rocket has come to a tragic end. The Flat Earth advocate died on February 22nd at the age of 64 when the chute for his steam-powered rocket detached shortly after launch, leading to a high-velocity crash in the desert near Barstow, California. The launch was being filmed for a Science Channel series, Homemade Astronauts, that aims to document the adventures of amateur rocket makers.
The best way to play ‘Untitled Goose Game’ is to dress like a goose
For Twitch streamer Dylan "Rudeism" Beck simply playing a menacing goose in Untitled Goose Game wasn't enough. He wanted to become the goose. In a livestream yesterday, Rudeism put on a homemade goose suit and played the game in a whole new way.
LG's SnowWhite is like a Keurig for ice cream
SXSW 2019 isn't just about films, politicians, designers and social media founders. There are also gadgets here to check out. Enter LG's SnowWhite, a concept machine designed to let you easily make ice cream at home. The SnowWhite is basically like a Keurig, featuring a pod-based system that allows you to choose the base and flavor for a variety of frozen desserts. That means it isn't just limited to ice cream: You might also be able to make gelato, granita, sorbet, yogurt and more. I say "might" because LG is adamant that the SnowWhite is only a prototype right now -- this is more about showing off what the company thinks it can create for your home. That said, LG did just introduce its automated HomeBrew machine at CES 2019, so the SnowWhite could eventually become a reality. If it does, LG says you'll be able to make ice cream, gelato or any of the other desserts listed above in two to five minutes. In addition to that, the system can clean itself and may offer both a touchscreen and physical dial for controlling its settings. Unfortunately, the SnowWhite at SXSW wasn't a working model, which is disappointing because it would've been great to have a scoop in this Texas heat. But, considering the popularity of Keurigs, the SnowWhite isn't a bad idea. Now I just hope LG adds some sort of smartphone integration in the future, because that would make my life even easier. I could just pull out my phone, use an app to tell the SnowWhite what to make me and in a few minutes, boom, I'd have ice cream waiting for me in the kitchen. Ultra lazy status achieved.
Ad-averse Tesla will run a fan-made commercial
Tesla doesn't need to advertise -- based on a slick presentation, its overall rep and Elon Musk's 7.5 million strong Twitter account, it notched 400,000 pre-orders Model 3 electric cars without anyone even taking a test drive. However, a fifth-grader named Bria noticed that despite the lack of ads, "many people make homemade commercials for Tesla and some of them are very good." She suggested the idea of a contest, with Tesla airing the winning commercial, and Musk replied "that sounds like a great idea. We'll do it!"
Guy creates handheld railgun with a 3D-printer
An ambitious maker has built a partly 3D-printed railgun that can fire aluminum or graphite projectiles at over 250 meters per second (560 mph). No, this isn't Quake, but it's no janky, all-plastic gun, either. The "handheld" weapon houses six capacitors that weigh 20 pounds and deliver over 1,800 joules of energy per shot. And it indeed works just like a full-sized railgun, using parallel electrodes to fire an "armature" bullet. The creator, David Wirth, added an Arduino Uno R3 to monitor charging levels, temperature and other factors, and tweaked the rails after he noticed "plasma damage."
The Big Picture: Building an electric 'armored' car out of wood
If you think the coffee table you've been building in your spare time is pretty sweet, just wait until you get a load of what Liu Fulong has been making. The Shengyang, China resident recently finished his own electric armored car after four months of work, despite having no formal training in automotive design. As you might guess from the photo above, the "armored" label is based more on appearance than functionality. That wooden body probably wouldn't stop many bullets, and the missiles are purely cosmetic. But hey, the car underneath works -- Liu can get around at a respectable 30MPH (faster than his previous 20MPH project), and he factored in crucial elements like lights, mirrors and spare tires. Is this safe? Probably not, but it's proof that you don't need to be a wealthy entrepreneur to build your own eco-friendly ride. [Image credit: STR/AFP/Getty Images]
Homemade exoskeleton lets a man lift big cinder blocks with ease
Think you need the budget of the military or a megacorporation to make an exoskeleton for heavy lifting? Nope -- all you need is some standard parts and the know-how to put them together. James Hobson (aka The Hacksmith) has finished a homemade robotic suit whose pneumatic cylinders let him curl 171.5 pounds' worth of cinder blocks with relative ease. While it's not the most sophisticated setup, it's only running at half pressure and could potentially double the load with a compressor upgrade. There's a work log at the source link if you're eager to see how this project came to be. With that said, you'll want to be cautious about trying this yourself -- there aren't any leg supports so far, and those blocks aren't exactly harmless. If you're like me, you'll probably feel safer watching Hobson's demo video below.
