What to do if your keyboard on the screen. And if there are dozens of screens: At CES, the Russian design Art Lebedev, the company shows upcoming Optimus Aux Optimus popularis keyboard with a mini and a series of six unique keyboard for data input devices on the key to the home screen.
Monday, November 18, 2013
MacGyver Challenge: Hack Something Using PVC Pipe
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Using a hard drive to cut a record
We stripped 8 hard drives down the ascertain the most appropriate actuator for our application.
The arm from 4"drive as opposed to 2.5" drive allows more current resulting in greater amplitude this equals higher volume.
We built three versions of cutting head gaining improvements at every step.
A Google search revealed a patent listing that confirmed the problem of an audio dropout at around 8khz due to harmonic resonance introduced by the mechanical clamping of the tiny bearing between the arm and drive housing.
We eliminated the bearing all together, replacing it with a machined piece of flat aluminium clamped to the head between thin rubber shims.
Saturday, November 9, 2013
How to Pay Off Your Debt Using the Stack Method
Monday, October 28, 2013
Cook Almost Anything Outdoors by Using Your Grill as an Oven
Maybe you're tailgating, or it's a just a beautiful day and you want to spend it outdoors. When it comes time to cook, your grill doesn't have to be limited to meats and vegetables. With a little practice, you can actually use your covered grill as a makeshift oven for more flexible meals.Obviously, your grill wasn't designed to cook a meatloaf, but that doesn't mean it can't get the job done if you're careful. The trickiest part, according to commenters on Chow, is temperature regulation. You'll need a good thermometer inside the grill, and you'll need to keep a close eye on it until you get a better idea of how hot it gets at certain settings. A cheap dutch oven is also essential for most recipes, since it's really hard to burn food in them. It may take a few tries to get right, but once you have the hang of it, you can amaze everyone at your next family reunion by baking spaghetti in the backyard. Be sure to check out the source link for more tips to get you started.How to Use Your Gas Grill Like an Oven | ChowPhoto by Semmick Photo (Shutterstock).How to make an entire drone and camera gimbal using laser cut parts
NEXT STEP, Photos of all the frames.
This step : design
When designing anything, you need a rough idea of how you want it to turn out, I usually have an idea in my mind but for some i recommend sketching and possibly taking measurements to figure out how you want the final model to look.
In this case, i took inspiration from the basic design of quadcopters, a simple x, but i felt that was too bland and so took parts from various frame designs and fashioned it into my frame.
I wanted something unique, that stood out not simply because of the material it was made from, but because of its design
In this case i wanted a dome to house the electronics and i wanted a unique looking set of arms that werent simply to hold the motors apart.
So i came up with this design.
(image 1)
I had made it to be relatively lightweight by removing large amounts of material (the helix design which is lots of squares cut out), but still needed it to be strong so i made a honeycomb design that was the many little squares cut out.
This halved the weight of the model, but it also hugely increase the cutting time, which i has to pay for , the longer the time to cut, the higher the price tag.
Which meant i had to compromise, so for larger parts i cut large pieces out.
so i had a few things that needed to be factored into the design to make it a viable frame.
Airflow (the props had some of their thrust lost when blowing onto the arms, so i had to make them thin or i ha to allow air flow)
Length (the props lose efficiency when close to other props, so i needed the arms to be long but not ridiculous)
weight (the copter loses flight time with weight, so i had to make it as light as possible)
Time Cost (because i pay for time used on the cutter, i had to make the design relatively simple)
Material strength (i could not design outside of the materials strengths, it could not be ultra thin as it could snap, or oscilate causing bad flight performance)
With the above factored in, The design can go ahead.
the trick is to design part by part, rather than design it all in one go, in this case, i designed the sides of the arms before i designed the top/bottom or plates, the arm was designed to be two x the length of the propellor i would use, this ensures the props would not be too close to each other or the board.
I tried to make the design as unified as possible which meant as few joints as possible thus as few weaknesses as possible.
so now i had to make it 3d, which meant in between the two side plates i had to put somthing that spaced them.
