Build a Touchless 3D Tracking Interface with Everyday Materials Combine low-tech materials with some high-tech components and build a completely Touchless 3D Tracking Interface. Explore capacitive sensing by using several panels of cardboard lined with aluminum foil. These panels, when charged, create electric fields that correspond to X, Y, and Z axes to create a 3D cube. For Weekend Projects makers looking for an introduction to Arduino, this is a great project to learn from. Once your touchless 3D tracker is up and running, what you do with it is only limited by your own imagination! Make an RGB or HSB color pickerControl video or music parameters; sequence a beat or melodyLarge, slightly bent surface with multiple plates + a projector = “Minority Report” interface Sign up below for the Weekend Projects Newsletter to receive the projects before anybody else does, get tips, see other makers’ builds, and more. More: See all of the Weekend Projects posts Related
Survival Food Series: 25 Survival Seeds You Need For Your Garden Living off the land sounds as inviting as Christmas dinner. But many have hardly had adequate experience being “farmers.” In fact, many have had no experience at all when it comes to planting anything. That being said, the day is slowly approaching where each of us may have to trade in our company identification badges for a shovel and a pair of overalls. Educating yourself on farming topics such as mirco farming, planting for the seasons, natural insect repellents, seed collection and seed storage could help prepare for an upcoming economic crisis. Learn about how many vegetables or fruits the plant will yield. Start Practicing The only way to be fully prepared as far as growing plants is concerned is to practice, practice, practice. With each gardening experience will come more wisdom on how to handle a larger garden. Survival Seeds These seeds that were chosen were based upon their yield quantities, *ease in growing, nutritional content and for the season they are planted in. Sources:
Build a Laser 3D Printer - Stereolithography at Home Here is how to make a Stereolithography 3D Printer. It is still a bit of a work in progress but so far it is working pretty well. This is mainly an experiment which started as a Delta Robot Stereolithography Printer but ended as a more traditional Cartesian Stereolithography Printer. "I'll be honest, we're throwing science at the walls here to see what sticks. Stereolithography (SL or SLA from Stereolithography Apparatus) is an additive manufacturing process using a vat of liquid UV-curable photopolymer "resin" and a UV laser to build parts one layer at a time. I have wanted a 3D Printer for a while now and there are some very reasonably priced kits available like the Makerbot, Ultimaker and the RepRap project. I decided to enter this in the Epilog Challenge Contest because I could really use a laser cutter :-) I also have some ideas how to redesign this project, for creation on a laser cutter. This project is Open Source Hardware.
How to make Char Cord / Char Rope 9 Steps To Starting A Survival Garden In a time of economic uncertainty and rising food prices, it it always a good idea to have a garden to provide extra food for you and your family. Besides providing a source of food in an emergency, a garden is also a great source of wonderful vegetables which are MUCH healthier to eat than most of the food you can get at the supermarket. So how do you begin? #1) Decide What Your Goals Are - Do you want to grow enough just to add a few vegetables to your dinner once in a while? Some people who want to live "off the grid" end up building a garden large enough that it will provide almost all of the food that their family needs. #2) Evaluate Your Land - Once you know what your goals are, you need to evaluate the land that you are currently living on. If you decide that you want a "mega-garden" but you live in a condo, then you may have to end up moving to achieve your goals. #4) Improve The Soil - It is almost a certainty that you soil will need a boost. So what is the solution? Comments
Top 10 DIY Tech Gifts @keyboard-vomit: Yeah, but wouldn't it be awesome if some of our not so tech friends actually attempted (and accomplished) one or more of these feats? I mean, when "it's the thought that counts," shouldn't it be a thought about something we'd actually appreciate. Then again, maybe socks are your thing. ;) @HunterShoptaw: That they are, I'm wanting some socks with an integrated HDD, and some USB connectivity. @HunterShoptaw: The thought does count, but it sure would be nice if they enjoyed the gift too. So for this year, I created wishgenies dot com for people who WANT to give good gifts, but don't know what they'll want. @keyboard-vomit: I swear that some day, some how...Google will be able to find my lost socks.
