Building an artificial sun that looks unbelievably realistic…
SNES Rainbow Road – Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit (Switch)
I’m back at it again and this time I decided to make Rainbow Road on the SNES in real life for my next Mario Kart Home Circuit track. I hope you enjoy the time, money, and effort I put into this course. I even made the track have a chasing rainbow led pattern and two mechanized Thwomps on the course’s split. I will be posting a making of video for this course and I will pin the link in the comments.
An Arduino Based Laser Guitar
Our love for music was not enough for us to learn playing instruments except for a few basics of guitar and saxophone. The background in physics we had pushed us to delve into incorporating technology and music together. We thought of the possibility of enhancing the guitar, the most famous instrument of all time. It could outperform the classical guitar with its metal string by creating more flexible options for the player and his/her performance. The project aims to design and build a guitar based on an optical setup built of Lasers, Beam Splitters, and Light sensors. The strings of the guitar will be replaced by an optical setup. The general technique for playing guitar to shorten the string by pressing your hand on the desired fret, and plucking with your other hand the string needed to produce the note or chord you want. If no fret is compressed, it is called an open string. Note that many techniques were invented during the years: Pulling, tapping, sliding, etc… however, we will stick to the standard way of guitar playing.
The design is composed of two modules, mimicking the two main tasks of playing guitar. By receiving certain information, The microcontroller would generate the desired note.
Plottin’ Bottles with a CNC Machine
You’ve probably seen a plotter of some kind made from DVD players and the like. These devices, of course, normally work with objects in the XYZ coordinate system. As cool as they are, TUENHIDIY’s build takes things to another level – or at least in another direction – with a pair of printer rollers subbed in for the Y-axis. This allows a bottle to roll in coordination with an X/Z gantry system on top, decorating it with whatever text or drawings are programmed
These side glow fiber optic panels make beautiful wall décor
Side glow fiber optics – unlike their cousins that efficiently transmit light from one point to another – emit a glow along the length of each strand when light is applied. This creates a beautiful effect, which Andrei Erdei implemented nicely in his wall decoration project.
Erdei’s build consists of a series of nine square frames, inside of which 3mm fiber optic strands are connected, looping gracefully from one edge to another. Each strand is lit by an addressable WS2812B LED module, under the control of an Arduino Nano.
You can see this wall installation in action in the video below, and more info on how to build your own is available on the project write-up.
Jozef Bogin Boots an IBM PC From an Unusual Medium: A Vinyl Record
Taking advantage of the IBM PC’s cassette deck interface and a vinyl cutter Bogin may now own the only IBM compatible to boot from a record.
Engineer Jozef Bogin has taken on an unusual challenge: Getting a computer to boot from a vinyl record, played at 45 revolutions per minute.
Today, most computer systems use magnetic or solid-state media for their storage — hard drives or solid state drives. In the early days of computing, though, cassette tapes were not uncommon — storing the digital data as audible beeps and boops which could be played back on any standard cassette deck. That link between audio and digital data gave rise to programs distributed on the flip-side of cassette albums, and in a few unusual cases programs which could be played back on the B side of vinyl records.
SS4H-SD Smart Doorbell – DIY project based on ESP32
You surely know this feeling when the doorbell rings while you are doing something interesting: watching a movie, playing a video game, or spending a romantic evening with your loved one. And when it turns out that this is an uninvited/unwanted guest, you get even more pissed off.
Of course, you can ignore it and not open the door, but there will always be this hint of uncertainty – “maybe it was important”.
The solution to this problem is the “smart doorbell”. Thanks to it, you’ll know if it is worth getting up from the couch and opening the door or not.
Nemeio Puts a Keyboard Over an ePaper Screen for Maximum Customization and Flexibility
Peripherals startup Nemeio has launched a crowdfunding campaign for a keyboard with a difference: Each key is a configurable ePaper display, allowing for unlimited customization.
“Nemeio is completely customizable because of its built-in wide ePaper screen,” explains project founder Laurent Villemonte de la Clergerie. “Whether you choose an existing keyboard layout or design your own, Nemeio will display your own personalized keyboard – just the way you like it!”
This Breadboard Wristwatch Is Delightfully Geeky
Wristwatch use today is more about making a fashion statement then any real need to tell the time, considering we’re surrounded by clocks and everyone has a smartphone on their person at all times. Mobsters and car salesmen make that statement with gold Rolexes, Ivy League types prefer diving watches made by unpronounceable Swiss brands, and hipsters like to wear old Casio watches ironically. Geeks, however, prefer LEDs and display readouts that are indecipherable to anyone who doesn’t understand binary. Unfortunately, binary wristwatches are a bit played out these days, which is why Inge took a different approach to geek fashion and built a breadboard wristwatch.
New Flexible Battery Is 10 Times More Powerful Than Standard Lithium Batteries
More powerful and easier to manufacture than commercial standards, this battery is ideal for wearables and soft robotics.
A team made up of researchers from the University of California San Diego and California-based company ZPower recently developed a flexible, rechargeable silver oxide-zinc battery with a five to 10 times greater areal energy density than standard batteries. Not only does it perform better than most commercial flexible batteries, but it’s also easy to manufacture. Most flexible batteries require sterile conditions, under vacuum for manufacturing. This new battery can be printed in normal lab conditions, making it ideal for use in electronic wearables and soft robotics.
This battery’s areal capacity is 50 milliamps per square centimeter at room temperature, which is 10 to 20 times greater than the areal capacity of your standard Lithium-ion battery. Due to its lower impedance or the resistance of an electric circuit or device to alternative current, the battery has a higher capacity than current flexible batteries.
