Tag Archives: DIY

This electric monowheel is surprisingly easy to maneuver and packs a good amount of torque

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Creating extreme stuff from junk is a special skill that YouTube channel ‘Make It Extreme’ possesses. Their Monotrack bike made from a single recycled car tire was something of a shocker and they’ve upped the ante with another custom build. Called the Electric Monowheel this is a Herculine version that positions the rider inside the wheel.

The obvious challenge in making this big wheel was actually creating a perfectly round wheel measuring 9.1 inches in diameter. Due to the large shape, the metallic wheel acts as a base for the rubber tires salvaged out of a motorcycle and go-kart. These three recycled tires are connected to make the final giant wheel.

Designer: Make It Extreme

The chassis of this unique ride is the centric circle that stays stable even when the outside wheel is in motion. The trick here is to attach three rollers and a plastic encasing on which the wheel spins. To put it simply, just take for reference a hamster wheel. The power for this monowheel is derived from a go-kart’s electric motors attached to the tire. This explains the use of go-kart tires that are non-slip and provide transmission to the wheels without any wheel spin. The steering input is translated instantly to the movement of the wheel and so is the throttle input via the two controllers.

The current build has a better torque of the electromotion that is attributed to the faster-reacting motor. This is a major improvement over the earlier version. According to the makers, the vehicle feels very amazing to drive even though it is a bit dangerous if you don’t know how to handle it. There’s some good news for DIYers who are interested in this project as Make It Extreme is in the process of preparing the detailed plans of the monowheel motorcycle. That means you’ll have all the groundwork served on the platter for you to build on.

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This Wheel-less Bicycle replaces the Rubber Tire with multiple Sandals and the results are… surprising

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Sergii Gordieiev is well known for his unique creations, showcasing his DIYs on the YouTube channel ‘The Q’ for people who love things out of the box. The wheel-less bicycle and square-wheeled ride are the prime examples. His love for customizing an ordinary bicycle is not going to fade away soon, as the slipper bicycle proves it all right.

As weird as it sounds, wait until you see the full video transcript. Sergii manages to slap the tarmac with this unusual ride one slipper at a time and that trippy sound is so irritatingly addictive. Everything apart, the level of detail and the amount of creative intent that the DIYer brings to each of his DIYs is worth appreciating. What next is he going to do with a bicycle is anybody’s guess, but for now, enjoy this one.

Designer: Sergii Gordieiev

On first look, it seems the slippers will wear out from all the spanking on the road but there are 14 metal cutouts to take all the weight and contact force when the bicycle is paddled forward. These metal cutouts become the base for an outrageous-looking set of wheels for an adult bike. Both the wheel frames are designed from scratch with meticulous cutting and molding of the metal. Thereafter the wheels are attached to the bicycle frame.

The final step involves sliding on the rubber slippers onto each of these metal struts. Sergii fits each of the wheels with 12 yellow slippers and two black slippers to create a contrasting look when the wheels turn. The best thing about his creations is that no matter how much non-functional the bikes look, they glide on the road beyond anyone’s expectations. This one is no different as he takes a casual ride in the park to onlookers’ amazement.

 

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Creative woodworking dad turn AI-renders into a timeless wooden car for his son

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Truong Van Dao of ND Woodworking is one of the most creative and loving dads you’ll ever meet. His tenacity for making wooden cars that are second to none speaks a lot of his passion. The Rolls-Royce Boat Tail brought to life in his wood workshop was one of the coolest gifts a father can give his toddler son. As my fellow editor rightly said in that article, the creation is undoubtedly “more valuable than a $28 million car can ever be!”

Now the super dad has created a unique wooden car right out of some sci-fi series plot. The idea initially generated from AI took shape as a real-life vehicle that is second to none. To me, this seems like the machine from the acclaimed novel Time Machine by H.G. Wells. The most amazing thing is the wooden vehicle’s attention to detail in design, and I’m completely in awe just looking at the thing.

