Hasta La Gadget!

Necessity is the mother of all invention, but what about building stuff just for fun, or out of interest as your hobby? I suppose enthusiasm as well as the constant striving to improve oneself is there in this bunch of Russians, who actually forked out around $1,500 in parts to construct this two-legged Ostrich robot from scratch. You can basically ride on this robot, and we do wish that it resembled more of a Chocobo than an ostrich for that added Final Fantasy element.

The enthusiast-built Russian ostrich robot will rely on a sliding internal weight in order for it to maintain its balance, but of course, since this is not a project by Tony Stark, caution still needs to be used in abundance just in case you slip or something worse happens. The group of robotics enthusiasts who actually built this comprise of an electronics engineer and a an aviation tech, and perhaps they can come up with something better than an Iron Man suit should they have proper funding. Let’s hope they’re on the Stars and Stripes’ side when that happens.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Blackjack Dealer Robot Helps Even Up The Odds , Germ-Killing Robot,

I love vintage Battlestar Galactica as much as I love the more recent version. And I do have a soft spot for old-school Cylons, so I find it awesome that Eugene Haggerty from Clearwater, Florida is building a half-scale, drivable replica of the original Cylon Raider.

He started construction in October of last year and the goal is to have it ready by Galacticon 3 this May in Houston, Texas. Eugene estimates that he has about 150 hours of build time to go on this project. He has already spent $10,000(USD) on the project and he thinks that the total cost will exceed $20,000. After Galacticon, he may even take it to Dragon*Con 2013 and other conventions, too.

Man, I would love to see this Cylon Raider driving down the street. If you want to donate to the project, just click here for more details. This thing should look amazing when Eugene is finished.

[via Geeks Are Sexy]

If you’re like me,  you probably spend way too much time staring at a computer screen. There are some ways to reduce eyestrain, but I have to say that using IKEA’s Dioder LED light strips is one of the most effective since it’s kind of a low-tech, low-cost way of hacking your monitor into a Philips Ambilight.

IKEA Hacker Skipernicus did this, by mounting the $30 Dioder lights on the back of his monitor. He used an Ergotron arm to prop his monitor up, but this should work with any type of monitor, including HDTVs. He also Velcroed the controller the back of the monitor, for easy access, and zip-ties were used to connect the wiring to the monitor arm.

While they won’t match the on-screen colors like an actual Ambilight, the Dioder strips can cycle through colors, and the the backlighting can reduce eyestrain, which is definitely a plus.

And for those of you who are more electronically-inclined, there actually is a color-matching hack available here.

[via Ikeahackers]

We haven’t checked in with littleBits in quite some time and, honestly, it was a bit of a surprise to find the electronic tinker toys hiding in a quiet corner of the floor at Toy Fair this year. The property has grown quite a bit in the past few years. For one, it’s no longer a “project” but an actual shipping product. And in the last year founder Ayah Bdeir has turned it from a great concept into an actual company with serious investors. For those of you unfamiliar with littleBits, the goal is to do for electronics what LEGO did for structural engineering. The small color coded “blocks” snap together with magnets allowing even a novice to create a functioning circuit in seconds. The magnets will only connect in one orientation, preventing you from pushing current through a component in the wrong direction and ruining it. Ayah’s inspiration is not just LEGO, but object oriented programing languages that simplify building code, allowing developers to focus on the more creative aspects of software making. By doing some of the heavy logical lifting for you, littleBits hopes that potential electrical engineers and prototypers can focus on the goal rather than the minutia of laying out a breadboard or soldering resistors in place.

The latest version of the platform, v0.3, debuted just a couple of months ago and not only brings new pieces to the littleBits universe, but also adds legs to the blocks for improved stability when piecing together your projects. Currently there are four kits available: the three piece Teaser kit for $29, the seven piece Holiday kit for $49, the 10 piece Starter kit for $89 and the 14 piece Extended kit for $149. (You can also buy individual Bits for between $10 and $35.) If you’re in need of inspiration there are a number of projects for you peruse on the site and the company is even considering packaging them up as pre-planned kits. Though, unlike other electronics project bundles (such as the ubiquitous BrushBot), the magnetic pieces can easily be disassembled and re-purposed if you tire of your creation. While the concept has its roots in brands like Snap Circuits, littleBits definitely provides more freedom than those single purpose offerings. For more, check out the video after the break.

Filed under: Misc

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I guess that balloons and airships are in, because they are popping up everywhere. I remember one year, there was even a personal balloon with a rotor available for $10,000 in the American Express rewards catalog. This project takes personal ballooning a step further because it’s solar-powered and you can make it yourself.

This balloon is the brainchild of Argentinian artist Tomàs Saraceno. It’s called 59 Steps to Be on Air by Sun Power and is an exploration of architecture, art, and physics. The project is presented as a set of instructions that are supposed to be used as a sequence for creating a hot-air balloon-style flying device, which uses solar power.

The materials used to build your own are garbage bags, transparent tape, rope, bicycle wheels, and various bits of “flotsam and jetsam” to make the structure. You can download the steps here [PDF]. It takes about 24 hours to complete the project, if two people are working on it. You’ll probably want to have a friend around anyhow to make sure that you don’t float away.

[via designboom]