Acrylic Tumbler Lock

acrylictumbler

Sometimes describing how a lock actually works can be the hardest part of teaching someone about lockpicking. [Mike Gee] has designed an acrylic lock that may just be the ticket for these situations. All of the pieces are cut from clear acrylic. As you insert the key, you can see it raise the four pins up to the shear line. He says that it will definitely take some tweaking as you assemble it to get it to function smoothly. Embedded below is a video of the lock in use. You can find plans on Thingiverse.

Continue reading “Acrylic Tumbler Lock”

Multitouch Pinball Instrument

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpDltKLZSrM]

This is an interesting twist on multi touch input. [s9lucas] is using a simple multitouch system as an instrument that uses solenoids and pinballs to make music.  He has taken the basic multitouch tutorial and combined it with an Arduino bell tower. The end result is possibly more fun to watch than it is to listen to, but that’s fine.

SwiitBoard: High Impact Wii Balance Board

swiitboard

[Frits] sent us the SwiitBoard, an improvised version of the Wii balance board. He wanted to be able to do something a little higher impact than he could on the Wii balance board, and required more space to do it in too. Using two different kinds of foam and a piece of plywood, he put together the SwiitBoard.  We’re not completely clear on how he is handling direction control. He states that it is derived from gforce.x. Can anyone clarify?  Stay tuned after the break for a video of his demo software.

Continue reading “SwiitBoard: High Impact Wii Balance Board”

22″ Binocular Telescope

binocular

This is the worlds largest known visual binocular. Why binocular and not just a regular telescope? Well, it all has to do with clarity. Apparently when you can use both eyes, you can see much more detail and pick up light better. The author states in one story that he was able to see a spiral galaxy clearly with a binocular telescope, but couldn’t see it at all with a monocular telescope of the same power.

There is information on several models on the site. Look in the right hand column as well for useful links to parts distributors.

[via Hacked Gadgets]