Lesson Plan for Making a Speaker Laboratory ©1995 The Regents of the University of California by Regan Lum Introduction: A speaker is a device that converts an electronic signal into sound. The speaker you will build (see figure 1) consists of a Styrofoam or paper cup, a coil of wire, a permanent magnet, and a signal source. The electronic signal goes through the coil and creates a varying electromagnet. figure 1 Purpose: In this laboratory, you will explore how a speaker works. Materials: 1 permanent magnet 2 feet of wire 1 pencil tape or glue 1 Styrofoam or paper cup 1 signal source (tape player) 1 plug with alligator clips for tape player Procedure: Assemble material as shown in figure 1. Leaving about 10 centimeters on the end, wrap the wire around a pencil to make a wire coil and tape or glue it to the bottom of the cup. Conclusion Does the volume control on the tape player work on your speaker? Return to CEA Science Education Home Page
'Drone It Yourself' Lets You Create a Drone from Any Object Have you ever wished for a flying book? A flying keyboard? Or, perhaps, a flying bodyboard? Well, it's your lucky day, because thanks to "Drone It Yourself," you can turn pretty much any object into a quadrocopter. The drone kit, created by Dutch independent designer Jasper Van Loenen, is comprised of pieces that can be 3D printed, and then clamped to any object you so desire. On his website, Van Loenen points out that the parts can be custom-designed, and that other DIY enthusiasts can modify them to make new add-ons for the quadrocopter drone. To find out more, check out the video, above. Image courtesy of Vimeo, Jasper Van Loenen
The Beauty Of Cinemagraph GIFs Developed in 2011 by Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg, cinemagraphs are GIF images that combine still photography and video to produce a stunning effect. Typically, the entire GIF is motionless except for one or two elements, providing a brilliant juxtaposition between the motion and the motionless. For your viewing pleasure, we’ve collected 43 beautiful cinemagraph GIFs: Electronic Projects For Beginners I made a guide for those people who are still starting with their electronics hobby. I started connecting wires, batteries, bulbs, buzzers and motors when I was 4 years old . Now that I am 13 years old, I now have a good amount of experience to build complicated electronic circuits. It took me hours to finish making this guide since there is no software editor in the Sibmit>Guide in the "Submit Instructable Section" I had to type every word and picture using HTML codes which I learned from school. These are my all time favorite projects in instructables, I find them simple and easy to make. How To Solder by: noahw Third Hand by: rstraught Making A Customized Circuit Board by: ASCAS How I built a Solar iPhone Charger ($50) by: akbrennan Make a USB iPhone iPod Charger On The Cheap! Build a Simple Circuit from a Pizza Box (No Soldering) by: matt.e.jenkins Solar Cockroach Virbobot by: JoshuaZimmerman Water Powered Calculator (Original) by: ASCAS Munny Speakers by: fungus amungus
DIY CNC Router Plans : How to Build NOTE: I originally posted this on my arts and crafts blog, Make It With Jason, and you're welcome to go visit and check out my other tutorials, reviews, and step by step drawing and painting lessons. Ever since I saw my first CNC, I knew I wanted to own one. I'm a realist though, and I also knew that I wouldn't own a REAL $20,000 one. So, on a whim this spring, I decided to design and build a homemade 3-axis Computer Numerical Controlled milling machine myself. I looked all over the web and decided to build one using drawer slides as my rails, an arduino as my microcontroller, and try to keep everything within the $300 mark. So far so good. So, without much ado, I am going to show you the steps I took to build my diy cnc router project (please realize, as of April 16th, 2013, this project isn't quite finished--in fact, it's at the halfway mark). Onto the Instructable!
Gadgets For Men We admit that guys can be a little difficult to give gifts to. So here we’ve compiled all the cool gadgets, toys, gear and stuff that you can give to the significant man in your life. However we are not saying that all the stuff in the list are cheap. Steve Jobs iPhone Case in Carbonite Facebook Like Button Coat Hanger Aquaskipper Jellyfish Tank Ford e-Bike Electric Paper Airplane Conversion Kit Star Wars Xbox 360 Hoverbike Kiki de Montparnasse Chess Set Nerf Vortex Nitron Blaster James Perse Ping Pong Table Cectek King Cobra ATV iCade Audi Design Soccer Table Keytool Jetlev Flyer Lego VW Camper Van LaCie XtremKey Unbreakable USB Drive Water Walking Ball Tron Legacy Lightcycle AK Ice Cube Tray Porsche Design Johnnie Walker Bar Lefroy Brooks Belle Aire Faucet Porsche Design Shisha The Cave Camping Tent
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 a Three Axis CNC Machine (Cheaply and Easily) A salute to those who have laboured through to this point (and to demonstrate that it is reproducable) Here are some pictures of other peoples machines. Photo 1 - Chris and his friend put together this unit; laser cutting the parts out of half inch acrylic. Not only does it look super it must weigh a ton. But kudos, anyone who's worked with acrylic knows laser cutting it is great but it is a very very unfriendly material to drill and there is a lot of side drilling in this design. Photo 2 - Sam McCaskill has finished his desktop CNC machine and it's looking really really nice. Photo 3 - Angry Monk's - With MDF pieces cut on a laser cutter and drive converted from toothed belts to threaded rod Photo 4 - Bret Golab's - Bret has completed his and gone through the extra step of getting it setup to work with Linux CNC (a task I attempted and was foiled by complexity). (If you have built one and would like it featured here, please send me a PM and we can arrange for the sending of photos)
Continuance - Rechargeable Battery with USB Interface by Haimo Bao, Hailong Piao, Yuancheng Liu & Xiameng Hu The Power Play Continues This is so simple. Continuance is a set of batteries with a USB interface on the side. The batteries are rechargeable plus dole out some juice to stranded gadgets that are starved of power. Designers: Haimo Bao, Hailong Piao, Yuancheng Liu & Xiameng Hu 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.