Fascinating Designs Search Results

How To: Pick a warded lock

In this lock picking tutorial video series, I explain and demonstrate how to pick warded locks. Warded locks can be identified by the unique keyway they have. Warded locks use a very simple design. This allows the lock to be inexpensive and minimizes jamming from dirt and grime. Use these lock picking videos to learn how to pick a warded lock.

How To: Use a light meter to properly light a digital film

A light meter can prove to be an invaluable tool on any film set, allowing you to quickly and efficiently set lights and know the correct exposure values of those lights. Light meters were initially designed for still photographers and cinematographers can easily calibrate them to a given film stock speed for shooting film. But what about today’s digital cinematographer? I’m glad you asked. In this video tutorial you'll see how you can use a light meter to quickly and efficiently light a scen...

How To: Repair and assemble a V-Cube 6 puzzle

The V-Cube 6 puzzle is a uniquely designed and constructed skill game. V-Cube 6 is a multi-colored, multiple-layered cube, rotating smoothly on based axes. The player is required to discover a strategy to achieve uniform color sides on her or his V-Cube, but in this process, the Rubik's Cube-like puzzle may break, especially if you're in the process of speedsolving.

How To: Make a potato gun (with a taser)

This video is quite good, but to be fair, one needs more than 10 minutes to really be able to replicate the task. Mounting a taser is somewhat tricky. Watch this tutorial video and make this spud gun or otherwise known as the taser totter! You can use either a taser or a BBQ igniter. For those of you who want to shoot things with potatoes, this video is for you. Bre Pettis of Make Magazine, creates this potato cannon using a stun gun, PVC piping, and hairspray. Watch as he then launches it tw...

How To: The Hardware Hacker's Introduction to Microcontrollers, Part One: Anatomy of an Arduino

In this article, I'll be explaining the basics of how microcontrollers work, physically and virtually. First off, microcontrollers are no simple thing, so don't be discouraged if you find it mind-boggling! The world of microcontrollers is fascinating, engaging, and an awesome hobby; it never gets boring. I'll be focusing more on I/O and analog based microcontrollers, such as those running Arduino, and using Atmel chips as examples (these are most commonly available, and easy to program).