How to Make Char-Twine Survival Gardening Survival gardening can provide fresh food for you and your family in the aftermath of a disaster. Disasters can occur at anytime and anywhere, and take many forms. Not all disasters are dramatic and natural. There are many types of garden seeds available. No-Till Garden Method Most garden plots are tilled. Plant in Buckets Above ground vegetables like tomatoes require loose soil that is about 10 inches deep. Plant in Tires Root crops provide valuable nutrients but require 12 to 14 inches of loose soil in which to grow. Grow Up Vegetables that grow on a vine like cucumbers and squash only need a small spot of broken dirt. Beans Beans are easy to grow. With a little ingenuity and having heirloom seeds on hand will allow you to provide fresh, healthy food after a disaster.
34 DIY headboard ideas The headboard is now looked at as a mainly decorative element in our bedrooms. As it usually happens, it all started from a practical reason/purpose.The headboard, a piece of furniture that is attached to the head of the bed, was initially an element that isolated sleepers from drafts and cold. Back then the buildings were less insulated and thus such a feature was needed. The headboards were made of wood because it’s a material that’s less conductive than stone or brick for example. With time, this function has been lost and replaced by a purely aesthetical function. Headboards are mostly decorative now, although they do have a certain amount of functionality. These 34 diy headboard ideas exposed here are not competing with each other, by the contrary these are the best projects we could find to show you, and all of them are equally interesting. Headboard from salvaged materials. The first project is realized from scrap materials salvaged from a burn pile. Metal headboard. Wood headboard.
DIY Polygraph Machine: Detect Lies with Tin Foil, Wire and Arduino DIY Polygraph Machine: Detect Lies with Tin Foil, Wire and Arduino Lying is awesome. From a very young age, children learn that flat out denying the truth gets you out of trouble and helps keep you calm in the face of horror. But what happens when you just have to know if someone, say, used your toothbrush? You could ask them to take an expensive and arduous polygraph test. If you're industrious and don't have the dough for a legit polygraph, you can make your very own galvanic skin response (GSR) device. Today, we will make a cheap GSR device and learn if our toothbrush is really safe after all. Materials ArduinoAluminum foilVelcroWire10k resistorBreadboard Step 1 Make the Electrodes GSR machines require an even and consistent connection to the skin in order to function properly. Begin by taping the exposed end of a wires to a sheet of foil. Adhere a strip of Velcro over the tape and cut off the extra foil. Last, add a single piece of Velcro at the end of the foil side. Step 3 Load the Code
Survival Food Preparation and Food Storage List Don’t Forget The Kettles! When thinking ahead of survival food preparation, make sure you have several big kettles and 55 gallon water barrels on hand. Remember, you will likely be heating your own water for everything from cooking and canning to bathing and laundry. When you are looking at all the water heating, water CARRYING and cooking that you will be doing, not to mention possibly making soap, cooking huge pots of stew for your neighbors that weren’t as wise as you were, and canning your own veggies, you can never have too many kettles and 5 gallon buckets! Same way with knives, canning jars and utensils. There are several ways to prepare foods in emergencies, when there is no power for the stove or when you are stuck with NO STOVE to cook on. Build a Fire … and cook over a fire outdoors.Use a flat top wood stove… this actually works quite well indoors or out. Course if you have freeze dried foods, some of those are made to eat without heating them. Storing Home Canned Foods Tip:
DIY fire making Top 10 Things You Can Upgrade with a Little Electronics Hacking it is a skill to do a good solder joint, it comes with LOTS of practice. so most people who rarely do it will ever get good at it. Bingo. Of course, part of the issue is having a soldering iron at the right temp with a properly tinned tip. Newbies aren't using soldering stations but a cheap iron they got at rat shack (You have questions? We have deer-in-the-headlights... erm... answers!). I don't expect to ever master tricky stuff like smts or even multilayer pcbs so I'm not much better then a newbie, anyway - and I totally suck at sweating pipe joints. Ah, well... SMT is actually a bit better than through-hole once you get the hang of it.