Add some colorful LEDs to your Hanukkah celebration! The Evil Mad Scientist’s Mega Menorah 9000 is an updated take on the traditional hanukkiyah, a nine-armed Hanukkah candelabrum. But instead of candles, this DIY kit swaps out flames for ultra-bright LEDs capable of producing all kinds of colors and flickery effects. The Mega Menorah 9000 has an Adafruit Trinket (ATtiny85) at its heart, and […]
Tech the halls with these Atmel-powered gizmos and gadgets this holiday season. If there’s one thing that all engineers and Makers love, it’s tech. With the holidays quickly approaching, trying to figure out what to get that enthusiast in your life can become quite stressful — well, fret not! From handheld and wearable devices, to smart home equipment, to DIY electronic kits, there’s plenty […]
Hey Portal fans, who wouldn’t want their own Wheatley capable of talking and moving? Wheatley is a fictional artificial intelligence from the Portal 2 video game franchise. And like any true fan, Maker Genevieve Bee thought it would be cool to build an interactive replica of her own from scratch, complete with both sound and movement. Wheatley’s body is comprised of blue insulation (XPS) foam, […]
One Maker has created a FLORA-powered, Disney-inspired dress that magically twinkles and changes colors as she twirls. Like something straight out of a Disney tale, Erin St. Blaine has put together quite the magical fairy ensemble for her community’s recent electric lights parade. The Maker’s fiber optic Snow Fairy Costume employs Adafruit’s Pixie 3W LEDs, which are around 20 times as bright as a NeoPixel […]
MintySynth is a hackable, Arduino-compatible synthesizer kit that fits neatly inside an Altoids tin. A few months ago, Andrew Mowry embarked on a side project to devise a pocketable synthesizer/sequencer capable of fitting neatly inside an Altoids tin. The Arduino-compatible kit, aptly named MintySynth, originated with hopes of becoming not only an educational tool but a fun toy for Makers and music enthusiasts alike. […]
Each time someone enters the room, this door emits some iconic Seinfeld tunes. Everyone who has watched even a little TV instantly recognizes the iconic bass notes from Seinfeld. Well, YouTuber Caliixxs has paid homage to the hit sitcom using an apartment door. The setup is rather simple: each time someone enters the room, one of the familiar riffs begins to sound. To make this […]
To optimize crop yield, this group of Makers developed an Arduino-based irrigation system that uses sensors and a weather station. As part of a recent hackathon in Madrid, one team of Makers created a grid system to optimize crop field irrigation through an array of soil moisture sensors and a weather station. Crop Squares (inspired by alien crop circles) was initially conceived as a way […]
This Maker created an Arduino-powered, servo-based device to turn his AC unit on and off. If you want to control AC power with an Arduino or other platform, the simplest way is (normally) to use a relay. In Tyler Bletsch’s case, he moved into a new office with a manually-controlled air conditioning unit. As he puts […]
The Pixel combines a 32-bit ARM Cortex M0+ microcontroller with a color OLED display and microSD. The brainchild of Boston-based startup Rabid Prototypes, the Pixel is an open source smart display that combines an Arduino-compatible MCU, a color OLED screen and microSD. The Pixel — which recently made its debut on Kickstarter — is built around the mighty Atmel | SMART SAM D21 operating at […]
Talk about a fashion sense! This smart dress measures the aggressiveness of the environment to analyze how it affects the mood and behavior of individuals. According to co-creator Marìa Castellanos’ website, her custom dress is “equipped with sensors to analyze questions such as variations in noise, temperature, atmospheric pressure, ultraviolet radiation or the amount of carbon monoxide present […]
