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ZO RELAXEN UND WATSCHEN DER BLINKENLICHTEN.

I pointed to some blinking Christmas lights and told a couple of kids in our coderdojo that there is software code in those lights. 15 years ago most blinking Christmas lights relied on a bulb filament's heat bending a bimetal contact away from a fixed contact or an analog oscillator. Now it's cheaper, more reliable, efficient and flexible to use microcontrollers and LEDs whose flickering might not be entirely random.

Get to a Maker Faire. Several years ago I spent awhile talking with Bre Pettis about his new machine from MakerBot without realizing who he was. Take the kids! Solder your own badge! Learn how to make your own air powered rockets! My kids aren't even into robots think it is a blast. A word of waring... they make you sign a serious waiver for a reason. They expect you to pay attention to your surroundings and not blindly walk into that quadcopter demo. Make sure your kids are not texting as they walk. Look for some of the small booths/tables with guys that brought in their home brewed stuff. They were you not that long ago and would love to talk about hot to get started. The fancy booths are people looking to sell stuff. If your not looking to buy your own laser cutter.... they will let you look and they will be polite but they are looking to sell stuff.
http://makerfaire.com/

If you decide you want to start now and want to learn how things work....

Get this kit for $49:
http://www.adafruit.com/products/193

Follow the tutorials starting here:
http://learn.adafruit.com/lesson-0-getting-started

Soon you will be a master of blinky lights. Think of it as "Hello world" for robotics.

If you think, "HOLY CRAP. I AM MAKING IT REALLY DO THINGS" Then continue. If you went, "HOLY CRAP, I JUST WASTED $50 AND A FEW HOURS OF MY LIFE TO MAKE A STUPID LIGHT BLINK" you might consider some of the more expensive options or re-consider your desire to do this. If you want to continue...

If you have an old printer laying around then rip some motors out of it. In fact anything that has a motor or is older electronics will soon be looked at with, "Hey, that has a nice transformer in it. Those are some nice through hole resisters. Would you look at those hardened steel rods! I wonder why they did it this way?"

Things to consider furthering the addiction:
motor shield with some basic motors
digital multimeter
Soldering iron, do not get one of those nasty Radio Shack $20 pieces of junk. You wouldn't try to build a small deck with a handsaw. This is one of the more expensive pieces you will buy, but it is one of those tools that you will use and will appreciate not having a junk one. This does not mean you need to get a super solder re-work station. Get one with a base station and dial control. Temp controlled would be great.
Go to a nearby electronics place that sells this stuff and buy some general wire, breadboard etc. They will appreciate the business and might be there someday when you really need that one part and don't want to wait for shipping. I was amazed to find one near me. They were rather knowledgeable compared to some certain chains (they had a soldering iron on the counter just in case)
An old computer with the following ports: MIDI(computers used to have a port with real IO, oh my), serial, USB, parallel. You might want to eventually talk to ports and individual pins without the OS in the way. Windows stopped allowing this with XP. A P4 is fast but gets warm and very power hungry. A PIII not so hot or power hungry but not as fast. An old laptop works great for this since it has a small footprint.

Start to follow a few web sites:
http://hackaday.com/
http://www.adafruit.com/blog/?main_page=blog
http://blog.makezine.com/
http://dangerousprototypes.com/
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/
http://diydrones.com/
https://www.sparkfun.com/

When I started working with LEDs they just introduced the LM3909 oscillator - it allowed an LED (only red in those days) to blink for an entire year on a single D cell.

What keeps amazing me about LEDs is just how little energy they need to start lighting up. I'm not really into electronics anymore (was only tinkering with it since I was 11), but I recall that by using a FET for constant current meant you could be pretty flexible about the supply voltage (within limits, of course, the dissipation has to go somewhere), and by researching what it was (been a while) I came across other interesting ideas.

As a single, simple component, I find LEDs are about the most interesting ones to experiment with (and LDRs, and NTCs, and .. :) ). They are nice to introduce children to electronics because they instantly do something visible..

Nope, as I pointed out on El Reg - pretty flexible:

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/mobiuscircuit

From 2009

They exist. EvilMadScientist wrote a blurb about them a while back. Google for cable tie installation tool for a lot more.

There was one done quite a bit ago that used sugar as the print material. Wasn't very high resolution, but it worked, and could be eaten. Also, I've heard of Rep-raps using chocolate (and other substances) in the past.

This also doesn't appear very high resolution, so I'm failing to see what about this is first or even particularly novel about it. The only first I see is the specific things they used.

Ah, indeed, I have found a link: http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/candyfab

Is there an American Equivalent to this place? I feel so third-rate here in the USA :-(

No. But the Palo Alto Electronics Flea Market feels a little bit like it (well, more like NYC's old Radio Row), although (with the exception of a couple of LED lighting vendors, who always seem to have new stuff straight outta China :) you won't find too many modern components. Still a great place to pick up tubes, RF gear, a Tek scope, or even just RAM on the cheap. Here's some pics, courtesy of some Evil Mad Scientist.

Is it cooler than the CNC Toaster, or even than this toast printer?

