Evaluating some Food Safe Markers

Food Marker Brands

We have, at a number of different times, come across situations where it was desirable to use a food safe marker. One example is our custom message hearts project, another is in the course of making circuitry snacks. The topic came up again recently in discussions of Dan Newman’s Nutrition Information and Omelet Recipe eggs, where commenters were debating whether or not one should eat an egg after it has been written on.

There are three types of food safe markers readily available in the US. We tested all three in an Eggbot and just for kicks, by hand on a bit of rolled out fondant.

Black Comparison, Large Text

The primary differences between the markers were in the shades of the red and black, the ink flow rates, and the texture and shape of the nibs. Colors like blue, green and yellow didn’t show significant differences, although it should be noted that the blues in all cases (no matter what color the plastic was) were closer to a sky blue.

Food Marker Tips

Continue reading Evaluating some Food Safe Markers

Solving an old surplus mystery

mystery

Several years ago, we came across this interesting artifactat one of our local electronics surplus shops, and couldn’t really make heads or tails of it. But after the passage of the aforementioned several years– along with several dozen interesting suggestions from our readers –we haven’t been able to get much closer to an answer.

But then, at this month’s Electronics Flea Market, we came across what appears to bea related chunk of hardware:

Ampboard - 2
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Some gems from the 555 Contest

This spring, we’ve had the honor to help judge the 555 Contest organized by Jeri Ellsworth and Chris Gammell.

Now that the scores have been received from final-round celebrity judges Hans Camenzind and Forrest Mims, Jeri and Chris will be announcing the results of the contest live on uStream, today (Wednesday April 20) at 9 pm EST.

To help get you in the mood for the results, here are just a few of our favorites that you may not have seen, in no particular order– hopefully some of these will be amongst the winners!

A beautiful working model of a 555 constructed of discrete components installed in the Encyclopedia of Integrated Circuits.

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555 Timer based Music Box Player


LED Dominoes

Flashus Bulbus, an array of blinking bulbs

555 Adding Machine by Alan Yates

555 AM Radio by Eric Schlaepfer:


Rather brilliant 555-based POV display by Michael Noland, writes out “555” in space, using nothing but 555s:

This Atari Punk Sequencer just rocks; check out the video.


Pavel Hanak built the most pure 555 circuits that we’ve ever seen: Astable Multivibrators Built Solely From 555s. No external resistors or capacitors, just the internal resistance and capacitance of up to 20 additional 555s. (Clearly an insane genius!)

So that’s just a taste of all the awesomeness from this contest– we hope you’ll tune in
live on uStream, today (Wednesday April 20) at 9 pm EST to see the winners.

National Robotics Week

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It’s National Robotics Week, and for us that means RoboGames!

BarBot 2011 gave us just a taste of what is to come this weekend at the huge international robotics competition in San Mateo. We rounded up some video links of Drink Making Unit 2.0:

Lots of the BarBot partygoers posted photos to flickr too, including a huge set from Spaceman Sam and lots more from ekai, nicolecwongninavisshackmancoltairek0re, shifzr and amyr_81.

We’ll be at RoboGames all weekend, participating in the symposium and selling a few choice kits and components. So get your tickets now! If you’re not in the bay area check the National Robotics Week event listingsto find an event near you.

Photo from BarBot 2011 by Samuel Coniglio.

Conference Bag

lanyard bag

Conference lanyards are often made of nice sturdy woven webbing. They seem like they ought to have plenty of uses, like replacement shoelaces or camera straps. After enough conferences, they start to look like an awful lot of raw material. Even enough to make a bag.

lanyards

Lanyards that are sewn or crimped shut at the clip end are used for the horizontal webbing, and determine the overall width of the bag. Leaving the clips at the sides gives the bag a nice rattling sound and keeps the clips from scratching the contents of the bag. The upper clips can be used to hold keys to help keep them from getting lost in your bag.

lanyard bag edge finishing

Breakaway lanyards can be used for the vertical webbing, woven in and out of the continuous lanyards until they reach the top again. Place lanyards with compatible breakaway clips next to each other such that the clips can be connected to the neighbors to finish the top edges.

lanyard bag empty

Make the handles by clipping a few lanyards end to end and then weave them through the middle of the bag afterwards to wrap around from one side to the other.

Alternate ending: omit the handles and clip the breakaway lanyards (vertical webbing pieces) back to themselves and stuff to form a pillow. This bag has proven popular with our feline population, and might be completely irresistible in pillow form.

Continue reading Conference Bag

The Open Source Hardware Logo

open source hardware logo

Following the public vote announced several weeks ago, the design above by Macklin Chaffe was selected as the v 1.0 logo for Open Source Hardware. We hope that this will, in time, become a recognizable mark indicating open source hardware projects and products.

Part of what will help to spur adoption is making the design available in a variety of formats, ready for use in different contexts. Already, we’ve seen versions in OpenSCAD (for 3D fabrication) and KiCad (for circuit board design).

To those examples, we’re adding our own: the OSHW logo, ready to use in gEDA PCB, our favorite software for circuit board design.

open source hardware logo

Here’s how the logo might look on a printed circuit board, as rendered in gEDA PCB.

open source hardware logo

We’ve also rendered it in a few sizes and styles– filled or not, and losing the text as the logos get smaller. You can download this set of examples for gEDA right here ( 82 kB .zip archive).

Yuri’s Night Bay Area 2011

We just got word that the Maker Faire folks will be exhibiting at Yuri’s Night Education Day tomorrow at NASA Ames! We’ll be bringing a few projects to show off for part of the day to the kids and educators who will be attending. Yuri’s Night is an annual worldwide party to celebrate Yuri Gagarin’s first flight into space. This year is the 50th anniversary. Even if you’re not in one of the classes attending the Bay Area Eduction Day, you can check the list of events to see if there’s one happening near you or register your own event.

Instructables Egg-Bot Challenge

eggbot challenge

We are pleased to help Instructables launch an Egg-Bot Challenge for egg-related projects.

“Make something awesome that is egg inspired. Share your favorite omelet, a picture of your best decorated eggs or your favorite “recipe” for knitted eggs. Anything egg related is eligible.”

You can win some prizes, including a Deluxe Egg-Bot Kit, and we’ll be helping to judge the the finalists. The contest closes on May 1, so start writing up your projects!