Daily DIY

Matt Rasmussen made a simple LED bike light from an old tape case for less than 20 bucks! Matt says, “I’ve been riding with this thing for about a month now and loving it more and more.” Link.

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Here’s an Instructables HOW TO related to this post by Bre on Fold-Up Speakers that Rick Harris pointed us to. Now you can make your own with a cardboard box. Link.

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Simple, elegant, but trendy with a touch of hot pink, these cards make great centerpieces standing at each guest’s plate as a thank you for coming to the wedding!


By: outofthewoods

Waylan says, “This site is dedicated to showing demonstrative videos produced by our community. For many subjects seeing something done is the most effective way to learn, whether it’s peering over an expert’s shoulder while they explain how to program or watching while someone grinds beans and makes coffee. Please watch, learn and perhaps share your knowledge back.” Shown here is David Rawlson’s video covering the basics on how to maintain your car, including the tools you need. Link.

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Something from the comments: Thanks to Shifzr for pointing us to this amazing drink serving robot from the 1980s. They actually sampled Hal, “completely operational and all my circuits are functioning perfectly.” How else can you reply but to say, “Open the pod bay doors and give me a vodka tonic!”

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While going down the rabbit hole of exploring links, I found this very odd virtual video of a robot that serves drinks. Someone is getting ready to get their robo-drink on for Roboexotica, the worldwide gathering of drink serving robots. - Link to video page - Thanks Kate!

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We’ve seen some vintage phones given a new-age twist in the past, but this is just crazy. Crazy I tell you!

I’ve uploaded some photos of my analogue phone + old Nokia phone. I’m currently overseas so I’ve had to leave it behind, but every time I’ve used it, I got great reactions out of people who were extremely curious. The handset works just like a regular phone by the way!

I really like the carbineer clip at the end, you know, for easy and convenient transportation. – Travis Hudson

[MAKE]

The secret: Just do it. They’re designed for that.

Nearly all power tools use a "universal" brushmotor that doesn’t care if it gets AC or DC.

All you have to do is put 4 or more 12volt batteries in series and plug your tool in. I usually like to run my tools on about 70 volts DC (five batteries). They’re a lot quieter that way and still have enough power.

If you want more power, just add more batteries. I think the gearbox of a circlesaw chatters less when it’s running on DC. The batteries don’t need to be nearly as healthy as what you’d need to power the same tools through an inverter.



Warning: All the warnings about tools, batteries, and electricity apply. If you want to get hurt you’ll find a way, just like you would have without all this expert guidance.



Here I’m using a totally motley assortment of scrap batteries wired in series with my car battery.

If you have mismatched batteries the weak one will discharge first and need to be removed.

A lead acid battery is dead at 10.5 or 11 volts. Recharge then or it could stay dead.

You’ll have to monitor them with a multimeter and write on the batteries with a sharpie so you remember what to expect.

I’m using one or more wimpy radioshack alligator clip cables, which make a decent fuse.

Don’t try to put your solarpanels in series with your batteries for extra voltage. They can’t deliver the starting current your motor needs. When the motor stalls that puts the whole series voltage across the solar panel which can be bad. The same effect means you want to take the weak battery out of the series as soon as the tool starts feeling weak.


By: TimAnderson

Gareth Branwyn, who authored the beambot article in Make issue 6, wrote up a cool article about Zach DeBord’s twin-engine solarroller. This thing is a beambot hotrod!

Zach on building BEAM Roller circuits: “I usually build engines in a batch for later use. In the image below, you can see that there are sockets on top of the engine circuits (made from IC socket pins). These are used to easily plug in the solar cells. The two leads (red and black) coming out of the back of the engines go to the motors. In this picture you can see the two types of engines that I make: one “classic” configuration with storage capacitors (the two engines on the left) and another config using Polyacene disk batteries in place of the caps (which deliver roughly .6 Farads of stored power). These are represented by the three engines on the right.” - Link

You can find Zach’s flickr set here.

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Daisung says, “I’ve uploaded some photos of my analogue phone + old Nokia phone. I’m currently overseas so I’ve had to leave it behind, but every time I’ve used it, I got great reactions out of people who were extremely curious. The handset works just like a regular phone by the way!” Link.

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