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Archives: February 2009

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February 28, 2009

Building a "ball mill" from junk

Spatula Tzar, who brought us the controversial fly plane, offers a number of other interested projects, including this ball mill (a device used to crush metals and chemicals into a fine powder), made from mainly junk lying around the lab.

Ball Mill

Kite Buggy Skis

In December, I finally jettisoned the skis I got when I was a nanny/construction worker for the year after college. Michael needed them to turn into a Kite Buggy. Right now it is operating successfully as a sled/buggy, but the kite is already functioning.

Finally able to get your skis to work! Next iteration will have shorter skis and slight camber to help cornering/ lateral load of kite.
Waiting for the wind. In the mean time, gravity is helping out.

When the wind kicks up, there will be some more fun in the snow!

What do you do to beat the winter doldrums? Add your celebrations in the comments and don't forget to include your photos and video in the MAKE Flickr pool.

An AVR-based logging wattmeter

Inside
Dan made an AVR-based logging wattmeter... He writes -

This device monitors household power usage and logs it to an SD card. A simple analog front-end amplifies the signals from voltage and current detectors and an ATmega168 microcontroller computes the power consumption using the formula P=V*I. The voltage and current are each sampled at 9615 Hz so the integration should be fairly accurate even for highly non-sinusoidal loads such as computers or fluorescent bulbs. A graphical LCD shows the power usage as a strip chart and can also act as an oscilloscope to display the voltage and current waveforms. The current is amplified in three stages (1x, 10x, and 100x) so that different gains can be used giving accurate readings for both high and low power usage.

Foam model in your wind tunnel

Design it, build it, test it, fly it
In your classroom, students may be working with concepts like aerodynamics and the Design Process. Many kids use the CO2 dragster as a way of exploring these ideas. In MAKE: Volume 15 and MAKE: Volume 16, we have a couple of projects that can really help students turn on their minds while they get their hands on tools that enable them to work with the concepts of both planning a design and revising it based on testing as well as really seeing the affect of various custom made shapes on the fluid flowing over the form.

Designing and building in three dimensions
Designing a model on paper is one thing, but when you can hold it in your hand, everything seems clearer. A great quick way to make your own three dimensional shapes is the 5-Minute Foam Factory
https://www.make-digital.com/make/vol16/?pg=118 You can find detailed build instructions on how to build your own hot wire foam cutter on pages 116-120 of your print or digital edition of MAKE: Volume 16.

Once you have the cutter built, you can test out your designs.The promises of the online version of Make really comes out with the styrofoam cutter. There are loads of neat techniques in the online version of the project. Online, there are techniques that either didn't fit or were not developed in time for the print edition. There are some useful comments offering suggestions around materials and safety.

Keep it Safe
On safety with this project, there are a few things to keep in mind while working with kids: Toxic fumes and Fire. You will need to work out a way to deal with these. Using the foam cutter near a window and venting it to the outside might just be enough. As far as fire, supervision is the key, and making sure that every student is clear about the expectations of keeping themselves and their classmates safe. Having a reasonably sized fire extinguisher handy seems like a prudent safety measure with this project. If you still have questions or concerns, check with your local fire department and see what they have for suggestions.

Make your wind tunnel - https://www.make-digital.com/make/vol15/?pg=148
https://makezine.com/15/diyhome_wind/

Your wind tunnel could be made from lots of different materials. Many schools have at least a few paper boxes kicking around, which could provide some structure for the tunnel. Coroplast folds nice and tapes to close. Concrete footing tube would give you a round shape for the tunnel. A window fan could pull the air through, or you could even raid some out of some computer power supplies. For the straws you will need, you could raid the cafeteria or a burger joint for some drinking straws, though you should probably ask before cleaning out the straw bin.

What will your students learn and do?
Your wind tunnel and foam cutter help you to have students make a design based on the aerodynamics principles you specify, and then test the various designs they come up with, providing real data on their design choices. By trying several designs as individuals or as a group, students can start to see and visualize the shapes and surfaces that lend towards less drag and more lift. They can then start to recognize aerodynamic forms in the engineered world around them and understand why things look and function as they do.

Finding out more
Here are some resources from TeachEngineering on the subject of Aerodynamics.

If you are looking for lots of resources on teaching Engineering, Celeste Baine has a great collection of the top 10 List of K-12 Engineering Education Programs. Design Squad has a resource page for educators with lots of printable materials for classroom use.

While we are on the topic of aerodynamics, a look at Airplanes from How Stuff Works might come in handy. You might also find some ideas at Instructables on aerodynamics based projects.

