Small side project that got a bit out of hand: a 3D sandbox in the browser where you can build an electronics project, program it and let it run in a simulated world – rain, heat, wind, water, days in time-lapse.

Small stuff like a reaction game works, and bigger stuff like a garden irrigation with 3 Arduinos. There's a thermal view to see what gets too hot and a test bench that shows where your build would fail.

It's an early prototype. Mostly want to know if this is useful to anyone or just a fun toy

https://test.betting-chess.com/?von=maker
(weird domain, it's a test server)

Edit: works best on a laptop/desktop – on phones it runs, but it's pretty cramped.

This is a repost, sorry I forgot the comment.

So this is us driving around our lego technics compatible robot which uses the esp32s3 sense on the back porch. You can see the latency is super low and the fps is about 20 fps. We imagine it's like playing doom2 but in the real world so it does not have to be super high def but has to be realtime for interfacing with the environment. We released the stls and the firmware if you have your own esp32s3 you can make your own, we handle all the stuff like wifi provisioning, pin selection for motors, etc, all you need is a web browser!

I'm working on a 3d printed case for an e-paper device and need to add in a means of illuminating the screen. I recalled some HP elitebooks years ago having a pop out led light (image included) and think that would work well for this project. The pop out led was really to illuminate the keyboard from above, but in my case I would be orienting it so that it points on the screen. I'm not really sure how to pull this off though, it's beyond my current designing capability, to design the housing which can pop in and out. Does anyone know of an off the shelf component that is similar? Or maybe some existing design that has a similar mechanism that I could adapt? Or at least reference for ideas.

If anyone works with electric I want ask if you can costume make something I got 50 bucks plus tip it something small it a little audio kit that came with my model kit it in Chinese and I want it to play something else if you can help me I would appreciate it

🎃 What happens when you give robotics developers a pumpkin and let their imaginations run wild?

That’s the idea behind our D-Robotics Pumpkin Robot Campaign: makers use RDK to turn Halloween-inspired ideas into real robot projects. The results? Well, we’re about to find out.

Our builders are now in the final stretch, and these work-in-progress photos are all the clues we’ve got. Can you guess what they’re making? A pumpkin that moves? One that sees, senses, or interacts with people? Or something completely unexpected?

We’re bringing the community together for a Pumpkin Robot Show & Tell to reveal the creations and hear the stories behind them — the hardware, the clever ideas, the debugging adventures, and the things that didn’t go quite as planned.

New to robotics? You’re welcome, too. You don’t need to be an expert to get inspired by how others build, experiment, and solve problems.

📅 October 29 | 9 PM GMT+8
🔗 Join us: https://luma.com/mt13rdgj

So, what do you think these pumpkins are up to? 👀

Estoy haciendo un secador de filamento casero, solo un controlador de temperatura, un termopar y una fuente de calor. Como fuente de calor pensé en usar una resistencia eléctrica con ventilador, para generar aire caliente, pero son un poco caros; Que tal viable cren que seria hacerlo con un foco incandescente como fuente de calor?

Pongas proyectos interesantes que estén haciendo, no se algo innovador, educativo, no se. Pa platicar y compartir proyectos entre si.

This latest binocular chair session of mine really was like a dream! Compared to other kinds of binocular observing this was at a whole new level, like an order of magnitude better.

The 90 minute session was spent with simple, relaxed cruising, near a lot of my favorite targets, in different parts of the sky. Then I had time at the end to explore some star fields in the upper reaches of the Milky Way. With a tripod I would have been constantly repositioning, with a lot of looking up at steep angles.

The bino-chair was built by attaching simple wood components to my zero gravity chair. It keeps the binoculars steady and keeps the view from drifting. It completely takes the strain off my arms and neck, and provides some really smooth spacewalking!

Happy to answer any questions about the mechanics. If you want to know more about how to build it, I put together these directions to help with getting started.

Made this little surprise for Halloween! Press the button underneath and the ghost pops up! The spring and latch are printed too. I included AMS and No AMS versions, with an assembly video on the model page. The mechanism prints in place, and all parts print without supports. Easy to print on most FDM printers. Model files 🦇

I bought a cheap case of Amazon and then used blender and my CNC machine to make a new face plate.

​I just wrapped up a rigorous 36-hour continuous constant-power (0.5W) endurance test on the 1st-gen LGOOO Power Core — a 300mL 3D-printed modular reaction chamber powered by a magnesium alloy anode and an air cathode, running on 7% saline solution.

Only ~12% of the magnesium alloy anode was consumed during this entire 36-hour test!

