cjumpfunk

Friday, October 2, 2009

Mini High-Power Laser

Mini High-Power Laser
Liberate a 200mW Laser from a DVD burner
Stephanie Maksylewich | Make Vol. 10- 2007 | Pdf | 5 pgs | 3 mb

High-speed DVD burners are mass-market commodities now.
Most new computers sport DVD-RW drives, and discount shops
sometimes carry upgrade burners for less than $30. They're cheap,
but inside every one lies a hidden secret that many of us would
have killed for 20 years ago: a high-powered, solid-state, visible
red laser. This means that with a pretty small expenditure and
a little hacking, you can have a portable. handheld laser that's
powerful enough to ignite matches, burst balloons, and melt
plastic. Here's how to do it.
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Downhill Makers

Downhill Makers
Jason Verlinde | Make Vol. 10- 2007 | Pdf | 3 pgs | 2 mb

SOME MODES OF TRANSPORTATION WERE destined for garage builders.Think of the thousands of wooden canoes, dune buggies, and steel-framed road bikes that hobbyists have created over the years. Modern, high-performance downhill skis, on the other hand. seem to be an entirely different beast. the kind ofstate-of-the-art product that only a big factory production process could churn out. Who else has the ability to fuse together all those exotic materials into a sturdy package that will safely get you down icy slopes, powder runs, and even the occasional cliff huck?
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Make0806: DIY - Imaging

Make0806: DIY - Imaging
Pdf | 6 pgs | 1 mb

HOW NOT TO MAKE A HOW-TO VIDEO
Ignore these handy rules and your instructional video will turn out great! By Travis J. l. Corcoran
VAN TV
Big sights and sounds hit the streets. By Ethan O'Toole
QUICK AND DIRTY LIGHT TABLE
A storage bin. a pane of glass. and fluorescent light saves hundreds of dollars. By Hiram Cook

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Make0907: DIY - Circuits

Make0907: DIY - Circuits
Pdf | 6 pgs | 2 mb

DIGITAL CLOCK
Programming PIC microcontrollers, part 3. By Sparkle Labs
TV SET SALVAGE
Nothing good on TV? Well, there's plenty of good stuff in a TV. By Thomas Arey

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Working with Carbon Fiber

Working with Carbon Fiber
John Wanberg | Make Vol. 09- 2007 | Pdf | 7 pgs | 3 mb

It seems as though nearly everything high performance these days boasts some amount of carbon fiber in its construction. Originally used in aerospace, carbon fiber has moved into the mainstream and can be found in luxury automobiles, mountain bikes, and sports equipment.

Some laptops and cellphones even use printed decals to simulate this lightweight material's cutting-edge look. The good news is that you don't need a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility to work with carbon fiber composites. In fact, you can do it at home.

This article discusses some of the basics of carbon fiber construction and explains how to create a carbon fiber iPod case. All you need are some basic woodworking tools and skills, and the right materials. And because the same process also applies to fiberglass and Kevlar composites, these skills give you multiple ways of boosting your future projects to a new, level!

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Thursday, October 1, 2009

In the Beginning was the CRT

In the Beginning was the CRT
George Dyson | Make Vol. 10- 2007 | Pdf | 3 pgs | 1 mb

Introduced in 1897, the cathode-ray tube brought us oscilloscopes, television. radar. computer terminals, the electron microscope. and, 110 years later, YouTube. But the hum of flyback transformers, by which so much code was written, is at an end. As the last generation of armblooded monitors vacates our desks, let us remember that the cathode-ray tube's contribution to digital computing began as internal memory, not external display.

Conventional CRTs display the state of a temporary memory buffer whose contents are produced by the central processing unit (CPU). Once upon a time, however, cathode-ray tubes were the core memory, and they stored the instructions that drove the operations of the CPU. This was one of those sudden adaptations of pre-existing features for unintended purposes by which evolution leaps ahead.