I always wanted to do something like thissawed off USB. Looks just like a cut off wire, put it in your "junk" container. Or hide the drive in a seemingly whole wire and run it to the printer with the drive part connected to the printer.

Then move on to a crystal radio. Show them the math behind the design of the inductor, how you calculate the number of turns to make the circuit resonate at the required frequency.

I never tell anyone what the Christmas Letter will look like, and I have only one rule â" I have to outdo whatever I did the last year.

I fear I've fallen into that trap too, last year I made some edge lit christmas cards but instead of using coin batteries I included twisted white wire with a soldered USB plug so the card will never run out of power (unless you switch your PC off). Just about everyone who received one loved it.

This year I'm planning on doing another edge lit card but with several layers, powered by a SMD PICAXE chip embedded into the card for animation, flashing, sequencing or whatever I decide.

The year after next I may do yet another USB powered edge lit card but include a flash drive for a christmas video or something *shrug* hopefully I'll get some good ideas from this topic :)

I think that age group is too young to build robots on any informative level. I'm sorry, but they just won't "get it".

You'd be surprised. When my son was in Cub Scouts (grades 2-5) we had them do this kind of stuff all the time.

Here's a great project that's well within the age range of these kids: Bristlebots! Provide them with all the technical parts: motors, double sided tape, batteries, wires, solder, tools, and safety equipment, everything except for the toothbrush. Give them at least a week's notice to bring in a toothbrush, (provide printed flyers explaining the project) and they'll go home and beg mom or dad to help them find them an old toothbrush they can destroy. Of course you'll need some extras on hand so nobody is left out. But make sure they have plenty of notice. The anticipation is a huge part of the experience.

The flyers serve several purposes: they build excitement, they inform the parents about days and activities, they ask parents to help scrounge up a toothbrush, they can serve as the "permission slip" to use the tools under supervision, and depending on financial circumstances, you can ask parents to pay the cost of the parts. You need to be clear that parts will be provided for all the kids regardless of donations, so as not to leave anyone out. But really, the first hit on the Goog just found pager motors for $1.29, so parts costs should be dirt cheap. Even in a tough situation with a lot of underprivileged kids, you can probably find a couple people willing to donate $20 or so.

On build day, use the older kids to perform the tougher tasks. The 3rd and 4th graders are more than capable of sawing off the toothbrush handles with a hacksaw (provide a vise.) If you have a 5th grader in the group, they might even be capable of soldering, but if not you could still use one as a "third hand" to apply the solder. (Or you can pre-solder the wires yourself before Robot Day.) Direct supervision and proper safety equipment is required, of course, but kids LOVE to use "dangerous" tools. It's a great opportunity to educate them on safety, and there's very little chance of serious injury.

If you print up assembly directions, be sure you test them yourself before build day. Have a pre-made bristlebot to show the kids what they're making.

For the youngest kids, if you can find a way to decorate them (provide them with stickers or whatever) then they get to participate too. There's a tremendous value in getting the kids to do the assembly. It might be slightly beyond the 5-6 year olds (it's definitely kid dependent,) but even the 7-year olds are likely to be able to accomplish it. And the younger kids may just have fun playing with them, but it's still participation.

Be sure to follow up the build event with some kind of organized contest where the kids can enter their robots. It's best to run it the same day so that kids don't have a chance to lose or break their robots or wear out their batteries.

If you operate the bristlebots on a horizontal dry-erase board as the article pictures, you could try having them erase marker lines, or race from one end to the other, or out of a circle, or follow a simple drawn track. Pre-print some award certificates for things like "Robot with the Cleanest Teeth" and a handful of other cheesy awards, and hand them out for things like "the kid who picked the highest number."

Trust me -- if you can organize this little bit, the kids will love it and the parents will beg you to do it again next year.

Yup. EvilMadScientist did a short series of articles on making them.

If you want to make a special card which lights up, I saw this great little project close to christmas and so I made 9 cards, but instead of watch batteries that would die after a week or so I wired in resistors & USB plugs (strangely the only place I can find solderable USB plugs online/offline is from Maplins!), all the recipients loved them and most wondered how the blinking flip they were lit up.

Edge lit holiday cards (the snowflake one looks much better with a black background & two blue LEDs, one at the top & other at the bottom)

Next christmas I'm going to have to make something even better - anyone have any simple circuit designs on using an LED as a light sensor and then making some more LEDs react by blinking?

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/junkbox
Add what you can and pass it on

The great internet migratory box of electronics junk. Here

• Dilbert - do I need to describe this?
• Explosm.com - Cyanide and Happiness comic
• Fokke & Sukke - Dutch comic. Popular daily cartoon (yes, I'm dutch and the name is intentional)
• Little Gamers - gaming comic
• Penny Arcade - gaming comic
• FAIL blog - epic fail every day

Finance & Economy

• BusinessWeek Online -- Most Popular Stories
• Calculated Risk - general blog
• The Economist - News analysis and views
• NRC | EconomieDutch newspaper, economy section

