If the mic on your phone, laptop, or other device leaves a bit to be desired, the bootlegMIC is a simple DIY mic that sounds fantastic and takes up almost no space at all. More »

Teaching kids – especially little girls – about electronics is a hard job. First, there’s the electricity. Then there’s the sense that soldering, wiring, and lining up LEDs is considerably less fun than watching Tangled. This project, called Roominate, aims to change the way girls think about electricity.

The kit consists of a set of tiny furniture with built-in wires and switches. You can wire up your dollhouse however you like, adding lamps and switches. $49 gets you one regular room and $95 gets you a “duplex.”

They’ve hit $13,000 of a $26,000 target and if it helps little girls think more clearly about science and electronics, I’m totally backing it. The project ends on June 16 so there’s still plenty of time to slowly replace the Barbie Dream House with a decidedly more DIY dollhouse.

Project Page

Did you know that you can make your own version of popular maple-flavored syrups such as Aunt Jemimas, Mrs. Butterworths, etc using nothing more than white sugar, brown sugar, water, and a little Mapeleine (maple flavor extract). Sure, nothing beats real Maple syrup but if you can't get the good stuff you can make your own syrup for around fifty cents per bottle. More »

If you love to homebrew but live in an area where summer temperatures get too hot for proper fermentation you can resolve yourself to wait to brew or you can build a badass Arduino Nano-controlled UberFridge which will maintain temperatures set to a tenth of a degree and can be monitored or controlled using a custom webapp. If you have a spare working fridge the build will cost around $100 in parts. More »

To save money or avoid a trip to the store you can make your own reusable dryer sheets by dipping white wash cloths or rags into a little liquid fabric softener until they're completely saturated and allow them to dry completely—you'll be able to use each rag around a dozen times until you need to repeat the process. More »

We've covered many mouse traps over the years, but they all need to be reset once you've caught a mouse. This means if you have lots of furry intruders you'll need to have several traps or just build this version using a 5-gallon bucket, an aluminum beverage can, a small piece of wood, and a wooden dowel. More »

While, arguably, you’re not going to convince many kids to give up their Topps or Pokemon cards for these things, it’s nice to know they exist. They’re 3D Printer trading cards featuring some of the best 3D printers in the world. You got your Makerbot Replicator, your UP! Printer, and your Printrbot Plus. You got stats on there, a little trivia, some pricing information and then you can trade with your friends (“Awwww man, I need that Reprap clone!”)

You can check them all out here or see them in person at Maker Faire in SF this week. Sadly, they’re not actually printing these things but if they did I’d totally buy a pack.

The impetus? They came to creator Shawn Wallace in a dream:

Ever found a beautiful bird dead outside your home? Chances are it smashed into your window and never recovered. For every dead bird you find, just imagine how many were snatched up by a cat or pulled into the brush by some other critter. Worldwide, window collisions kill close to a billion(!) birds every year. With spring migration currently underway in the northern hemisphere, now is as good as ever to make your home bird safe. The DIY experts at Stack Exchange tell you how. More »

Say you’re a misanthrope and you’re afraid of humans. What to do? Well, you could cower in the dark when people ring your doorbell or you could laugh derisively at their smug faces in the screen of your iPhone. I’m going for the derisive laughter.

This DIY Arduino project involves a simple circuit, a webcam, and a few API calls to PushingBox to enable a truly enjoyable derisive experience.

The system works by pushing images grabbed by the webcam through PushingBox to an app like Prowl or Pushme.to. When the doorbell is pressed, it sends a serial signal to the Arduino board which in turn notifies the various services. The webcam picture then gets sent over to you so you can decide whether to let whoever is outside in.

It’s probably a little more complex than it needs to be, but if you’re totally into watching the world pass you by it’s a great solution and a fun weekend project.

Project Page

Everyone loves the iPhone's headset with volume and music controls on the inline remote, but if you have an Android phone, you can actually get iPhone-designed buds working with your device. All it takes is a little DIY magic. More »