Design: ND Woodworking Art

The inside of the big cogwheels makes up the cockpit section for the driver to maneuver this crazy looking four wheeler. The front wheels are the normal size, but real wheels even smaller, are given the appearance of big chunky wheels with design ingenuity. Functional mechanical parts are exposed making the DIY even more intricate. The initial phase involved creating the chassis out of a metal frame and then building the intricate woodwork for it. Mind you it took a lot of time to carve each section with hand, carving the wheels, mechanical levers and the curvaceous body. The power comes from the four onboard batteries with good torque to pull the thing forward. Top speed is kept very limited since Truong’s son will be driving this crazy contraption.

Every little detail is taken care of by the talented woodworking dad, right from the seating compartment, gearbox and input pedals to the cog-driven lever mechanism, taillights and concealing away the rear wheels. The snail-shell-like cockpit of the four-wheeler has neon lights to add an element of sci-fi. No matter where this vehicle goes – be it in the dark or broad daylight – it is going to catch eyeballs and garner appreciation from everyone simply because of the amount of effort and creativity put into the making.

The post Creative woodworking dad turn AI-renders into a timeless wooden car for his son first appeared on Yanko Design.

Creative woodworking dad turn AI-renders into a timeless wooden car for his son

Posted on by

Truong Van Dao of ND Woodworking is one of the most creative and loving dads you’ll ever meet. His tenacity for making wooden cars that are second to none speaks a lot of his passion. The Rolls-Royce Boat Tail brought to life in his wood workshop was one of the coolest gifts a father can give his toddler son. As my fellow editor rightly said in that article, the creation is undoubtedly “more valuable than a $28 million car can ever be!”

Now the super dad has created a unique wooden car right out of some sci-fi series plot. The idea initially generated from AI took shape as a real-life vehicle that is second to none. To me, this seems like the machine from the acclaimed novel Time Machine by H.G. Wells. The most amazing thing is the wooden vehicle’s attention to detail in design, and I’m completely in awe just looking at the thing.

Design: ND Woodworking Art

The inside of the big cogwheels makes up the cockpit section for the driver to maneuver this crazy looking four wheeler. The front wheels are the normal size, but real wheels even smaller, are given the appearance of big chunky wheels with design ingenuity. Functional mechanical parts are exposed making the DIY even more intricate. The initial phase involved creating the chassis out of a metal frame and then building the intricate woodwork for it. Mind you it took a lot of time to carve each section with hand, carving the wheels, mechanical levers and the curvaceous body. The power comes from the four onboard batteries with good torque to pull the thing forward. Top speed is kept very limited since Truong’s son will be driving this crazy contraption.

Every little detail is taken care of by the talented woodworking dad, right from the seating compartment, gearbox and input pedals to the cog-driven lever mechanism, taillights and concealing away the rear wheels. The snail-shell-like cockpit of the four-wheeler has neon lights to add an element of sci-fi. No matter where this vehicle goes – be it in the dark or broad daylight – it is going to catch eyeballs and garner appreciation from everyone simply because of the amount of effort and creativity put into the making.

The post Creative woodworking dad turn AI-renders into a timeless wooden car for his son first appeared on Yanko Design.

Distraction-free digital typewriter carries a playful and whimsical character

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Smartphones and tablets today are extremely powerful devices, allowing us to do almost anything and everything, including writing a novel. Of course, that will require more than the on-screen keyboard, but an external keyboard, even a mechanical one, isn’t always enough for a good writing experience. These mobile computers, powerful as they are, also tend to bombard writers with notifications and temptations, distracting them from the sometimes fragile flow of thought and words. Digital and smart typewriters offer a better solution, but their dry and clinical designs aren’t exactly inspiring to look at. Enter the Micro Journal, a writing device designed not just to make writing convenient but also enjoyable.

