We've been having fun playing with the L293D driver chip. It's one of those things to see how much you can make it do by itself (like with any BEAM application!). Grant McKee has been experimenting with some simple additions to the chip to make it (unto itself) a suitable brain for a simple mini-sumo […]
Wednesday Cool Links: The Flying Stuff, ...
Solar botics
March 20, 2013
Solarbotics and the Useless Box have been mentioned in the Wall Street Journal article "Looking for Something Useful to Do With Your Time? Don't Try This"! It is dedicated to the historical overview of the uselessness starting with its invention in the 1950s to nowadays. The useless box can take many guises, names and materials to be made of, but the initial impulse for pure purposelessness keeps on fascinating " tinkerers and thinkers alike". It's an interesting read, check it out if you haven't already. And now to our traditional portion of links:
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"Wings" by Dukno Yoon Not sure whether these would qualify as jewellery, mobile or art piece, I think - a little bit of everything, but definitely these look cool. By using this mechanical structure jeweler and metalsmith Dukno Yoon explores the nature of movement of the wing, and the interactive relationship with the body. |
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This is What Happens When You Run Water Through a 24hz Sine Wave First it might seem that the water stream is vibrating only because the hose is doing the same, but when you get to about 1:43 in the video, it gets almost eerie, as if the water is running upwards. |
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A Hovering Magnetic Cloud and Other Kinetic Sculptures by Laurent Debraux Kinetic sculptures by artist Laurent Debraux using primarily magnets, ferrofluid and metal objects with a touch of vintage. More stuff on his youtube channel. |
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A million times (Time Dubai) by Humans since 1982 What happens if you orchestrate 288 clocks to wave their hands in a specific fashion? Pretty mesmerizing, I say... |
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Retrotechtacular: flying foot-soldiers are coming for you (sixty years ago) Here's a remarkable piece of the 1950s experimental military technology- a single-rider flying platform. Two rotors are mounted underneath and provide enough lifting power to hover the platform above the ground. |
Also, according to the Wall Street Journal Useless Box has also been called a "green machine" as one of its inherent attributes is energy efficiency. Our links are also very… green! They last only until you click them, leave minimal environmental footprint, with the exception of, maybe, brain. But, you know, that regenerates, so grow some more neurons by the next time we'll see you here!
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Arduino Book...and the Pendulum Swing!
Here's a great booklet to accompany any new Freeduino purchase - "Getting Started with Arduino", written by Massimo Banzi (the co-founder of the Arduino Project). This title is based on his free-download introduction PDF, but takes is much farther, guiding new electronics enthusiasts into how to use the Arduino / Freeduino in a project. Also […]
Harold's "Tank"
Harold Ilano built this SW2.2 / VBug inspired 5 motor walker named "Tank", and just recently announced it on the BEAM mailing list. It's a very effective and quick device - nicely done, and well worth a look-see. It still impresses me what we can do without a microcontroller...
BEP Application: Bare Bones PhotoVore
We like to have some play time at Solarbotics, and the "Bare Bones Photovore" is the results of one of these play sessions. It's a very simple (amongst the simplest, we'll hazard to say) light-seeking solar-powered robot, and find it easy to build using the Bicore Experimenter's PCB.
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Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.