RoboBrrd to the Rescue!

Super-Awesome Sylvia — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 21:06:54 +0000

While we were at Bay Area Maker Faire 2012, out of nowhere, Robotgrrl came up to us and asked if I wanted her one and only, WaterBrrd! Of course I said yes!

I bet you're wondering what this RoboBrrd stuff is all about....

RoboBrrd started out as an interactive robot made of felt, popsicle sticks and an Arduino. Now, Robotgrrl is making it into an easy to solder board and lasercut kit for making your very own open source RoboBrrd!

The kit isn’t quite done yet (it’s hard to put together a kit!), so I just got the wood parts that she made using the laser at Evil Mad Science Laboratories!! Muahahaha!

To make the wings flap, we used paper clips as armatures connected to little blue servos mounted in the rectangle holes behind the eyes.

For the beak, it was a lot trickier! With the top and bottom beak parts loose, I figured out that with some cardboard and a paperclip triangle, you could keep it steady and open and close it. The servo at the back just pushes and pulls the cardboard.

When its fully completed, I want to make my WaterBrrd say my tweets by chirping and flapping its wings twice, or have it tell me the weather and current temperature. The possibilities are endless!

For right now, its flapping its wings, beaking around, blinking its eyes, and talking with an old android phone my dad hooked up. The programming was all done by me.

I used an Arduino Uno and programmed it very easily. It is just like scratch, except with words and semicolons. The robobrrd will be a great kit and I can’t wait till it comes out! GO ROBOBRRD!!!!!

Make your own no heat Lava Lamp

Dadmin — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 19:15:14 +0000

Mini

We'll show you how to make your own groovy lava lamp, no heat required! All you need are a few things you just might have in your kitchen.

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nemoDaedalusThis simply is the best Make has to offer nowadays. I subbed for the Weekend Projects, I wanna watch people actually make stuff. And I don't see that anymore. It seems Make only has vids of already completed projects: "So you guys made a fully automatic pingpong table?" Ok, I want to SEE people create a fully automatic pingpong table, and then learn from it! And imo only Sylvia shows how to do stuff - and throws in a little chemistry lesson while she's at it.
YesIamJamesAwesome video. I hope that kid keeps her passion for science.
kaikaipandaHaving studied chemistry for years, I can say this girl is gonna be a frigging amazing scientist!
musicalmike235You know, this is one of the few youtube video series hosted by a kid that is actually good. I mean it. She is actually really good.
audiomodderyou guys should see if you can get this on PBS. i would totally bribe my kid to watch stuff like this.
lptangcuangcothumbs up if you saw the oil molecule change emotion!
airsofteerSo now you have to decide whether you want to learn about molecular polarity or matter states!
TheSupertecnologywhat?! a child can work for makemagazine?! why didn´t anybody told me?! i´m going to get job now!!!

Sylvia's Super-Awesome Maker Show! - water

RoboBrrd to the Rescue!

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Make your own no heat Lava Lamp

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