Make Magazine
DIY projects, how-tos, and inspiration from geeks, makers, and hackers
Updated: 1 hour 27 min ago
Animatronic Beaker Puppet Lip-Syncs to Tunes
Instructables user vigothecarpathian adapted a holiday decoration to create a fully functional Beaker puppet that can be used as a traditional puppet but also moves his mouth along with the music when a music player is plugged into him. Beaker-bot, for me is both an excellent puppet for someone like […]
Categories: Makers
MAKE Asks: Projects from our Pages
MAKE Asks: is a weekly column where we ask you, our readers, for responses to maker-related questions. We hope the column sparks interesting conversation and is a way for us to get to know more about each other.
Categories: Makers
Controlling 5 Servos With a Raspberry Pi
Pierre Villeneuve attached five hobby servos to a Lego model, controlled with a motor control board board and a RasPi. This is a nice way of controlling a Lego robot without needing to use Lego’s robotics components! I initially tried to control my servos directly from the Raspberry Pi through […]
Categories: Makers
LA Times: Maker Faire may be Silicon Valley’s Most Important Export
The magic of Maker Faire is spreading, and the excitement around the maker movement is getting noticed. Today's example is a piece penned by the LA Times' Chris O'Brien, who attended the Bay Area Maker Faire this last weekend, and like so many others, came away thrilled and optimistic.
Categories: Makers
Pirate Pancake Follows Captain Crepe
What's an antidote to too much time spent online? Joe Sandor's answer was making something with your hands and spending face-to-face time with friends. It was the social aspect of making and eating crepes that originally inspired the Captain Crepe Pan. That success lead this sculptor to his second adventure in limited-edition artist cook-castings: the Pirate Pancake Skillet.
Categories: Makers
Sensing Color With a LED and Op Amp
Robot Room’s David Cook shows how an LED and op amp, along with a resistor and cap, can be built into an amplified color sensor. Unfortunately, even under the best conditions, photodiodes (and reversed LEDs) don’t provide a lot of current flow. The output of the photodiode needs to be […]
Categories: Makers
Instant Giant Tetrahedron
Continuing a Math Mondays tradition of building Sierpinski triangles and tetrahedra out of various materials, today we're going to do it with mailing tubes. The basic unit requires six identical mailing tubes and a piece of cord or twine about 8.5 times as long as the tubes.
Categories: Makers
Making Maker Scholarships
At Maker Faire Bay Area 2013, Luke and Adam Iseman spoke about how to make your own micro-scholarship for the students at your alma mater high school, which encourages new makers and honors your favorite teachers. You don't need a lot of money to make a big difference.
Categories: Makers
DIY Hacks & How To’s: Swiss Army Key Ring
Most people have to keep track of at least a few keys. The easiest way to do that is to just keep them all on one key ring. But the more keys that you have, the more they fan out on the ring. If you have a lot of keys, then your key ring can get pretty bulky and impractical to carry in your pocket. Here is an alternate design for holding and organizing your keys that is a little more efficient.
Categories: Makers
That’s a Wrap!
The lights are out, the doors are locked, the diet coke is all mopped up or washed away, and the curtain has come down on the eighth annual Bay Area Maker Faire.
Categories: Makers
Maker Faire: Day Two
The second and final day of Maker Faire Bay Area 2013 has come and gone. It was a beautiful day. It was a beautiful weekend. Thanks to all the beautiful people who helped make it happen.
Categories: Makers
Adam Savage Exhorts the Makers to “Work Hard and Work Smart”
MythBuster and uber-maker Adam Savage entered the San Mateo County Fairgrounds riding a steampunk submarine for Maker Faire Bay Area 2013 this morning, and then from his perch in the conning tower imparted his message to thousands of DIY fans assembled. 
Categories: Makers
A First Time Editor’s View of Maker Faire
I have been to World Maker Faire and Maker Faire Bay Area several times as both an attendee and as a maker, but this is the first time I've been here to absorb the work of others as an online editor for MAKE. Here are some thoughts.
Categories: Makers
Jeri Ellsworth Unveils Augmented Reality CastAR at Maker Faire
Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson and formed the company Technical Illusions to launch a new product that brings augmented reality to you via a pair of high-tech glasses. The product, called CastAR, was unveiled at Maker Faire Bay Area this weekend. Unlike systems that try to close you off from the real world while immersing you in the virtual, CastAR allows you to continue to see in front and around you. The real is mixed with the virtual: augmented reality.
Categories: Makers
Fire, Stone, and Wood: the First Tools
At Maker Faire you'll find any number of cutting edge technologies—3D printers, CNC routers, flying robots, and gestural interface devices. But the fair is also the place for primitive technologies and tools, the technologies that form the basis for every other technology that followed. The Maker Faire tent is big enough to have room for both.
Categories: Makers
Printrbot Simple Debuts at Maker Faire
If you were hoping to pick up Brook Drumm's new Printrbot Simple at Maker Faire Bay Area this year, well...you're too late. The Printrbot Simple beta edition sold out Saturday afternoon. Still, with alpha availability slate for June, you don't have too long to wait.
Categories: Makers
ArcAttack’s Steve Ward Demos the Handheld Tesla Coil
Today at Maker Faire, ArcAttack's Steve Ward showed me why he comes to Maker Faire: to make lightning!
Categories: Makers
BeatBots Continues Socially Conscious Innovation
BeatBots has created the Gobug. Gobug is a mobile robotic toy planned for use in therapy sessions for autistic kids. Control requires communication and collaboration by multiple children. An additional controller used by a therapist allow him or her to step in if necessary.
Categories: Makers
Autodesk, MakerBot Join Forces
MakerBot and Autodesk, who are sharing a booth this weekend at Maker Faire Bay Area 2013, just announced a partnership deal involving the Replicator 2 and Autodesk's 123D suite. Folks who purchase subscriptions to Autodesk's 123D tools get a discount towards the purchase of a Rep2, and Autodesk has become an authorized reseller of the popular 3D printer. The "Autodesk edition" Replicator 2 also features custom face- and buildplates. Deets at Autodesk's 123D site, below.
Categories: Makers
The Alternate Makerspace–MAKE:SF
Among the makerspaces represented in Expo Hall at Maker Faire this weekend is one which offers regular meetings, cheap dues, great venues, and no lease commitments. That's the formula for MAKE:SF which holds regular meetups at hosting business locations. The cost to join this makerspace is a mere $10/six months and it's optional. How's that for a deal?
Categories: Makers