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Thursday, September 29, 2011

X-Wing Soap Box Racer

from MAKE Magazine

X-Wing Soap Box Racer:



The Force is strong with Instructables user The Papier Boy. Includes freaking-out R2 unit!


The spinning droid was constructed of Styrofoam and painted to look like R2-D2. I used one of my daughter’s old toys to create the motion. The toy had a gear on it that spun when a button was pushed. I cut the toy in half (it was too big) and mounted the toy to the underside of the body and glued the droid head onto the gear. To control the spinning I used an old NES controller. I re-routed the toy’s switch through the NES controller so when the A or B buttons were pushed the droid would spin for about 15 seconds. For audio, I downloaded some R2-D2 sound effects from a website and used Pinnacle movie studio software to string them all together into a 50 second babbling droid Mp3. I loaded this onto an iPod and connected it to a small portable speaker system that I hid inside the body of the car. This way, each time I started down the hill, I could push the NES controller button and the iPod play button to commence the droid freak-out.


[via Dude Craft]


More:

Fires in the Sky, Fires on the Ground

from Universe Today

Fires in the Sky, Fires on the Ground:




The aurora australis seen from the ISS on September 17, 2011. Credit: NASA.



With all of the activity that’s been occurring on the Sun recently, the aurorae have been exceptionally bright and have created quite a show to viewers – both on Earth as well as above it!


(...)
Read the rest of Fires in the Sky, Fires on the Ground (420 words)




© Jason Major for Universe Today, 2011. |
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Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Homemade PIP-Boy 3000 does (almost) everything

Homemade PIP-Boy 3000 does (almost) everything:
from Xbox 360 Fanboy




Here at Joystiq, we love the idea of taking the non-existant and making it, well, existent, and we applaud the modders, hackers and crafters out there that are crafty enough to do it. Take MyMagicPudding, for instance: not content with living in a world where Fallout 3's wrist-mounted Personal Information Processor didn't exist, Mr. Puddin' took it upon himself to bend the universe to his will create a fully functioning PIP-Boy 3000.



Using an HTC Desire HD, an Arduino Uno microcontroller and a custom-cast casing forged by "Skruffy," Puddin's PIP-Boy stays true to its vault-born inspiration by ignoring the Desire HD's touch-screen capabilities and instead utilizing a functioning scroll-wheel and potentiometer; the correct lights even light up corresponding to what screen you're on.



Puddin's first foray into the world of electronics is a picturesque representation of one of our favorite gaming gadgets, but the sad truth is that so many components were required to produce a perfect PIP-Boy, there ended up being no room left for the owner's arm. Once again, the limitations of physical space have prevented fiction from becoming reality.

JoystiqHomemade PIP-Boy 3000 does (almost) everything originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 03 Sep 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chuck & Beans

Chuck & Beans:

from Shoebox

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