By 1953 there were 53 kilobytes of random-access memory in the entire world, with 5kB in the original IAS machine.
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Make0907: DIY - Home

Make0907: DIY - Home
Pdf | 13 pgs | 7 mb

TIME-BASED DEVICES
Transplant a heartbeat from cheap alarm clocks. By Larry Cotton
METAL ETCHING
Chemically carve detailed text of line art onto brass or copper. By Tom Jennings
ELEGANT PLYWOOD COFFEE TABLE
Making furniture with no nails, screws, or glue. By Andy Lee
THE BYTELIGHT
Make a high-tech mood light from a fluorescent lamp and 54 obsolete SIMMS. By Ross Orr

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Strung Out

Strung Out
Tom Zimmerman | Make Vol. 09- 2007 | Pdf | 5 pgs | 3 mb

This project will show you how to build an amazingly inexpensive and rad-looking one-string electric guitar out of pine wood and PVC pipe. A single string purposely keeps the design simple. (For a 3-string cigar box model, see MAKE, Volume 04.)

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The $5 Cracker Box Amplifier

The $5 Cracker Box Amplifier
Ed Vogel & Blind L Pete | Make Vol. 09- 2007 | Pdf | 8 pgs | 3 mb

BIG SOUNDS FROM A SMALL PACKAGE
In MAKE, Volume 04,1 presented my version of the venerable cigar box guitar. The instructions for the project included adding an electric pickup so you could play the guitar through an amplifier.

People from around the world emaiIed me to tell me they'd built cigar box guitars based on my instructions. I struck up a conversation with one gentleman from Europe who goes by the moniker Blind Lightnin' Pete. He made a couple of beautiful cigar box guitars, including one he calls the Vintage Blues Texas Rattlesnake Special model. He then went one step further, and built a cracker box guitar amplifier. This outstanding little amp cost all of $5 to build (depending on where you get the parts). Pete kindly allowed me to modify his design and present it as a project for you to build. (See page 111 for a word from Pete about the origins of the cracker box amp.)

My amp differs a little from Pete's because I wanted to make a workable little practice amp with parts and tools that could be purchased "one-stop shop" at RadioShack and built in an hour.

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Make07_2006: DIY - Outdoors

Make07_2006: DIY - Outdoors
Pdf | 10 pgs | 4 mb

HEAD-MOUNTED WATER CANNON
Use steel fire-extinguisher power to pummel plastic squirt toys. By John Young
WEATHERPROOF WI_FI ACCESS POINT
Outdoor router with minimal coaxial run maximizes network range. By Will O'Brien
GPS RUNNING LOG
Automatically download exercise routes from a Garmin watch and convert them to animated Google Maps on your website. By Dave Mabe
CONVERTIBLE JOCKEY BOX
Portable cooler taps and dispenses ice-cold beer from both kegs and mini-kegs. By Carlo Longino

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Windup Car

Windup Car
Paul LeDuc | Make Vol. 09- 2007 | Pdf | 2 pgs | 1 mb

When my pickup truck broke down, a friend lent me her Geo Metro convertible for 2 weeks. Well, I'm a good-sized guy, and at first I felt a bit silly driving this tiny car, but quickly tell in love with it. It's easy to park, great on gas, and o blast to drive. I decided to buy my own, and I though that if I'm willing to be seen driving this toy sized car, why not go all the way and put a big windup key on the back?

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Paper Water Bomber

Paper Water Bomber
Ewan Spence | Make Vol. 08- 2006 | Pdf | 2 pgs | 1 mb

Winged origami missile with front-load tank deliver wet payload.

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MIDI Controller Monkey

MIDI Controller Monkey
Peter Kim | Make Vol. 08- 2006 | Pdf | 4 pgs | 1 mb

Who said input devices have to be hard and mechanical? Here's one that's as soft, bendable, and easy to play with as a plush toy. In my MIDI primer (MAKE. Volume 07, page 158. "MIDI Control"), we saw how to use the MIDI data specification, originally designed for music, to interconnect both musical and non-musical hardware and software. Now, we'll use this approach to construct a sock monkey instrument you can use to control visuals and sound.

The monkey has flex sensors sewn into its limbs, and it wears a sensor interface board as a backpack. The sensors detect the monkey's movements, and the board converts the readings into MIDI data. This lets the monkey conduct audio-visual symphonies and perform other
MIDI magic.

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Gun-Operated Alarm Clock

Gun-Operated Alarm Clock
Roger Ibars | Make Vol. 08- 2006 | Pdf | 10 pgs | 2 mb

KILLING TIME
Hack a retro gaming light gun with some tilt switches to control a vintage digital clock radio. After the alarm wakes you up, you can grab then gun and kill i off. Ins't that what you've always dreamed of doing?

