The 555 Footstool is roughly 30 times larger than the original chip, and was made using a variety of high-tech and traditional carpentry techniques, running the gamut from CNC routing, to laser engraving, to good old-fashioned glue and spray paint.

You can’t really tell from the pictures of the completed version, but its’ actually constructed from 25 custom cut layers of plywood laminated together with glue and bolted together to clamp it in place as it set. Once dried, the bolts were removed, and the holes filled with dowels. With all that wood and glue, it just looks incredibly sturdy.

From the build notes, it all looks way too involved for me to make my own, but I’m still holding out hope that EMSL will sell these in kit form at some point.

Oh, and in addition to functioning as a perfectly good foot stool, it also works great as a cat perch.

[via Laughing Squid]

Instead, why not do like this guy did, and turn it into a handy Cylon helmet.

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All you need to do the same is to grab an old dead iMac, and a Larson Scanner kit from Evil Mad Science, and you’re set. Sure, it doesn’t look quite as impressive as these guys, but whaddya want for next to nothing.

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[via BuzzFeed]

Created for BarBot 2010 (which we reported on yesterday), EMSL’s descriptively-named Drink Making Unit is a digitally-controlled bartender. After initial false starts using ketchup bottles and servo motors, the EMSL guys decided on a simpler solution for cranking out drinks – breast pumps. Specifically, the Evenflo Comfort Select Performance. There’s nothing comfortable looking about that thing, and I’m not a woman.

With a little modification of the suction pumps, some stainless and flexible plastic tubing, and some carafes, the mechanism was complete.  They then set up a custom-programmed Meggy Jr RGB unit to act as the drink controller.

A couple of flicks of the buttons – a squirt of vodka here, a drip of Kahlua there, and big a pump of cream, the deafening roar of breast milk pumps, and a couple of minutes of your time… One White Russian without humans. Except for the ones who had to design and build this contraption, buy and load the ingredients, and press the buttons.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Now all I need is a cocktail drinking robot and I’ll be all set.

The guys at Evil Mad Scientist Labs have managed to faithfully reproduce almost every component of the arcade original in yummy cookie form, including tiny spaceships, asteroids of all sizes, a flying saucer, and even little bullets from your ship. About the only thing missing is an edible high score.

The recipe for these vector graphic cookies uses a chocolate graham cracker base and delicately piped on royal icing. But there’s nothing to stop you from making gingerbread or chocolate chip asteroids too. Although I’d personally like to figure out how to make truly black asteroids.

EMSL was kind enough to share the DIY recipe for making your own Asteroids cookies, so what are you waiting for?

[via Giagantor]

Before they came up with the working prototype you see above, the Evil Mad Scientists did a brief analysis of what the hell PONG really is: it’s “a game somewhere between pinball and ping pong: Two players each have a single knob that controls the position of a paddle along a short track.” So they got a couple of tracks, and laser-cut plywood pieces to make two paddles, which would be moved back and forth by a timing belt.

“Using the paddles, they bounce the ball back and forth and try not to miss the ball, lest the other player score a point. The paddle surfaces are curved, so that the ball reflects in different directions depending on the position of impact.” For the curved paddles, they attached a quarter-section of a 1-inch thick PVC pipe to the plywood pieces.

Hardware nerds will notice the pusher solenoids attached to each plywood piece. They’ve been modified and installed with a spring so that they’ll bounce back. The solenoids are needed because the third element of PONG is the pair of powered paddles: “the paddles are powered, so that the ball keeps a fairly constant velocity between the two sides, and the speed gradually increases as the game is played.”

The next element of PONG is the playing field, which “is level and has a dotted line down the middle, and the scores are displayed on either side of that line.” So they made the field, and created a score wheel out of engraveable plastic:

Finally, the top and bottom walls of the PONG playing field are “springy”, so that the ball can bounce off of them. To achieve the elastic wall effect, the Scientists glued beryllium copper finger strips (yeah, I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about anymore either) along the border of each wall. For final touches, they added a rubber grip to the knobs, and of course got a ball – in this case, a 1-1/4″ steel ball bearing.

