The Counting Box, Version Two
January 11, 2013
My Counting Box article in MAKE magazine was meant as a short “How I Made This” story, not a detailed “How You Can Make This Yourself” guide. Because people might want some instructions to follow in order to make their own counting box, I built a new version and documented it.
Pumpktris
October 28, 2012
What do you get when you combine a pumpkin with the classic video game Tetris? Pumpktris! Fully playable, embedded in a pumpkin, and with the stem serving as a controller.
The Abacus Bracelet
October 20, 2012
Hey, hipsters! So that 1980s calculator wristwatch you’re wearing isn’t retro enough for you anymore? Time to go waaaaay back in time with your wrist-worn calculating devices, all the way to the abacus.
Bamboo Prototyping Board
September 29, 2012
I like to do a lot of my electronics & Arduino work on a laptop, either on the dining room table or spread out on the living room floor. Between the Arduino, the breadboard, and who-knows-how-many components, it’s a hassle to get all the pieces moved when project time is over.
I’ve seen acrylic plates for mounting a half-sized breadboard and an Arduino (here’s one at Adafruit & here’s one at Sparkfun), but they don’t appeal to me. Time to make my own.
The Big Chair – Building Your Own
July 23, 2012 2 Comments
I’ve gotten a few emails and comments asking for plans for the giant adirondack chair I built. The trouble is that I prefer building things to documenting them. But because I love you all, I buckled down and made some plans.
iPhone-Charging USGI Flashlight
July 07, 2012
I wanted to build my own USB charger with the MintyBoost charging kit from AdaFruit. It gets its name because it’s commonly built into an Altoids mint tin, but I wanted something a little heavier duty than candy and tiny batteries—a USGI flashlight.
USB Mix Tape
January 26, 2012
The Counting Box
August 23, 2011
My son loves numbers and counting. More than a few times I’ve peeked in at night to find him asleep with a calculator in one hand and a flashlight in the other. And one of his favorite things to do with the calculator is incrementing “1 + = = = = = = = = = =” until he can’t keep his eyes open any more. I decided to build him a dedicated machine that would do nothing but count up and count down.
Snap Circuits Repair
August 21, 2011
Screen Printing Press
July 14, 2011
After doing some freezer paper printing on a shirt for my son, I wanted to do some more intricate designs and maybe even sell some of them, but didn’t want to spend a lot of money buying a press. So what do I do instead? Spend a lot of money building a press!
Backlit Skeeball Marquee
March 24, 2010
Some of my earliest dates with my wife were playing Skeeball at the Seaside arcade. I wanted to commemorate those good times, but our house doesn’t have room for a full Skeeball game, so I thought I’d give her the next best thing — a backlit scoreboard.
The Coloring Kit
January 17, 2010
This was one of the first sewing projects I did, based on the Gratitude Wrap from soulemama.com (1.6MB PDF). One friend calls it the Art Pack (which has an undeniable grandeur), but I tend toward Coloring Kit. What can I say, I’m a fan of alliteration.