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Make07_2006: DIY - Imaging

Make07_2006: DIY - Imaging
Pdf | 6 pgs | 3 mb

SCRIBBLER BOT
Homemade two-axis plotter finds work as a caricature artist. By Douglas McDonald
HOT TO DRINK BEER ON C-SPAN
Put yourself into somebody else's video. By Bill Barminski

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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Make0907: DIY - Imaging

Make0907: DIY - Imaging
Pdf | 13 pgs | 6 mb

ACTION MOVIE EFFECTS
Shoot a fight scene with a blood -spurting knife wound and a head smashing through a window. By Zack Stern
TILT-SHIFT PHOTOGRAPHY
Flexible lens makes scenes look miniature. By Dennison Bertram
ONLINE VIDEO PRODUCTION
Tips and techniques for daily content. By Andrew Michael Baron
OUTDOOR WEBCAM ENCLOSURE
Capture winter scenes from hanging sewer pipes. By Alek Komarnitsky

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Pinhole Panoramic Camera

Pinhole Panoramic Camera
Ross Orr | Make Vol. 09- 2007 | Pdf | 12 pgs | 5 mb

PIN-O-RAMA
Lensless and low-tech, pinhole cameras have always been maker-friendly. But forget the Quaker Oats carton, and go wide with this roll-film, panorama design.

I bought a new scanner recently, and soon found myself spelunking through drawers of old photos from my many misspent years in photography. Some of the most interesting shots were the pinhole camera experiments I had done as a teenager. With ghostly outlines from multi-minute exposures, and shapes warped into boomerangs by curved film, these otherworldly images got me dreaming about pinhole cameras again.

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Building an Ornithopter

Building an Ornithopter
William Gurstelle | Make Vol. 08- 2006 | Pdf | 10 pgs | 1 mb

FLIP, FLAP, FLY

For millennia, men and women have studied birds, bats, and beetles, observing and experimenting, attempting to determine what humans must do to fly by flapping.

But people can't fly by flapping: not with wings covering their arms: not with pedaled, chain-driven wings: and, so far, not with internal-combustion engines, either. Nonetheless, the concept of manned ornithopters continues to hover on the periphery of aeronautical engineering. This project shows you how to build a small, rubber band-powered ornithopter we call Orly.

There are many types of ornithopter designs. Orly is a simple monoplane, meaning there is a single wing mounted above the motor-stick, and its motion is similar to a bird in flight.

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Make07_2006: DIY - Home

Make07_2006: DIY - Home
Pdf | 6 pgs | 2 mb

BEEPKILLER: PARENTAL REVENGE
Three ways to silence annoying toys. By Erica Sadun
IPOD VIDEO CONVERTER CABLE
An easier way to watch iPod video on your TV. By Erica Sadun
AUTOMATE YOUR VOICEMAIL GREETING
Program Asterisk to daily update your outgoing message in your own voice. By Dave Mabe

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I, Pleo

I, Pleo
Robert Luhn | Make Vol. 08- 2006 | Pdf | 9 pgs | 1 mb

Can a machine have a soul? Can it think? Can it laugh and cry, bug you for a snack, tease you, or curl up on your couch and dream robotic dreams? Can you build such a machine? And can you sell it for $250?

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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Moldmaking

Moldmaking
Adam Savage | Make Vol. 08- 2006 | Pdf | 8 pgs | 1 mb

In principle, moldmaking is a simple process, but with every object you want to replicate comes a
new series of pitfalls, innovations, and solutions.

This article explains how to make a two-part, under poured block mold, which is a versatile and beginner-friendly type that's great for small, detailed objects such as jewelry, game pieces, masks, picture frames, and figurines. I learned this technique by apprenticing under some of the great moldmaking masters in the special effects industry, and this article reveals their unpublished tricks. I hope they don't get mad.

We'll make our mold out of silicone rubber, an excellent casting material, but it costs about $100 per gallon. This process uses as little of it as necessary, and it's important to follow all of these instructions, because a mistake can be costly. Then we'll cast our duplicates in opaque urethane resin (clear resin requires a more difficult process).

