Dave Nunez loves to make tiny 3D printed models of video game consoles and computers. His latest mini gaming machine is based on none other than Microsoft’s latest and hugest, the Xbox One. It’s so tiny I don’t think a penny can fit into its disc slot – though a dime might.
As you can see Dave also made a tiny Kinect. Fortunately Dave’s not requiring you to print both – and there’s no massive power brick either. Perhaps Microsoft will consider both of these revisions.
The past week saw the release of two natively supportedcontrollers for iOS devices, potentially ushering in an era of more complex games for Apple’s devices. But older gamers yearning for the halcyon days of their hobby may be more excited about ThinkGeek’s NES controller case for the iPhone 5.
I’m pretty sure it’s not an officially licensed case, despite the presence of Nintendo’s logo. Still, the case not only looks like the classic controller, it also has rubber buttons that you can press to your heart’s content. You can’t use it as an actual controller, although I’m sure a tinkerer could make it so.
You can order the iPhone 5 NES controller case from ThinkGeek for $35 (USD). Get the NES skin for the Apple TV and your fake console is complete.
I’ve yet to play Animal Crossing: New Leaf – or any Animal Crossing game for that matter – because I’m afraid that I won’t be able to put my 3DS down if I get that game. It seems really addictive. If it’s already got its hooks on you, check out Edberg Panganiban’s Etsy shop, where he sells 3.75″ hand painted resin figures based on the game.
As of this writing these two dudes are the only ones left on Edberg’s shop, but you can also have him make figures out of your Animal Crossing character. Just reach out to him and send him a couple of images of your character. However, his services seem to be in demand at the moment and he’s announced that he won’t be able to finish future orders in time for Christmas.
Head to Edberg’s Etsy shop RezArmy to place an order. It’ll cost you more than a few bells to get a figure though. According to Polygon Edberg charges $40-$50 (USD) for figures with simple details and no accessories and up to $100 for more elaborate designs and accessories.
Here’s a fun kit that you can use to make simple electronics, even wearable ones. Circuit Stickers are just that – electronics with adhesive backing. The star of the kit are the LED stickers. Put them on a conductive surface – wire, foil, conductive thread or fabric etc. – connect a power source at one end and you have a light show.
If you want to add an element of interactivity to the LEDs, you can also get the Effects Stickers, the Sensor & Microcontroller Sticker or both. The Effects Sticker modifies the LEDs, making them blink, fade, twinkle or pulsate like a heartbeat. The Sensor & Microcontroller Sticker on the other hand adds a light sensor and a sound sensor to the mix. It also has a trigger that can turn on your Circuit Stickers for five seconds at a time.
Pledge at least $25 (USD) on Crowd Supply to get a Circuit Stickers Kit. Aside from the electronics themselves, each kit will also come with additional materials such as copper tape, coin cell batteries and binder clips so you can experiment out of the box. I think the Electric Paint Pen complements the kit well.
The world’s premier hat simulator spreads its death and destruction to the chessboard. NECA’s WizKids will be releasing a Team Fortress 2 chess set by the end of the year. Never above mocking itself, Valve allowed WizKids to turn the game’s classes into disembodied heads, with the chess pieces worn as hats.
The hats are not just for show either. According to WizKids’ press release, the set will let you play a modified game of chess. That’s because the pieces – i.e. the hats – are interchangeable, so you can assign a different class to a particular piece at the start of every game. But while you’re playing, “players can claim various hats from other pieces and assume the movement characteristics of pieces captured, adding an element of variation and challenge to the standard game of chess.” Sadly the hats don’t seem to be stackable.
The Team Fortress 2 chess set should be available from ThinkGeek and the Valve store before the year ends, though it probably won’t be free to play.
Doctor Whoa! Shelly Timson made this 1:3 scale TARDIS using over 4,000 LEGO bricks. As with Bill Mudron’s awesome Doctor Who historical print, Shelly made this huge model to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.
Shelly used the bricks of Australian LEGO studio Inside the Brick to build the model. Inside the Brick founder Rob Deakin said that he provided the custom printing, which adds a significant amount of polish to the model.
Rob also said that the LEGO TARDIS will be on display at their studio. But in case you can’t make it there you can check out high resolution images of the model on Rob’s Flickr page.
Because of its size and form, Google Glass has a limited – albeit seemingly capable – user interface: touch gestures, head gestures and voice commands. Even though Glass’ display is visible at all times, there are times when it would be impractical, insensitive or downright impossible to interact with it. That’s why researcher Brandyn White came up with three alternative ways of controlling Glass.
The first method is via eye tracking, i.e. triggering commands just by looking at a particular spot. Brandyn achieved this using a modified webcam, a 3D printed case and a custom software. As Brandyn notes, future versions of Glass may have eye-tracking built-in so this hack may be rendered obsolete. But even if that happened Brandyn says he doesn’t want this to be used in public, probably because it’s distracting and can also be offensive if used when you’re with other people.
Brandyn also made a browser-based control interface for Glass with the help of a JavaScript-based platform called WearScript. As silly as it sounds, this interface will probably let you control Glass even if you’re not wearing it.
Finally, Brandyn used a MaKey MaKey and WearScript to enable alternative touch controls for Glass. For instance, he wired MaKey MaKey to his clothes so that he could control Glass just by touching his sleeves. He also used two bananas to play Super Mario Bros. on a NES emulator.
Flickr member Nick V aka Brickthing made a scale model of a video card using LEGO. Nick calls his creation the PowerBuild CRLMRM IRON HD, poking fun at the naming scheme of video card manufacturers while at the same time referencing fellow LEGO enthusiast Carl Merriam.
As with most LEGO creations, the model really deserves a closer inspection. As someone who’s not up to date with LEGO, half of the fun with seeing projects like this is discovering pieces that I never knew existed.
If you love staring at gadget teardowns, check out photographer Brandon Allen’s Deconstructed. It’s a series of images of dissected video game controllers, their parts neatly arranged for the camera. All of the controllers in Brandon’s series were donated and heavily used (some of them don’t work anymore) hence the dust and worn out parts.
I would’ve loved to see labels for the parts as well, but I guess they would only clutter the images.
There are 18 controllers from different consoles in Brandon’s series; you can see the rest here and here. If you really want to take a closer look at the parts you’d be better off looking at the desktop wallpaper-sized images, which Brandon so generously made available for free. You can also buy prints of the dissected NES, SNES, PS3 and Xbox 360 controllers from his online shop.
A couple of years ago we checked out Ryan Brooks’replica of Tony Stark’s briefcase suit from Iron Man 2. While the suit did transform and was wearable, it basically looked less like a briefcase and more of a pile of armor squished together. This year Ryan made a smaller but more polished Iron Man prop. It’s a Mk. III helmet that can be opened or closed just by nodding.
Ryan 3D printed the helmet itself. He made it so the flaps at the neck area fold upwards so that he can wear the helmet.
Then he made a servo mechanism based on an Arduino Pro Mini with an Adafruit accelerometer. Ryan rigged the mechanism so that it would open the faceplate if he nodded backwards, and close the faceplate if he nodded forwards.
The servo mechanism also moves the lower jaw of the helmet when the faceplate is opened or closed.
If you’re a fellow tinkerer who’s working on your own Iron Man helmet, you might want to get Ryan’s servo mechanism, which you can purchase from his website.
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