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Simple Machines: The Lever
The lever is one of the six classic simple machines. A simple machine is a mechanical device that changes a force's direction or magnitude. The other five simple machines are the wheel and axle, the pulley, the inclined plane, the wedge and the screw. Explaining simple machines to kids can be a fun learning experience, especially if you include some demonstrations in the lesson. Here's how I built a lever for a demonstration of simple machines for my son's 3rd grade clas
Designing the Electronics User Experience
In February I did an interview with Eric Jennings, co-founder of Pinoccio. Pinoccio is a new open source hardware business, building “a complete ecosystem for the Internet of Things.” The Pinoccio is a pocket-sized microcontroller board with wireless networking, rechargeable LiPo battery, sensors, and the ability to expand its capabilities through shields, much like an Arduino board. It features the new Atmel ATmega256RFR2, a single-chip AVR 8-bit processor with low power 2.4GHz transceiver for IEEE 802.15.4 communications.
Eric Jennings, along with his partner Sally Carson, co-founded Pinoccio. In my interview with Eric he said:
"Sally Carson, Pinoccio's other co-founder, is an expert in the intersection between humans and technology. What I mean by that is that she thinks very deeply and carefully about the psychology of humans interacting with computers. Human-computer interaction, user experience, and usability all fall under her umbrella. I consider her contribution a secret weapon in what we're trying to achieve with Pinoccio."
A Secret Weapon?!... I had to find out more what Eric meant, and just what exactly is Pinoccio’s Secret Weapon. I contacted Sally Carson and asked her about the intersection of User Experience (UX) with electronics and the design of the Pinoccio. Along the way, I learned some good lessons on why design is important, even to just a set of electronics.
Maker Faire UK: Interview with Artist Giles Walker
British scrap artist and roboticist Giles Walker has been making provocative art robots and kinetic sculptures for over 20 years. His unique vision and aesthetic often bear strong social commentary and refuse to go unnoticed. Giles has been a member of guerilla-art group the Mutoid Waste Company since the 80s [...]
The Future of Wearable Technology
This is a great video that covers the wearable scene. Super cool MAKE alum (and Adafruit wearables engineer) Becky is one of the artists and engineers interviewed. As computing moves from our desktops to our phones, we look into the future to see how technology will become increasingly ingrained in [...]
MAKE Visits the Inaugural Inside 3D Printing Conference & Expo
Nick Normal and I attended the first Inside 3D Printing Conference & Expo recently. Here's a collection of our pictures and recollections.
Wearable Tech: Smart Fabrics 2013
Last week I had the opportunity to attend and speak at Smart Fabrics 2013 in San Francisco. Smart Fabrics is the most interdisciplinary conference I’ve been to in a while. As Stacey Burr (member of the conference advisory board and VP of adidas Wearable Sports Electronics) said in her opening address, topics ranged from “bras to tanks and DARPA to DIY.” In the crowd were CEOs, students, textiles and PCB manufacturers, artists, fashion designers, material scientists, “integraters”, consultants, and branders. It reminded me of the mix that we’ve been aspiring to achieve locally at the Toronto Wearables Meetup.
Decode Your Resistors With Mho the Resistor Plushie
Instructables user caitlinsdad modified a Mho the Resistor plushie with color bands glued to PVC rings serving as a resistor value decoder. He also modded a Ruby the Red LED plushie to Filed under: Electronics
Tonight: MAKE’s International Robot Meetup
Well, really we’re looking to attract robot enthusiasts, but robots won’t be turned away. If you’re a member of a hackerspace or school robot club sign up to participate in the meetup right here and join robot fans around the world. Everyone who registers will get a free PDF download of MAKE’s Volume [...]
SDR as a Police and Fire radio scanner
If you’ve lost interest in that DVB dongle you bought to give software defined radio a try you should bust it back out. [Harrison Sand] just finished a guide on how to use SDR to listen in on Police and Fire radio bands.
The project, which results in the crystal clear audio reception heard after the break, uses a whole lists of packages on a Windows box to access the emergency bands. SDRSharp, which has been popular with other DVB dongle hacks, handles the hardware work. In this case the dongle is a Newsky TV28T v2 module that he picked up for a few bucks. He’s also using some support programs including the Digital Speech Decoder which turns the data into audio.
We wonder how many areas this will work for. It was our understanding that law enforcement was moving to encrypted communications systems. But all we really know about it is that you can jam the system with a children’s toy.
Filed under: radio hacks
The 10 best hacking videos
Say goodbye to the rest of your day. Here are the top 10 best videos about real hacking. We’ve already covered the absolute worst that hollywood has to offer, twice. Then, we did the best that hollywood could pull off. Now we’re enjoying the real thing. Feast your eyes on hacking as it actually happens. In this list are all kinds of hacking, from slapping things together out of scrap to lock picking. From creating computers in your garage to social engineering.
Most of these are even available, in full, on youtube!
Here’s the list:
10. KGB, The Computer, and me.
The true story of someone noticing a hacker and tracking him down.
9. BBS: The Documentary
The history of the BBS system from its inception to its demise.
8. Unauthorized Access
Lock picking, dumpster diving, social engineering.
