Using a Parallax Propeller Jason Dorie built this Quadrotor. Watch the video below to see it in action. It looks to be very stable and with the Propeller processor on board there is sure to be no lack of processing power to keep things nice and stable.

“The control board is a Parallax Propeller protoboard (a quick prototyping board you can buy for about $20). The only sensor currently in use is a single 3-axis gyroscope (an ITG-3200). I have an ADXL-345 accelerometer mounted as well, but it’s not currently used.

Without batteries, it weighs 1kg (or 2lb, 4oz).”

[via: http://hackedgadgets.com/]

When you have a circuit idea in your head you used to reach for a napkin and a pen. More recently you probably launched a browser on whatever computer is closest but what if you could simply grab an iPad. Well that day has come. Now you can design your next circuit design on your iPad which is probably closer to you than your computer. It might not be ideal for large designs since a mouse and keyboard looks to be more efficient for speedy designs but that is a small price to pay for the convenience.

Try CircuitLab Here.

“The CircuitLab web-app is now supported on the iPad! All of the CircuitLab schematic capture and simulation functionality is available on the supported mobile browsers. While we don’t expect most folks to want to design complex circuits on an iPad, we do think CircuitLab on touch-based tablets can be a great addition to a student reviewing or taking notes, editing and testing out a circuit someone else sent you, or sketching out a quick idea when inspiration strikes.”

[via: http://hackedgadgets.com/]

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Gadget Master features cool, homemade electronic gadgets proudly brought to us–by you!

Complete with build instructions for the design engineer who likes the silly side of inventing things and enjoys building stuff in his and her spare time, these gadgets range from highly silly and impractical to extraordinarily inspirational for your own engineering design work.

Why not submit your own pride and joy for publication in Gadget Master?

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[via: http://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/gadget-freak/]

 Check out this Gir Robot Build. This build is a combination of all sorts of odds and ends. I had never seen Gir before, if you are in the same boat you can see more about the Invader Zim characters here. For an eyeballed hand built version it looks great! The eyes and audio really makes this tiny robot come to life.

Thanks for sending it in Rangerx52!

“When power is applied to the mainboard, gir goes into reset mode. The leg servos are told to sync up and fall (if up), the door is told to close, the eyes turned off, and the head to tilt down. This is done so that if a failure occurred last time, or he was shut off mid-program, he would revert to stage 1 in his animation automatically. He then waits in standby mode for input. the Servos are allowed to ragdoll.

-The remote controlled relay is placed inbetween an I/O pin on the pic, and power, meaning that every time the remote is pushed, the Microcontroller sees the state of the pin shift from low, to high. This signal tells it to advance through the program. Since Gir is in standby mode, he waits for the button push.

-Once the remote is pushed, he goes through his next animation, turning on his lights, and associated functions, until his next standby, until he finally goes into shutdown mode. This is a very simplified method of control, but it allows for some method of outside intervention. the speech is controlled by sending a string of data to the somo audio module, telling it what sound clip to play. The sound clips are actually just copied to an sd card, and played in order, but the controller has the option to play anything it wishes, according to the program.”

[via: http://hackedgadgets.com/]

Mr Floater, a maker from Germany sent in this diamagnetic levitation project. He was able to achieved a levitation gap of 12 mm. Have a look at the video above! Mr. Floater is selling the creation (not sure how much) but you can contact him through his Youtube account if you are interested in purchasing or building one of these.

“This is a levitation setup completely based on diamagnetic levitation. This kind of levitation setup needs no electronic circuit with feedback loop and sensors, and no superconductors. It is inherently stable as long as the NdFeB magnets are holding their magnetization – which they would do for a very, very long time or nearly forever. So, the astonishing is that for this free levitation no energy input is needed. I know, especially with this levitation height of 12mm, the whole thing may be counter-intuitive and people will say it is fake. But it is possible with the right combination of permanent magnets and pyrolytic graphite.”

[via: http://hackedgadgets.com/]