A Plotter Made From Lego Parts

We’re always amazed at what people can come up with using Lego parts, but this hack certainly pushes the limits. Originally conceived as a 3D printer, this plotter is still an impressive proof-of-concept. Ironically, this “3D printer” was build with the hope of winning a Makerbot 3D printer, so be sure to vote for it if you’re impressed.

it’s pretty impressive seeing what [graphmastur] has done using only Lego parts. It’s especially entertaining to see a sheet of Lego “grass” used as the Y-axis table. The build was designed in Lego Digital designer, and the parts are available in “LDD” format or HTML.

This project is explained further in the video after the break. If you’d like to simply see it do a plotting operation, fast forward to around 4:30. The device is not perfect, but as the video says “it worked, pretty well” when drawing a square with an ordinary marker. Continue reading “A Plotter Made From Lego Parts”

Magic Locket

[Andrey] from RTFM has built himself a glowing LED pendant using only three parts and some simple code. The hack is not particularly complicated but [Andrey] provides some decent instructions on Pickaxe programming via an RS232 serial port and RGB LED control to produce the nice glowing effects. The pendant contains an RGB LED, a Pickaxe-08 microcontroller and a couple of button cell batteries. To cram everything inside the locket, [Andrey] had to grind down the LED and Pickaxe-08 to their minimum dimensions using a file.

All of the Basic code for the pendant is supplied on the project page and [Andrey] describes how he manages to PWM all three LED pins for the colour effects. The video after the break may be of interest to anyone who has not had a go at Picaxe programming before or for a beginner who wants to try out some new embedded devices without a big hit to the wallet.

Continue reading “Magic Locket”