doityourself
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Gigabyte intros Llano-compatible A75 motherboards for the DIY set (video)
Llano-based PCs are still trickling their way into the market, but if you're the enterprising type you can just up and build your own. Gigabyte just announced a family of seven A75 series of motherboards, all of which are compatible with AMD's spankin' new Fusion A6 and A8 chips and A75 chipsets. To recap, the Fusion A-Series combines a discrete-class Radeon HD GPU and either a dual- or quad-core CPU on the same die, though all of the A6 and A8 models are quad-core. These 35- and 45-watt chips are also stereoscopic 3D-capable and support USB 3.0, DirectX11, OpenCL / OpenGL, and both 1600MHz DDR3 memory and lower-power 1333MHz DDR3L memory. As for the motherboards, they allow for 108dB audio with 7.1 surround sound, and you can use Gigabyte's Easy Tune 6 utility to realize Fusion's promise of overclocking. They also use the company's DualBIOS technology to prevent failure due to BIOS corruption, while each USB port has its own fuse to prevent port failure. Hit the source link for information on where to buy, and mosy on past the break for the full PR and a short demo video.
Web-controlled tweeting Roomba is a perfect storm of DIY magic
There are three things that will guarantee your DIY project some attention: slap it on a Roomba, base it on Arduino, or make it tweet. Do all three and, well, you've got a nerdgasm-inducing bit of Make fodder. The creation you see above is a web-controlled tweeting Roomba whipped up by Instructables member matchlighter using a 500 series vacuum bot and the Sparkfun WiFly shield for Arduino. The autonomous cleaner can be triggered from anywhere there's an internet connection and updates Twitter to keep you abreast of its status (Ahh! Dock sweet dock). While Mr. matchlighter was kind enough provide directions for building your own, a lot of the actual coding is left up to you. (We're lazy, let us just copy and paste dammit!) If you think you've got the programming chops, hit up the source link for instructions and check out the original's Twitter feed at the more coverage link. Update: The complete code is in step eight of the Instructable.
Adorable CanBot chills in your fridge, quietly biding its time (video)
What's the point of a robot disguised as a tank or, uh, a clothes dryer? If you really want to infiltrate human society, you need robots that can hide in plain sight. Thankfully for would-be robotic conquerors, Ron Tajima brings us the aptly named CanBot, which hides batteries, an embedded control board, and three RC-servo legs beneath its beer-can exterior. Tajimi controls it with a Wiimote, and in the video above you can see it walking and rolling. His son seems less than impressed, but he probably sees this stuff all the time. We're mightily excited, and look forward to picking up a six pack. Of robots. [Thanks, Robotbling]
CNC mill and Sixaxis controller make beautiful DIY music together (video)
Have you ever thought to yourself, "my CNC mill is pretty cool, but I really want to make it more awesomer"? Well, first, "awesomer" totally isn't word, and second, have we got a hack for you! A reader wrote in to the DIY hub Adafruit to show off his CNC being operated by a PS3 Sixaxis controller -- mimicking features found on high-end machines that allow you to trigger jobs from a distance and manually control the mill. Best of all, it's a pretty simple mod that uses a program called QtsixA to map the gamepad as a keyboard and mouse, allowing you to interact with a Linux box running EMC2, which is used for controlling the mill, lathe, plasma torch, or a number of other fun and dangerous tools. Check out the video after the break.
Arduino, magnet wire, and Android combine to create poor man's NFC (video)
Jealous of your Nexus S-owning friends and their fancy NFC chips after yesterday's Google Wallet announcement? Well tech tinkerer Joe Desbonnet has whipped up what he dubs "poor man's NFC" using an Arduino, some magnet wire, and any compass-equipped Android smartphone (which is almost all of them). By placing a coil of wire on the phone and connecting it to the DIYer's favorite microcontroller, Desbonnet was able to send data, albeit very slowly, to his HTC Desire running a special app to decode the signals. Granted, you're probably not going to see American Eagle mod their point of sale systems to talk to your phone's magnetometer, but it's still a neat trick. In fact, we'd break out our Arduino right now to give it a try, but our secret lair is strangely devoid of enameled copper wire. Check out the source link for instructions, and don't miss the video after the break.
Add GPS to your Viewsonic G-Tablet and test your soldering skills
If you picked up one of those G-Tablets, but are now suffering from buyer's remorse after realizing how much you miss GPS, there's a solution -- provided you have a strong DIY streak. It turns out Viewsonic set space aside on the Froyo-powered slate's motherboard to place a GPS receiver. Of course, if you even have to ask what flux is or what SMD stands for this is not the hack for you. And while apps that rely on 3G, such as Google Maps, won't work properly, offline navigators like Navigon and CoPilot should be just fine. If you're comfortable tearing open your device and poking at it with a hot iron, hit up the source link for a complete list of parts and some very detailed instructions... or, you could just buy a tablet that already has GPS. [Thanks, Andrew F.]
