I’ve had this long-standing concept for a theme restaurant where everything–tables, chairs, utensils, food, condiment dispensers–is like 30% bigger than normal. The idea is to make you feel like a kid again. We’d call it “Tiny’s.” (And yes, we’re still seeking investors. Also waitstaff suffering from gigantism.) Look for one soon in a strip-mall near you. Believe me, you won’t be able to miss it.

In the meantime, if you just can’t wait for the experience, you could always start filling up your house with great big versions of the stuff you already have. Instructables has just posted a cool round-up of tutorials on how to do just that. Shown uppermost is user Tetranitrate’s giant match. And yes, as the middle photo shows, it does (or did) actually work. At bottom, last but in no sense least, there’s user indymogul’s giant sandwich, which I think was part of a Halloween costume or something. But who cares? Giant sandwich!

Related:

• Claes Oldenburg is a famous Swedish sculptor, associated with the Pop Art movement, who made great big versions of stuff as sculpture.
• GreatBigStuff.com is an online store that only sells…well, you can guess, can’t you?

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Dale Dougherty and Sherry Huss would like to invite you all to a Maker Faire Detroit – Community Planning Meeting, Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. The meeting will be held at the Main Branch Detroit Public Library, 5201 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI.

In addition to providing updates on the event, the goal of the meeting is to continue to generate ideas, form working groups, and continue to connect with people and organizations that would be interested in bringing Maker Faire to Detroit.

If there are others that you know would like to get involved, please feel free to invite them. This event is open to the public and we’d love to connect with people, groups, and organizations that should be involved with Maker Faire.

If you’ve attended a Maker Faire Community Meeting in the past, and want to talk about specifics of your curated area, we’ll have our Maker Faire team onsite to work with you. Otherwise, we look forward to receiving your submission to the Maker Faire Detroit “Call for Makers” which will go live on March 15th, 2010 at www.makerfaire.com

For more info, see the event page on Socializr.

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Spotted in the MAKE Forums:

Liam built this impressive robot, then used it to demonstrate the difference between proportional and PID control. The robot is designed to stay a certain distance from an object, and uses two Sharp IR distance sensors to track it’s position. The system looks like it is working great, however he is noticing some variability in the output of the distance sensors he is using- anyone have any ideas?

This is the GBOT with a PID controller using the ZX-40A microcontroller from http://www.zbasic.net. ZX-40A is based on the ATMEGA644 AVR chip. Inputs include 2 IR range sensors (GP2D12). Outputs include 2 PWM signals to the Pololu motor driver (VNH2SP30).

The GBOT maintains a setpoint distance of 10-inches from a target and maintains that distance, no matter what. The control system was originally coded with P-control only and resulted in excessive overshoot and oscillations. So then I added PID control. See video to observe P-control vs. PID control.

Had trouble with IR sensor noise. Issue mitigated with hardware and software. Hardware… added low ESR 1,000uF capacitors on VIN and VOUT of the LM2940T voltage regulator. Software includes an 8th order butterworth filter to clean IR sensor position and velocity. I did have issues with a fire, probably caused by a short or the motor driver. Not sure yet. Since isolating the regulator with the filters and after adding a large heatsink to the voltage regulator, no more fires. See picture below of “incident”.

Anyone have experience or information on GP2D12 IR sensor distance variability? I have the noise reduced to 0.025″ amplitude. Can this be reduced further? Thanks./blockquote>

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Beeple posted this video analyzing/documenting/presenting a beyond-awesome computer-generated rhythm machine I so deeply wish was real. Note to self – must figure how to construct laser capable of creating laser sound … anyone? [via CDM]

From the pages of MAKE:

Drumbot Activate! MAKE: 15: Music, Page 60. Subscribers–read this article now in your digital edition!

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The upcoming mission of the space shuttle will focus heavily on robotics and NASA is using that opportunity to bring additional educational outreach to teachers and students. In an education briefing today, NASA detailed some of the resources and events related to STS-131. The robotics section of the NASA web site includes lesson plans, multimedia, information about robotics competitions, and career profiles of ways students can use math, science and engineering in various robotics jobs. STS-131 Mission Specialist, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, is a teacher-turned-astronaut and will be recording an educational video about the space shuttle and space station robotics operations while on-orbit and crew members will participate in two live educational downlinked events during the mission. You can follow the STS-131 mission on the NASA web site and check the NASA TV schedule for all televised mission events.

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The project description for this iPhone stabilizer is in Japanese but as usual you can rely on Google Translate’s garbled assistance. The site’s great diagrams and photos, however, need no translation! [thanks, recombu!]

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In honor of both DIY Movie Making Month and our ongoing love affair with simple machines that hurl stuff, Jeff DelPapa, founder of NERDS (The New England Rubbish Deconstruction Society), sent us a link to this time-lapse video of a group of teens building a trebuchet. Jeff describes the video as “stone-simple…120x real-time, using a webcam, 8 hours in 4 minutes.” He’s planning on doing another trebuchet build with teams of adults, in late April, early May, as a fundraiser for the Charles River Museum of Industry.

CRMI Spring Fundraiser: Be a Siege Engineer

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INCREDIBLE PROJECT! SMEEON writes…

Finally got around to adding together some video clips I took. I had a lot of people asking about what it does and how, so here is a little walk through.

Photos here!

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We’re excited to announce the first meeting of Make:PGH, a new Make city group based in Pittsburgh. After the first attempt was thwarted by the snowpocalypse, we’re eager to get started. In the area? You should definitely stop by!

Action! Excitement! Danger!

We’re excited to announce the inaugural meeting of Make:PGH, the Steel City Makers! Interested in making stuff? Like the stuff that you see in MAKE magazine? Got cool projects to show off, or grand ideas that are soon to be realized? Want to hang out with other like-minded people? Then you should definitely come out to the meeting on Tuesday, February 9th, at 7pm!

We’ve got some good things lined up: presentations on the Makerbot, a laser harp, and an awesome activity, so be sure come out!

Marty McGuire: Makerbot

Marty McGuire is a research programmer at Carnegie Mellon and a council member for HackPittsburgh. He hopes one day to make “mad bank” thanks to open source hardware and the desktop fabbing revolution.

Marty will talk briefly about the MakerBot open source 3D printer, where it came from, and how it works. He’ll also give a short printing demo, and answer your questions!

Andy Leer: Fighting Domo

Andy Leer will share with us his experiences using the ioBridge to create fun interactive web enabled dioramas. Find out how with a few minutes and some simple hardware you too can put almost anything on the web.

Mystery Activity

Following the two fine presentations will be an activity of great interest and possible import!

Make:PGH Meeting 1 (take 2)
Tuesday, March 9, 2010, 7pm – 9pm
Hack Pittsburgh
1936 5th Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15219
Cost: Freeeeeeeee

Want to see a Make: City group in your area? Gather some friends and some ideas, and make it happen! Be sure to let us know, and we can help you get started.

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Natural Deselection is an instrument that competes plants against each other. The device empowers plants to control the fate of others using sensors and mechanised shears in a Darwinian race for survival. The sensors set above the plants detect the first to grow to a specified height, at which point it is saved, and the others fatally chopped.

[via pruned]

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