Well, John Edgar Park, writer for MAKE magazine, has just what you need. You can now make a huge Arduino, six times the size of traditional microcontrollers. It’s called the Arduino GRANDE. No you can’t order one at Starbucks, but it will put old timey hair on your lip.

It is more macrocontroller than microcontroller, but it is fully functional. This large and in charge Arduino will be shown off at the upcoming Bay Area edition of Maker Faire. If you happen to be there, you can see how it was designed with 3D modeling software and then brought to life through laser-cutting.

It won’t be long before we see this beast in some crazy creations, I’m sure.

[via The Verge via Geekosystem]

If you don’t know much about Ravage, he’s one of the Decepticon Soundwave’s cassette robots that he used to eject to perform nefarious duties. He’s been redesigned over the years, and this is the result. He looks quite freaky.

The photos date from 2007, so but I haven’t seen these before. They were uploaded last week to Yang’s Flickr account. Needless to say that if Ravage was real, it would crunch up a number of cars before being brought down. Ironically, he looks like he was made from some of those crunched up cars himself.

[via Make:]

Charles Guan is the one who rides this thing (designed, created, and built it as well), and it gets around on a pair of treads, which makes it different than wheeled boards, and lets its passenger ride off-road.  The skateboard boasts a custom drivetrain, 500-watt hours of lithium batteries inside of it, and a 1HP motor to tug you around. Top speed is 15 to 20mph, which isn’t bad.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The LANDBEARSHARK tread skateboard still needs a remote control to function for now, but Charles thinks that once this thing is perfected, it will do without.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[via Make:]

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]

Red Bull Creation is an upcoming event in which teams of builders will be challenged to create cool stuff. 16 teams of highly-skilled makers, hackers and inventors will be given a general theme to work with, and then 72 hours to build something really cool. Check out the video below for more on the competition:

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Red Bull has already selected the first 10 teams of finalists, and will be announcing the remaining six teams shortly. The finalists in the competition will start building their creations on July 7th, then meet at McCarren Park in Brooklyn, NY on July 10th, 2011 to show off their creations to the world. More info on the competition can be found here.

This reminds me of the book Makers by Cory Doctorow, where a Maker revolution was started using 3D printers. I don’t know much about how he made it, but it’s pretty cool that he was able to cobble together this good-looking machine, DIY-style.

It took Jim about 2 years to complete this 3D printer, which he actually designed himself as well. It’s been operational since this summer. Check out more photos and a full description here.

[via Make:]

This steampunk record player really adheres to what steampunk really should be: powered by steam! It was made by Simon Janson from Auckland, New Zealand, who mated steam-power with an Arduino processor. The engine was cobbled together from bits and pieces. The boiler was made a copper water pipe and a bespoke platter and base is used to spin the records. Simon says that the software still needs a few tweaks, but the hardware is solid.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Of course, all the sound from the steam pump and mechanism sort of interferes with the music the turntable cranks out, but I don’t think he built this for  audiophile sound quality.

[via Make:]

Mike Winters’ SQUIRT Robot uses sonar and IR sensors to move around and can fire a stream of water at targets of his choosing. The whole kit-and-caboodle is controlled via a custom Android app.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

This would have been perfect when I was a 10-year old, so I could have soaked all the girls with this. Thankfully, I had no mechanical inclinations, apart from taking remote controlled cars completely apart, and not being able to put them back together properly. There were always these extra bits that I couldn’t figure out where they went.

[Cellbots via Make:]

Lyshco is a member of the Overclockers in Australia forum and he just finished working on this racing ottoman. He placed a seat, gearstick, pedals, and a steering wheel inside an ottoman. The guy is about 6′ tall and this fits him pretty well. He used ¾” MDF to build it. The feet were sanded down to a very smooth finish, allowing the ottoman to slide over carpet easily.

The ottoman slides over and he just pops the hood to start racing. It takes a few minutes and he’s ready to go. He also mentions that there’s massive space to store stuff and the overall benefit is that it looks swanky in his pad.

[Overclockers AU via Make:]

He was recently featured in an episode of CSI called Pool Shark and let me tell you that I must have watched the opening scene about 10 times because the music was so good (if you’re wondering, it was the track Some Chords that was playing).

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Anyway, if you want to create an awesome Deadmau5 mask, then check this Netduino-powered one that lights up like a Christmas tree thanks to LED power. It actually ‘listens’ to the music that’s playing and displays colors on the beat. It was built by Wabash9000 for this year’s Halloween festivities.

[via Make:]

One of the most common mishaps of having an iPhone is that sometimes they fall (klutz!) and the screen breaks. A lot of the time, it’s just the glass of the display screen that breaks. Which is why this article [PDF] over at Make Magazine will help you replace your screen yourself for about $30 bucks – assuming you have an iPhone 3G or 3GS. iPhone 4 users with cracked screens will have a much harder time, and still have to rely on Apple repair because the glass is glued to the LCD panel itself, rendering them pretty much inseparable.

Kipkay has been kind enough to put together this video walkthrough of Morten’s repair article if you don’t have the patience to read the tutorial.

