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Solar engine
We spotted [Kerrin Mansfield]‘s lovely solar engine on ladyada’s rantings. It uses 16 1/8th inch solar cells to collect power. At night, an orange LED pulses at .2Hz. He doesn’t have a specific write...
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Spotlight on tinyminds
Etsy places a spotlight on tinyminds, creator of the much-hyped solar robots. [Jenny], the brains behind tinyminds and self-described “all round nerd and non-stop crafter”, claims to draw inspiration...
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Tiny projector teardown
The team from Tech-On has taken the time to teardown two interesting microprojectors. The first model they tackled was the Optoma PK101. It’s based around a digital micromirror device (DMD) like those...
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BEAM robot tumbles aimlessly
[Harm's] tumbling robot from a few years back is an excellent study in simple motion. Foregoing wheels or legs, he uses four flippers to roll the robot around the room. Two motors are used, each in...
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Turbot is a Beam/Picaxe Hybrid
[James] wanted to build a BEAM turbot. He ran into some problems with the BEAM circuitry though, and ended up with a BEAM/Picaxe hybrid. Beam robotics are the brainchild of Mark Tilden. The acronym...
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Tape Measure VHF Yagi Antenna
Radio direction finding and fox hunting can be great fun and is a popular activity with amateur radio (ham radio) enthusiasts. These antennas are great and are not only good for finding transmitters...
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Solving ISP problem with a Homebrew LTE Yagi
We’ve heard reports that internet connectivity in Australia can be an iffy proposition, and [deandob] seems to back that up. At the limit of a decent DSL connection and on the fringe of LTE, [deandob]...
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Simplest Jumping Kangaroo Bot
One of the takeaway ideas that we got from BEAM robotics was the idea that the machine itself, rather than tons of processing power, can do a lot. Your hand affords gripping, and humans have made a...
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Real-Life Electronic Neurons
All the kids down at Stanford are talking about neural nets. Whether this is due to the actual utility of neural nets or because all those kids were born after AI’s last death in the mid-80s is...
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Mechanisms: Couplings
I was splitting wood one day a few years back, getting next winter’s firewood ready on my hydraulic splitter. It normally handled my ash and oak with ease, but I had a particularly gnarly piece of...
View ArticleUmbrella and Tin Cans Turned into WiFi Dish Antenna
There’s something iconic about dish antennas. Chances are it’s the antenna that non-antenna people think about when they picture an antenna. And for many applications, the directionality and gain of a...
View ArticleDesktop Radio Telescope Images The WiFi Universe
It’s been a project filled with fits and starts, and it very nearly ended up as a “Fail of the Week” feature, but we’re happy to report that the [Thought Emporium]’s desktop WiFi radio telescope...
View ArticleSolar Circuit Sculpture Pumms the Night Away
A word of warning: Google for the definition of the word “pummer” at your own risk. Rest assured that this beautiful solar-powered circuit sculpture fits the only definition of pummer that we care to...
View ArticleBEAM Dragonfly Causes A Flap
Normal people throw away stuff when it breaks. But not people like us. Or, apparently, [NanoRobotGeek]. A cheap robotic dragonfly died, and he cannibalized it for robot parts. But he kept the gearbox...
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Bend it Like Bhoite: Circuit Sculptures Shatter The Bounds of Flatland
As electronics hobbyists, we live in a somewhat two-dimensional world. Our craft is so centered around the printed circuit board that our design tools are specifically geared to spit out files tailored...
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BEAM-Powered, Ball-Flinging Beam Has Us Beaming
We have a soft spot for BEAM projects, because we love to see the Sun do fun things when aided by large capacitors. [NanoRobotGeek]’s marble machine is an extraordinary example — once sufficiently...
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Living Robots: Revisiting BEAM
You’re hit by the global IC shortage, reduced to using stone knives and bearskins, but you still want to make something neat? It’s time to revisit BEAM robots. Biology, electronics, aesthetics, and...
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3D Prints of Steel — Um — PLA, Rather
Need a steel beam? You can 3D print PLA beams that are as strong as a steel beam of equivalent weight according to [RepRap]. The Python code for FreeCAD generates a repeating structure especially well...
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Spiffy Summer Project Sources Solar Sounds From Scraps
[Gijs Gieskes] has a long history of producing electronic art and sound contraptions, and his Zonneliedjes (sunsongs) project is certainly an entertaining perpetuation of his sonic creations. With the...
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Tiny BEAM Robot Smiles Big at the Sun
What have you been working on during the Great Chip Shortage? [NanoRobotGeek] has been living up to their handle and building BEAM robots that are smaller than any we’ve seen before. What are BEAM...
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