If you spend a lot of your time with resistors, this is funny.
xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe - Thanks Brian! Link.
Related:
What are the most important charts, formulas… - Link.
Read color coded resistors - Link.
HOW TO - How to read a resistor (PDF) - Link.
Resistor Color Bands - Link.
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This will be interesting for the electronics makers out there - everyone knows that Fluke makes some of the best ($$$$) multimeters, but what everyone doesn’t know is they have videos called “The adventures of Uber-Tech, Ultra-Super Guy”.
It’s sorta campy, but I thought it was funny to see such a high quality video all about a multimeter.
FlukeBLS - The blue lip special - [via] Link.
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“thelastnameavailable” posted up a few nice surface mount soldering videos - if you’re in to soldering, then this is for you.
YouTube - thelastnameavailable videos - Link.
More:
HOW TO - Salvage surface mount components - Link.
Using SMT components in your electronics projects - Link.
HOW TO - SMD soldering (Surface mount devices) - Link.
Surface mount component remover - Link.
Quick helper for surface-mount soldering - Link.
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Todbot writes -
Another technology sketch from my company ThingM. This time it’s Valentine’s Day-themed, with LoveM, a heart-shaped box of “memory chocolates”.
LoveM is a Technology Sketch of an augmented box of chocolates that displays personal memories on an LCD screen as chocolates are removed from the box. It attempts to evoke joy and surprise through the use of available, inexpensive technology embedded into a familiar object. It investigates what happens when we put technology in a non-utilitarian, non-game context and explores the ideas of introducing personal, intimate content into an otherwise mass-produced product.
It’s also our Valentine’s Day present to you.
todbot blog » Blog Archive » LoveM Memory Chocolates technology sketch - Link.
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Bunnie writes -
I’m resolving some manufacturing challenges in the new chumby design and had the opportunity to use an X-ray board inspection tool. This tool is what you want to use if, for example, you wanted to reverse engineer a circuit board with buried or hidden traces. It also lets you see through the packages and inspect the quality of the wirebonds. This particular system has a feature that let you rotate the board as you inspected it so you can look at it at an angle-which is actually really cool to see live, it’s sort of like flying through the circuit board. I wish I had a video of it but I didn’t bring my camera into the shop today.
Anyways, I thought those who have never seen this capability before would find the following pictures interesting and perhaps thought provoking.
Seeing through circuit boards - Link.
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Need something to do with all those LEDs that you were going to make into cartoon characters and place all around Boston?
The folks at enlightened have launched the ‘nerve’ bra that has 31 flashing LEDs in it and multiple flashing patterns.
While silicone is usually found inside a bra, we’ve used silicone on the outside as a means of sculpting the light into organic shapes with an underlying geometric pattern. This bra has a lot of LEDs (31 per side), in a full rainbow of colors, with eight different flashing patterns that can be selected by the wearer. The base bra in this example is a nude seamless type, encouraging the illusion that the skin is exposed and the light is coming from within the body. - Link
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A follow up to yesterday’s “Aqua Teen Hunger Force LED art shuts down Boston” coverage - Two of the artists who put magnetic lights up as part of an ad campaign were arrested, based on the city’s current “post 9-11″ stance it’s likely they will each get the death penalty, or perhaps worst.
CNN sent me an email and I talked to them briefly - a few blinky magnetic signs aren’t “hoax devices” and unfortunately what was demonstrated is best summed up by a MAKE reader “…anyone can cripple a city with little or no expense. Real bomb not even needed. All that’s necessary is pathetic paranoia.”
From CNN:
“Authorities have arrested two men in connection with electronic light boards depicting a middle-finger-waving moon man that triggered repeated bomb scares around Boston on Wednesday and prompted the closure of bridges and a stretch of the Charles River.
Peter Berdovsky, 27, a freelance video artist […]
A follow up to yesterday’s “Aqua Teen Hunger Force LED art shuts down Boston” coverage - Two of the artists who put magnetic lights up as part of an ad campaign were arrested, based on the city’s current “post 9-11″ stance it’s likely they will each get the death penalty, or perhaps worse.
CNN sent me an email and I talked to them briefly - a few blinky magnetic signs aren’t “hoax devices” and unfortunately what was demonstrated is best summed up by a MAKE reader “…anyone can cripple a city with little or no expense. Real bomb not even needed. All that’s necessary is pathetic paranoia.”