Android-based Cellular printer writes text messages on your wall (your real-life one)
Ever wish you could write on people's walls in real life? Behold the Cellular Wall Printer, a collection of felt markers that receives messages via Facebook, Twitter, and SMS, and then transcribes them across any flat surface. Here's how it works: seven individually controlled servo motors push the felt pens up and down to leave dots and dashes in their wake. The contraption is manually operated, and Liat Segal, the inventor, adds that there's a timing system to ensure the printer transcribes neatly, even if you are in motion. Most interesting, perhaps, is the fact that the rig is controlled by an Android application, and uses an IOIO board to connect the electronic components to an Android device. (Our resident mobile expert Myriam Joire is pretty sure we're looking at a skinned Nexus One.) Check out a whimsical video demonstration after the break, with a couple more at the source link.
Fanscooter is the world's slowest extreme sport (video)
What do you get when you get when you combine a fan and a scooter? If you said "Scooterfan," you should be ashamed. Really ashamed. The correct answer, clearly, is Fanscooter, the latest project from fighting robot builder / MIT engineering student Charles Guan, the guy who brought the world the similarly named and equally breezy Fankart last summer. What this new DIY vehicle lacks in the ominous ever-forward creep of its predecessor, it makes up in actual vehicular rideability, marking the return of Guan's HFF propeller -- the "h" stands for "holy" and the second "f" stands for "fan" -- which is positioned between two Razor Scooter decks. The whole things is topped off by a power source taped on in a manner that would surely put Homeland Security on high alert. Checkout of some slow-motion Jackass-style video of the project, after the break.
POLYRO humanoid robot can be built by you, looks more like K-9 than C-3PO
It may bear closer resemblance to an upright dog than a human (check out those ears!), but POLYRO here is the least frightening example of a do-it-yourself robot that we've seen to date. We're not sold on the humanoid's name as an acronym (oPen sOurce friendLY RObot), and the instructions and assembly photos are rather hit or miss, but this rollin' rover definitely scores some points for looks. Prepare to get down and dirty with a jigsaw, drill press, and "safety equipment," before the latest addition to your family is ready to roll across the living room floor on its iRobot base. Instructables has posted a full shopping list, including a 10.1-inch netbook, ROS (Robot OS), and a Kinect. If you're feeling brave, clear some time in the schedule and space in the garage after heading over to our source link.
RC car runs on soda can rings, Doc Brown approves (video)
Many a future engineer was inspired by Back to the Future's Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown, and not just because he proved that unkempt eccentrics could truly change the world. No, he also pioneered Mr. Fusion, the coffee maker/cold fusion reactor that turned garbage into energy. And while we're still waiting for cold fusion and time travel to become a reality, today we're all one step closer to waste-powered cars. A pair of Spanish engineers have recently unveiled the dAlH2Orean (see what they did there?), a R/C car that runs on aluminum. Dropping a few soda can tabs into a tank of sodium hydroxide produces enough hydrogen to power the little speedster for 40 minutes – at almost 20mph. Hit the video above to see it in action, along with your daily helping of the Chemical Brothers. Fitting.
Sony's Move.me database used to create gesture-enabled mouse driver (video)
Unless you're into weird promotional mascots, video games, or measuring the rotation of the earth, the PlayStation Move probably hasn't caught your eye. Here's an idea: what if you could wave it about to control your PC? Earlier this week, electronics hobbyist Jacob Pennock used the Move.me C library to build a gesture-controlled mouse driver, and we've got the project's tech demo after the break. Watch as Pennock launches Facebook by drawing an "F," starts a video with a jaunty "V," and closes a few items with a quick "X" motion over the offending windows. Control motions are loaded through the creator's own gesture recognition library, called hyperglyph, which he claims can record motions with 98 percent accuracy. As Move.me is currently a closed beta, Pennock is keeping the source code under wraps, but he hopes to eventually put the driver to use controlling a gesture-based Linux media center. Pretty neat, but not quite enough to stave off our Kinect hack envy. [Thanks, Robert]
Bacteria's disciple improves upon technique, crafts N64 handheld capable of GoldenEye split-screen
This isn't the smallest portable Nintendo 64 we've seen, nor the most elegant, creative or complete -- in fact, it's pretty much a straight clone of Bacteria's iNto64, but with a spiffier paint job and one critical improvement. Yes, that is an extra controller port you see in the foreground of the image above, and if you click your way below, you will indeed be able to watch its creator engage in some wonderfully retro split-screen Mario Kart 64 and F-Zero X races, not to mention the obligatory GoldenEye death match and a wee bit of Quake 2. Ahhh, memories. [Thanks, Alon T.]
