Space Tools

Posted: May 27th, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Blog | Tags: , | Comments Off on Space Tools

nasa-space-tools-front

These tools were designed for repairs to the Hubble Telescope. Boy I wish I could play with them…


Tweenbots – Robots that need a helping hand

Posted: May 13th, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Blog | Tags: , | Comments Off on Tweenbots – Robots that need a helping hand

Cutest Dang Robots

Cutest Dang Robots You will ever see. These will move for awhile and stop. A note pinned to it will tell passersby where the robot needs to go so they can point it in the right direction. Eventually it gets to its destination! Created by Kacie Kinzer at New York’s ITP.


Cult of the Done Manifesto

Posted: May 13th, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Blog | Tags: , | Comments Off on Cult of the Done Manifesto

done-manifesto-poster

This from Bre Pettis’ blog I Make Things. You may know him from Make Magazine’s Video Podcasts. It’s a very accurate representation of how to make things – anything. James Provost designed the incredible poster.

The Cult of Done Manifesto
1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you’re done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It’s boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.


National Semiconductor’s Dimmable LED driver

Posted: May 13th, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Blog | Tags: , , | Comments Off on National Semiconductor’s Dimmable LED driver

National Semiconductor has just released a new integrated circuit, the LM3445, that will be a game changer in the world of LED Lighting. From what I’ve seen one of the tougher challenges for LED integration into standard interior lighting has been dimming. LEDs need very strict power to be maintained and are finicky on how dimming works for them. Pulse Width Modulation seems to be the best way to dim them, but how to control a PWM module from a standard wall dimmer? With only 2 wires running to the light fixture, you’d have to modulate the dimming signals into the AC (like a X10 system) and that gets complicated. National’s new IC helps solve this problem. With some additional circuitry, the voltage from a standard Triac dimmer can be used to control LED dimming without flicker. No additional power supply, only 2 wires powering everything. Only bummer is that the chip can only source for seven 1-Watt LEDs but hopefully that will get solved soon. Hope to see these on some cascadable LED light strips soon. Check out this demonstration done by Arrow Electronics.


Vegetable Instrument

Posted: May 2nd, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Blog | Tags: , | Comments Off on Vegetable Instrument

Here’s a video of a VERY meticulous Japanese man making an instrument – an ocarina – from a carrot. Aided with an electronic tuner, he is able to tune the instrument to the C major scale. Very impressive!