Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve seen plenty of portable solar chargers in our time, but few have looked quite as versatile as B-Squares — a new collection of 3D modular energy storage devices that can be arranged in various configurations, according to the kind of gadget you’re looking to juice. Developed by MIT grads Jordan McRae and Shawn Frayne, each solar-powered B-Square features a sticky microsuction surface, along with magnetic and electric contacts at each corner, making it easy to connect and arrange them in different formations. Rotating a single square will change its electrical circuit, depending on its adjacent connection. Some B-Squares, for example, feature LED surfaces, allowing you to create solar-powered lanterns, while others have solar panels, or simply serve as rechargeable battery sources. There’s even a square devoted to Arduino boards, along with another surface designed to dock and charge iPhones. McRae and Frayne have already put together a full “recipe book” of different configurations, though the DIY route seems a lot more enticing to us. Their B-Squares are set to leave the prototype phase on May 1st, at an as yet unspecified price. Check them out in video action after the break.

[Thanks, Ryan]

Continue reading B-Squares bring portable solar energy and Arduino compatibility to toy blocks (video)

B-Squares bring portable solar energy and Arduino compatibility to toy blocks (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Apr 2011 09:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ever struggled to find the perfect adjective to articulate your admiration for a given article of awesomeness? Matt Richardson over at Make felt exactly the same way, so he perfected himself an Awesome button, designed specifically to spit out synonyms for his favorite descriptive word. To accomplish the task, he had to gut a Staples “easy” button and arrange a Teensy USB microcontroller inside it, before making the resulting mini-thesaurus compatible with his computer. Don’t worry, full instructions are contained in the video above. Just mash the play button.

The Awesome button is… originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 09:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It may seem like there’s an abundance of robot news lately, but we’re just trying to please our mechanical overlords deliver the latest in gadget and technology news. What we’ve got here is an Arduino-based robo-gripper that serves only to move around and use its 3D printed claws to grab tiny objects that we’d otherwise be too lazy to pick up ourselves. The robot, infused with a Texas Instruments CC1110 dev kit, is controlled using an accelerometer-based Chronos watch and can move in all directions by simply tilting the timepiece. If you want to take a gander at this little guy in action, check out the video past the break — it’s always warming to see humans having the upper hand against the machine.

Continue reading Watch-controlled robo-tot grasps small objects, the meaning of life (video)

Watch-controlled robo-tot grasps small objects, the meaning of life (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 18:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No goofy active shutter glasses, no headache-inducing parallax barrier screens, no optical trickery here. This is a pure 3D display — unfortunately done at a resolution of just 8 x 8 x 8. It’s a hand-built LED cube created by Nick Schulze, powered by Arduino, and driven largely by Matlab. Yes, Matlab, an application you probably deleted less than three minutes after signing off on your calculus final. We can’t help you find that installation disc again, but we can encourage you to enjoy the video of this 3D matrix of blinkenlights after the break, and you can get the full details on how to build your own at the other end of that source link.

Continue reading Cube made of 512 LEDs does 3D with calculus, not glasses (video)

Cube made of 512 LEDs does 3D with calculus, not glasses (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh Arduino, is there anything you can’t do when put in the right hands? The hands in this case belong to a guy named Joven of ProtoDojo, and they whipped up the contraption you can see in the video below. Basically, it’s a wired NES controller that goes to an Arduino board, which in turn controls a set of servos. Those servos articulate conductive arms to touch the screen in just the right places. The whole contraption enables a rather playable version of Reckless Racing, making it feel all the more like the RC Pro Am successor it’s trying to be. Check it out in the video below, and then hope that Jovan hurries up and posts the instructions so we can start building our own.

[Thanks, Chad]

Continue reading RoboTouch brings a wired NES controller to a wireless iPad (video)

RoboTouch brings a wired NES controller to a wireless iPad (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 15:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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