Designer: Un Kyu Lee

Digital typewriters, sometimes called smart typewriters, are the evolution of electronic typewriters. They’re more portable than these, offering the benefits of modern technologies and design, but are also single-purpose appliances compared to tablet computers. You turn them on, type on them, and turn them off again when you need to go. Everything is saved on local storage or a memory card and they don’t have any other function like connecting to the Internet or running apps.

Many such devices sport minimalist designs to avoid unnecessary visual distractions, but these designs also tend to feel uninspiring, which can actually influence the mind subconsciously. Some writers will want their tools to reflect their own creativity, and the Micro Journal’s design tries to add some style and flourish to the product to the point that it almost looks more like a toy with its pastel blue body and yellow display bezel. That tiny display also sits above the keyboard at a slight angle, offering a slightly more comfortable typing experience even if you have it on top of your legs instead of on a table.

Of course, the Micro Journal isn’t all looks and actually delivers that fun typing experience through hot-swappable Cherry MX switches. Many writers and programmers swear by this type of mechanical keyboard, and you can customize it to the layout that you want. Using the writing device is as simple as turning it on, though it also offers some advanced connectivity features, unlike other distraction-free typewriters. In particular, it allows you to sync your work with Google Drive, but it’s purely an optional feature, not a necessity.

Another difference between this product and others in the market is that, while it’s available as a finished device, you can also buy the Micro Journal as a kit that you can assemble yourself. This offers a greater level of flexibility and customization, especially if you’re the type to tinker with your tools before you use them. Either way, you get a writing partner that doesn’t nag you with incessant notifications, tempt you away from your train of thought, or make you feel embarrassed to use it in public.

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DIY Game Boy arcade blows up classic titles with a giant screen, giant controls

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We have seen no shortage of retro designs that try to recreate the glory of old product designs, especially in the gaming world. Many of these try to be as faithful as they can to the original, but some are content to add a few interesting twists like sticking to the spirit of the design and the experience. A Game Boy, for example, was one of the earliest handheld gaming devices to gain international fame, but that doesn’t mean it has to stick to that petite size today. In fact, this DIY retro project goes in the opposite direction and brings the green-tinted monochrome display of the OG Game Boy to an extra large arcade cabinet screen, complete with a joystick and buttons that could feel more satisfying to mash to quickly get through dialogues.

Designer: Shaun Campbell (didsomebodysayretro)

Compared even to its colorful successor, the original Game Boy felt a bit underwhelming. Despite that, it opened gamers of the past generations to a world of gaming that they can take anywhere with them. In addition to special features that allowed them to link up with other Game Boy devices, the gaming handheld embodied a kind of freedom that was revolutionary in an age of home consoles. It’s almost ironic, then, that the WoodBoy project removes that portable design but exchanges it with another of the Game Boy’s popular traits: pure gaming fun.

In a nutshell, WoodBoy shoves the original Game Boy, not the Game Boy Color, into a handmade wooden arcade cabinet. This gives it a much larger screen than the minuscule 2.5-inch screen of the handheld original, something a bit better for today’s more discerning eyes. In fact, everything about the arcade is an upscaled version of the Game Boy, redefined for, well, arcade play. Instead of a gigantic D-pad, for example, you get a more satisfying joystick for directional control.

Curiously, WoodBoy eschews the traditional 2×2 button arrangement you might find on most arcades for two red buttons at the top and two black buttons on the front edge of the cabinet. This mimics the separation of the A, B, Start, and Select buttons on the Game Boy and minimizes the potential for confusion or erroneous presses. At the same time, however, that might make it harder to hit pause quickly with either of your hands if it has to travel to the front.

What makes WoodBoy different from many DIY retro projects is that it runs actual original Game Boy cartridges rather than using emulation. It utilizes a kit that mods the original Game Boy device into a console, making it compatible with authentic cartridges and games. That, of course, makes it dependent on owning said cartridges, but WoodBoy is definitely a collector’s product anyway.

