Power Tool Tachometer [Maker Update #42]
This week on Maker Update, Pterodactyl automata, a tachometer for your tools, poster tack for your tech, Hackaday Superconference, understanding screws, and making better projects. This week’s Cool Tool is poster putty (really!).
Pixie Power [Maker Update #41]
This week on Maker Update, a magic bag of NeoPixie dust, my #1 video and photography tool, hydrodipping 3D prints, MagPi 59, making art for 3D glasses, and maker faires. My Cool Tool this time is the Manfrotto Magic Arm and Super Clamp kit.
Revenge of the Fish [Maker Update #40]
This week on Maker Update: how to give a fish a hammer, Intel gives up, Raspbian gets an update, Printrbot tries for infinite Z, a love letter to gaffer tape, and a better way to trim a zip-tie. This week’s featured Cool Tool is Gaffer Power Gaffer Tape.
Slow Motion Reality [Maker Update #39]
This week on Maker Update, Maui Makers, slow motion frames, the launch of Maker Share, zip-tie lamps, rocker switch walls, magnetic wristbands, and a cheap way to brand wood. This week’s featured Cool Tool is the MagnoGrip magnetic wristband.
My Top 5 Summer Projects [Maker Update #38]
This week on Maker Update, Donald runs through a list of projects he’d like to accomplish this summer. This week’s featured Cool Tool is the d.light S2 rechargeable LED light.
Zoetrope Fidget Spinner [Maker Update #37]
This week on Maker Update, a zoetrope and a fidget spinner make a baby, an SLS printer from Formlabs, a Raspberry Pi weather chamber, component carnage, and a tiny OLED Pi screen. Our featured Cool Tool is the Hakko FX-901 cordless soldering iron.
Making the Kitty Grabs Back Electric Go Kart
If you’ve never seen or heard of Power Racing Series, start here and come back. It looks like crazy fun, right? People take a second-hand kid’s ride-on car (or build one from scratch), turn them into full-on electric go karts, and race each other for fun and glory.
And every year at Maker Faire Bay Area, I’ve watched these racers from the sidelines, laughing and cheering and thinking to myself that someday I might just build and race a car of my own.
Season 8 Power Racing Series Trailer from Power Racing Series on Vimeo.
At the 2016 Maker Faire, freshly unemployed from my year as Make magazine’s Project Editor, I decided there was never going to be a better time to try building my own car.
The Quantified Hamster [Maker Update #36]
This week on Maker Update, Bluetooth controlled lights for your skateboard, tracking your hamster health, a classy Kaleidoscope, a tool for finding the center of a circle, beautiful circuit diagrams and Maker Faires. Our featured Cool Tool is the Robert Larson 800-2875 Plastic Center Finder.
The Perfect Summer Robot [Maker Update #35]
This week on Maker Update, Kitty Grabs Gold, a robot beer cooler that follows you, the Circuit Playground Express, Adafruit and Microsoft, Other Machine Co. and Bre Pettis, Tinkercad Lego export, a great kit for gadget and toy hacking, and Maker Faires. Our featured Cool Tool is the iFixit Electronic Toolkit.
Fire Skateboard [Maker Update #34]
This week on Maker Update: a skateboard that shoots fire, design concepts from Hackaday prize, a dirt-cheap telepresence robot, a military tool bag, cardboard rivets, a microcontroller guide from Make, and the biggest show and tell on earth. Here’s a link to our featured Cool Tools product on Amazon (Canvas Military Tool Bag).