I could have printed out lots of side plates and stuck them together, but it would have used huge amounts of material and would have been heavy, instead i used spacer plates that slotter in with finger joints.
There were just slightly wider than the motor mounts and were 3mm thick, one thing to note when designing how they fit together is make sure you know the thickness of the material you are using.
In this case i used 3mm MDF so the finger joints were 10mm long and 3mm wide.
I tried to make the spacers as long as possible to make assembly easier and reduce cutting time .
I also had to make the plate the motor would mount onto.
I used dedicated spacers for this and used two samwidged together for extra strength.
at the time i did not know where the motor mount holes would be, so i cut generic equally spaced holes.
I now had to make the holes in the side plate that the spacers would fit into, so i made a line of boxes 100mm ling, 3mm tll and spaced 5mm apart like the fingers on the spacer plates, i then took the template and placed it on top of the side plate in the position needed..
It was very simple to do and the end result was a clean design.
i did make sure that the holes where the spacer plate slid into, would not compromise other parts of the frame making it weaker.
, i now had he arm designed, but i need to think how i would fit 4 of them together, so i h to make two plates that would clamp to the bottom and top of the arms, to hold them in place securely, this was ver simple, i measured the space i had available on the top arm and make a square that was double the size.
I then put two "fingers" that poked out of the arm that would slot into the top plate.
, i then had to put holes in the top plate that would allow those fingers to slot in, as you can see in the photo i did just that but i forgot the arm was actually in 3d and at the time only put in one set of holes for each arm.
So i had to correct this which was simple. i just copied the holes and spaced them the correct distance apart..
Now that i had a top plate, i decided i would simply cut out two and stick one to the bottom in the same manner.
I now had to design the holes for fitting the flight controller, this was difficult as again i did not have the measurements of controller at the time, so i made a generic design that would supports lots of mounting points.
I also put in lots of holes for any extra wiring that would need to be slotted through.
I now had to think about the dome, it would be too weak on its own, so i made a simple spacer that all the arms slotted into and make it far stronger.
the frame was now finished.
when i later cut it out and tried it, i found i had not completely thought out all the design, it was still a bit too heavy, the motor mount plate was a bit too weak and the dome needed strengthening.
So i took these ideas and proceeded to design many different frames, somewhere for fun and some were for practicality, you will see them all in the photos.
As you can see i have had a lot of fun designing the different frames, i have tried all sorts of designs, some for strength, some for practicality some for looks, some for nostalgia.
I have also included the image where i designed the frame and the image where i space it for the laser cutter bed.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Cardboard Fire Hydrant using 123D Catch
This instructable is going to show how to make your own cardboard fire hydrant step by step using 123D Catch.
What you need:
123D Catch, which is software made by Autodesk that you can download as an app. (http://www.123dapp.com/catch)
Meshmixer, another Autodesk program that is used to clean up your catch. (http://www.meshmixer.com/)
123D Make, also free software by Autodesk. (http://www.123dapp.com/make)
One sheet of cardboard (18"x24")
Laser Cutter
Glue
Monday, September 30, 2013
Turn Your Phone Into A GPS Using K'nex!
Imagine this: your lost in the wilderness on a lonely back road. You have no idea where you are and no way to find out. If only you had a way to find your way home! Luckily, you still have your cell phone and a box of K'nex in the trunk. It's time to make the (emergency) K'nex GPS/phone holder! This holder works for any rectangular device, such as the HTC EVO, iPhone, or Droid.* This can also be used as a dashcam to take video of any notable incidents while driving.
