DIY - SlashGear

‘DIY’ Stories

Tron Lightcycle PC case mod is the coolest ever

Shane McGlaun, May 19th 2011 Discuss [4]

OMG! I am a big fan of Tron. I watched the original as a kid and really liked the new flick too. My favorite thing about Tron has always been the lightcycles. I spent more quarters than I can count in the arcade in the 80's when I was a kid playing the official video game trying to perfect my lightcycle combat. A new case mode that has surfaced today is one of the coolest I have ever seen and it looks like a lightcycle. Read The Full Story

Manual, automated printer contraption will write texts on the wall

Shane McGlaun, May 18th 2011 Discuss [0]

I can't say that I have ever received a text so cool that I wanted to write it on the wall. If you have thought it might be cool to print out texts to keep for posterity, and you have a big vacant wall Liat Segal has invented a crazy device that is a combination of an automated printer and a manual device you have to push along the wall by hand. The printer was inspired by the old dot matrix printers of yore, which are still used in some industries. Read The Full Story

Cotton Balls, DC motors, and cardboard boxes make art

Shane McGlaun, May 16th 2011 Discuss [0]

My daughter is in kindergarten and she is always bringing home some sort of art project she made at school. The last one was a chick made from cotton balls that were pulled apart to make the little chick look fuzzy. That is the only art I think of when you say cotton balls are involved. An artist called Zimoun that is known for using cardboard and DC motors to create sound and art installations has used those materials with some cotton balls attached to create the latest installation. Read The Full Story

DIY R2-D2 rolling trash can would get stolen (by me)

Shane McGlaun, May 13th 2011 Discuss [3]

I guess like most neighborhoods, mine is apparently packed with mostly idiots. Few here have a sense of humor and they don't really tolerate anything out of the norm. I guess that's why the homeowners association doesn't like my yard. We all have these big rolling trashcans and if you leave it on the curb more than 15 seconds after the truck rolls off, you will get a warning notice in the mail. I wonder if they would let this R2-D2 trashcans slide a little. Read The Full Story

Jetman flies across Grand Canyon after jumping from helicopter

Shane McGlaun, May 11th 2011 Discuss [0]

You might recall back on November of 2010 I mentioned a daredevil named Yves Rossy. Rossy is also known as Jetman to his fans. He gets the nickname from the wing with jet nozzles underneath that he straps to his back. Jetman launches his wing backpack by jumping off a helicopter or other stabile platform in the air and then firing up those jets for powered flight. Previously Rossy has performed loops and other stunts. Read The Full Story

Mexican drug cartel builds its own tank, forgets about tires

Shane McGlaun, May 11th 2011 Discuss [7]

I don't think for a second that I am the only one surprised that drug wars rage on in Mexico. Some of these bloody fights are only a short hop away from the border here in Texas making things even more disconcerting. Apparently, the drug cartels watch the A-Team and have seen B.A. and Face whip up some of those improbably armored cars to take on the world. It's even more apparent the drug cartels forgot to consider one significant point. Read The Full Story

DIY Portal turret has motion detection and laser eye

Shane McGlaun, May 10th 2011 Discuss [3]

I like geeky DIY projects as much as anyone else does. I especially like them when the builder takes something cool from a video game and brings it into the real world. If you are a fan of Portal, you will recognize this DIY project right away as one of the turrets from the game. This cool project has a geek building a life-size version of that turret and equipping it with motion detection and a laser eye. Read The Full Story

Artisan creates jewelry from old tech

Shane McGlaun, May 10th 2011 Discuss [0]

Over the years, I have seen some interesting things made from old tech products that are no longer useful. I have always particularly liked the geeky clocks and coasters that I have seen made from the old mainboards and circuit boards from inside computers and other gear. Thick and inflexible mainboards and other rigid items don't lend themselves well to shapes other than flat surfaces though. That means that making something like a ring out of a circuit board is very hard to do. Read The Full Story

Halo Master Chief suite made from LEGO

Shane McGlaun, May 9th 2011 Discuss [0]

We can never underestimate the ability of a geek with a desire and a bunch of LEGO bricks to build anything that can be dreamed up. At times, we see things made for LEGO and while the scale of the construction is impressive, the overall design isn't that difficult to imagine someone building. Take that LEGO brick wall I mentioned last week, that was huge and impressive, but we have all built walls with LEGO. Read The Full Story

POLYRO open source robot is cute and friendly

Shane McGlaun, May 5th 2011 Discuss [0]

I really like robots and I can't wait until we can have our own affordable bots to help around the house. There is so much research going into robots for various uses today that new designs are surfacing all the time. A new bot has come to light called POLYRO. POLYRO stands for oPen sOurce friendLY RObot. You can see for the caps in the long name where the short version came from. The little bot is cool and looks a bit like some sort of toy with a smiling face and frog eyes. Read The Full Story

LEGO wall is on display, and it’s awesome

Shane McGlaun, May 4th 2011 Discuss [2]

I love LEGO and I have, since I was a kid. I was a LEGO genius as a child. I didn’t need no stink' instructions. I could build anything on the box just from looking at the images. I also got in trouble more than a few times for getting bored with LEGO and leaving the parts lying around. As an adult massive things made of the building blocks intrigue me and when those massive things made of LEGO end up in a museum setting on display, I have to write about it. Read The Full Story

CrazyFlie quadrocopter uses a Playstation controller for control

Shane McGlaun, May 3rd 2011 Discuss [1]

I am a sucker for anything remote controlled. I particularly like remote control flying whatnots. I really liked the looks and cool factor of the AR.Drone, but that quadrocopter was just more than I could bring myself to spend on a toy. Three hackers from the Daedalus Project banded together to build their own tiny quadrocopter that is very small and looks pretty darn cool. The little copter is called the CrazyFlie and is small enough to sit in the palm of your hand. Read The Full Story