Category Archives: Everything Else
Eggbot at MadCamp
Pete over at RasterWeb! recently posted that he’s planning an Eggbot session at MadCamp. MadCamp is a BarCamp – an open-format conference where the attendees are the presenters — in Madision, Wisconsin on Saturday, August 27. If you’re near Madison and interested in learning more about the Eggbot, unconferences, or any of the other topics that will be presented, go check it out!
We’ve featured Pete’s work with the Eggbot before in our roundup of Eggbot art, and we’re thrilled to see him sharing his mad Eggbot skilz. He invites MadCamp attendees to bring files to print on the Eggbot, and his post provides a nice brief primer on what it takes to get designs sharpie-ready.Photo by Pete Prodoehl released under cc by-nc-sa license. Egg Egg design also by Pete Prodoehl and released to the public domain.
Play Tennis for Two in Florida and Arizona
The folks at the hackerspace FamiLAB in Central Florida just wrote about how they used our
Tennis for Two article to make a working demo for the Retro Arcade event on Saturday in conjunction with the Games People Play:
The Evolution of Video Games exhibit at the Orange County Regional History Center. Tennis for Two was one of the earliest electronic games, dating back to 1958, so it’s a perfect fit for the exhibit. If you’re in the area, go try it out! Update: HeatSync Labs in Arizona is having a retro gaming night on Thursday, July 21, and will also have a Tennis for Two available for play!
Open Source Hardware logo: Up for public vote!
After an initial round of judging 129 entries (Whew!), The effort to establish a logo for open source hardware has moved onto the next stage. We’ve narrowed the field down to ten finalists. And, voting has been opened to the public, so go vote!
We’re putting our own vote in for “#95,” the geared logo by Fred PRATE, shown above with variations. It’s one of the few that suggests both mechanics and electronics, and it will look darn good milled into a hunk of metal or silkscreened onto a circuit board.Open Source Hardware Logos
Hey internet: You’ve got some good artists out there, and we could use a little help, right now!
Today is the last day to submit entries for the new Open Source Hardware logo — There are over 100 entries so far, and you can enter your own sketch by posting it there in the forum. The official requirements are that it is (1) easy to print/see on a circuit board or schematic document and (2) that it signify “open-ness.” To part (1), I’d add, it should be easy to carve/see milled into a block of aluminum– open hardware isn’t just about electronics! –and to part (2), I’d add that locks and keys aren’t always the best way to indicate that something is “open.” (Locks are often shut. There are plenty of things that never are– Klein bottles come to mind.) So, now is the “last minute” — and time to send in your own entry. We’ve got a whole lot of entries that won’t look good on a circuit board (or milled into aluminum), and a whole lot of entries with locks and keyholes that don’t necessarily send the right message. Care to lend a hand?Finally, organized.
You can’t just leave these things lying around everywhere, you know.
Cylon Snow Plow
johngineer posted this Cylon Snow Plow video and writes:
-
- “Took the EMSL Larson Scanner I got at the Open Hardware Summit, and stuck it on my dad’s snowplow-equipped John Deere. It fits perfectly! Good times. I need to get a few more of these kits for the snowblower and the Kubota — they are incredibly well made. Sorry for the shaky video — I shot it with my phone, and I was shivering.”
Get the Larson Scanner kit at the Evil Mad Scientist shop. :D
Maker Faire and Eggbot on Martha Stewart Show
If you happen to be into TV and/or Eggbot, you might want to tune into the Martha Stewart Show on Wednesday, Oct. 20. Our collaborator, Bruce Shapiro, inventor of the Eggbot, will be on as a part of a special episode about Maker Faire which will show off some of the cool things that Martha and her colleagues discovered at Maker Faire New York. After the show is broadcast, you should be able to find photos and video from the episode here.
Photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid under cc-by-nc-nd license.
MUNI time lapse video
Church and 30th St. San Francisco MUNI Construction from Ken Murphy on Vimeo.
Our friend Ken Murphy of Blinky Bug and History of the Sky fame just posted this incredible time lapse movie, watching as construction workers replaced San Francisco metro train tracks outside of his apartment. The work was done from October 8-12, and the movie spans 12 minutes. It’s amazing how much goes into something that looks so simple.Hacking the Blinkybugs Book
Chronicle did a very nice job with it–the book itself comes out of the nifty sleeve that holds the kit and book together. The cartoon illustrations by Alexander Tarrant are very clear and there’s a nice assortment of accessories to go with the core hardware.
The bug circuit went together very easily. These little guys are super compact and self contained, which means they’re adaptable to all kinds of uses. And while putting them on pipe cleaner legs is seasonally appropriate, they’re a perfect fit for a mini-pumpkin. The first thing to do after gutting the gourd is to mark and cut the holes for the LED eyes. A 3/16″ bit turned by hand makes a hole that is just snug enough to hold a 5 mm LED firmly in place.
A couple of slits let the LED leads stick up through the body of the pumpkin where the antenna wires will be able to reach them.
Finally, the pumpkin lid is trimmed to allow the antenna wires to move freely.
You can find more pumpkin projects in our Halloween Project Archive.