From CNN:
“Authorities have arrested two men in connection with electronic light boards depicting a middle-finger-waving moon man that triggered repeated bomb scares around Boston on Wednesday and prompted the closure of bridges and a stretch of the Charles River.
Peter Berdovsky, 27, a freelance video artist […]
Update: Here’s a press conference video with the artists - folks, you can’t make this stuff up - Link.
A follow up to yesterday’s “Aqua Teen Hunger Force LED art shuts down Boston” coverage - Two of the artists who put magnetic lights up as part of an ad campaign were arrested, based on the city’s current “post 9-11″ stance it’s likely they will each get the death penalty, or perhaps worse.
CNN sent me an email and I talked to them briefly - a few blinky magnetic signs aren’t “hoax devices” and unfortunately what was demonstrated is best summed up by a MAKE reader “…anyone can cripple a city with little or no expense. Real bomb not even needed. All that’s necessary is pathetic paranoia.”
From CNN:
“Authorities have arrested two men in connection with electronic light boards depicting a middle-finger-waving moon man that triggered repeated bomb scares around Boston on Wednesday and […]
Josh writes in with news that Boston police & authorities are detonating blinky Aqua Teen Hunger Force art -
Ignignokt from Aqua Teen has been a reoccuring theme in art projects and random builds. Were these Ignignokts left around Boston a part of an alternative art project gone awry? I love how CBS describes a Ignignokt made from circuit board as a “device”. Very threatening. Even if it was just something random, it sort of shows the folly of our security-obsessed world when a fictional martian can set a major city on high alert.
We obviously had nothing to do with this, but for some reason CNN mentioned MAKE — if the authorities or CNN wish to speak to someone they can call me (Phillip Torrone, Senior Editor at any time - my info is all over the place, I’m not sure what CNN said or why […]
One of our Maker is over in Shenzhen and did a fantastic write up of the electronics district, SEG Electronics Market -
“Ten years ago, Akihabara was the place to be for the latest electronics and knick knacks and components. I’m convinced the new place to be is the SEG Electronics Market in Shenzhen (although to be fair I heard there is a competing market in Korea that’s supposedly even better-the Japanese test-market their stuff there even before they try it in Akihabara!).
…Stacks of power supplies, varistors, batteries; ROM programmers. Atmel, Intel, Broadcom, Samsung, Yamaha, Sony, AMD, Fujitsu, every variety of chip. Some of them clearly ripped out of used equipment and remarked, some of them in brand new laser-marked OEM packaging.
…Chips that I couldn’t dream of buying in the US, reels of rare ceramic capacitors that I only dream about at night. My senses tingle, my head spins. I can’t […]
Chris writes in looking for a bit of help for his dumpster procured Electone E-50 -
I found this Electone E-50 in a dumpster, and it mostly works! As you can see, the pedal board is missing, but the metal tabs that allow for interfacing are still there. Anyway, I want to hack this thing out. Does anyone have any ideas on what I should do with it?
Also, if anyone knows where a user or service manual for one of these exists in PDF or something, post it! It’ll probably make figuring out what to do with it easier!
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We’re working on some new and exciting electronic kits, part of the process of testing these kits is to do a quick prototype PCB (printed circuit board). At the usual method is to use a laser print and transfer the image, then using etchant remove the unneeded copper. It’s not exactly precise unless you’re really good - so I thought it might be fun to try using a laser cutter.
We sprayed the copper board with black spray paint and then the laser simply removed the black portions away by burning it off.
The results were “ok” - in fact, it worked and the board worked - but we’re still going to experiment more. The black spray paint isn’t ideal and we’re going to seek out some type of brass marking spray or something (anyone have some ideas?). Regardless, after a quick web search this appears to be the first attempt - […]
This circuit bent Speak and Math has been felted! More circuit bending posts to come as I try and figure out how to do it!
Underneath all the felt is a Speak & Math . The original buttons are all operational. As I’m sure that there’s no mystery surrounding what a bent Speak device should sound like, so I’ll not post a clip. That being said, my excitement compells me to tell you about the mods. The switches are two different loops and an angry switch. The big square button is a momentary loop that can occasionally produce distortion when used in conjunction with one of the other loops. The top small button is a tone, and the other one makes a fluttery sound. There’s also some body contacts on the sides. I’ll cop to using a schematic for the pitch knob (as I had pretty much no idea at […]
