Foldable Dymaxion Globe

January 14, 2017 by Anool Mahidharia 4 Comments

Some time back, we posted about [Gavin]’s laser-cut/3D printed Dymaxion Globe — if you haven’t read about it yet, you should check it out. [noniq] loved the idea, and like a true hacker, built and shared an improved Foldable Dymaxion Globe. It can snap together to form an icosahedron globe, or it can be laid flat to form a map.

Like the original, [noniq]’s version is laser cut and engraved, and uses some 3D printed parts. But it does away with the fasteners (that’s 60 pairs of nuts and bolts), and instead uses neodymium magnets to make all the triangle pieces snap together to form the icosahedron globe. The hinges are simply some pieces of gaffer-tape.

This design improvement creates a cleaner globe and also addresses some of the concerns posted in the comments of the earlier build. The design files are available for download on [noniq]’s blog — you need to 3D print some magnet holders and stopper plates, and laser cut the 20 triangle tiles. The stopper plates help ensure that the angle between tiles when it is put together is limited to 138 degrees, making it easier to assemble the globe.

Check out the video after the break to hear the satisfying “thunk” of neodymium magnets snapping together.

Continue reading “Foldable Dymaxion Globe” →

Tin Spider Is 13-foot Rideable Strandbeest

May 18, 2015 by Mike Szczys 28 Comments

Arguably our best find at Bay Area Maker Faire this year was the Tin Spider built by [Scott Parenteau]. He constructed the 13-foot tall vehicle to take with him on his very first trip to Burning Man back in 2012. There’s very little information available online so we were excited that [Scott] spent some time speaking with us on Saturday.

Continue reading “Tin Spider Is 13-foot Rideable Strandbeest” →

The Hackaday Prize: Thinking Really, Really Big

May 7, 2014 by Brian Benchoff 68 Comments

Dome

In case you’ve been living under a rock for a few weeks, we’re giving away a trip to space for the best, most grandiose connected hardware project. [coxrandy], a.k.a. [Phillip Cox] realized the best way to build something awesome was to think big, and his plan for building a 1km dome (yes, 1000 meters) is the most ambitious project we’ve ever seen.

The BuckyBot, as [Phil] is calling his build, relies on the ideas of the great [Buckmister Fuller] and his idea to build a huge geodesic dome covering all midtown Manhattan. [Fuller] didn’t have the resources to build a structure this large in the 1950s, and to be honest, we don’t have the resources to build it now. It would be a ludicrous effort to build something like this one beam at a time, and [Phil] concludes that to build something this big, we need to think small.

Instead of thousand ton cranes and several thousand vehicles trucking in building supplies, [Phil]’s idea uses small “BuckyBots” – a combination 3D printer and robot – that builds one structural cell of a giant dome at a time. These BuckyBots climb around the structure, build the internal and support structure, slowly climbing to the skies on their fractal-inspired creation.

The Hackaday Prize contest will end far before [Phil]’s BuckyBots will have the ability to build a kilometer-wide dome, so the current plans are to modify his RepRap Mendel to crawl. Once that’s done, he’ll have his newly built BuckyBot build a 2 meter hemisphere in his garage. From there, construction moves to the back yard where a 10 meter dome will be built.

Even if this project never makes it past the planning stages, it’s an awesome example of thinking big, something you’re going to need if you’re trying to win a trip to space.

Retro Hardware Mash-up Spouts Archaic Geekery

February 22, 2012 by Mike Szczys 15 Comments

This delightful little box is something only a hacker could love. It uses some second-hand hardware to display random sayings attributed to [Buckminster Fuller]. The image above doesn’t do the display justice. There are other photos which show very crisp lettering which is easier to read.

[Autuin] always keeps his eyes open for cool gear at the end of its consumer life. The screen for this project is a CRT from a Coleman TV lantern (you know, for camping… bah!). It finds a home in the chassis of an old non-functional radio he had picked up a few years earlier. With those parts in hand the real adventure started: getting an Arduino to read in quotes and generate a TV out signal to display them.

We love the SD card holder which he fashioned from a card-edge connector he grabbed at the local electronics store. From there he scoured the Internet for help on where to patch into the TV signal. Once the right trace was discovered the Arduino TV out library does the heavy lifting.