You will need: 16 white connectors; 8 blue connectors; 11 yellow connectors; 10 grey connectors; 8 green connectors; 14 red connectors; 75 green rods; 52 white rods; 5 blue rods; 4 black caps; 5 blue separators; 4 grey separators; 6 blue caps; and 2 green bendy rods.Friday, September 20, 2013
Print your own business cards using Pages
I started an etsy store last year and started doing craft fairs - time for business cards! I didn't want to pay anyone else to do it, so I messed around and came up with a way to print my own. :) This is an excellent way to make very cheap but high quality business cards that will get lots of attention. Using cardstock that's white on one side and printed on the other makes your cards stand out. And best of all, this allows you to customize your business cards any way you want. No more set templates and glossy cheapo business cards! Hooray!
a small cardstock stack - makes sure it measures 4.5 x 6.5 inchesPages (http://www.apple.com/iwork/pages/) or other word processing softwarea printercraft knifecutting matrulerThe cardstock stack I got at a craft store - it's white on one side and printed on the other. It's pretty cheap - normally around $10. That gives you around 200 business cards for very little. :DSunday, September 15, 2013
Hack Something Using Heat Shrink Tubing
Thursday, August 1, 2013
How to tie a 320 facet globe knot using a 3D printed model
A globe knot is a form of Turk's head knot that can be tied to cover a sphere. The standard way to tie a globe knot is to tie the knot around a cylindrical mandrel, then transfer the knot to a ball that you want to cover. In this instructable I'll show you how to tie a 320 facet globe knot by 3D printing a model of one and directly tying the knot around it. For great instructions on how to tie many different globe knots using a mandrel I recommend The Globe Knot Cookbook, by Don Burrhus: http://knottool.com/gk_kit.html
The model of the globe knot can be ordered from my Shapeways shop: http://shpws.me/nuZnI recommend getting it in the white, strong and flexible material as we'll be sticking pins in it. When I received mine, there was a lot of white powder still in the middle, so I recommend rinsing it in water to get it out. Then let it dry before you begin tying.
Or, if you have a 3D printer you can print the attached stl file.
You'll also want some T-pins and some kind of small diameter cord. I'll be using lacrosse crosslace which can be ordered online in many different colors: http://bit.ly/15vKcXg
Sunday, June 16, 2013
How to tie a Turk's head coaster using a 3D printed model
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Road bike shift indicator using scrap packaging
I really don't like to cross-chain. It's never been a problem before, since I've always had a pretty good sense of what rear cog I'm in. But when I got a bike with a compact double after riding 12 years with a triple, it seems like I'm shifting the front so often that now it's hard to keep track of things. So I made a shift indicator using scrap plastic that's kind of inconspicuous, and you don't need to remove the cable to install it. Warning - if you get frustrated fiddling around with small things until they're just right, don't even start this project. And, I'm the only one who ever handles my bike, so the fact that it's a bit fragile isn't a problem for me.
No, not the toothbrush - the toothbrush package (or whatever other small piece of clear plastic you can find). I used the toothbrush package because the right-angle bend was already formed permanently into it. And a bit of duct tape, which I forgot to put in the picture.
Friday, May 31, 2013
Estimate pi using conductive paint
Given an "infinite" 2D square grid of resistors with resistance R, the equivalent resistance across the diagonal of one square is 2R/pi [1,2]. Working out this solution theoretically has sniped many a nerd. Furthermore, it is prohibitively laborious for an amateur to attempt to verify this experimentally -- until now. Using Bare Paint, I drew a square grid of resistors on a page of normal copy paper, and measured resistances with a multimeter. My wishful thinking was that, with a large enough array of resistors (14 x 14), I could approximate "infinity" sufficiently from the perspective of squares in the middle of the page. Drawing the resistors with the Bare Paint seemed easier than gathering and connecting 196 resistors. While one set of measurements yielded a value of pi as impressive (to me) as 3.38, overall I observed poor consistency of measurements among adjacent squares near the center of the page, and poor repeatability of measurements for the squares tested. Nevertheless, I hope that you, dear reader, will consider trying this experiment for yourself. I will tell you how I did it, and perhaps you will take more care than I to apply the paint accurately and precisely; otherwise, you will too observe a high variance of resistance among your resistors. Note also that the resistance of the Bare Paint decreases as it dries, so be sure to allow ample time for drying (tens of minutes) before measurements.
I used one tube of Bare Paint, a multimeter with leads (pictured in the intro section), and an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper.