Phillips AmbX Dissected

April 21, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 22 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjSv2VNKnvY]

Electrosthetics has taken it upon themselves to open up and explore the insides of a Phillips AmbX system. The unit is supposed to help immerse you in your video games by adding ambient lighting, vibration, and wind. They got the starter kit, which is missing some bits. Interestingly they found that the hardware was not hampered in any way. You could plug in fans and such and, in theory, build the larger kit. There are lots of pics of the various pieces for you to look at. They note that the hardware all seems decent, but it’s the software that really causes issue. On their Vista64 dual core machine, the software was eating up an entire core to do ambient lighting.

Making Cool Looking PCBs

April 21, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 25 Comments

pretty_pcb

[Mike] has posted an instructable on making cool looking PCBs. He does it a little differently than we do. He uses soda cans for the stencils and combines the solder mas and silk screen steps. Also, a bit of extra cooking gives him this cool gradient of color. He has managed to get some really fine etching. It isn’t as fine as a laser etching, but this should be able to handle the smallest stuff you can throw at it. We’re a bit curious what exactly he’s building. There’s a color picture after the break to show you what we mean.

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Ugobe Files For Bankruptcy

April 21, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 16 Comments

pleo_bankruptcy

Ugobe has officially filed bankruptcy. This is bad news for Pleo. That lovable little dino bot is no longer being produced. If you’ve got one you might want to refrain from hacking, just in case it’s worth something one day. As the point out at Engadget, another toy company might buy up the rights, but we doubt it. At roughly $250 per unit, these things probably weren’t flying off the shelves.

Wii Controlled Segway Style NXT Bot

April 21, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 15 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUzgYcokIF4]

When [Epokh] sent in this Wii controlled segway style bot, we remembered a post a few months ago where someone made a balancing bot, but hadn’t completed the Wii code. Well, [Epokh] is going to show you how to implement the Wii controls with the Lego NXT system. He’s found the links to all the software you need and broken down the configuration step by step. He’s been busy lately, let’s hope he keeps it up.