What do you think?
Have you built the 5 Minute Foam Factory? Have you built the Model Wind Tunnel? What have you done with these projects on your own? What are the best resources you have found for teaching the Design Process in your classroom? What techniques help your students to stick with multiple versions of sketch models, appearance models and prototypes as they home in on a final design? What is the best way to get kids excited about aerodynamics, lift, drag and fluid friction? How can you help your students to visualize the effects of various shapes and surfaces on a design they are about to build? What are some other ways you could or have used these projects in your classroom? Join us in the conversation in the comments, and add your pictures and videos to the Make Flickr pool.

Roll your own stereo turntable

The thought never occurred to me: scratch-building your own turntable. Paulo Rebordao writes:

This is a record player complete with a servo controlled arm that I've designed and built during the last 10 months. It has a few unusual features and I think it looks Way Cool!!!

Besides some general info on the workings, I also made available the schematics and software for downloading.

The Turntable

Liquidware app store

Make Pt1795
Huh - this is really interesting, an "app store" from Liquidware....

Unsold cars around world

F-1
F-2
This is starting to look like an art project...

Make: television Episode 9: Computer Making Music & Personal Flight Recorder

Meet CCRMA, a group of musical makers who stretch the sonic boundaries by turning personal computers into an electronic symphony. In the Workshop, John Park hacks a Wii controller and turns it into a personal flight recorder that can measure the G forces of roller coasters and other high-speed activities. In the Toolbox segment, William Gurstelle demonstrates the slick, back-cutting action of a super-sharp Japanese saw. The Maker Channel features a tesla coil-powered guitar amp, an RFID reader implanted in a human hand, and LED fan sign to bring to baseball games, and a solar powered bicycle gondola.

Get the m4v, subscribe in iTunes, or what in HD on Blip.

Make: television Episode 9 - the torrent

Here's the torrent of Episode 9 of Make: television!

Episode 109: Computer Making Music & Personal Flight RecorderMeet CCRMA, a group of musical makers who stretch the sonic boundaries by turning personal computers into an electronic symphony. In the Workshop, John Park hacks a Wii controller and turns it into a personal flight recorder that can measure the G forces of roller coasters and other high-speed activities. In the Toolbox segment, William Gurstelle demonstrates the slick, back-cutting action of a super-sharp Japanese saw. The Maker Channel features a tesla coil-powered guitar amp, an RFID reader implanted in a human hand, and LED fan sign to bring to baseball games, and a solar powered bicycle gondola.

Find PDFs to our projects and a guide to all of the previous episodes at makezine.tv

Make: is available in HD on Public Television, Vimeo, Blip, and YouTube.

Maker Profile - Computer Making Music on Make: television

Meet CCRMA, a group of musical makers who stretch the sonic boundaries by turning personal computers into an electronic symphony. Based at Stanford University, CCRMA teams composers, artists and acoustical researchers together to meld music with new technology and explore the outer limits of audio from playground-activated sounds to laptop orchestras. Then see the origins of the synthesizer.

Learn more about CCRMA at https://ccrma.stanford.edu/, or visit Chris Warren's website and blog.

Get the m4v, subscribe in iTunes, watch on YouTube or Blip.

Maker Workshop - Personal Flight Recorder on Make: television

John Park hacks a Wii controller and turns it into a personal flight recorder that can sense and measure the stomach-churning G forces of roller coasters and other high-speed, high-risk activities.

Download the PDF for this project.

Download the Personal Flight Recorder program for the Arduino.

Get the m4v, subscribe in iTunes, watch on YouTube or Blip.

Maker Workshop PDF - Personal Flight Recorder

Make a versatile and rugged personal flight recorder that will record the g-forces during any type of ride or trip. Check out the details for the Personal Flight Recorder that John Park builds in the Maker Workshop, and don't forget to download the Personal Flight Recorder software for the Arduino.

Give this build a shot, and let us know how it turned out. We'd love to hear your feedback or see your pictures! Email us at maketelevision@makezine.com.

Watch the Maker Workshop - Personal Flight Recorder segment.

Or check it out on Vimeo, Blip, or YouTube.

Personal Flight Recorder program for Arduino

Here's the .zip file for the Personal Flight Recorder project from the Maker Workshop in Episode 9 of Make: television. Check out the PDFfor full instructions on how to build your own Personal Flight Recorder. Share your questions or comments in the comments section below.

Watch the Maker Workshop - Personal Flight Recorder segment.

Or check it out on Vimeo, Blip, or YouTube.

Maker to Maker - Japanese Saw on Make: television

In this Toolbox segment, William Gurstelle demonstrates the slick, back-cutting action of a super-sharp Japanese saw.

Get the m4v, subscribe in iTunes, watch on YouTube or Blip.

