555. Hydroelectric. Bioplastic. Flexistentialism » Recreational Flamethrowers. Last night at fire spinning practice at the “City Museum”: we got to test a new flamethrower.
It was good, because like in any group, tensions can ocasionally get high, misunderstandings can cause hurt feelings, and a group feels growing pains as it trys to find out how it wants to handle the dangers (quite literal dangers, in this case) of having more people around. One of my fellow spinners was not very happy due to the tension, and the fact that his propane tank was empty. He had brought with him version 2 of a large recreational flame thrower that he wanted to test, but was out of gas.
The flamethrower design is simple. A standard propane grill style tank is filled with liquid propane. In this flame thrower, the LP tank is connected via a propane regulator to a secondary holding tank. To activate the flame thrower, you close the ball valve, and open the regulator up to around 30 PSI. But as I was saying, we had no propane. P.S. Online : LED Wall looks cool, is large. Homemade Gift Series #1: Vanilla Extract. For the last few years, one of the most prized possessions in our pantry has been a gigantic bottle of imported Mexican vanilla extract.
It’s not that imitation stuff that you get on sale at the store, with weak vanilla flavor and added sweetener. This stuff is pure unsweetened vanilla extract. It makes pies and cookies and homemade ice cream and sweetbreads and cakes and countless other things we make at home sublime. A month or so ago, I noticed that our big bottle was finally running low. The synpad. The SynPad is a position sensitive midi drum pad that you can build yourself using simple materials and tools for around 50 UK pounds (depending on what materials you already have, and how many pads you want to make.) The idea was to produce a pad which can detect where on the pad you have hit it as well as how hard, so that the synth it is driving can modulate the sound continuously according to the x and y coordinates of the strike.
The design is pretty simple - you could easily build one over a weekend using basic wood and metalwork tools (i.e. for cutting and drilling). All the software I've written for it is open source, so as long as you have or can set up a linux based computer (or have the skills to adapt the software to another platform), you could get up and running pretty quickly. An instructables.com article about how to build one yourself. (I have made some minor changes to the design since posting this. Arduino-based talking & remote thermometer. March 4, 2009 AT 12:24 am Fun Arduino-based talking & remote thermometer, Solder In The Veins writes - After recently getting my hands on an Arduino Duemilanove, I came across this Sketch on Arduino Playground that allowed an Arduino to function as a temperature measuring device with the addition of a few cheap and easily obtainable components.
Deciding to take things a step further, I wrote a Python script to create a DIY temperature measuring device that could be used both locally, via the command line, as well as remotely, using a googlemail account to check the temperature of a room. You can grab a copy of this script, called “Ardthermo”, from the Software page. This article should give all the info you need to know to build this little project for yourself and make use of the Ardthermo script. Online : $28 huge cheap whiteboards. Chris shows you how to make some large cheap white boards… …the same material that they make most commercial whiteboards out of is available at most big-box lumber stores like Home Depot for less than $15.
“Showerboard”, which is basically cheap plywood with a waterproof white plastic coating on one side. Its the same stuff that they make cheap showers out of – four walls of showerboard plus a cheap plastic base makes a decent stall. Online : PVC skater dolly. Online : DIY Van de Graaff generator. Oh Nooo!
A 404 Page! Looks like we can't find the page that you are looking for. Sorry about that. Let's see if we can make it up to you. First off, let's try searching for the content. If that doesn't work, why not try browsing from popular categories? Online : Low voltage tube headphone amp. AVR Freaks. Online : MIDI kit test-drive. MAKE contributor Michael Una posted a review of Highly Liquid’s MD24 kit which converts MIDI events over to an array of 24 +5V outputs - The new MD24 falls into the latter category.
It takes a MIDI input and gives you 24 discrete +5V outputs that can be used to drive relays, transistors, or servo motors. Functionally, the MD24 is similar to HighlyLiquid’s MSA-T or MSA-R kits, except that you now have 24 outputs instead of just 8- a significant improvement. More over at Create Digital Music. Online : How-To: Upright electric bass from a 2x4. Online : Regular GPS not accurate enough? Try RTK-GPS! Online : Synth sequencer from an LED kit. MirlitronOne explains how to turn a Velleman MK107 LED Running Light kit into a simple 8-step sequencer for use with analog synthesizers.
A handy kit hack, but it’s also not too much work to build one from scratch. Related: Sequence it!! Collin Cunningham Born, drew a lot, made video, made music on 4-track, then computer, more songwriting, met future wife, went to art school for video major, made websites, toured in a band, worked as web media tech, discovered electronics, taught myself electronics, blogged about DIY electronics, made web videos about electronics and made music for them … and I still do! Collin@makezine.com. Online : Fun with cellphone feedback. Dino sent us this vid demonstrating some potential audio effects resulting from landline-to-cellphone delay times.
Strictly speaking “reverb” is usually considered as sound delays with no discernible separation – but hey, who’s counting? Online : Build an autonomous bassline generator. Online : How-To: Transistor tester. Online : Sequence it!! Something I’m excited about these days is rhythmically interfacing incompatible musical components like my analog modular synthesizer with a Casio SK1 Keyboard and a Barbie Karaoke machine.
One tool that has helped me do this is the 8 step, 4 channel sequencer pictured above. The sequencer is based on a 555 timer and the 4017 decade counter. It’s got a low part count and is easy to build. Mounting all of the switches was by far the most difficult/expensive part but beside that it’s easy/cheap. Online : Helping hand upgrade. Here’s a simple helping hand upgrade that makes soldering wires to potentiometers and switches tons easier.
Just replace one of the alligator clips with a squeeze style “wide mouth” clip. Here’s one from mouser.com that will work. Related. Online : How-To: Recycled wine bottle torch. Online : Resistor reference card. Here’s a neat little reference card for figuring out resistors on the go. Download, print, and paper fastener together. The Technology of Wah Pedals. Version 1.7 9/27/99 - More wah circuits, how and why the classic wah works, and some mods, plus connections to human voice info Copyright 1999 R.G. Keen all rights reserved. No permission for local copies or posting from web sites other than The stock "wah" pedal has been around since at least the early 60's.