When we think of fishing rods, the image brought to mind is one of a tweed-clad fisherman in his waders in a wild salmon stream, his line whipping about as it guides the fly over the surface of the water. Angling is a pursuit with a heritage, and having a lengthy rod seems an essential […]
Some time over a year ago, we told you about a camera. Not just any camera, but a fully-functional 35mm film camera made entirely of LEGO, and with a pleasingly retro design into the bargain. It’s the work of [Zung92], and it can be found on the LEGO Ideas website. You might now be asking […]
Construction kit toys are cited by many adults as sparking great creativity and engineering talent in their youth. LEGO, Meccano, K’NEX, Lincoln Logs—these are all great commercial options. But what about printing your very own construction kit at home? Meet Stemfie. Fundamentally, Stemfie isn’t that different from any other construction kit you might have seen […]
[Ben]’s a 15-year-old who loves engineering and loves taking on new challenges. He’s made some cool stuff over the years, but the high water mark (no pun intended) has to be this impressively documented remote controlled submarine. His new build starts off with more research than the actual building. [Ben] spent a ton of time […]
Many makers start by building mock-ups from cardboard, but [Alex-08] has managed to build an R/C plane that actually flies, out of cardboard. If you’ve been thinking of building an R/C plane from scratch yourself, this guide is an excellent place to start. [Alex-08] goes through excruciating detail on how he designed and constructed this […]
Back in the days before kids could be placated with a $50 Android burner phone, many a youngster was gifted a so-called “educational computer” to keep them occupied. Invariably looking like a fever dream version of the real computer their parents didn’t want to let them use, these gadgets offered monochromatic exploits that would make […]
Anyone who has done the slightest bit of programming knows about the “Hello, World!” program. It’s the archetypal program that one enters to get a feel for a new language or a new architecture; if you can get a machine to print “Hello, World!” back to you, the rest is just details. But what about […]
Most Hackaday readers are familiar with computers from the 70s and 80s, but what about ones even older than that? The Digi Comp 1 was a commercially available computer from the 1960s that actually cost less than a modern-day microcontroller. The catch? It was mechanical rather than electrical. Thanks to retro-wizard [Mike Gardi], now anyone […]
When [PeterSripol] was a kid, he made a simple sailboat from a scrap piece of 2×4 and some napkin sails. He’s not 8 years old anymore, but he decided he wanted to make another 2X4 sailboat using the skills he’s learned since he was a kid. You’ll have to get past storytime and mice, but […]
Like many creative individuals who suddenly find themselves parents, [Marta] wanted to make something special for his children to play with. Anybody can just purchase an off-the-shelf electronic toy, but if you’ve got the ability to design one on your own terms, why not do it? But even compared to the fairly high standards set […]