Make: Kit Reviews

The Align T-REX 450 Sport is a terrific, well-supported copter that will satisfy trained beginners and advanced pilots. The Super Combo package includes all but the transmitter, receiver, batteries, and blade pitch gauge. The comprehensive manual advises that you rebuild the pre-assembled parts, checking alignment, using thread-locker on all screws and bolts, and lubricating where […]

Radio-Controlled Vehicles: helicopter, RC

This 1/10 scale kit has amazing realism and performance, with aluminum and steel chassis and body components like those of a full-sized vehicle. You’ll feel like a mechanic building it. You add motor, speed control, radio, servo, and battery.

Radio-Controlled Vehicles: RC, scale model

In my opinion the coolest innovation in R/C vehicles is the crawler. As the name implies, crawlers are incredible crawling machines that are super fun to build and to run. Like a good video game, they’re easy to pick up but hard to master. Crawlers are built to climb over serious terrain, and some are […]

Radio-Controlled Vehicles: crawler, off-road, RC

Peggy 2LE provides a quick, easy, powerful, and efficient way to drive a lot of big, bright LEDs — up to 625 — in a matrix. With it, you can make an LED sign for your window, a geeky valentine for your sweetie, one badass birthday card, the next generation of low-pixel-count video games, or […]

LEDs: electronics, LEDs

Have you tried taking video using your digital camera but never seem to have enough light? Does your camera have trouble focusing in the dark? LEDs are cheap, and so are resistors, so why not make your own LED Video Light? With this second-generation kit from ProdMod, you’ll transform a simple battery holder into a […]

LEDs: electronics, LEDs, photography

Do you like interactive art? Imagine a bunch of little lights on a table, each about the size of a chess piece, each independent of the others. Arrange them any way you want. Each light continually and slowly changes colors on its own — but when you wave your hand over them, they create waves […]

LEDs: electronics, LEDs, Mitch Altman

Although 5×7 pixels aren’t a lot to work with, it’s easy to get lost in Olaf Val’s Mignon Game Kit. This minimalist handheld gaming system is hands-on in more ways than one. The first step is to put it together; second is to hack code for the Atmel ATmega8 microcontroller that powers it; and third, […]

LEDs: electronics, Games, kids, LEDs, microcontrollers

Our family reunions have become quite an affair now that my mother can tally 21 grandkids. Aged from 1 to 20, keeping them busy is a challenge. At last year’s reunion I brought a small LED craft project for the little kids, but I needed something more challenging for the older ones. Luckily, I came […]

LEDs: electronics, LEDs

Make a mind-blowing remote controlled “Meka-Inchworm” robot with this fun, no-soldering-required kit. You’ve got to love a machine that moves like a bug! It’s Japanese, but we’ve got English instructions at makezine.com/go/inchworm. MAKE is proud to be the exclusive distributor in North America for these brilliant kits, part of Gakken’s Mechanical Animals Series. Reviewer Tyler Bennett […]

Toys & Games: Gakken, Game, robots, toys

Although the V90 is an entry-level machine, it’s decidedly not a toy. The way it functions is complicated — a platform carries the tool holder; a larger gantry moves the tool back and forth; the frame positions the gantry; and it’s all driven by a motor turning the screw interposed between two shafts. Indeed, this […]

Tools & Workshop: CNC, Tools, Workshop