This DIY synthesizer cost $70 to build and it sounds amazing
What could you build with a budget of $70? For George Gleixner, it's a homemade battery-powered synthesizer. One that's constructed using a circuit bent a children's Hing Hon EK-001 squarewave keyboard no less. What's circuit bending you ask? Well, Reed Gazala pioneered the process back in the mid-90s which modifies (read: bends) the original circuits of keyboards, drum machines and even children's toys to create new sounds that vary from its original use. Each year at Moogfest, as an homage to founder Bob Moog, there's a circuit bending competition in which entrants hack together their instruments for a shot at maker glory. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the larger festival attracts electronic music's finest, like Kraftwerk and Dan Deacon, that could end up peeking the goods too. This time around, Mr. Gleixner took the top prize and we caught up with him to see the inner workings of his creation.
Adafruit shows how to make your own touchscreen camera using Raspberry Pi (video)
Do you like the idea of building your own digital camera, but want something a little more sophisticated than Ikea's cardboard cam? Adafruit will be happy to help you out. It has posted instructions for making a point-and-shoot using little more than a Raspberry Pi, its matching camera module and Adafruit's PiTFT touchscreen. The resulting device won't rival any modern point-and-shoot for quality, but it's truly usable -- you can even slap on a WiFi adapter to upload shots to Dropbox. Whatever your experience with DIY photography, you'll find everything you need to know at the source link.
Homemade self-balancing unicycle uses an Arduino to keep upright
On the whim of a coin flip, Nick Thatcher once decided between building a homemade Segway, or a self balancing unicycle. Even though the powers of fate chose the former, Thatcher's thirst to build wasn't quenched -- he built the one-wheeled scooter anyway. The Raptor looks a lot like a Ryno unicycle built from spare parts -- a chain driven wheelbarrow wheel powered by a 350w geared motor, a pair of batteries wired in series, some PVC and polycarbonate, an IMU gyro and an Arduino UNO -- all hobbled together to form a one-wheeled electric mount. Thatcher says the scooter can push 10mph safely, but faster speeds tend to outpace the gyro's corrective efforts. Still, the bike promises between 90-120 minutes of face-plant free fun, provided the rider is at least a little balanced. The motorized unicycle isn't for sale, but peek on over to Thatch Industries for a parts list, or scoot on past the break to see the bike in action.
Meet the Arduino Due, the 32-bit board that'll let your projects fly (really)
As much as we love the Arduino Uno, it's not the most powerful of hobbyist microcontrollers. Fortunately, the folks in Turin have just put the finishing touches on a 32-bit upgrade with buckets of potential. At the heart of the Arduino Due is an 84MHz Atmel CPU, based on ARM's Cortex M3 Architecture, which is capable of being the brains inside your own flying drone or homemade 3D printer. It should start trickling out onto shelves from today, setting you back $49, but hey, that's a small price to pay to automate your drinking adventures.
Modder builds $150 open-source thermal imaging camera to help insulate his house (video)
Modder Andy Rawson thinks he's found the secret to turning smartphones into super-cheap thermal imaging hardware. Inspired by his quest to find leaks in his old home and the high cost of professional gear, he set about building his own. A 64-zone temperature sensor connects to his iPhone via the dock, overlaying the data onto his camera display. He's planning to open-source the $150 hardware, and an Android variant of the hardware is currently in the works -- although details for both are currently thin on the ground, you can see his announcement video after the break.
EVGA's GeForce GTX 680 Classified tempts overclockers with watery siren call
Judging by a sneak Computex preview, EVGA's intentions for the upcoming GTX 680 Classified graphics card are not a thorny mystery. With an optional water-cooling block and voltage control inputs, there's plenty here to seduce the hardcore modder. The company isn't talking numbers just yet, but if terms like "14-phase power design" whet your appetite, then you're in luck. In any case, like its other Classified mates, it's apt to be the company's top GeForce GTX 680 performer. So, if you're plugging in the pumps and hoses for that next mod, you might want to leave a slot -- or four -- open for this one.
Robot plays Angry Birds (or any other touchscreen app)
PyCon 2012 (a convention dedicated to the computer programming language Python) was held earlier this month in Santa Clara, CA, and one of the projects on display can be seen above. The "BitbeamBot" is a miniature robot that was designed to do one thing and one thing only: Play Angry Birds. Well, that's not quite true -- it was designed to interact with touchscreen devices, in order to "test" any number of tasks usually considered too repetitive for humans. As the developer says in the video below, if this thing was really testing, you'd just design tasks for it to do over and over again through an SDK. But playing Angry Birds is fun to watch, and the robot's actually pretty good at it. The original design for the robot was actually in Legos -- it's controlled with an Arduino and some homemade software. But eventually the creator decided to use Bitbeams for it, hence the bot's name. Very cool indeed. And I, for one, welcome our new Angry Birds-playing overlords.
