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We started a new showcase section of our website where you can post projects and find others doing similar things. To promote it, we're giving away a $3500 Bioloid Expert Kit to a random person who submits a project (at least one project picture required). There are two days left and the odds are still great. The first 50 get $10 off coupons, too.
You can see a collage of pictures from projects already submitted at the projects page.
We originally added the inventors section to showcase people who were having kits manufactured by us, but thought it'd be useful to open it up to anyone that wants to show off anything from a class project to a commercial product. Links out to other blogs and pages are fine and encouraged.
Some awesome projects are being submitted:
The through-hole and SMT picture books are great references, in particular. The DVDs have great up-close video (and cheesy music).
These standards were the primary source for our soldering guides and videos.
We just received a TGIMBOEJ in the mail, that's a The-Great-Internet-Migratory-Box-Of-Electronics-Junk in long form. Our box included a huge, old LCD panel, a mini 6GB hard drive, a GPS something or other, some super old style capacitor can, a power supply, an old relay and a bunch of other little odds and ends. The box started in Canada at ogi lumen (the prettiest nixie pictures on the net), and then went to uCHobby.com. We'll be sending it to moderndevice.com next.
The idea is that you take what you want out, put in what you want from your own junk pile, and then pass it on. We're going to nab the power supply. The rest of this entry has more pics.
Each Stribe1 has a touch strip and double column of LEDs that can display and control music and video programs. Multiple Stribe1's can be daisy-chained together to form a low-res, multi-touch display. Use with Max/MSP or other software to adjust track volumes with VU meters, make a sequencer, control synth params and pitch, "scratch" through sounds, etc.
Designed by Josh Boughey as a modular version of his original 8 strip Stribe (which won two editor's choice awards at the Austin maker faire!).
The Stribe1 kit page
Stribe1: Touchstrip + LED Bargraph Display from CuriousInventor on Vimeo.
There will also be some other interesting technology, including a robotic drummer and marimba player, some other modular synths, and some computer assisted / generated performances. The event goes from 4 to 6:30pm.
Some practice wouldn't hurt...
Some interesting things that may not be obvious just from the video: the machine actually creates a new song based on a short theme entered into the computer. Those balls get launched almost 6 feet in the air, and according to an email from the creator, only about 1/5000 miss! It was installed in a store front for a while, and had to operate some 14 hours a day... Another fun-fact, one challenge was finding a liquid that acted and looked like water, but wouldn't evaporate. ..."we ended up using the main ingredient in loctite- PEG dimethacrylate. works pretty well to create the necessary stick/slip condition."
As an engineering geek, I thought a lot of the how-it-works videos buried within absolutmachines.com were just as interesting as their main demo video. Click the blog post heading for a list of favorites.
What is a eutectic mix? One where the entire mixture solidifies at the same temperature. Unlike water, 60/40 solder solidifies over a range of temperatures where it becomes a "pasty" mix of solids and liquid. This can lead to a longer freezing time when it's important to keep a joint from moving to avoid leaving cracks. Is the increase in freezing time significant for hand soldering? Even in a freezing cup of eutectic water, there is a mixture of solids and liquids as the colder portions freeze first.
more info in our intro soldering guide (click expand at alloy).
We're a few mechanical and electrical engineers from GaTech trying to make it easier to make and sell inventions. We write how-to guides, sell cherry-picked parts and tools, and also manufacture kits. If you've got an idea you'd like to sell, but don't want to deal with kit bagging, shipping, machining a case, or simply don't have the cash to buy in bulk, let us know!