Category Archives: toys

Lasercar Lives!

Posted on February 1, 2020 by paulwallich

I know it’s not much, but the new version is ready for coding. It knows how far it is from obstacles (in front), it steers, it goes forward and backward. And it does it all in python. Code and current … Continue reading →

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Let There Be Light

Posted on December 4, 2019 by paulwallich

I remixed an old openscad christmas tree design to include space for a coin cell and an LED. Coincidentally I have a bunch of green LEDs lying around — their light gets through the plastic a lot better than the … Continue reading →

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Glowforge!

Posted on July 12, 2017 by paulwallich

My laser cutter arrived a few weeks ago. It’s pretty cool. Partly because I’ve been anticipating it for the better (worse?) part of two years, but mostly because it’s just there. I’ve used a laser cutter before, and this was … Continue reading →

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A child of the 80s

Posted on January 21, 2016 by paulwallich

Sometimes I wonder if the 11-year-old is too retro. His current hobby is playing an emulated version of Street Fighter 2 on his PC. And now that a vintage-gaming store has opened in the next town over, he pretty much … Continue reading →

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cleaning out the basement one bright idea at a time

Posted on January 15, 2016 by paulwallich

When we were making new year’s resolutions last month, mine was to, y’know, build some of the cool kits and kit-like part collections I’ve acquired over the years. First up: Solarbotics marble machine. Cute, simple, less than an hour build … Continue reading →

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Pinbox 3000!

Posted on December 3, 2015 by paulwallich

Arrived just in time for the 11-year-old’s birthday. Delightful. He’s been wanting one of his own ever since he got to play with some of the early prototypes. Takes about an hour and a half for a kid to build … Continue reading →

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True North

Posted on November 1, 2015 by paulwallich

Well, except for declination error and any nearby metal objects, and within the resolution of the stepper motor… Ingredients: Adafruit 9-degree-of-freedom accelerometer/gyro/magnetometer, wired through a slip ring to an Arduino clone with lots of spare 5-volt power, driving one of … Continue reading →

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The Roombaphone

Posted on October 21, 2015 by paulwallich

It might not be the most over-engineered way to make low-quality 8-bit sounds ever, but I think it’s in the running. This is what comes of allowing a 10-year-old access to the basement. My mother-in-law got a Roomba for christmas … Continue reading →

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Clearing the deck

Posted on September 29, 2015 by paulwallich

Back in my misspent youth, I was a stage lighting geek. Lots of time on ladders with a speed wrench, hours poring over swatches of filters with names like “Surprise Pink” and “1/4 CT Blue”. So years later, when I … Continue reading →

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Retrobotics

Posted on July 27, 2015 by paulwallich

The 10-year-old has been getting into my old Mindstorms RCX stuff. I wrote an article about back when it was cutting-edge, and it’s been sitting mostly idle ever since. The laptop he’s using (the only one in the house that … Continue reading →

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