Tekla Labs and Instructables have teamed up to present the Build My Lab
Contest, where they are hoping for brilliant DIY’ers to create helpful
lab equipment that real scientists can use, as well as creative “Lab
Hacks” to make their jobs easier. You know you want that Dremel Kit!
The Eggbot is an art robot that can draw on spherical or ovoid surfaces. Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories originally made the Eggbot to decorate Easter eggs, but because the robot can accommodate any ball or egg-shaped object between 1.25″ to 4.25″ in diameter, you can also use it to decorate Christmas ornaments. Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories is giving away a pack of holiday designs to give Eggbot owners a head start.
The Eggbot Holiday Super Pak includes all of the designs shown in the image above and more. Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories recommends that you use ornaments with a satin finish. They’re easier for Eggbot to grip and their surface contrasts nicely with marker ink. You may not get vivid drawings on transparent or shiny ornaments.
Here’s a short video by YouTuber sean berry showing the Eggbot at work:
Check out Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories’ blog post for the link to download the holiday designs. The shop will add more designs to the pack so keep an eye on that post.You can order an Eggbot here for $195 to $220 (USD).
Seriously though, Eco-Dough is an all-natural and creative substitute to
that other ultra-popular modeling clay toy, but mostly composed of
fruit, vegetable and plant extracts. If your kid has a nasty reaction to
the wheat filled alternative, you’ll want to check this stuff out!
Usually, if you’re building your own synthesizer, you have aspirations of composing the next great techno track. But this kit—available from the Maker SHED for just $20—lets you build a wonderful toy ray gun that generates electronic "pewpew" sound effects. And, instead of just cycling through various sounds like you would with a cheap toy, you can use the gun’s three adjustable knobs to tweak the wub, bwoop, and bip bip sounds however you like.
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It was last year when we brought you David Mellis’ DIY Cellphone, and it seems that he has been up to more tinkering this time around with yet another DIY cellphone which, from the name itself, you know you are able to make one up with your two hands if you have the necessary amount of time and technical know how. The DIY cellphone is capable of making and receiving phone calls and text messages, in addition to storing names and their corresponding numbers. Oh yeah, did we mention that it can also tell the time? Sounds pretty much like a standard issue featurephone from Nokia of yore, no? The base would be hardware and software in the Arduino GSM Shield, although it will be extended with a full interface such as the display, buttons, speaker, and microphone among others. Those who are interested in the source files can get it here (hardware and software), where it will also boast of an issue list that paves the way for one to file bug reports or make requests for additional enhancements.
Two main variants of the DIY cellphone are available – one which relies on the old school black and white LCD, while the other has a retro looking eight-character matrix of red LEDs. Which one do you think is cooler? I think the latter is more attractive simply because it is different, although it might not be as versatile as the black and white LCD. The disadvantage of the LCD would be its fragility, as the LED matrix is more robust. The entire shebang should not cost you more than $200. [Project Page]
DIY Cellphone Is Back Again original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Now that film is almost obsolete, you’re probably wondering what to do with that beautiful old Minolta taking up precious space in your desk drawer. Well, have you ever considered building furniture out of it? This crew of crafty Chinese designers has.
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The Origomu Master & Protégé Contest is challenging inventors and an
underprivileged female friend of theirs to design and share an
empowering accessory using those plastic six-pack rings that end up
killing marine life when they hit the ocean for a chance to win
thousands of dollars.
Maker Geeks and Instructables have teamed up for a contest to showcase
the best ways the DIY community hacks hardware to make out-of-the-box
retail goodies function exactly how we want them to. Who’s ready to
share how to hack cameras, smart phones and PC’s for prizes?
Though we’re going to go ahead and call it: Kano wont ever be as simple as LEGO, but they’ve certainly got a good head start toward making that a possibility. Kano is a computer building system that allows the user – a kid – to create a machine using a Raspberry Pi Model B, a […]
While the big companies got to show off their new products and inventions at CEATEC 2013, the 3rd and 4th of October were reserved for Japan’s innovative D.I.Y and maker enthusiasts.
The Maker movement itself originated and gained traction in the U.S., and 2006 saw the creation of a now annual event that describes itself as the “Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth”. A combination of D.I.Y, technology and family-friendly fun, the festival has become a space where everyone from tinkerers, hobbyists, artists, students and educators can come to both display their creativity as well as learn from others. In 2008, Tokyo-based makers created a local meetup called Make Tokyo: meeting, and were able to launch the first Tokyo Maker Faire in 2012 with the support of popular Maker magazine Makezine. This year’s Faire was held in both the Miraikan and the Time Building 24, and brought together 311 makers in total.
The event was split up into several areas, with the largest space holding a marketplace for people’s creations and the other areas offering both workshops, presentations and showcase spaces. The workshops available were mainly targeted towards kids, and included activities such as robot building with lego and musical instrument building.
Technology was heavily represented at the event. Several small hardware sellers presented various components and microcontrollers, such as the PocketDuino by Physicaloid, a small Arduino clone that you plug into your smartphone and enables you to program your Arduino from a distance, as well as save your work in a cloud library.
There were also displays that showcased hobbyist electronic projects, such as Saibaiman by Illmatic industries. Named after a Dragon Ball character, Saibaiman is a plant monitoring device dependent on social networks that uses the Raspberry Pi. Liking the plant’s page on Facebook, tweeting about it, or adding it as a friend will induce actions that help the to plant survive, such as watering the plant or turning on colored LEDs above it.
GR Sakura board, a Japanese-made competitor of the Raspberry Pi, was also used in a number of projects. Kurumin 2 by Kubota P for example, is an instrument that uses a motion censor and a GR sakura board, to modify the tone of notes.
The board was also used to create a cute luminous headband that changed colours according to the notes played on a smartphone based piano app.
Several other devices were based on sound or light such as ANIPOV’s luminous bycicle wheel or designer-engineer Taikan Hoshino and Ibi Hideki‘s drawing light script, “Spur of Words”. Spur of Words combines a phosphorescent paint, wireless light pen made with Arduino, and a program to change the written script.
Robots were also a big part of the show for example, Kougakuinndaigaku‘s Kinect sensor operated robot that replicates human movements.
BlockServo by @OTL created a very affordable motor made to build lego robots and compete with Lego’s own Mind Storm device.
Robi the Robot, is a kit produced by DeAGOSTINI that launched this year in February and enables you to build your very own robot friend.
Finally, several other interesting projects included the Tanuki’s swaying tail, which combined fashion and technology, Fab-Decchi’s Toaster Printer which prints simple shapes and characters onto bread, Looking Glass Factory‘s 3D block printing and Malt Factory’s unique take on the usage of receipt printers to create an interactive game.
We’ve talked about the growing number of Maker spaces being established, and the presence of a pretty well established culture of DIY in Japan in the past, and the diverse crowd at Maker Faire 2013 attests to the maker movement’s wide appeal here. From families, to young students and couples of all ages, there was definitely some evidence to suggest that the culture of making, tinkering and hacking with electronics and craft material is something that is being welcomed with open arms.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