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It’s a relatively easy process to complete, assuming you’ve got experience with DIY projects. Plus, it will cost you a lot less than $200 bucks.

[via Make:]

You’ll need some magnetic wiring, hot glue, 4 LEDs, 2 3 volt lithium batteries, and some clear CD cases. All in all, it’s pretty straightforward. You can head over to Make: to see how Eric Chu did his, or just check out Kipkay’s video below.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Of course, you could just spend $5 and buy a cheapo one made in China. However, I think that there’s a lot of satisfaction to be had from making your own.

It’s called the Anipov LED system and it’s made by Japan’s Suns & Moon Laboratory. The system can access bitmap files as well as other image formats. Then, it displays them on a set of rapidly spinning LED-covered spokes. For now, this kind of system isn’t waterproof and relies solely on batteries. However, it won’t take long until someone hacks it to work off a dynamo of some kind.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The Anipov LED system costs about 15,000 yen ($165 USD) and was shown off last weekend at the Tokyo Make Meeting. Anipov kit parts can be ordered here, but you’ll have to understand Japanese to figure out what you need to do in order to get this going on your bike.

[via Gizmag]

LEGO-master Ronald McCrae’s incredible Brick Bank ATM can accept an ATM card and store account balances in its internal customer database. Just like the real thing, it can check for a correct PIN number, and hold onto your card if you enter the wrong number more than three times. It can even make change from paper money, and be calibrated to accept any currency.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Amazingly, this thing is almost entirely constructed from off-the-shelf LEGO bits. Ronald only added a HiTechnic IRLink and a Codatex RFID sensor to read the ATM cards. Funny thing is, I trust this ATM with my money much more than the ones that run on Windows.

[via Brothers Brick via Make:]

Nothing like a nice pair of zombies to go with that relaxing glow of candlelight. I think I want one of these in my bathroom next to the whirlpool. Turn down the lights real low, load up the tub with some bubbles, sip some champagne, crank up some tunes from the Bioshock soundtrack, and… BRAAAAAAAINS!

The Electronics Components pack 1 contains over 200 doodads – batteries, LEDs, resistors, even an X-Acto knife – all you need to perform the first 11 experiments in the book. Or not! Mess with them, put them together, do anything you want with them.

You can pre-order the Electronics Components pack 1 at the Maker Shed, Make’s store, for $100 (USD); check out the product page for a complete list of the included parts. Components pack 2 hasn’t been priced yet, but it’ll probably be cheaper since it contains fewer components. The Electronics Book sells for $35, but you can always seek out other sources of information if you want. Go forth and whip up one of ‘em PS3 wireless visual interfaces for me!

Artist Kelly Farrell’s Tinysaurs are incredibly weensy kits which let you build your own mini-dinos.

Each one is laser cut out of oak tag board using a 35 watt cutting laser, and pre-perfed for (relatively) easy assembly – assuming you’ve got some really steady hands.

Assembly of Tinysaurs requires tweezers, some white glue, and some patience. But once built, these miniaturesauruses are truly a sight to behold – especially if you have a magnifying glass lying around.

The T-Rex, triceraptops, stegosaurus and woolly mammoth kits are all available over at Kelly’s Etsy shop, the Maker’s Market, or Everything Tiny and cost just $7 (USD) unassembled, and $16 with a pair of tweezers and glue in a handy gift tin.

If you don’t have the patience to build these miniature marvels for yourself, you can also buy a pre-assembled dino under glass for about $60 bucks – but where’s the fun in that?

This kind of reminds me of the movie Abyss for some reason. The ROV submarine uses four 500gph and two 1,250gph bilge pumps. The bigger ones are used for propulsion while the smaller ones are used to dive and surface.

It’s got lights and naturally a functioning camera, which lets Jason guide it into the depths. Jason actually designed some non-explosive torpedoes as well. Sweet. Incredibly, all of the parts needed to build this sub are available at any home improvement store.

He’s got an meticulously detailed guide on how to create your own. Here’s a link to the basic how-to pdf file he created to start off with this build.

[Hack a Day via Make:]

What is the MintyBoost? It’s a stylish and easy way of recharging any USB device. It can charge iPods, iPhones, cell phones, cameras, anything that needs to be plugged into a USB port. Make has just received these updated kits, which will let you build your own little recharger inside the tin of mints or candies.

MintyBoost kits only cost $20 (USD), but you’ll need to find your own tin mint box in order to house the mechanism. Or you can just choose a different box. The box in the pictures is actually a RuntyBoost, a slightly larger box that can house a charging cable as well.

[via Make:]

That’s pretty much what DIY-er Oceaneer99 was going for when he put together his very own handheld Bat Signal, using everyday components to build it. At the core of the portable Bat Signal is a 45-lumen LED flashlight, a custom-cut acrylic bat logo, and ABS pipe and other plumbing parts.

While Oceaneer99 hasn’t provided a guide to build your own Bat Signal, you can pretty much figure it out from looking at the parts he used. Personally, I’d build mine with something bright enough to be seen a little further away – maybe a 700mW green laser.

[via Make:]