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Hive-like LED wall clock offers a colorful and dynamic way to tell the time

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Clock designs come in all shapes, sizes, and levels of complexity. On one end, you have ultra-minimalist analog clocks that barely have discernible hands or numbers on their faces. On the opposite end, however, you have not only sophisticated mechanical clocks with all their gears and movements, you also have digital clocks with smart features that go beyond telling the time. Of course, it’s always a matter of balancing functionality and features, and some designs intentionally tip the scales toward one or the other depending on their target audience. This DIY wall clock, for example, caters to those who want a more vibrant and creative way to display the time, though it does require a bit of technical and electronics know-how to make.

Designer: Dawid Karoński

It’s really impressive how far DIY tools have come these days, from desktop 3D printers to small circuit boards that can run complicated programs to control nontrivial devices. And depending on the skills of the one making them, the end result could even look like a professionally made product that came from a factory rather than someone’s garage or home workshop. The Hexaclock, named for its unusual shape for a clock, is one such example, offering a wall clock and smart lamp that can rival the quality and features of well-known smart lighting brands.

The catch is that you have to make one yourself, which may or may not result in a product of equal quality. You’ll need a 3D printer, unsurprisingly, but that is actually the easier part of the process. The more tedious phase requires precisely cutting an LED light strip into specific sizes so that the LEDs actually line up with the hexagon-shaped compartments of the lamp. Even more laborious is connecting these segments together again into a single unit, at least electronically, so that you can control the strip with a program as if it was never cut at all.

All of these details, from the schematics to the software, are made available for free so that anyone with the right tools and knowledge can make their own hive-shaped wall clock. In terms of functionality, the clock offers plenty of customization options, from animated color transitions to dancing patterns. What’s even more impressive is that it supports a light sensor that can dim all LEDs except the ones displaying the clock itself so that the bright lights won’t disturb your sleep at night.

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James Bruton’s Screw Bike moves smoothly in any direction, even rotates on its axis

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James Bruton and his out-of-the-world creations never cease to amaze us. His Star Wars Speeder Bike is a good example of his inventive thinking. The DIYer knows his craft and his latest creation has got us mystified, yet again!

This omnidirectional bike gives the rider great freedom to move in multiple directions, allowing them to move sideways, diagonally, or even rotate on the spot. Now, who would say no to such a cool way to commute in the city?

Designer: James Bruton

Dubbed the Screw Bike, this two-wheeled commuter justifies the namesake. I can’t resist but see the reminisces of the retro Motocompo here, but that could be a pure coincidence. James has a thing for omnidirectional wheels and this could be his best one so far. Each of those peculiar wheels on the bike is 360 mm in diameter and comes with a packing of smaller wheels positioned with engineering craft for multidirectional movement. Originally called Mecanum Wheels, these unique tireless wheels are used widely in the scope of robotics and often in competitive robotics due to their ability to introduce fully omnidirectional movement onto a drivetrain. These rollers typically each have an axis of rotation at 45° to the wheel plane and at 45° to the axle line.

While your high-end bicycle will beat this thing in a straight spring, on the tracks of Monaco this thing will have the moves. For this bike’s custom design, the inventor employs 3D printing technology and uses materials like plywood. Implementing such a complex wheel design could only have been possible with 3D printing. There are 48 small wheels and 96 wedges that make possible this complex iteration. The movement of this bike is so smooth, that it calls for due credit to James.

The steering input from the handlebar is perfectly synched with the direction in which the inventor wants to move. He demonstrates the movement of Screw Bike inside a room and out in the open too. This very well justifies that the smooth moves are no fluke.

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Unique DIY watch moves liquid droplets around to tell the time

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With the arrival of smartwatches, the divide between analog and digital has become a little bit blurrier. After all, you can create the illusion of a mechanical watch using a display and you’ll only realize the difference on closer inspection. That said, these two extremes aren’t the only ways to tell the time, and if you look hard enough, you’ll find other intriguing designs that make use of a combination of patterns and lights that you need to decipher and translate to regular numbers. This distinctive watch project doesn’t go to that extreme and still presents a more familiar face, but it does so using a medium that you’d least expect to see on an electronic watch.