Maker Channel Ep. 9 - Tesla coil guitar, RFID implant, LED fan sign, Solar-powered gondola

Make: television presents:

Tesla coil guitar - Steve Connor plays his tesla coil guitar amplifier
RFID implant - Amal Graafstra opens locks and other devices with his hand-implanted RFID tag.
LED fan sign - Kip Kedersha lights up the baseball bleachers with his homemade sign.
Solar-powered Gondola - Reno Tondelli takes us on a spin with his Solar Powered Bicycle Gondola.

Submit a video of your own project at makerchannel.org.

Get the m4v, subscribe in iTunes, watch on YouTube or Blip.

Share your skills with Boston Skill Share

Photo from Boston Skill Share

So you have a great idea, and you want to share it, but where will you find people to share with? If you can get to the Boston area for the April 18 and 19th 2009 weekend (perhaps you haven't yet scheduled your April Vacation?) then you should definitely check out Boston Skill Share, a community effort to help people get and share great ideas.

The Boston Skillshare is an annual volunteer-run, donation-based weekend event that brings people together to share practical skills. It's happening this year on Saturday and Sunday, April 18 & 19 at M.I.T. in Cambridge. Everyone is invited.

Looking for an overview of the weekend? Take a look at the Info page, pretty good place to start. Their Points of Unity, lets you in on their great mindset.

If you would like to lead a workshop, then check out the Workshop Submission Form. Maybe you just want to go and learn loads of cool stuff, so explore the workshop page, which will fill up as the event approaches.

Right now, we are looking for people to lead workshops. That means we need YOU to think of your favorite thing to teach and sign up now to participate. Anyone can lead a workshop about anything! Past skillshares included everything from making your own underwear to bike mechanics to yoga. Help make the world a more interesting and skillful place.
The Boston Skillshare aims to create a temporary space for people to share practical skills, which help us to live happily, creatively and sustainably. The emphasis is on action over theory, participation over talk. We want to live with enthusiasm, so let us learn with vigor!

So check it out and let us know what you think in the comments. Have you attended one of the previous
Boston Skill Share events? If you have pictures, please add them to the MAKE Flickr pool.

jsSO: Flash shared objects in Javascript

Without polling the server, an expensive operation, there isn't a simple way send a Javascript client frequently updated server data. This is a problem if you want to make a multiuser game or chat application in Javascript. A post on ajaxian proposes a solution: Daniel Prieler's jsSO library, which proxies real time communication between Javascript clients through Flash and an RTMP server:

The data-transfer and the connection to the server are maintained by a simple embedded Flashmovie in your page. The communication with other clients runs through the local Flashmovie and the Red5-Server.

The data-flow between two clients looks like this:

Javascript/jsSO <-> Flashmovie <-> Red5-Server <-> Flashmovie <-> Javascript/jsSO

Red5, by the way, is an open source implementation of Adobe's Flash Server. It can be used to stream or record video, or provide low latency, event-based communication via remote shared objects.

Fast multiplayer Javascript games, here we come.

jsSO - Flash Shared Objects in Javascript [via ajaxian]
Red5

Fly Plane

Make Pt1794
Finished
Yikes, someone made a real "Fly Plane". Not every cute illustration should end up "real" :( - Spatula writes -

After coming across this lovely image depicting the construction of a fly powered matchstick airplane, I had to try it for myself. Here are the flies, trapped within their impenetrable polyethylene terephthalate dungeon of doom. As difficult as it may be, avoid pouring the hydrochloric acid in with them. They find it very unpleasant, and may refuse to fly for you. Wait until after you get bored with the plane before you decide to bathe them.

February 27, 2009

How-To: Working gears from junk mail

Instructables user Riblets writes:

This step by step tutorial will show you how to print, cut out, fold, and construct a gear to get you started building your own papercraft mechanical devices. There is still some small problems with the design, but I'm trying to balance ease of construction with functionality.

You will need:

1. A Laser Cutter or X-Acto Knife.

2. A T-Pin, Straight Pin, or Push Pin at least 5/8" in depth, (regular pushpins are too short and map pins bend too easily).

3. Stiff paper, Brochures and Junkmail like Restaurant Menus are a good choice as long as they fit into whatever printer you're using.

4. A half hour of time and Patience, this is very much like miniature model building.

iPhone/iTouch as classroom tool

Joyce is a teacher and librarian. She recently got an iPhone, and has fallen in love.

Consider the portability of texts, the potential for blogging or taking notes and pictures in the field, the use of GPS for science and geography, the possibilities for organizing learning, the options for the music classroom, the opportunities to collaborate with other learners in geography-agnostics ways.

Thanks Chris

How is your school using the great gadgets that all the kids seem to have such a thirst for? What phone applications are great for education? What are the institutional barriers to using powerful new technology to help kids learn? Post your ideas in the comments, and include your photos and video in the MAKE Flickr pool.

February 2009 Home | Next >

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