Make Magazine
DIY projects, how-tos, and inspiration from geeks, makers, and hackers
Updated: 2 hours 10 min ago
Intellectual Property and the Future of @Home Manufacturing
Like it or not, the ability to pirate physical objects and functional electronics is nearly upon us. In this article we devote some time and space to thinking about that possible future, and what might be done to avoid it. Additive manufacturing makes the entire design process "think it up, design or scan it, create it on-site." So where does the "research to make sure you're not conflicting with anyone elses existing intellectual property" step come into play? Before or after you hit the print button?
Categories: Makers
Lego Go-Kart
Simon Burfield, who built a Lego wheelchair, created this sweet go-cart, also built completely out of Lego. Demo of my wife driving the Lego go-kart. It is powered by 16 XL PF motors, 8 rechargeable power functions battery packs. The steering is controlled via an NXT. It uses 20 EXO-FORCE [...]
Categories: Makers
What Do Robots, Bananas, and Toys & Games Have in Common?
Here's a glimpse at some of the projects competing in the second Road to Maker Faire Challenge, presented by Esurance. One lucky maker will receive $2,500 to bring their project to Maker Faire Bay Area on May 18-19 in San Mateo, CA. Enter your project now for a chance to win!
Categories: Makers
Homegrown Village: Food, Farming, and More
The Homegrown Village at Maker Faire celebrates the fact that farmers and food makers are the original makers. After all, the earliest examples of tool-making and innovation is for the making, hunting, and growing of food. Homegrown Village is back for the 5th year running, and you can still be part of it as a maker, presenter, demonstrator, and, of course, visitor. 
Categories: Makers
The DeltaMaker: Robot Meets 3D Printer
The DeltaMaker, a recent success on Kickstarter, is an elegant 3D printer built on a delta robot platform. Delta robots have been used for picking and packaging applications in factories for decades, thanks to their impressive speed and agility. The DeltaMaker uses MakerSlide aluminum extrusions paired with Delrin v-wheels on bearings to move quicker than normal printers; the Z axis in particular isn't limited by the low speed of a threaded rod, so it can move just as quickly as the other axes.
I spoke with the company's mechanical engineer, Zack Monninger to discuss their success on Kickstarter and what's next.
Categories: Makers
Kinetic Creatures Plans to Go Big for Maker Faire Bay Area
Lucas Ainsworth and Alyssa Hamel of Kinetic Creatures are already hard at work on the project they have planned for their 2nd appearance at the Maker Faire Bay Area: An enormous, bike-powered, cardboard "Rory the Rhino." Check out how they are learning to weld, sourcing new parts, and challenging themselves to go bigger for this year's fair. 
Categories: Makers
DiResta: Styrene Box
On this episode of DiResta, Jimmy creates a protective tool case out of plastic stock.
Categories: Makers
Basic Arduino Connections Quick Reference Guide
Alberto “pighixxx” Piganti, who created these excellent Arduino Uno pinout diagrams, has his ‘tronic-fu and graphic design skills at work once again with this really practical and informative Basic Connections series. [Via Marc De Vinck and Adam Wolf] Filed under: Arduino, Education
Categories: Makers
Today on Food Makers: 3D Printed Food
Today on Food Makers, a Google+ hangout on air at 2pm PST/5Pm EST, I'll be exploring the how and why of 3D printed food with three luminaries in the field: avant garde chef Homaro Cantu of Moto restaurant in Chicago, Jeffrey Lipton from Cornell University's Fab@Home, and Andracs Forgacs of Modern Meadow, a biotech firm developing the technology to print raw meat grown from animal cells--petri dish meat if you will.
Is 3D printed food the future? Would anyone want to eat it if was? Tune in right here to find out. If you can't make it to the live broadcast, check out the archived video on our YouTube page at youtube.com/make.
Categories: Makers
Mass Generator Works as a Gravity Battery
While not terribly practical for outputting large amounts of electricity, this “gravity battery” demonstrated by YouTube guru MrTeslonian shows a fun way of generating electricity. In his video he mentions a 25′ version with a pair of water-filled jugs, and when one jug hits the bottom, a pump is triggered [...]
