On the life of [Dennis Ritchie]

dennis-ritchie

Chances are you have already heard of the passing of [Dennis Ritchie]. We admit, we're among the throngs who knew little of his life, but [Cade Metz] has posted an excellent remembrance of his life which we think is well worth reading. [Dennis] passed on October 12th at the age of 70. This image shows him receiving the National Medal of Technology awarded to him by [Bill Clinton] in 1998. His … [Read more...]

Anodizing and dyeing aluminum without battery acid

anodizing_aluminum_without_battery_acid

While many people have tried their hand at anodizing aluminum at home, there are plenty who would just as soon leave it up to the professionals due to the highly concentrated sulfuric acid required for the process. [Ken] started thinking about the process and wondered if there was a way to get comparable results using chemicals that are easier to obtain and dispose of. Through some … [Read more...]

Halloween Hacks: Transform that annoying dancing Santa into a Halloween mummy!

santa_mummy

If you have one of those annoying dancing (Santa/Elvis/Frankenstein) decorations sitting around collecting dust, you could always repurpose it like [mischka] did. He originally wanted to enter our Santa-Pede challenge and purchased a dancing Santa, but time eventually got the best of him. With no other use for it in mind, he decided to make his dancing Christmas toy into a fun Halloween … [Read more...]

Monkey-powered scooter is all electric

monkey-powered-scooter-is-all-electric

[Knife141] lets this monkey push him around all day long. It's a whimsical touch for his scratch-built electric scooter. He started the build without a set of plans, cutting angle iron and clamping it together until the frame looked about right. Once the welding was done, he began adding all the parts to make it functional. There are front and rear brakes, operated by a lever on the handlebars. … [Read more...]

LCD backpack: from Arduino board to homemade pcb

SAMSUNG

[Kaushlesh Chandel] prototyped a few projects on his Arduino that use an HD44780 Character LCD. Wanting to keep these projects in one piece, but not sacrifice his Arduino board, so he etched his own LCD backpack that is Arduino compatible. If you've never made it past the Arduino board to build a module that only uses the parts you need for a project, this is a great source of inspiration for you … [Read more...]

PopCARD vending machine enhancement gets upgraded

popcard-upgrade

[Alex] wrote in to let us know he just completed a pretty major upgrade to his PopCARD RFID vending machine system. You may remember that earlier this year he added an Arduino based RFID reader to a soda machine so that thirsty patrons could pay with plastic instead of cold hard cash. That system worked, but at the beginning of the video after the break [Alex] goes over some of its flaws. There … [Read more...]

Tactile 4-bit maze

maze

[Oskar] has been making puzzles for some time now. In 2000, he made a small electromechanical 4-bit maze that's really fun to play. Lately though, he's been working on an improved version that could be the beginnings of a commercial product. The earlier electromechanical maze (you can play it in an applet on that page) is just a microcontroller hooked up to electromagnets and switches. To … [Read more...]