Designer: Armin Bindzus

Analog watches and clocks use physical moving parts to indicate the passage of time, but there’s no hard rule that says there have to be three long bars or lines. Some minimalist designs even reduce those “hands” into circles, going so far as even removing all but four numbers from the watch face. This leaves a little wiggle room for experimentation, like this DIY electronics project that uses something like those aforementioned dots but also has those dots in liquid form.

Given how we’re often told not to let liquid near electronics, this might come as a bit of a surprise, but the droplets used in this intriguing design are actually polar liquids. This means they can be electrically charged and, in this case, move around a surface exactly because of that charge. The technical principle behind this technique is called “electrowetting,” and it is able to induce liquid motion by changing the electrical field on a given surface.

With the Droplet Watch, that shifting electrical field is done through three concentric circles of 60 electrodes, representing the 60 “ticks” on a watch face. Electrodes get charged or discharged, which causes the droplets along the lanes between these circles to move around, just like the hands on a clock. It’s a complicated process that has plenty of room for errors, but it’s certainly interesting to watch liquid dots moving around the clock, briefly leaving a trail before it catches up to the rest of the mass.

The Droplet Watch only consumes power when moving the liquid, which puts it on the same level as an E Ink display. Sadly, it’s also not a practical design, at least not for a watch that will move a lot since the liquid could be dislodged accidentally. And with many digital screens on clocks and watches these days, that same visual effect can be accomplished with little to no effort at all.

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Rare 2001 PS1 controller modded into a quirky PlayStation handheld emulator

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Game controllers today follow a standard design and format, and most of them gravitate between two or three conventions, depending on the major console brand they’re supporting. Once upon a time, however, there was a bit more variety and exploration in what controllers could look like, at least as long as they still supported all the basic controls that the machine and the games required. This gave birth to a few oddities, some of which gained widespread notoriety despite their limited availability. One of those was perhaps one of the weirdest but also rarest controllers ever made for the original PlayStation, and one such design was reshaped to become one is probably one of the most distinctive PlayStation handhelds ever crafted.

Designer: Takara Tomy (modded by Hairoh Satoh)

In 2001, PlayStation owners in Japan got a glimpse of an officially licensed controller specifically designed for the popular Game of Life video game. Unlike rectangular controllers even during that period, this custom gamepad was practically square with a circle at the top edge extending a bit beyond the border. This circle was home to a roulette wheel used in conjunction with that game, earning this Japanese-exclusive design the name “Takara Roulette Controller.”

Images courtesy of miepro_02

More than two decades later, a modder best known for his Game Boy mods has given this rarely-seen controller a new lease on life as a standalone gaming device. The spinner wheel, which has no use in any other game, was replaced by a small LCD screen that allowed the user to play games directly on it. Of course, that also means that the internals of the controller have been gutted out to make room for a small computer, probably a Raspberry Pi or one of its kind.

That alone would have been impressive enough, but the mod goes above and beyond to bring a few modern gaming conveniences. While the original controller is more or less complete when it comes to buttons, the mod adds L and R back triggers as well. The small space also has a memory card slot, USB-C charging, and speakers that truly make the gaming handheld independent and portable. Whether it’s comfortable to actually play on for long periods of time is a different question entirely.

Unfortunately, the controller clearly shows its age with the absence of analog joysticks that are now standard on modern controllers. Then again, since it’s mostly emulating PS1-era games, that’s not exactly a problem either since those titles didn’t make use of such controls. But since it’s technically using a computer that can run emulation software, it’s theoretically possible to also run games from other consoles, particularly classic titles that have simpler controls, less demanding graphics, and gameplay that’s well suited for this retro controller design.

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