Collaborate Disseminate
The next time you find yourself in need of some large-ish plastic springs, maybe consider [PattysLab]’s method for making plastic springs out of spare filament. The basic process is simple: tightly wind some 3D printer filament around a steel rod, secure it and wrap it in kapton tape, then heat …read more
Continue reading Heat Turns 3D Printer Filament into Springs
Virtual reality has seen enormous progress in the past few years. Given its recent surges in development, it may come as a bit of a surprise to learn that the ideas underpinning what we now call VR were laid way back in the 60s. Not all of the imagined possibilities …read more
Continue reading All The Good VR Ideas Were Dreamt Up In The 60s
[Will Cogley]’s mechanized gauntlet concept sure has a hypnotizing look to it, and it uses only a single motor. Underneath the scales is a rod with several cams, each of which moves a lever up and down in a rippling wave as it rotates. Add a painted scale to each, …read more
Continue reading Watch This Scaly Gauntlet’s Hypnotizing, Rippling Waves
Here’s a simple tip from [Andy], whose Raspberry Pi projects often travel with him outside the workshop: he suggests adding a small HDMI-to-USB video capture device to one’s Raspberry Pi utility belt. As long as there is a computer around, it provides a simple and configuration-free way to view a …read more
Continue reading Heavy Raspberry Pi User? Keep an HDMI-to-USB Capture Device Around
Masks are proven tools against airborne diseases, but pathogens — like the COVID-19 virus — can collect in a mask and survive which complicates handling and disposal. [Ilaria Rubino], a researcher at the University of Alberta, recently received an award for her work showing how treating a mask’s main filtration …read more
Continue reading How Researchers Used Salt to Give Masks an Edge Against Pathogens
Compound bows (unlike recurve bows, their more mechanically-simple relatives) use a levering system with pulleys and spring tension to grant the user a mechanical advantage. We’re not exactly sure what to call [Zünder’s] bow design. He shared his unconventional take on a DIY bow that uses coiled springs as well …read more
Continue reading Slick DIY Compound Bow Uses Coiled Springs, Toothbrush Heads
More people working from home has had an impact on the cost and availability of USB webcams, so [Jeff Geerling] got around the issue with a DIY solution that rang in around $100. It consists of a Raspberry Pi and HQ camera module acting as a USB webcam, and there …read more
Continue reading USB Webcams Out of Stock? Make One With A Raspberry Pi and HQ Camera Module
Lacking a DVD drive, [jg] was watching a TV series in the form of a bunch of .avi video files. Of course, when every episode contains a full intro, it is only a matter of time before that gets too annoying to sit through.
The usual method of skipping the …read more
Continue reading Audio Fingerprinting Skips a Show’s Intro, Reliably
[Nervous System] does a lot of laser cutting, and [Jesse] shared a fascinating experimental improvement to their laser cutter that consists of a 3D-printed nozzle for cleaner cuts. You can see the results for yourself above, where the difference between the two cuts is striking.
[Jesse]’s modification doesn’t affect the …read more
Continue reading Cleaner Laser Cutting With a 3D-Printed Nozzle
[Niklas Roy] rolled his own photo diary, because he found the core functionality of something like instagram attractive, but didn’t want the social network baggage that it came with. His simple system is called my own insta 😉 and it consists of some javascript and PHP to create a nice …read more
Continue reading Roll Your Own Photo Sharing, Minus the Social Networking Baggage