Categories: Makers
Open Source Hardware Documentation Jam
The jam is a 3-day workshop to improve OSHW documentation practices: The power of open source hardware lies in the ability to build upon others’ work and good documentation is the key to making this happen. We believe that documentation best practices can increase contributions to open source hardware projects [...]
Categories: Makers
5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Things About Nora Abousteit
Entrepreneur and social media maven Nora Abousteit is in the business of facilitating and celebrating the exchange of knowledge through interactive media. She thrives on blending old and new, having gotten her start at German power publisher Hubert Burda Media, where she reinvented a sewing magazine started in the 1940s [...]
Categories: Makers
Space Still Available for Bay Area “Make it in America” Exhibit
California Congresswoman Jackie Speier is organizing a showcase of U.S.-made products June 15-16 during the San Mateo County Fair. The "Make it in America" exhibit will host 15-20 U.S. companies with homegrown production, specifically the Bay Area. The range of products is wide--surgical robots, jelly beans, wine, and electric cars. And there are a few slots left. The exhibit aims to be educational and is free to participating companies, but direct sales are not allowed in the exhibit area. The purpose of the exhibit is to show that U.S. manufacturing yields several benefits including increased employment and technological innovation.
Categories: Makers
Lego Apple ][+
Hong Kong builder Chiu-Kueng Tsang built this recreation of an Apple ][+, even detailing the internals! I think that daughter card over there gives it upper and lower case! Also see his Brickshelf page. Filed under: Fun & Games
Categories: Makers
11 From 11: Apollo Moonshot Tools
In 1969, human beings first set foot on the moon. The mission was Apollo 11. Here are eleven tools that helped us do it. These are not rockets, spaceships, or robots--though those are certainly "tools," in their own way--but humbler implements, having more in common with the bone club (to use the 2001 metaphor) than the satellite. But that is precisely why they are remarkable.
Categories: Makers
Charles Guan: Build Your Everything Really Really Fast
Charles Guan is an MIT alumnus, and has been making projects that have been festive and amazing over the past few years. Charles has been influential in the MIT Makerspace/club MITERS, where students create all manner of great projects. He and MITERS members have been frequent fliers at various Maker Faires, so you may already be familiar with his work.
Charles has served as a Teaching Assistant at MIT in Mechanical Engineering, helping his fellow students to fabricate the contraptions of their dreams. As a TA, he's heard the same questions over and over, so he created some instructional documentation to make his and his fellow students' lives easier. This was a set of lectures and handouts he called How to Build Your Robot Really Really Fast (HTBYRRRF). In more recent times, he set out to update this as a more inclusive set of building guides. Drawing from his own online documentation, he was able to codify his ideas into a thorough Instructable: How to Build Your Everything Really Really Fast, or HTBYERRF. 
Categories: Makers
Old Horns Transformed into iPhone Amplifiers
Austin, Texas-based artist and audiophile Christopher Locke takes old horns and transforms them into amplifiers for iPhones and iPads, calling them AnalogTelePhonographers. The visual blending of analog and digital is certainly intriguing and the sound (video below) is great. His pieces harken back to a time when classic audio equipment [...]
Categories: Makers
Raspberry Pi Gives Amiga a New Life
ToolKitMan describes himself as a 36-year-old Italian hardware technician with a passion for retro computers, modern computers, and consoles. Those interests explain his project: marrying an old Amiga 1200 case/keyboard with Raspbery Pi. Have a look.
Categories: Makers
When in Rome…go to Maker Faire!
There's lot of exciting news coming out of Italy lately. There's a new pope. That's big. And now get this: Rome will host its first Maker Faire Oct. 3-6! The call for makers is open from now until June 2. If you're a maker, performer, or presenter Maker Faire Rome wants to hear from you.
Categories: Makers
Vintage Tomorrows Book Signing at Powell’s Books Cedar Hills Crossing
Check out the book signing for MAKE's steampunk book, Vintage Tomorrows, at the Cedar Hills Powell's Books in Beaverton, OR: Monday, March 25th @ 7:00PM.
Categories: Makers