News

We've mentioned the MeArm pocket-sized robotic arm before, but the project to create affordable robotics has entered an exciting new stage. Back in October, our friend Ben Gray launched MeArm Limited, a partnership dedicated solely to what had previously been a part-time venture. Since then, the open-hardware MeArm design - a fully-functional robot arm constructed from a single A4 acrylic sheet and affordable hobby servos - has continued to draw world-wide interest. Now, Ben's taken to crowd-funding site Kickstarter to take the project to the next level: the launch of an Arduino-compatible microcontroller designed specifically for the MeArm. Featuring two...

Although 3D printers are the go-to 'cool' small-scale manufacturing device of the day, they're not without their problems: at the hobby level, they're slow, often finicky to set up, and can suffer from weak finished parts due to poor adhesion between the built-up layers. For these reasons, and a bunch more, we at oomlout prefer our tried-and-tested laser cutters - and so does Martin Raynsford. Having found that knobs constructed on a hobbyist 3D printer were proving weak, he turned to another tool and designed a laser cut knob. Constructed from an acrylic core, for strength, with a wooden outer...

That wondrous celebration of consumerism we like to call Christmas is almost upon us, and if you're struggling for a few last-minute gifts for the maker in your life you might like to take a look at our 2014 Gift Guide for inspiration. With old classics and some new surprises, we'd like to think there's something for everyone - provided that everyone likes Arduino, of course. For Decoration: LED Pixels Created by our friends over at Adafruit and based on the popular WS2812 red, green, blue (RGB) LEDs, the NeoPixel family is new to our stock - and just in...

Glancing through our various product offerings, you'd be forgiven for thinking us at oomlout a bunch of technophiles. Honestly, though, we're just as happy playing around with our various manual tools to create something as we are programming an Arduino. Matthias Wandel is another fan of hand-working, and on his Woodgears site offers an insight into how traditional methods can compete with shiny new CNC and 3D printing systems. Brought to our attention via a thread on OpenBuilds, Matthias has created a variety of wooden manufacturing rigs for cheap router tools - including a pantograph to copy existing designs in...

Although we get great pleasure out of builds that answer a real need here at oomlout, sometimes building something purely for fun is just what the doctor ordered. We've already showcased Ben Light's Slinky Machine, which 'exercises' his Slinky spring in the absence of stairs, but Harm Alexander Aldick's Lorem Ipsum is arguably slightly less useless: it allows Internet users to transmit messages to be displayed on an 8x8 LED matrix. Spotted via Hackaday, the project serves at least one real-world purpose: it's a great demonstration of how an Arduino and Ethernet Shield - or just the dedicated Arduino Ethernet...