Category Archives: EMSL Projects

Citizen Science: How Big is a Bird Egg?

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emu egg in ostrich eggbot

While talking about egg sizes in the context of the Eggbot project, we realized that while we have access to a few samples, we do not have a good understanding of the normal variation in the sizes of various bird eggs.

The sizes of chicken eggs are well understood and well regulated, but for other types of bird eggs (like the emu egg above) the sizes are not necessarily so standard. If you have access to other types of eggs or eggshells, we’d like your help in gathering data about the size and variation in these other types of eggs.

We’ve set up a survey form to collect egg size data and we plan to post about our results once we have collected enough data.

Thank you!

This entry was posted in Citizen Science, Eggbot, EMSL Projects, Engineering, Nature, Science and tagged , . Bookmark the Permalink.

WaterColorBot kits: In stock, and new accessories

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We’re very pleased to announce some updates on the WaterColorBot project— the watercolor-painting pen plotter that we designed in collaboration with Super-Awesome Sylvia.  First and foremost: kits are (finally!) available from stock at our store, now that we’ve finished shipping the rewards from our Kickstarter campaign and our other pre-orders.

We’ve also been working on a host of new applications and accessories that we’ll be writing about in the near future. The first new accessory is the Buddha Board holder pictured above, which indexes a Buddha Board (overly-interactive website link / Amazon.com link), that lets you make temporary paintings with just water.   We’ve found the Buddha board not only to be one of the best tools for trying out new things on the ‘bot (without using up paint and paper) but also to be great for live demos of the WaterColorBot, so that you don’t need to provide a fresh sheet of paper for everyone that tries it out.  You can find it in our new index of WaterColorBot accessories.

This entry was posted in EMSL Projects, Evil Mad Scientist Shop, WaterColorBot and tagged . Bookmark the Permalink.

555 footstool in the wild

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555 Footstool: date code 1403

This newly minted (date code: 1403) 555 footstool comes to us via Martin on Twitter, who writes:

My 555 footstools arrived. Build by my father-in-law, based on design files from @EMSL

Here are our original project post and our design.  This is the first time that we’ve seen someone else build one based on our design. Nice!

This entry was posted in Art, Electronics, EMSL Projects, Engineering and tagged . Bookmark the Permalink.

DIY Electric Kistka for Eggbot

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Ann posted instructions in our forums for creating an electric kistka (wax pen) for the Eggbot for traditional Pysanky egg dying techniques. She used nichrome wire, krylon tape, a modified kistka, and a 2xAA battery holder with a switch and described how to mount it in the Eggbot. She posted a couple of designs to Thingiverse demonstrating the technique including the rose design pictured above.

For a Humpty Dumpty design, she wrote up how she made it:

Using eggbot and custom electric kistka, plotted the Humpty Dumpty picture and text on an egg. First plotted outline, dyed brick, colored in bricks by hand with kistka, dyed blue.

You can check out her other designs for the Eggbot on Thingiverse.

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

The Classic Lego Space Flight Jacket

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CLS Flight Jacket 15

Here’s a little project that we’ve been working towards for a long time: a custom-painted leather flight jacket (“bomber jacket”) featuring the “Classic Lego Space” logo.  (Yes, I totally spent years serving in the Lego space corps!)  And, if you’ve ever wanted to make your own painted leather jacket — whatever the theme — here’s how to do it.

Continue reading The Classic Lego Space Flight Jacket →

This entry was posted in Art, Costumes, EMSL Projects and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the Permalink.

The Winch Cutting Jig

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WinchCutter 5

In our recent article, The Making of the WaterColorBot, we walked through the manufacturing process of the WaterColorBot, in which we make use of a number of specialized jigs, with varying levels of complexity.  We also left a teaser:

“The winch is also assembled from laser-cut wooden parts. The lower part has the shaft collar that mounts to the motor shaft, and the upper part has two halves that disassemble for cord management. It turns out that the winding-drum part of the winch needs to be quite round and concentric with the motor shaft for smooth operation– smoother than we can get with the laser. We solve this with our very-most-complicated assembly jig….”

And here it is.
Continue reading The Winch Cutting Jig →

This entry was posted in EMSL Projects, Engineering, Open Hardware, WaterColorBot and tagged . Bookmark the Permalink.