Make: Kit Reviews

What’s kombucha? It’s a refreshing, lightly sweetened, sparkling tea drink that is naturally fermented (yet non-alcoholic). The Oregon Kombucha kit comes with everything you need to make your own kombucha at home. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. Boil a gallon of water, brew the tea satchel, dissolve the sugar, let it cool, […]

Beverages: beverages, fermentation, Kombucha, sparkling tea, starter kit

This beautiful engine teaches you the basics of thermodynamics as its power comes from an external heat source, which can be anything from fuel to solar to geothermal energy. The instructions are in Japanese, but the Maker Shed page has an English translation. MAKE is proud to be the exclusive distributor in North America for […]

Science: heirloom tech, Science, Stirling Engine, thermodynamics

Due to its hands-free interface (your body’s interference with its electromagnetic field controls the sound), the theremin is famed for both its novelty and its importance in 20th-century music. When I started building this kit, I had little soldering experience, but the straightforward instructions made for a great introduction to the world of circuits. The wooden casing […]

Musical Instruments: music, musical instruments, theremin

Musicians have long praised the tone of tube amps, and after a face-melting guitar solo, it looks pretty rad to have your amp glowing behind you on stage. I love the simplistic, wholly utilitarian design of the Mod102’s case, and the sweet tone it adds. The circuit design is point to point, giving beginners and […]

Musical Instruments: amplifier, guitar, music, musical instruments

Spike Your Juice is a simple introduction to home fermentation. The kit comes with enough yeast packets for six batches, an airlock with rubber stopper, and clear instructions. To brew a batch of alcoholic juice, add one yeast pack to a 64oz bottle of juice (such as grape or cranberry), shake, stopper with the water-filled […]

Alcoholic Beverages Beverages: alcohol, beverages, fermentation

This amazing demo shows how you can transmit sound over a laser beam. The transmitter modulates power to a laser pointer with audio from a headphone jack. The receiver is just an earphone and a solar cell; no power source. I assembled both in minutes, and it was strange (in a good way) to hear music […]

Science: communication, Science, spy gear

TubeSat makes space your personal laboratory. You build a satellite the size of a large soup can, get it launched into a 310km Earth orbit moving 17,000 miles an hour, and talk to it via ham radio a few times a day for 1–3 months. Smile as you reflect on your new skills in surface-mount […]

Science: ham radio, satellites, Science

The Wise Clock 3 is an easy and highly customizable driver for a 32×16 RGB LED matrix display (included). Its default program includes several different clock modes, but it can also display the date and temperature, or any message. Check out all the different clock faces, including Pong and Pac-Man.

Clocks: Arduino, clocks, LEDs, Pac-Man, Pong

In the next few years there’s going to be an influx of a not-so-new technology called Near Field Communication (NFC), which is very similar to RFID, and enables small devices to read passive tags and communicate with each other in close proximity. Card readers use it, as do phones that do payment processing. Adafruit’s PN532 […]

Electronics and Controllers: controllers, electronics

The Mintronics Bundle from the Maker Shed is a great way to get started with Arduino and electronics. It includes a MintDuino — a mint tin containing all the components you need to build a full-featured Arduino-compatible microcontroller — plus the Mintronics Survival Pack, another tin containing over 60 über-handy components you can use for […]

Electronics and Controllers Microcontrollers: Arduino, electronics, microcontrollers