Category: DIY

LEGO Gear Ratios

Gears and Drivetrains in LEGO MindstormsAnother useful tool for getting all creative with your LEGOS. A handy tutorial showing you common ratios for the gears that are common to the LEGO Mindstorm kit. You can also find these gears in a variety of other LEGO sets. And if your totally flummoxed about what gears are just having a look around should answer some of your questions.

Gears and Drivetrains in LEGO Mindstorms

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LEGO Technic Motor Box
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Atari 2600 Joystick TV Remote Control

Alan over at Hacked Gadgets just told me about his latest project:

I wanted a simple remote that could be used to easily control the volume and mute the TV when the phone rings. I have replaced all of my remotes with a single Harmony 880 control which works great, but I wanted something a bit more cool to compliment it. Building the retro remote was fun and simple since the mini remote that I used was very easy to hack.

It looks pretty slick, and he even used a modern Atari Flashback case so no vintage 2600 controllers were harmed in the making of this project.

Atari 2600 Joystick TV Remote Control

Classic DIY Rubberband Plane Kits

Hishou rubber band aeroplaneI remember building one of these from scratch when I was a kid. Much to my amazement it flew pretty well. I wonder if this kit was available back then, probably not.

This rubber band propeller airplane kit is from Yoshida in Japan. The Hishou, with its 2 reverse propellers, dates from 1911, when it crossed the Sumida River in a model plane contest. The kit uses balsa wood, ultra-light Styrofoam, rubber bands and 125mm reverse pitch propellers. Illustrated instructions and glue are included. The kit is packed in a box with appealing graphics in Japanese and some English.

There is also a version called the ‘Crow‘ that only has one propeller but it’s still a classic design.
 
via Better Living Through Design]
Rubberband Plane Kit, Hishou

Transform Maple Leaves into Roses

Transform maple leaves into rosesA very crafty-arttie project for those that live in places where trees have leaves that fall from them. Turn ordinary maple leaves into nice little faux roses. I think that this should be on the back burner as a fall project, I hope I remember to try it out when the season is upon me. I’ll have to order out for the leaves, I doubt that oleander trees would make a good substitute.
How to make roses from maple leaves

LolCat Builder

My very own LolcatWhile not having much to do with technology or science, it has everything to do with the Internet. Trust me, it’s one of those ‘meme‘ things the ‘net is full of these days. The whole ‘lolcat‘ thing had me confused as hell, I was wondering where all of the "I’m in ur [object], [present tense/derived nominal] ur [object]" cat photos were coming from. Turns out many of them might have been created on this site. Choose an image (or upload one of your own like I did), type in some l33t text and select the style you want. Preview and save. Go make your own, share them with your bewildered friends and smirk at your l33tness.

[via techchickblog]
LolCat Builder
Massive collection of photos all search able via tags on I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?