Space

• Bad Astronomy - Phil Plait's blog about astronomy and skepticism
• Chris Lintott's Universe - Astronomer, Galaxy Zoo co-founder and co-host of BBC's The Sky at Night
• NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
• New Scientist, Space - Astronomy section of New Scientist
• Space.com - More space news...
• Starts With a Bang! - Astrophysicist Ethan Siegel, tries to answer some common but very complex astronomy questions.
• Universe Today - One of the most well known astronomy blogs

Tech

• Engadget - THE gadget blog
• Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories - making crazy electronic stuff (and drooling over niche market product catalogues)
• Gametrailers' ScrewAttack - funny gaming videos
• Kotaku - THE games blog
• Reuters Science
• Reuters Technology
• Slashdot
• The Brainy Gamer - in-depth articles about (the history of) games in general
• Tweakers.net - the dutch Slashdot

Misc

• Greggman - American gamedev'er who lived in Japan
• Jort Kelder - Dutch dandy. Ex-editor-in-chief of Quote, a magazine about entrepeneurs and the life of the nouveau rich. Co-host of the dutch Dragons Den.
• Scalzi's Whatever - Sciencefiction author.
• The Sartorialist - Fashion photographer. If you'd like to dress like a man with some class, instead of a fake tan metrosexual...look here for inspiration.

OK, this is totally not the cool answer, but I started with this one:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102913&cp=2032062.2032398&parentPage=family

It comes with two books, one on digital and one on analog circuits. I outgrew it quickly, but it got me far enough along to step up to a breadboard and raw parts. The circuits cover extreme beginner to, say, apprentice - so it's not going to last long if it appeals to you. But that was great for me as it completely evaporated any fear I had of the complexity. I like to be a tough guy as much as anyone else, but sometimes it's nice not to be in over your head.

The next step I took was "The Art of Electronics" (brilliant book) and a breadboard. That was a bit of a leap, but very good for analog circuits. On the digial side, check out Lady Ada and Evil Mad Scientist:

http://www.adafruit.com/
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/

What about doing it with sugar instead?

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/candyfab

Gotta put in a plug for Make magazine, which is a fun read, and full of good projects that anyone can do.

I teach an undergrad course in computer organization (basically beginner architecture), and I've gotten lots of ideas from Lady Ada and Evil Mad Scientist. We use AVR microcontrollers, and the cheap-o USB programmers from Lady Ada, to do a bunch of fun and easy projects.

My kids are 8 and 5, and are playing around a lot with LEDs and magnets. I probably won't let them solder until they're teen-agers (lead in solder sucks, but solder without lead also sucks), but they are getting to breadboard some stuff.

And of course, mentos and coke is always a good idea.

Shouldn't be too hard to make a Baker's Map cookie. Hey, count the puff pastry layers!

You see, when I read that it makes me think you're in the wrong field. Sure, I wouldn't go to a party to solve PDEs but I would love a maths themed party because I find it interesting. Little maths jokes, fractal cookies (suggested before), everyone in xkcd shirts... it'd be awesome!

Bring fractal cookies.

Also, try asking on the XKCD forums. They're slightly higher-brow than here, judging by the comments I see for now ;)

This should cause a nice bump for encrypted drive/volume software.

I put all my personal sensitive data (tax, etc) in a disk image on my key drive. Looking for more "obfuscation" try this torn-cable usb drive.

A few months ago I wrote up a post wondering why no one had done this yet. Put those accelerometers to work!

I think that's a really neat idea. Modular screens. Imagine a laptop with two screens, one that you do your viewing on, one that you do your typing on, and when you want to watch movies, you "open" the laptop all the way (180 degree angle), twist it 90 degrees, and now it becomes a larger monitor for watching movies.

It would need a hinging mechanism to allow the two screens to sit next to each other, virtually pixel against pixel, which might be tough. However, with the direction OLEDs are going, there could be a flexible plastic LED joint between the two screens to allow uninterrupted transitions.

I like that Apple remote. That not only looks slick, but could be really functional as well.

The toast thing, while creative, isn't as "useful," per se, but it certainly is biodegradable. Then we'll be having moral discussions about feeding starving nations vs. Post-it Toast, similar to the 'Corn: Ethanol vs. Food' discussion now. But, if you feel creative, you can make one yourself!

I haven't opened any drive more recent than a 200MB (i.e. >10 yrs old), but all I needed to do that was a torx driver. I've never encountered one built to resist intentional opening (unless you count those stickers!) The platters are a non-magnetic material (aluminum in my experience, though I hear glass is used, too) coated with a thin layer of ferromagnetic material. I'm pretty sure that a few minutes with an orbital sander on this layer would make it "effectively unrecoverable" by even the best data recovery house. It's hard to say what the pattern of magnetic orientations might have been once they're scattered in a completely random pile of dust. You give me 30 minutes, I'll make sure your data can't be read. And, I can get some windchimes and rare earth magnets at the same time! Bonus!

That one is already done, thanks to Evil Mad Scientist; http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/candyfab
Cheap, fast, and makes things out of sugar, Sweet!

You may think that a glowing red eye switched on by the evil bit is a fault light.

But red on a robot is a feature

I think this would be a better pumpkin to have voice synth honestly... What the heck is scary about a Apple computer pumpkin? It went sour on you?

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/DalekP umpkin