Linkdump: October 2018

By Lenore Edman on October 30, 2018

Radio waves from our galaxy, the Milky Way, reflecting off the surface of the Moon.
VFX Artist Reveals the Relative Sizes of Stars.
The Forgotten Cold War Plan That Put a Ring of Copper Around the Earth.
Two bits per transistor: high-density ROM in Intel’s 8087 floating point chip.
The Chinese Mountain Cat.
Stammer: A Stamp Hammer.
Musical aside: The Cure, in their very first TV performance, played an early version of A Forest in 1979.
Additive Pens: 3D printed fountain pens.
DIY Radio Telescope.
Textbook Crosswind Landing by a 747 (Youtube).
The textbook Physically Based Rendering: From Theory To Implementation, by Matt Pharr, Wenzel Jakob, and Greg Humphreys, is now free to read online.
3D print your own Think-a-Dot.
Fold N Fly: A database of paper airplanes with easy to follow folding instructions.
᚛ᚈᚑᚋ ᚄᚉᚑᚈᚈ᚜ and ᚛ᚑᚌᚐᚋ᚜: The Ogham Space Mark.
Hobby servos converted to 3D printed linear actuators.
StringyPlotter: A program to produce continuous line drawings from black and white bitmap images.

This entry was posted in EMSL Projects, Everything Else and tagged linkdump. Bookmark the Permalink.

AxiDraw Ouija Board

By Lenore Edman on October 24, 2018

Last year before Halloween, Evan used an AxiDraw hidden in a box to animate a ouija board. He also posted a progress video from before adding the LEDs and doing the lettering and finishing. It turned out beautifully!

This entry was posted in CNC and tagged AxiDraw, Halloween. Bookmark the Permalink.

Three Fives Kit in Servo Magazine

By Lenore Edman on October 22, 2018

Our Three Fives Timer Kit is featured on the September 2018 cover of Servo Magazine.

The article inside talks about the workings of the 555 and features a project using the Three Fives kit in a custom carrier board to run a blinker circuit on a robot.

This entry was posted in Electronics, General News. Bookmark the Permalink.

AxiDraw Pantograph

By Lenore Edman on October 19, 2018

Mike Jacobs added a pantograph to his AxiDraw to multiply its size range.

Not content with that, he doubled it.

Bigger!!! I extended the extension—now it’s a double pantograph!! The #axidraw #plotter draws ~8.5×12” out of the box. My pantograph increases that to 45×58”. The precision has gone hell and there’s some warping—

Continuing the saga,

Increasing unpredictability! I added a swiveling mini roller. Now I really have no clue what a finished piece will look like, and there’s a good chance that no two pieces will look alike.

It is always exciting to see what creative things people do with an AxiDraw!

This entry was posted in Art, Engineering and tagged AxiDraw. Bookmark the Permalink.

Science Hack Day SF

By Lenore Edman on October 18, 2018

I will be at Science Hack Day SF giving a lightning talk on Creative Off-Label Tool Use featuring some of the cool and unusual ways people are using AxiDraw and other tools we make. I’ll also have an AxiDraw in the hardware hacking area to play with.

Science Hack Day is October 27-28 and is free, so register now!

P.S. If you’re doing something interesting and science or research related with your AxiDraw, please let me know!

This entry was posted in CNC, Field Trips, Science and tagged AxiDraw. Bookmark the Permalink.

Fall Open House

By Lenore Edman on October 16, 2018

Evil Mad Scientist Sign

You’re invited to our annual open house!

When: Saturday, November 10, 4 pm to 8 pm
Where: Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
1285 Forgewood Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089

You can see the MOnSter 6502 in action, check out an AxiDraw demonstration, maybe meet Zener the cat (she’s not fond of parties), do some shopping if the mood strikes, and share in food and conversation.

This entry was posted in Evil Mad Scientist Shop, Field Trips, General News. Bookmark the Permalink.

Invisible Ink with AxiDraw

By Lenore Edman on October 11, 2018

Joanie LeMercier has been working on a project using invisible ink and different lighting schemes with the AxiDraw. He has posted a bunch of clips and pictures in his twitter stream with the heading “Invisible drawing.”

pic.twitter.com/9xWEATkRic

— ᴊᴏᴀɴɪᴇ ʟᴇᴍᴇʀᴄɪᴇʀ (@JoanieLemercier) September 14, 2018

Head over to the thread where you can see more progress shots as well as completed drawings.

This entry was posted in Art, CNC and tagged AxiDraw. Bookmark the Permalink.

Lady Ada Lovelace Day 2018

By Lenore Edman on October 9, 2018

For Ada Lovelace Day this year, I would like to celebrate a group of young women in science, technology and making who are celebrating and uplifting each other. I had the privilege of seeing some of them at Maker Faire New York this year, and I find their optimism and strength to be inspiring.

Check out their twitter feeds, their youtube channels, and especially the connections they make. It is awesome to see these young women making a difference in the world right now.

This entry was posted in General News and tagged STEAM. Bookmark the Permalink.

Halloween Project Archive

By Lenore Edman on October 1, 2018

Array of Halloween Projects

Halloween is nearly here! Still need ideas? Head over to the Halloween Project Archives for a list of our projects over the years.

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays, and … we’ve organized dozens of our Halloween projects into categories: costumes, pumpkins, decor and food.

This entry was posted in Costumes, Play with your food and tagged Halloween. Bookmark the Permalink.

Linkdump: September 2018

By Windell Oskay on September 29, 2018

Dynamic liquefaction sinks ships.
A Homemade Engraving Pantograph (YouTube).
Metal casting at home with lost PLA and green sand.
How to pick up a cat like a pro (YouTube, via Boing Boing).
Coffee Candy, Ranked.
Mug-O-Matic: A different geometry of mug plotter.
Mathematical patterns that eventually fail.
Murdered man’s body found after tree grew from seed in his stomach.
DIY Deep Sea Dropcam.
A curious theory about the first recipe involving tomatoes.
3D print your own Floppy disk construction kit.
Cuisine Ingredients: Statistical analysis of ingredients
A CNC flat coil winder
Is it possible to make a laser out of wood?
Understanding user support systems in open source.
Telescope Building with John Dobson — How to build a Dobsonian telescope (YouTube)

This entry was posted in Everything Else and tagged linkdump. Bookmark the Permalink.