William Phelps recently wrote to us with alternative firmware for Alpha Clock Five, our oversized alphanumeric LED clock/data display kit. His firmware adds two very welcome features: Automatic daylight saving time (DST) correction, and automatic time setting via a GPS module. It works remarkably well.
Here, we’ll show you how to hook it all up and how to use it.
Continue reading GPS time on the Alpha Clock Five
The designers at Pensa have released their fantastic homebrew computer-controlled wire bender, the DIWire, as an open source project, and have just posted on Instructables showing you how to build your own. The DIWire can take wire from a spool and automatically form it into arbitrary 2D or 3D shapes you have designed digitally.
We had a chance to see the DIWire up close and in action (and also to meet the folks behind it) at last year’s Open Hardware Summit and Maker Faire in New York. The DIWire is exciting not just because of what it can do, but also because it represents the first of its kind in do-it-yourself CNC machines.
In the last decade, we’ve seen an explosion of DIY CNC mills and routers, and a separate explosion— at least as large —in so many now-familiar 3D printers. But the DIWire represents a whole new class of DIY machines, completely different in function and form. Will the next decade also bring us an explosion in homebrew CNC wire-EDM, water jets, embroidery machines, turret punches, and lathes? We certainly hope so.
In addition to the instructable, documentation for entire DIWire project, including both hardware and software, is hosted at Google Code.
Simon Jelley, the winner of our Peggy 2 Clock Concept Contest back in 2010, posted about how he took his prize and built his proposed clock: a video display of an analog clock face based on the clock in Victoria Station.
It looks even better in its physical manifestation than it did as a concept.
Thanks for sharing your project, we’re thrilled to see that you made it happen!
Here’s something we never thought of: John Fisher is using an EiBotBoard (EBB), a Raspberry PI and a camera to create “inverse panorama views” of cylindrical objects. It’s a little bit like using an Eggbot as a scanner. His in-depth article covers everything from hardware set up to code.
Hat tip to EBB developer Brian Schmalz for pointing us to this one!
We recently announced availability of our “first edition” wooden Digi-Comp II kits. These are big kits, and there are a variety of different manufacturing steps and processes— from CNC routing to vacuum forming —that have somehow found their way into the build. In this little photo essay, we’ll show you just what goes into the making of the Digi-Comp II, First Edition.
Continue reading The Making of the Digi-Comp II, First Edition
We got some excellent guesses in our recent mystery object post, right up to and including the right answer. Jim, Michael D. Pinho, and Einstein all answered correctly that it is a handheld wire straightening tool.
Manufactured by Du-Bro, you can find these in fishing stores for straightening “wire leaders.” Wire leaders are short lengths of steel wire used at the end of a fishing line when fishing for big fish with sharp teeth that might otherwise bite through your line.
They’re also pretty handy around the shop. We have two different sizes of these, for straightening different gauges of wire.
To use one, you place the wire that you wish to straighten in the center of the three hinged rods and clamp the rods together in your hand. And then, with quite a bit of effort, you pull the wire straight through the center. Doing so forces the wire to bend around the bumps on the rods, straightening out any kinks and twists with surprising effectiveness.
Here is an interesting thing that we picked up recently— and we realized that almost no one recognizes it. We’ll give you a few hints, but can you figure out what it is, and what it is for?
The object consists of three solid metal rods with raised bands around them, hinged such that that they can smoothly move with respect to one another, and that each of the rods can be turned freely.
In fact, you can fold it all the way over onto itself.
And here is a size reference, it fits nicely in your palm.
So, what is it? Please leave your educated guesses in the comments!
Update: Yes, it’s a wire straightening tool— read more about it here.
AJ Fisher posted an incredibly thorough write-up about his Twitter/Raspberry Pi/Arduino controlled LED lit Eggbot decorated Christmas tree ornaments. Each ornament would light up when twitter keywords represented by their icons were being used.
In the words of a friend of ours, “It makes me feel as though there are people all over the world celebrating with their family and friends just like we are, and you’ve brought them all into the room with us” – and if that’s not what doing this sort of technology is all about then I don’t know what is.
The article includes techniques he used, links to his code, source vector art, and so much more.
Mission Objective: Use robotic (CNC) tools to make snowflakes. By any means necessary.
Timeframe: One day.
Resources: Our Snowflake 2.0 application. Laser cutter. Vinyl cutter. CNC router. Industrial embroidery machine. For raw materials, scrap on hand.
Our neighbor, Don Burns, is working on one of the biggest kits we’ve seen: an Easy Riser biplane hang glider. The first page of the plans is shown above.
Don let me take a few pictures of his work in progress— the wings are hanging above his well-equipped workbench.
The plans are filled with quirky reminders and tips, the occasional misspelling, and bits of humor.
Thanks for sharing your project, Don!