7. The Secret Life of Machines
Not only do they explain how it works, sometimes they do a hack to prove their point.
6. Mythbusters
every episode has the premise “what can we hack together to do this?”
5. Scrap-heap Challenge/ Junkyard Wars
Given a pile of junk, they have to create something specific, like a hovercraft, or racing bikes.
4. Triumph of The Nerds
The true story of how hackers came to rule the world with their technology
3. Secret History of Hacking
Detailed accounts of some of the most recognizable names in hacking.
2. Hacks
A look at how diverse hacker culture can be
1. Hackers are People Too
Mainly interviews from people at cons. A great way to see what is going on now in the culture.
Honestly, I don’t think the order really matters. Personally, I’d put Mythbusters and Scrap-heap Challenge closer to number one, my enthusiasm for those shows borders on unhealthy. Someone who is more into security would put Unauthorized access at the top of the list. You get the point.
What we can all agree on, is that these are all great.
Filed under: Ask Hackaday, Featured
Keurig hack runs a water supply line to your coffee maker
We were skeptical about Keurig machines when we first heard about them. Although we still scoff at the added waste of throwing away a plastic container of used grounds for each cup of coffee made, we tried one at the in-laws and it does brew a great cup of Joe. One of the draws of the machine is that it does it pretty much automatically as long as you fill it with water first. [Joseph Collins] is even taking the work out of that by adding a water supply line to his Keurig.
His coffee maker sits right next to the fridge, which has its own water supply. So one day he thought, why not run a line to the coffee maker as well? As far as plumbing projects go it’s very simple. He pulled out the refrigerator and added a T-fitting to split the water supply line. From there he ran an extension next to the coffee maker that terminates with a value being pointed to by the arrow in the lower left. The plastic supply line leaving the valve passes through a rubber grommet in the lid of the water reservoir pointed to by the other arrow.
[Joseph] figures the whole project came in at under $30 and shows how he did it in the clip after the break.
Filed under: cooking hacks
Tux Cases for Arduino and Raspberry Pi Now Available in the Maker Shed
Aluminum cases for the Arduino and Raspberry Pi, custom CNC machined by Tux Labs, are now available in the Maker Shed. 
Deek’s Lollipop Fort of Death
This is Derek "Deek" Diedricksen's last video for us. And it's...a little different. He pokes fun at his rather sketchy looking single-pole tree house, which he jokingly has dubbed "The Lollipop Fort Of Death." It looks less than safe, but he insists it is. The song he wrote about it sure is catchy.
A quick tour of my workbench
Whenever I release a hackaday video, I invariably get comments and emails about my workbench. Some people are telling me to clean up, others are asking me about things they see in the background.
This isn’t just a set that I film on. Obviously my videos aren’t high enough quality for people to assume that either. This is my actual workbench, made and used by my grandfather. I do enjoy keeping it decorated though. I try to keep a piece of as many past projects as possible hanging on my bench to serve not only as inspiration to me, but also as an interesting backdrop for the videos.
I make no attempts to hide my upcoming projects when I shoot videos. If you pay close enough attention, you can sometimes see projects appear on my bench in videos before the actual project video hits youtube.
I love my workbench. You should love yours too. Hey, maybe you could do a tour of it and post it on youtube for us to admire! Just try not to say “workbench” as many times in a row as I did.
Filed under: rants
The Solder Buddy
This mechanised solder dispenser was built by design engineer Jude Pullen, as an example of what could be done using ABS plastic sheeting, a broken brake cable from a bicycle, and some Sugru.
MAKE Welcomes Ken Denmead as Editorial Director
I'd like to welcome Ken Denmead to Maker Media. He'll start May 13 as editorial director. He replaces outgoing editorial director Gareth Branwyn. Ken has been editor and publisher of Geekdad and publisher of Geekmom, which recently struck out on its own. Ken is a civil engineer who will be quitting his day job to join us at MAKE. We're excited to have his energy and experience to help us shape our online community.
Metrix Open Hardware Lab’s Brainwave RepRap Controller
Located inside Metrix Create:Space at the heart of Seattle, Metrix Open Hardware Lab features a pick and place machine and a reflow soldering line for manufacturing various open source electronics. Its first product, the Brainwave, purports to be the lowest-cost alzl-in-one 3D printer control board solution on the market.
Freaklabs’ Akiba Visits Dharamsala, India
Expatriate hacker Chris “Akiba” Wang of Tokyo recently participated in a cool opportunity to deploy a sensor network in Dharamsala, India. I got an email from Marco at the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy. He’s part of UNESCO and we’re working together on a weather monitoring project. [...]
Being a Printer Master: Managing Mass Printing in a Makerspace
Sure, your 3D Printer runs reliably as long as it sits safely at home, but what would happen if dozens of college students used it each week? Georgia Tech Mechanical Engineering student Jeff Landrum discusses the challenges behind building, managing, and automating a "printer farm" at one of the largest student-run makerspaces in the country. 
How-To: Shimmering LED Skirt
Becky's latest wearables project, over at adafruit, combines three components from their FLORA sewable electronics ecosystem—the microcontroller, the accelerometer/compass module, and the RGB LED "pixels"—to create a no-solder sewable circuit that sparkles when you sashay! 
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