Developages - Development and Technology Blog

When I first got this Kit in the mail from the Maker Shed I stared puzzled at the box. What exactly was the point? A bug that blinks it’s eyes when it senses movement? As I opened the box and checked out the contents I realized that the Blinkybugs don’t walk, talk, chalk or really do anything besides lighting up.

But what I learned as I started to build them is that they do something more important than all that. They make you excited to build, and in essence are simply fun. Also as I was showing my friends what I was up to, I quickly learned that they make great gifts as well. I had at least four people ask me what I was going to do with them (in a hinting sort of way). So I am giving all four of them away as gifts. I even made a Halloween variant for some of my friends. So besides being a fun, simple kit to build I am guessing you want to see what these friendly little LED bugs do? Check the video out after the jump along with all the macro lens photos on how to build it.

Here is what the creator of this kit thought “This grew into the idea of planting little robotic insects around the city… on trees, fences, etc, to surprise people and just add a bit
of strangeness to the environment. I wanted them to blink intermittently, and respond to their environment, which led to the idea of the antennae acting as a spring switch, so the eyes would
blink whenever the wind blew.” - Ken Murphy.

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Original post by David J. Neff

Siemprelaluna posted this fast-action build and installation of a MIDI2600 kit complete with soundtrack made with a Synthcart on the Atari console. [via Matrixsynth]

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Atari 2600 MIDI demo

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Original post by Collin Cunningham

Download the M̤ Video or HD Version | Subscribe to CRAFT in iTunes | mov | 3g2

I caught up with craftzine blogger and Austin local Rachel Hobson at Maker Faire Austin 2008, where she gave a demo on making the Mini Monsters from CRAFT:06. These fun little creatures, invented by Moxie, are unique and full of the personality you give them. This is a very kid-friendly project, and you can buy the Mini Monster Kit in the Maker Shed. Don’t forget that all craft kits are 10% off until the end of November using promo code CRAFTER.

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Original post by Becky Stern

MAKE &amp CRAFT photo editor Sam Murphy points us to this kit for making your own pepper mill. It includes all the complicated grinding hardware and a walnut blank. Lathe not included.

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Original post by Becky Stern

Gakken’s New Edison-style Cup Phonograph Kit is a cylinder recorder that uses a needle to cut sound waves onto plastic cups. This kit lets you relive the excitement of Thomas Edison as he successfully recorded and played back sound for the first time on a similar cylinder recording system back in 1877.

Thomas Edison first experimented with sound recording by using paraffin paper, metal cylinders wrapped in tin foil, and then eventually settled on wax cylinders. As the story goes, the first thing to ever be successfully recorded and played back was Edison reciting “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Gakken’s phonograph kit lets you recreate a model of how Edison first experimented with sound recording and playback, replacing the wax cylinder with regular plastic cups.

How does it sound? Here’s a video, yours truly, recording a brisk rendition of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”:

This is certainly no mp3 player, but that’s what is so great. It’s eerily low-fi and nostalgic; it makes your voice sound like it’s one hundred years old. You can hear and see the medium speak, and that is what makes this kit so much fun! Clear some space next to your music collection: You might never throw away a plastic cup again.

View the Gakken Phonograph Kit in the Maker Shed.

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Original post by Mike Dixon

Plan-K-Troniks demos this unique mod for the Gakken SX-150 analog synthesizer - a green plasma disc, used to control sound via contact with the stylus. Great - now on to the Gakken Tesla coil!

SX-150 Analog Synthesizer Kit

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Original post by Collin Cunningham

Lorin Parker of Electric Western demonstrates his Phantastron vacuum-tube sound synthesizer under the control of electric guitar rendering “magic sub-octaves” in the process. I have witnessed firsthand what the Phantastron does to a guitar signal, it is both brutal and beautiful!

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Original post by Collin Cunningham

Build: Mini-Theremin @ warp speed from make magazine on Vimeo.

