New Releases by John Baichtal

Make amazing robots and gadgets with two of today's hottest DIY technologies. With this easy-to-follow guide, you'll learn how to build devices with Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0, the Arduino prototyping platform, and some add-on components to bridge the two. Mindstorms alone lets you create incredible gadgets. Bring in Arduino for some jaw-dropping functionality—and open a whole new world of possibilities.

Build a drink dispenser, music synthesizer, wireless lamp, and more

Each fun and fascinating project includes step-by-step instructions and clear illustrations to guide you through the process. Learn how to set up an Arduino programming environment, download the sketches and libraries you need, and work with Arduino's language for non-programmers. It's a perfect book for students, teachers, hobbyists, makers, hackers, and kids of all ages.

• Build a Drawbot that roams around and traces its path with a marker pen
• Construct an analog Mindstorms clock with hands that display the correct time
• Create a machine that mixes a glass of chocolate milk at the touch of a button
• Make a Gripperbot rolling robotic arm that you control wirelessly with Arduinos mounted on your arms
• Explore electronic music by building a guitar-shaped Lego synthesizer
• Build a Lego lamp with on/off and dimmer switches that you control with a smartphone application
• Jump feet first into the world of electronics, from learning Ohm's Law to working with basic components

You'll need the Bricktronics shield created for this book by Open Source Hardware kit maker Wayne and Layne, or you can build a breadboarded equivalent (see Chapter 10) for about $25 in parts.

Even if you've never touched a 3D printer, these projects will excite and empower you to learn new skills, extend your current abilities, and awaken your creative impulses. Each project uses a unique combination of electronics, hand assembly techniques, custom 3D-printed parts, and software, while teaching you how to think through and execute your own ideas.

Written by the founder of Printrbot, his staff, and veteran DIY authors, this book of projects exemplifies the broad range of highly personalized, limit-pushing project possibilities of 3D printing when combined with affordable electronic components and materials.

In Make: 3D Printing Projects, you'll:

• Print and assemble a modular lamp that's suitable for beginners--and quickly gets you incorporating electronics into 3D-printed structures.
• Learn about RC vehicles by fabricating--and driving--your own sleek, shiny, and fast Inverted Trike.
• Model a 1950s-style Raygun Pen through a step-by-step primer on how to augment an existing object through rapid prototyping.
• Fabricate a fully functional, battery-powered screwdriver, while learning how to tear down and reconstruct your own tools.
• Get hands-on with animatronics by building your own set of life-like mechanical eyes.
• Make a Raspberry Pi robot that rides a monorail of string, can turn corners, runs its own web server, streams video, and is remote-controlled from your phone.
• Build and customize a bubble-blowing robot, flower watering contraption, and a DIY camera gimbal.