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The Bullwhip

The Bullwhip
William Gurstelle | Make Vol. 09- 2007 | Pdf | 10 pgs | 4 mb

WHIP IT GOOD
You don't have to be Chuck Yeager to break the sound barrier. You just need a good bullwhip, which converts arm movement into supersonic speed and triggers the sonic boom we call a whip crack.

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Coffee Roaster

Coffee Roaster
Larry Cotton | Make Vol. 08- 2006 | Pdf | 12 pgs | 2 mb

THE NIRVANA MACHINE
Lots of folks think that quaffing a cup of coffee from boutique beans comes close to nirvana, but roasting your own beans will bring you even closer. That's why I call this roaster the Nirvana Machine.

I didn't drink coffee for most of my life, and I even survived without it in the Navy. But when my son introduced me to a cup of legendary West Coast java (OK, Peet's), I began to understand what all the fuss was about. Soon, I too became fussy about excellent coffee.

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Rocket-Launched Camcoder

Rocket-Launched Camcoder
John Maushammer | Make Vol. 07- 2006 | Pdf | 12 pgs | 4 mb

EYES ON THE RISE
Hack a $30, single-use camcorder to make it reusable, then launch it up in a model rocket and capture thrilling astronaut's-view footage of high-speed neighborhood escape and re-entry.

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Make07_2006: DIY - Mobile

Make07_2006: DIY - Mobile
Pdf | 8 pgs | 3 mb

EL CHEAPO CANTENNA
"Mountain Grown" coffee can makes homegrown wi-fi range extender. By Will O'Brien
BACKUP POWER TO GO
9V battery USB-compatible charger juices up portables in a pinch. By Erica Sadun
PALM PILOT NOTEBOOK
Modified hardback book contains extra-powered PDA and travel keyboard. By Allen Wong

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Monday, September 28, 2009

Two-Can Stirling Engine

Two-Can Stirling Engine
William Gurstelle | Make Vol. 07- 2006 | Pdf | 12 pgs | 4 mb

REDLINING AT 20 RPM
The Stirling engine has long captivated inventors and dreamers. Here are complete plans for building and operating atwo-cylinder model that runs on almost any high-temperature heat source.

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Monster MIDI Detector

Monster MIDI Detector
David Battino | Make Vol. 07- 2006 | Pdf | 2 pgs | 1 mb

Here's an easy-to-build MIDI data detector packages in a small Japanese action figure

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Clean Out a Dishwasher

Clean Out a Dishwasher
Thomas Arey | Make Vol. 08- 2006 | Pdf | 3 pgs | 1 mb

Salvaging components from unwanted appliances.

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Make07_2006: DIY - Computers

Make07_2006: DIY - Computers
Pdf | 6 pgs | 2 mb

USB-POWERED FAN
12 easy steps to a cooler you. By Erica Sadun
THUMB LIFE
USB keydrive lets you listen to, read, and play what you want on any machine. By Russ Ethington
INSTALLING BLUETOOTH INSIDE A IBOOK
Tuck a USB wireless adapter inside the case. By Timothy B. Hewitt

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Home Mycology Lab

Home Mycology Lab
Philip Ross | Make Vol. 07- 2006 | Pdf | 9 pgs | 3 mb

CULTURAL REVOLUTION
Use an off-the-shelf home air purifier to make a laminar flow hood for your own
miniature mycology lab. Then use it to culture and grow mushrooms, and to
perform other experiments that require a clean-room environment.

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Sunday, September 27, 2009

MIDI Control
Music equipment language isn't just for audio anymore
Peter Kim | Make Vol. 07- 2006 | Pdf | 8 pgs | 4 mb

For centuries, musical notation has served as a common language among musicians- it was designed so that, for example, monks in France would sing the same melody as monks in Rome. But as the popularity of digital musical instruments grew throughout the 1980s, musicians found that their equipment lacked a common language.

There was no way to perform simple tasks like using one keyboard to play sounds on another, or to use a computer to record and edit what you were playing. The Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) was developed as a solution to this problem, and today, it's become a standard for the vast majority of music hardware and software. Its usefulness doesn't end there, however. The same structure that makes MIDI compatible with various music products can make it useful any time you need to send and receive messages for control.

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