Just yesterday, Calgary reached the 2nd coldest place on earth, just behind an outpost in Antarctica. Yes, we are cold. Even the dog doesn't want to go out and play... In other madness, one of our favourite distributors/suppliers, Sparkfun has announced their 2nd annual "Free Day". Circle January 13, and if they get blown out […]
Wednesday Cool Links: Spiderbot, Solar S...
Dave Hrynkiw
October 17, 2012
It's Wednesday! Hooray! Huzzah! We're celebrating because... Well, ok, we have nothing big to celebrate right now. So we're going to celebrate having nothing to celebrate with the traditional and only appropriate way possible... BROWSING THE INTERNET! Indeed, we've been celebrating this time-honoured tradition with steadfast dedication, and it's our pleasure to share it with all of you.
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Four-Legged Spiderbot As the website puts it, this is "a walking machine, radially symmetrical, having four legs with two degrees of freedom each, controlled through a wireless link from a hand-held controller based on two Wii Nunchucks." Very impressive articulation and range of motion. Be sure to check out the video. |
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The Almost Useless Machine A solar-powered... Reciprocating saw? Make sure you have lots of patience and a cold one to enjoy while you "work"! Seriously though, while this might not be too functional, it certainly has some great craftsmanship. |
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Solar "Death Ray": Power of 5000 suns! Mirrors. Lots of mirrors. 5800 of them, to be precise. It's pretty cool (and a LOT scary) what kind of power can be harnessed by arranging mirrors onto a fiberglass satellite dish and aligning it to the sun. |
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6 Rubens Tubes Visualizer Hrm, a flame visualization for music? SIGN ME UP. Turn it into a handy-dandy plug-in accessory for the iPod, for the best on-the-go pyrotechnics you can possibly imagine. Might want to make sure you turn it off before tucking it away in your pocket, though. |
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Solar Engineer Badge on DIY So, you think you like DIY? Well, it's time to prove your chops by completing challenges over at diy.org. They even have a Solar Engineer Badge that features a bunch of project ideas, including our Instructable for the Solar Powered Miniball. |
We were once hoping that we could instead celebrate by racing giraffes through obstacle courses, but that didn't pan out. Too bad. I was planning on decking mine out with some sweet black and white racing stripes, to make it look like a very oddly proportioned zebra.
MORE POSTS
Heated Car Seat Teardown and Repair
Here's a little makeover of an inexpensive aftermarket car seat heating pad that stopped working. Designed to activate and warm up when sat upon, the electronics face a fair amount of abuse: since the seat is a soft frame, the wires inside constantly move and flex with the body. They are also subject to harsh […]
Wednesday Cool Links: They're Back!
Yikes. It seems like we've been sorely neglecting our Wednesday Cool Link duties over the past month. Let's fix that, shall we? Here's our latest selection of neat-o internet thingers. Tom Sachs' Firearm... Things Yana pointed out this interesting mixed media artwork gunwork firearmwork thingwork. It's not actually functional, but it's a neat example of […]
Monday New Product: Solder and Grove
Lead-free Solder Spool (100g) $9.55 Solder, without lead! Adapter, 9VDC @ 1A $6.79 This Adapter, 9V @ 1A is a economical power transformer. Grove - Universal 4 Pin 20cm Unbuckled Cable (5 PCs Pack) $3.78 Extra cables for Grove modules. Seeed Grove - 3-Axis Digital Accelerometer $35.75 The H3LIS331DL is a low power high performance […]
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