Ignored disabled man builds his own damn elevator

diy_wheelchair_lift

There’s an old saying that goes something like, “When the going gets tough, the tough builds their own 5-story wheelchair lift." Actually we’re pretty sure that’s not even close to how the saying goes, but when his local council turned their backs on [Dmitry Bibikow’s] request for wheelchair access to his apartment, that’s exactly what he did. [Dmitry], an avid mountaineer, was … [Read more...]

DIY Segway recycles broken electric scooters

segway

[Petter] built himself a DIY Segway out of a couple of cheap electric scooters. We've seen a couple of very nice Segway builds in the past like the all analog Segway, or the creepy walking version, [Petter]'s Segway build seems like it would be a useful human transport device. The motors, chains, gears, and wheels are scavenged from a pair of electric scooters. Steering left and right is … [Read more...]

Is that a rom in your locket?

IMG_1898

[Andrew] recently ordered some lockets to bejewel them with some LEDs but got a bonus small locket for free with the order. Not really having a plan for the small locket it kind of sat around until finally some inspiration hit. Meet the ee-locket which contains a tiny circular pcb with a 64k eeprom, a few passive support components and a male pin header on the back so you can quickly plug it into … [Read more...]

Digital cootie detector

cootie

Kids love games of exclusion. This usually manifests itself in games of 'keep away,' having someone 'catch cooties,' or the ever-popular 'No Brian club.' [Rob] wrote in to tell us about the digital cootie detector he built. The cootie detector operates on galvanic skin response. It's actually very similar to an E-Meter, although instead of Thetans this device measures something that actually … [Read more...]

Adding USB connectivity to old benchtop tools

frequency_counter_hacked_for_usb_connectivity

[Scott] was recently given a frequency counter, and once he brought it home, he started contemplating how he could possibly make it better. While the counter worked well as-is, he wanted to find a way to record data readings over a reasonably long period of time. He figured that interfacing it with his computer would be the best way to do this, but he had to find a way to connect the devices … [Read more...]

Singing Robot

Untitledrb

The 4DOF CXN-I anthropomorphic robot arm in the Mechatronics Lab at FICES-UNSL (Engineering faculty, San Luis National University, Argentina) was built from scratch, and it is still a work in progress to teach and learn about mechatronics , in order to build another, more robust and precise arm in the future. When one of the students working with the device thought "hey, these motors are quite … [Read more...]

Hybrid roller coaster concept

prius_based_roller_coaster

Toyota recently ran an ad campaign touting “Ideas for Good” in which the actors speculated uses for Toyota Synergy Drive hybrid systems in non-automotive related applications. One idea that was floated involved using the car's regenerative braking system at an amusement park, in an effort to reclaim and use some of a roller coaster’s kinetic energy. Toyota sent a Prius to the team over at … [Read more...]