I imagine that was a fun afternoon! Scrounging for materials, laser cutting, hacking and modding, sawing and drilling, and just plain nerding out with their hands. That’s what they live for. But what about tabletop PONG itself?

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That was freakin’ pathetic, and the Scientists knew it. They forgot about the fourth element of PONG: the level playing field. That ruined everything. Also, either the force exerted by the solenoids was too weak, or the ball was too heavy. Bottom line is, that prototype doesn’t look fun to play with at all.

I know that the Evil Mad Scientists will tweak their design until they come up with something worth playing, so before you check out their full walkthrough and Flickr photoset, let’s try to help ‘em out and give them suggestions okay? I’ll go first: make the playing field a bit larger, and come up with a way to automate the scoring; maybe you can install an IR detector on the left and right edges (that’s the only way to score anyway, when the ball goes past the opponents’ side) and motorize (or better yet digitize) the score wheel. And maybe use a ball and/or surface made of different materials to see what the best combination would be like. Finally: Air Hockey. That’s what PONG is like.

The Bulbdial comes in one of four available case designs. The cases are laser-cut acrylic, and come in Tortoiseshell, Abalone Pearl, Black Granite, or Granite back/Clear front. Fancy names, but if you ask me I like the clock better when it’s naked:

The Bulbdial is Arduino-based, and both it’s hardware and software are open-source, which means that the clock is hacker-friendly. Makes you wonder why these nerds insist on calling themselves Evil Mad Scientists, what with their harmless products and open source philosophy. You can get the Bulbdial Clock Kit at Evil Mad Science for $65 (USD). Yes, I said “kit”; basic soldering skills are required to assemble the whole thing together. Still doesn’t make you evil mad scientists, Evil Mad Scientists. Visit the Evil Mad Scientists’ website for more information on how to make your own Bulbdial clock.

[via Boing Boing]

Really, it’s a fusion of all the things I find wonderful in life: creative cooking, delicious apples, and an altogether different delicious Apple. I bet it sticks to the pie pan. Y’know, so can’t accidentally drop it (crash!) onto the floor.

Okay, that was lame. But this pie from Evil Mad Scientist Labs is absolutely not lame, and neither are the detailed instructions for putting it together. It might not be as fancy as some of the cakes we’ve seen, but I’ve got to give ‘em points for creativity.

[via Geek Crafts]

Our pals over at Evil Mad Science Labs have created these battery-operated “Deluxe” LED Menorah kits which let you choose the type of lights you like the best. I personally love the ones with the giant 10mm LEDs, but you can choose from tiny 3mm LEDs too.

In addition to the ultrabright yellow version, there are blue and white LED variants available for a small up-charge. Personally, I think they’d look really cool with some ultraviolet LEDs. Each Menorah comes as a kit with a pre-programmed microcontroller that automatically “lights” an additional “candle” each time you turn it on. As the LEDs illuminate, the light up in the proper sequence.

These kits do require basic soldering and electronic skills and start shipping on November 9th. You can pre-order yours over at the Evil Mad Science store $14 to $17 (USD). Look ma, no waxy mess!

With a colorful 8×8 RGB LED display, the Meggy Jr RGB handheld platform gives you everything you need to create your own mini-games or pixel art displays.

Each colored dot actually contains three tiny LEDs, for a total of 192 uniquely addressable positions. The kit includes 6 clicky button switches, an audio transducer and additional LEDs for keeping track of things like your score or number of lives left in your custom games.

Meggy Jr even offers customizable handles so you can pimp out your handheld with your own design.

The Arduino-based Meggy Jr RGB kit comes with a pre-installed game called “Attack of the Cherry Tomatoes”, a little side-scrolling shooter, but the real fun comes from writing your own games. All you need is a USB-TTL cable, and the open-source Meggy Arduino developer library.

You can get your hands on Meggy Jr. over at Evil Mad Science with prices ranging from $65 to $95 USD.

[Meggy Jr. RGB Details]