Konway Kube Kit

Last weekend I took all the Conway Game of Life kits I had kicking around and assembled them into a cube! It works, although for Conway purists, it doesn’t play the game perfectly. Still, very cool looking

The build instructions are here!

Then we shot a weird acid-techno-meets-trent-reznor-meets-heathkit video



Konway Kube Kit

Awesome soundtrack by Jonnay and his beloved x0xb0x

Filed under: random — by ladyada, posted June 11, 2008 at 1:39 pm

Umbrel-LED

Umbrella + 64 SMT LEDs + thin stranded wire == fun!

Filed under: random — by ladyada, posted June 10, 2008 at 10:33 pm

DIY perceptual chronometer

Magician13134 strikes again with a unique project based off of a Perceptual Chronometer. it is basically a counter that displays random numbers very quickly. So quickly that you can’t see them normally. However, if it is true that ‘time slows down’ when something really scary happens, then by glancing at this device at the time you should be able to make out the digits.

Strange stuff!

Filed under: random — by ladyada, posted at 10:04 pm

Nice little proto PCB

I always have little projects that I want to perfboard, but its kind of a pain to cut a chunk of a large sheet. This looks like a very nice, inexpensive perfboard, and its FR4 w/ plated holes so it wont dissolve if you have to rework it. $1.20! I just bought 5.

Filed under: random — by ladyada, posted at 9:52 pm

Lady with Theremin

This is my favorite cover from the Popular Electronics magazine cover archive. As my friend says, “these are just ridiculous depictions of men providing for their wives by building transistor radios”

Filed under: random — by ladyada, posted at 9:43 pm

USB made simple (?)

I remember a few years ago I went to a party and ended up talking to Mar about how much I hated Chapter 9 of the USB standard. USB is pretty much a perfect example of what happens when committees design protocols: its bad enough that it will ruin a party. If you’ve ever had to design a driver or device you probably know what I mean. Well I recently found the “USB Made Simple” page, which seems to be a nice companion to the (incomparably useful) Jan Axelson material.

Anyways, I like how this page has lots of diagrams!

Filed under: random — by ladyada, posted June 4, 2008 at 12:22 pm

CNC-routed Earth terrains

Extraordinarily talented engineer (& friend) Scott Johnston embarked upon a unique project involving his two favorite things: CNC routers and geological data.



He details all the steps from downloading the relevant data from the National Map Seamless Server, to 3D model conversion, to generating a tool path, to laminating the wood, to carving, and finally a oil finish.



Be sure to check it out ASAP because it will be replaced with a new project soon!

Filed under: random — by ladyada, posted at 12:12 pm

Tons of sound samples!

If you’ve got a Wave Shield you may be wondering “what the heck should I play on it?”
Well I just ran across this huge collection of C.C. Attribution licensed sound samples! Animals, instruments, effects, etc. 10G worth of samples.

Thanks to the OLPC team for cataloging this.

Filed under: random — by ladyada, posted June 3, 2008 at 10:50 pm

New Kit! YBox2, a DIY networked set-top box

The YBox2 is a DIY networked set-top box. Connect it to your TV and you can design customized content to be delivered direct from the Internet.

This project is great for people who want a new platform to experiment with. The video and Internet cores are ready to go and easy to work with. We have some example widgets that demonstrate the YBox2′s capability, and the whole project is open source so you can start hacking your own. If you’ve ever been curious about the Parallax Propeller chip, the YBox2 is a perky little platform with tons of accessories. Check it out at the YBox2 page

Here are images of some sample widgets you can run on a YBox2 kit:



Weather forecast



Twitter follower

The YBox was first invented by Uncommon Projects, as part of Yahoo Hack day. The project was a resounding success, and the following year 80 kits were commissioned by Yahoo for workshops at Maker Faire 2007. Robert Quattlebaum was one of the lucky few to attend that workshop and decided to see if he could design a second generation YBox. After much hacking, success! With a little of my help, we were able to design this kit to have more accessories than the original, and just as easy to build, yet less expensive.

We are proud to present the YBox2 kit, now available as a kit in the Adafruit webshop. There is a lot more information about the project at the YBox2 page.

  • Built using the new Parallax Propeller chip – 8 cores, 32KB of RAM running at 80MHz!
  • Works with any NTSC or PAL TV that has composite (RCA) input
  • Works with any network router that supports DHCP, just plug in an Ethernet cable and you’re ready to go
  • Kit comes with an Internet-enabled bootloader, so you can upload new programs directly from your computer, without a special cable or prop-plug (Propeller chip programmer)
  • IR receiver for using a TV remote control
  • Full color status LED
  • Piezo Buzzer for generating beeps, alarms, and tones
  • Pushbutton for input
  • Lots of examples programs to try out
  • Fits in an altoids tin!
Filed under: random,ybox — by ladyada, posted at 10:54 am

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