Collin Cunningham from Make gives a good introduction to what an electronic schematic is and how to properly read them. You can read more about schematics here, to see lots of practical examples this is a good start. “Schematics are the functional diagram of electronic circuits. With so many designs available on the web, understanding how to read schematics can unlock a world of possibilities for the electronics maker”
You might remember the pictures and video I shot of muRata Boy and Girl at CES earlier this year. If you liked those robots you will love the robot that Masahiko Yamaguchi built. This Bipedal Cycling Robot is quite small but when it comes to robotics small is usually more challenging. This tiny robot drives the bike just like a human does! Watch the video below to be blown away.
This DIY Segway actually outperforms the real Segway in top speed. You can see a an automatic English translated version here, as you can see from the quote below the Google English translation is not bad but not perfect. The software was written in Bascom and assembler. I didn’t realize that the original Segway cost 100 million to develop, the 2000 pound build cost for this one seems like a
When using microcontrollers you would normally connect one button to one input. What to do if you are running out of inputs and still have a bunch of buttons to monitor? This clever trick uses the analog input that many microcontrollers have available to monitor the buttons on a single input by having them put a different voltage on the pin based on which one is pressed. Via: Electronics Lab
Ryan Pourcillie hacked his inkjet printer to have a straight through path so that he could print resist directly onto a copper clad board to make a custom PCB. He then uses special ink in the printer which can act as a resist since the normal ink jet ink would just be eaten away in the etchant tank. “Materials: – Obviously you’ll need some form of an Epson inkjet printer
Mike Szczys from Jumptuck has put his larsen scanner to good use by using it as a status indicator on his computer. He is interfacing it to the computer using the parallel port which seems to be a dying port these days. “I decided to finish up my Cylon Eye (Larson Scanner) project by adding it as a status indicator for my computer. I record over the air programming and
We have seen some Stroboscopes in operation before, for this DIY Stroboscope that uses a Three Phase DC Motor which eLabs put together I think the actual stroboscope is the simpler part of the build. Since the project is using a three phase motor actually getting the motor to run is in my mind a huge part of the project. I love the reuse of computer related stuff in this