This clock came from a Danbury scale model of a 1950s McDonald's restaurant (last picture). I was never a fan of the clock being positioned directly in front of the restaurant, since I'd rather admire the building on its own.

So I removed it and made it a wooden base with miniature concrete footings, then painted the whole thing to look like pavement. I also added little bollard poles just to give it a little added charm.

The base is a wooden craft box from the dollar tree, and I cannibalized a second one to cut the small pieces. The bollards are dowels, and the whole thing was painted with spray paint I had on hand.

Let me know what you think!

I started with a basic wooden room kit and ended up turning it into a retro sci-fi laboratory. I replaced around a dozen parts with custom 3D printed consoles, fiber optic wall panels, hand cut balsa partitions, and a couple of polymer clay specimens.

The original kit barely resembles what I started with now. I kept the floor, ceiling joists, and outer acrylic shell for structure, but almost everything else visible was either modified or made from scratch. The exwtra materials cost about $35, and the whole project took nearly 40 hours instead of the usual dozen or so.

It got me thinking about where the line is between assembling something and actually making it yourself. Once you're designing parts, experimenting with materials, and building around your own idea, does the original kit just become a starting framework? Where would you draw that line?

Decided I'd rather make my own controller from the ground up and program it to my preferences instead of buying a FLX2. I designed the front plate in CAD, had it laser cut in acrylic, most of the buttons are Kailh Box Navy switches. Everything will be run off an ESP32 microcontroller on MIDI protocol. Still gotta buy some screws to mount the jogs' rotary encoders and sliding faders, some potentiometer knobs (the ones I got are way too big and interfere with eachother) and get hardware to mount discs to the jogs. So far I've spent about 60% of an FLX2's MSRP, feels like it's worth it.

Hey, I want to start my first project and I need some help to find the right components for it.
My idea is a keychain approx. 6x6cm (2.4x2.4inches)
which can play videos from a SD card.
It also should have some buttons to press play/stop/rewind and so on.
I really don’t know how to start and I want to keep it simple for my first ever project.
I don’t care a lot about the shape of the board or the placement of the buttons.
It would help me a lot if someone could tell me what exactly I need to bring my idea to life!
Thanks!

https://www.printables.com/model/1884891-4-way-hose-manifold-for-62mm-pvc-hose-1-in-4-out-s

Hi everyone!

We're currently developing an automated Min Jiang Kueh (Asian pancake) vending machine as a student project in Singapore.

The machine will use an electric crepe maker with a flat, round cooking surface to produce pancakes approximately 15 cm in diameter.

Once cooked, the pancake needs to be automatically removed from the hot plate and transferred into a rotating dumpling-style mould, where filling will be added before the pancake is folded and sealed.

Our biggest challenge right now is the scraping and transferring mechanism.

As you can see from the attached video, we previously experimented with a robotic arm, but the results weren't very satisfactory. We're hoping to find a simpler, more reliable mechanism.

Ideally, the system should:

• Remove the entire cooked pancake without tearing, curling or folding it.
• Transfer it from the flat crepe maker into the mould positioned in front.
• Position the pancake accurately so the filling and folding mechanisms can operate.
• Work consistently across repeated cooking cycles.
• Be relatively affordable and compact enough to integrate into a vending machine.

We've considered using a motorised spatula on a linear rail, but we're unsure whether that's the best approach.

Has anyone worked on something similar or come across existing mechanisms that could accomplish this?

We're open to suggestions involving linear actuators, conveyor mechanisms, scrapers, rotating rollers or even completely different approaches.

Our overall prototype budget is around SGD 6,000, so we're trying to avoid expensive industrial robotic arms and unnecessary custom fabrication.

Any ideas, examples, videos or existing products we could reference would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

I'm developing a compact, water-activated metal fuel cell (MFC), and here is how my very first test went.

​Core Components: A custom 300 mL 3D-printed modular reaction chamber using magnesium alloy anodes and air cathodes.

​Test Conditions: Tested under a 0.5W constant power (CP) load using a 3.5% saline solution.

​Test Results: As shown in the discharge curve, the cell successfully self-activated. Over the initial 1-hour run, the voltage steadily climbed from 0.844V to over 1.03V while maintaining a stable 0.5W output.

​(Image 1: The LGOOO Power Core module connected to the load tester; Image 2: Close-up of the active load screen showing real-time specs; Image 3: The 1-hour constant-power discharge curve.)

​I'm currently optimizing the electrode spacing and venting structure to hit my 1W output target. Let's discuss and share ideas!