News

  We're big fans of laser cutters here at oomlout, and in particular how they can create new and exciting uses for everyday materials. Aaron Porterfield is a fellow enthusiast, and recently published the results of his experiments with creating lattice hinges - laser-cut patterns that make wood flexible like paper - and curved surfaces, building on the work of Patrick Fenner at Deferred Procrastination. I'm no engineer, so all of what I've found is through trial and error. I tried a lot of different patterns to try to achieve different results, most of which were failed attempts at making...

Our friends at Phenoptix have been working on an impressive low cost robotics platform, dubbed the MeArm. Designed by Benjamin Gray and Jack Howard and released under a permissive licence, the arm can be quickly manufactured in acrylic using an A4-size laser cutter and controlled from an Arduino, Raspberry Pi or similar platform using readily-available fixings and servos. The MeArm is a low cost robot arm, built for my frustration with the uArm Kickstarter for an Open Source robot arm. Why the frustration? Well, it was $185 for a product already available for $115. Touted everywhere as Open Source and...

Eureka, the national children's museum located handily close to oomlout HQ, has announced that it is to play host to the first Halifax Mini Maker Faire in August. Makers wanting to show off their creations can apply between now and the 24th of July, while the event itself opens its doors on Saturday the 30th of August with a maker's social the evening before. Part science fair, part craft fair, and part something entirely new, Maker Faires are an all-ages gathering of tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, scientists, authors, artists, and students. All of these “makers” come to...

Tindie, the community marketplace for makers, has turned up another gem in the form of a programmable fuse for breadboarding. Designed by Kaktus, a 28-year-old electrochemistry student from the Czech Republic, BFuse looks like a great way to protect expensive components during prototyping and can be programmed via an on-board ATtiny microcontroller. A lot of mistakes can happen during prototyping: Misplacing components, creating random shorts or simply making things wrong. BFuse can help saving precious components that would otherwise be damaged by such mistakes. It works like a regular fuse, only better. BFuse constantly compares the load current with the...

Organiser Andrew Back has announced the speaker line-up for the Open Source Hardware Camp in nearby Hebden Bridge on the 16th of August, and it's a corker. Part of the Wuthering Bytes technology festival, the Camp last year was a smashing success and this year's looks to be a must-see event for anyone with an interest in coding, making and hacking and one we here at oomlout will most certainly be attending. Linux Bootloaders and Kernel Configuration, by Melanie Rhianna Lewis. Open Source Archaeological Geophysics, by Tony Brookes. An Open Source Aquaponics Control System, by Gareth Coleman and Dr. Naomi...