Assembly of the Gakken Mini-Theremin kit @ warp-speed - complete with error correction!

Mini-Theremin

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Original post by Collin Cunningham

Curious Inventor has just released the Stribe touch LED controller project as a modular kit -

Each Stribe1 has a touch strip and double column of LEDs that can display and control music and video programs. Multiple Stribe1’s can be daisy-chained together to form a low-res, multi-touch display. Use with Max/MSP or other software to adjust track volumes with VU meters, make a sequencer, control synth params and pitch, “scratch” through sounds, etc.

- Stribe1 Touch LED Strip Controller

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The stribe - touch-sensitive mixers with a LED matrix

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Original post by Collin Cunningham

I’m happy to announce that the Gakken SX-150 Analog Synthesizer kit is now available in our Maker Shed. This sweet little synth is about the size of a large sandwich but sounds a whole lot more awesome. It sports controls for resonance, attack/decay, cuttoff filter, pitch envelope, has an external control input along with built-in speaker and line out. You can read my impressions/review of the kit here.

These kits will likely be snapped up in a hurry, so get ‘em while they’re hot (and in stock!) -

This cool little synth kit is easy to put together, requires no soldering and is easy to hack (see links below). There are no English instructions included (book and kit are in Japanese but beautifully done) but the detailed illustrations are more than enough to easily put this kit together. Check out our blog links below to see our review and hacks. Imported from Japan in partnership with Gakken. 4 AA batteries (not included)

SX-150 Analog Synthesizer Kit

The SX-150 is a lot of fun to mod and experiment with. I switched out the pitch control strip on mine and added some buttons, which you can see in action below -

We’ll be posting info on more SX-150 mods/hacks/tips as soon as possible, so stay tuned!

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Original post by Collin Cunningham

PingMag has an interview with folks behind these clever plastic model ring kits from Japan!

A couple of weeks ago we checked out the rooms No.17 fair, just opposite of our office in Yoyogi Stadium, and were happy to discover tons of great fashion items. Have a look at the plastic gem we found! Plaring by the Clunky Design quartet from Shibuya, is a do-it-yourself plastic ring kit. It’s playful, much like futuristic anime accessories and, above all, is so Japanese! (And you can get a kit from us here!) Today, PingMag pieced one together with Plaring’s director Kenta Ochiai and creative director Hironori Sato.

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Original post by Phillip Torrone

From the Make: Flickr Pool comes the T.W.E.R.P., a ThingamaKIT housed in a 10″ Mad*L vinyl toy.

Things I’ve Made

More:

• ThingamaHat
• ThingamaKIT build photos
• Hacking the ThingamaKIT

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Original post by Gareth Branwyn

Today I combined Jimmie Rogers’ Open Heart kit with a LilyPad Arduino board to make a light-up, animating LED heart brooch. I used conductive thread to attach the two together like a sandwich, and put a safety pin on the power supply. I dangled the brooch from the power supply with embroidery floss and the power/ground wires. The programming pins are still easily accessible for changing the animations. Oh, I also made an instructable for putting together your own.
More:

• Heart matrix kit for Arduino
• HOW TO - Build a flashing heart

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Original post by Becky Stern

This frequency counter kit is called “FunCount” and can measure frequencies from 1Hz to over 2MHz. The kit uses an ATTiny2313 Atmel Microcontroller and can also be used as an AVR Development board with an LCD. Pretty cool kit, that also happens to be on sale.

FunCount Kit via Hacked Gadgets

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Original post by Jonah Brucker-Cohen

More good stuff the folks @ Solarbotics -

A solar-powered, night-activated dazzler. Comes with four high-intensity LEDs that “PUMMM” when the lights go out. That is, they turn on STRONG, then slowly fade away.

This’d make a pretty sweet tech-braoch / geek corsage - for formal occasions, of course. - HexPummer Kit

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Original post by Collin Cunningham