In the last installment of our tutorial series we built a simple circuit on a breadboard and programmed an ATmega168 to make it run. That proves that you know how to follow directions, but the eureka moments of doing everything yourself are on the way. This time around you will get down and dirty with the datasheet, learning where each line of the sample code came from, and give your recently … [Read more...]
Robot eyes look where you do
November 5, 2010 By 35 Comments
This robot eye can move five times faster than the human eye. It's capable of being used to follow a human gaze and, as you can see by that coin, it's small enough to be used in pairs. When used to follow your gaze it needs a custom-made eye tracker. The thought here is that a lot can be learned about a person's psyche by monitoring what they are focusing on. But we wonder about the augmented … [Read more...]
AI via Super Mario evolution
November 5, 2010 By 25 Comments
Can Super Mario teach you to think? That's the idea behind using a simple version of the game to teach artificial intelligence. [Oddball] calls this The Mario Genome and wrote at program that can take on the level with just two controls, right and jump. He gave the script 1000 Marios to run through the level. It then eliminates the 500 least successful and procreates back to 1000 using the 500 … [Read more...]
Chest freezer temperature controller
November 5, 2010 By 11 Comments
[Mikey Sklar] finds himself in need of a temperature regulated refrigerator for fermenting foods like yogurt, kimchi, bread, and beer. After some testing he found that by building his own controller he can get a chest freezer to outperform an upright refrigerator at this task by 2-to-1. The controller is based around an ATmega48. It includes a remote temperature sensors which you can see … [Read more...]
Making Point Contact Transistors
November 5, 2010 By 15 Comments
[Jeri Ellsworth] is back at it again. We seem to cover her work a lot here. Her latest video above covers how she created a point contact transistor from a 1N34 germanium cat whisker diode. After opening the glass casing on the diode, she uses sharpened phosphor bronze metal from common electrical connectors as the collector and emitter. A 330 microfarad capacitor charged to 20 volts and then … [Read more...]
Racing sim cockpit stores inside an ottoman
November 5, 2010 By 14 Comments
[Lyscho] built a racing simulator cockpit based on a PVC frame but it took up a lot of space when not in use. His second generation is built inside the frame of an ottoman, meaning it can be stored right under your feet. The pedals are fixed in place, with some padding below to rest your heels on. The cockpit chair and steering wheel are both adjustable to suit different drivers. They use a … [Read more...]
Have you ever wanted to be on (Internet) TV?
November 5, 2010 By 2 Comments
Are you an independent inventor? It might just be your lucky day. The fine folks at Independent Inventor TV, a new show currently filming for Revision3, is looking for home and garage based inventors to present their inventions for the camera. Currently they are based out of San Francisco, CA and are looking to film people in person, or by Skype if you are out of town. To apply to be on the … [Read more...]
Subscribe for weekly videos
Recent comments