I sold my first kit!

On Wednesday, I took a big step into the world of kit making, when I designed and sold my first product! This one is called the ‘D.I.Y. Cow Kit’, and was purchased by Drew Fustini of PS1. Thanks, Drew!

Unfortunately, this kit was sold as an edition of 1, so I am already out of stock. However, you can still purchase a poster, or contact me if you would like a special kit commissioned just for you!

Thanks also to the fine folks at CCCKC, who provided the papercraft cow substrate that I ‘hacked’ to design my kit.

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Double resistor! What does it mean?


See here and here if this doesn’t make any sense.
Source file here

Fund my travels! Purchase an authentic copy of this poster for only $15, while supplies last! Includes shipping to North America!:


Posted in Ridiculous | 8 Comments

How-To: Build a soldering iron stand from a coathanger

At the workshop at Blooming Labs in Bloomington, IN, we were short a couple of soldering stands. Mitch showed us this nice trick for replacement stands using a standard coat hanger and some wire cutters, so I wrote up some quick directions so that others would be able to make them as well. Also, I made one into a fish:

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Idea: Fake lemonade stand

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The idea is to bring the feel of a  slow-paced country road to an interstate highway, by placing an iconic lemonade stand in the in the center of said thoroughfare. To match the plastic aesthetic of the superhighway, however, the stand itself will actually be a false caricature of a real stand, complete with fake lemonade and a robotic dummy that will enthusiastically wave at approaching vehicles, and assume a dejected expression when they inevitably speed by.

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Laser sight for DSLR camera

Want to shoot photos from the hip, but having a hard time aiming? Jealous of all those hunters with their fancy targeting optics? Well, we have the solution for you- a focused coherent light source for your lens shield! Calibration can be achieved by careful adjustment using scrap parchment.

Not particularly recommended for use in airports or political rallies.

Sample image:

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Idea: Multi-player frogger based on hex tile layout

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The classic arcade game based around the journeys of our amphibian friend has been a favorite for decades, however the advent of fast-paced multiplayer social entertainment threatens to leave its single player design in a entertainment backwater. Inspired by the byzantine intersections found in many older cities, the hex tile frogger concept provides a path forward for the modernization of this beloved game. By combining the primal desire for shelter with the ancient game of Chinese checkers, the updated game presents a challenging game for up to six simultaneous players, while still staying true to the original concepts of dodging traffic and finding nourishment. Bonus points if the environment is updated to reflect the three dimensional topology of hilly cities.

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LoL + Processing

On the train back from NYC to Pittsburgh, I got the idea to hook up the LoL Shield directly to my computer, so that I could develop animations for it using a desktop graphics program. Using Jay Clegg’s Video Peggy project as a starting point, I wrote up a little framebuffer sketch for the Arduino, along with some Processing code to grab a region of the computer screen, scale it, and send it over to the LoL Shield for display. Pretty simple, but could be useful. Source code is after the break. A version of this project might be included with the next LoL Shield library release. Continue reading

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