Archive for the ‘Cool’ Category

In a Blink of a Metal Eye

Stunning 300fps video of robot carnage at the 2010 RoboGames. I never built a robot that was this tough and dangerous but I did see my fair share of sparks and flying metal at numerous events. If you have the chance and like ‘bot on ‘bot action make sure you seek out the next robot combat event near you.

[via MAKE]

Popularity: 1% [?]

“NASA’CAR” Rocket Racers Take Off

I’ve been waiting a while for news of this. It’s fantastic that a demo has finally made it off the ground, please pardon the pun… Not too sure about the ‘play in the stands’ notion, that might be too much of a gmick for the spectators to handle.

A single rocket racer flew in front of the aviation crazed crowd at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in 2008 with its short bursts of rocket power allowing the pilot to climb and maneuver unlike a traditional airplane. As one of the test pilots explains in the video after the jump, it’s full throttle or nothing at all, giving pilots a boost of power…

Video: Rocket Racers Roar Over Tulsa

Popularity: 1% [?]

BeetleCam Wildlife PhotoBot

Very neat. I once did this with an old VHS-C camcorder and was fascinated by the results. Watching video shot with a wide angle lens that is only six inches off the ground is actually quite captivating.

“We booked a trip to Tanzania and set about designing, building and testing BeetleCam. The first step was to get up to speed on the necessary robotics and electronics that would be required to build such a vehicle from scratch. Having conducted some research, we sourced components from around the world. Construction then began in earnest with sawing, soldering, sewing and super gluing taking place around the clock in Will’s garage.”

Burrard-Lucas Blog Wildlife Photography.

via MAKE

Popularity: 2% [?]

The Awesome Beauty of Time Lapse DSLR video…

Stomacher – Untitled/Dark Divider from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

Using well over 20,000 photos (most are three photo high dynamic range composites) photographer Sean Stiegemeier used the motorized head from a telescope (broke two doing the entire video) to create these beautiful motion control shots for this music video. The video for the band “Stomacher” was shot on Canon 5D, 5DmkII, Anamorphic 35mm. I hope to have more information about this video in the future. Make sure you see the high def version of the video!
More of Sean Stiegemeier’s videos on Vimeo.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Marx Generators

Ah, the Marx generator. I have fond and not so fond memories of building my first one. It worked very well, I knew this because of the sort of out of body feeling I had when I got zapped by it. Anyway, it works by charging up a bank of capacitors in parallel and then are discharged in series. It will turn a few wimpy volts into something that will quite literally take your breath away. This site has a nice semi tutorial on how one is built. Go have a read and start scrounging in your junk box for some parts (mind you, keep a hand in your pocket to avoid making a dead short across your chest and through your heart. It’s not a sure thing but it helps)

Marx generators at madlabs.info
More info over at Wikipedia

Popularity: 8% [?]

Cube.ly 3D Printer

I went to the bi-monthly hackerspace meeting last night. They had a guy there giving a talk about an open source 3D printer that he and his company is working on. I posted photos of it on Flickr. The thing is called ‘Cube.ly‘ and will, once finished, print 10cc of volume per hour, cost under $1000, takes a weekend to build, and is made of off the shelf parts. The frame is made of this stuff called ‘80/20′, think adult sized Erector set and the other bits like motors are available from McMaster-Carr or the guys that build the Makerbot (electronics).

Popularity: 8% [?]

« Older Entries    Newer Entries »