NES controller lets you stomp Koopas, save Princess Peach in capacitive fashion (video)
Is your NES controller in another castle? Maybe you're just pining for your smartphone's capacitive game controls for some reason. Regardless, here's a little piece of tech that just might put the fire in your flower: the capacitive touch NES controller. This sucker is milled from a copper board using a device called the MezzoMill, which -- besides making turtle-stomping peripherals -- also can be used to produce guitar effect pads, virtual keyboards, bicycle rim lights and all sorts of circuits that might tickle your fancy. Unfortunately, the creator isn't as well-funded as this inkjet-based control circuit project so he's trying to raise money through Kickstarter to make the mill in a large enough run to lower costs. Given how Kickstarter generated nearly $100 million in funding last year, maybe he's got a fighting chance. See the buttonless controller work its capacitive magic after the break.
The Envision: A portable Gamecube sans disc drive
One of the main problems faced by hackers and modders creating portable versions of home consoles is, well, portability. Making something you can hold in your hands isn't exactly an easy task, but creating something that also fits in your messenger bag is a tall order, especially when hacking together a handheld version of something with a disc drive. ModRetro member Jonathan Shine's solution to this problem is as ingenious as it is simple: If the disc drive is too thick, don't use it. The Envision, Shine's homemade portable Gamecube, kicks spinning media to the curb in favor of an SD card loaded with what we're sure are completely legal and legitimate backups of games he already owns. The device measures approximately 1.375 by 6.5 by 4.125 inches and will run for 2 to 3 hours on a single charge. Check out this thread at ModRetro for complete build specs and more pictures of the finished product. [Thanks, Mason!]
Bit-tech's Mod of the Year contest underway: finally, something you're comfortable voting on
Like ponies to little girls, we always have a soft spot for mods here at Engadget. Who could forget Angel OD's liquid-cooled Wii, for example? Or Peter Brands' Frankendesk of a PC, the L3p D3sk? Well, it seems like we're not the only ones whose fancies got tickled by these things, as both made the list of nominees for bit-tech's Mod of the Year 2011 competition. The contest is serving up its biggest field to date with 25 projects. Entries include a PC that doubles as a mini Warhammer Dreadnought and another computer encased in a Star Trek Intrepid Mark II Class starship replica. If your tastes lean more toward the older than old school kind, Jeffrey Stephenson's got one of his wooden mods included in the bunch, as well. Naturally, you can check out the rest of the entries (and cast your votes) at the source below. [Thanks, Antony]
Lyneborg bot carves models of magnetic fields, dares the future to have a look (video)
If you're going to create a robot that carves something, have it carve models of an invisible field. This is what Frits Lyneborg, creator of the Yellow Drum Machine, has done with a new homemade bot that uses a combination of motors, pulleys, small drills, makerbeams and magnetic sensors. The end result is a robot that, when combined with the interpretative software, can literally read a magnetic field and move the robot's components to cut an accurate model from a crumbly-yet-strong material known as 'Oasis Brick.' You can witness the magic yourself in a video after the break, and if you've any advice for making it better, drop Frits a line there in the via link.
Mass Effect 3 N7 replica gets real world debut for your Spacer pleasure
If you're the type to stock your walls with Lord of the Rings-style elvish daggers (or, you know, build full-scale Portal gun replicas), then you'll love this official Mass Effect 3 mockup commissioned by the folks at Bioware. Arduously crafted by self-proclaimed graphic design dork Harrison Krix, the N7 assault rifle replica made its facsimile debut at this year's San Diego Comic-Con. With only a fortnight to work with, the DIY, prop-making hobbyist took the made-for-cosplay gun from a glued wood, styrene and PVC-detailed master concept to paint weathered, final collector's edition mold. It's an impressive feat you can view in heavily photographed detail at the source, but there's still one thing we're waiting on Krix to bring to life -- that space-skipping SSV Normandy.
1996 Corvette converted into a 2011 electric odyssey (video)
A supercharged Chevrolet Corvette may have been all the hotness back in 1996, but times and tastes change and now people are all about the electric boogaloo. Today we get to witness one modern man's transition into this brave new world, a Wayne Bickley from California, who has gutted his crow-black '96 Corvette and replaced the messy internal combustion setup with a set of 18 XS Power XP1000 batteries, a DC electric motor, and his own clutchless six-speed transmission. The end result doesn't really look much different, but its 20-mile "spirited driving" range and 85mph top speed will surely feel different and it does also sound very much like something from the future. Check out this modernized Chevy on video after the break.