KR1 DIY guitar / synth makes its debut at Castle Frightenstein
We've seen a few Zoybar-based behemoths since we were hepped to the modular guitar platform way back in '08, but few have caught our fancy like Kevin Rupp's KR1. Featuring a Korg Kaossilator synth, both the Pocket Pod and a wireless transmitter from Line 6, and the beloved Sanyo Pedal Juice battery pack, this bad boy can do double duty as both your ax and your backing band. But enough of our jabber jaw -- you want to see it in action, right? Check it out after the break. [Thanks, TK]
Man steers R/C car with his hands, not to mention an HTML5-based web app (video)
With the right Arduino board, an R/C race car, a couple paperclips and the MacGyver spirit, we imagine most anyone can hack together a creative remote control these days... but how many can open-source an HTML5 web app that'll do the deed from any tablet, phone or PC? Gaurav Manek crafted just such a thing, and he'll demonstrate it for you on an Apple iPad in the video immediately above. What's more, he's also got a Kinect hack that uses Microsoft depth camera (with Code Laboratories' NUI SDK) to control the very same with the wave of a well-placed hand -- we're already envisioning fisticuffs should he and a lab partner try for some head-to-head racing action. That said, you don't need to wait for an illustrious creator to have all the fun. Why not download his source code at our links below and give it a go yourself?
Students build self-balancing TIPI robot, plan new world order (video)
Remember this guy, the QB robot that was priced at a whopping 15 grand? Seemingly, the webcam wheeler inspired a team of young minds at the University of Waterloo, who've unleashed the DIY in themselves to build one of their own. TIPI, or Telepresence Interface by Pendulum Inversion, was designed to give humans the feeling that they're not actually talking to a six-foot tall cyclops cyborg with an LCD face and webcam eye, but rather, evoke the emotions drawn when speaking the old, conventional, face-to-face way. Thanks to this team of mechatronics engineers, the low-cost TIPI uses an accelerometer, gyro and pendulum to balance by itself and can be remotely controlled while communicating via its Beagle Board and Polulu Orangutan SVP brain. Head past the break to see the robot struttin' its stuff -- oh, and get ready to rave. You'll see what we mean.
DIY business card displays your info via persistence of vision, fails to impress Patrick Bateman (video)
Still fancy the age-old business card and enjoy outrageous DIY projects that may or may not make you look foolish? Continue on then, dear reader. The peeps over at Instructables have provided a lengthy and seemingly difficult set of directions on how to craft a persistence of vision business card. POV allows your eyes to see text or images generated by light waving back and forth -- in other words, your name is displayed by swinging your arm in a giant circle. If you're cool with this, hit the source link, build your own and be sure to let us know how many contacts you make.
Original iPad retrofitted to play nice with Smart Cover, magnets largely to thank (video)
Although we don't exactly know how they work, magnets are one of Earth's many fascinations and are used in many gadgets today -- perhaps most notably in Apple's new Smart Covers. As you might have already known, the iPad 2's first party screen concealer uses a bunch of magnets to make the magic happen; it snaps on and fits almost too well. By taking a few rare earth magnets and gluing them to the original slate's hip, blogger Dan Provost is able to use a Smart Cover with the iPad uno. He positioned them according to how they stuck to the hinge of the cover, which explains the lack of spacing between the four magnets. As you'll see in the video, Apple's screen protector works well with the tablet, but it lacks the auto-unlock mechanism found in the iPad 2. Care to give your original iPad a taste of modernity? Hit the more coverage link to find the main ingredient for this DIY project.
Man builds machine to push phone buttons from half a world away (video)
If your ambition was to travel the world, and your job to push the buttons of three cellphones located in South Korea, you might go insane. That seems to be what happened to Mok Young Bak, at least, when he invented the crazy contraption depicted in the video above. Called the Caduceus, it's a telepresence machine that does just one thing -- it controls every single button on each of those three phones with a series of servo motors and actuator cables, and moves a pendulum-like webcam so he can clearly see each screen from wherever he happens to be. That way, he can enjoy tourism while leaving his livelihood within reach, at least so long as concerned neighbors don't assume the terrible din is, say, a killer robot assembly line, and insist that police investigate.
Chinese designer makes Megatron tank a steel-toothed reality
It doesn't move and it certainly doesn't transform, but we're still not sure we'd stand anywhere near this jagged metal contraption ripped right out of the silver screen. The giant Megatron tank replica from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen not only looks like it'd grind us up like so much beef beneath its spiky treads, it reportedly weighs five tons and stands eight feet tall. It's allegedly constructed entirely out of scrap metal by a designer known as "Steel Legend" -- a honorific that we imagine few will dare question now. If only it could take on junkyard Optimus Prime in a Beijing Battle Royale. More pics of the tank at our source links below! [Thanks, leungxd]
Nanocade kit now on sale in the USA, somewhat less pricy at $229
If you asked us to drop $350 for 23 pieces of laser-cut plastic, we'd probably shoo you away, but it's hard to resist the incredible charm of the Nanocade. Besides, designer Rasmus Sorensen's actually selling the miniature arcade cabinet parts for just $229 right now, which makes the decision to finally build your own MAME machine a wee bit more affordable. You'll still need to supply all the internals yourself, including buttons, an arcade stick, a monitor and glue, and even should you succeed, good luck prying guests away from your new coffee table conversation piece. Find the basic kit in your choice of Midnight Black or Arctic White at our source link. Note: It's a bit of a bummer, but the Nanocade website says that handsome curved control panel displayed above actually isn't part of the initial kit -- it comes with a pair of flat pieces that meet at a (seemingly) wrist-chafing angle instead.
