Here’s another gem for the hardware lovers to hack during a devthon. SilverJimny, from instructables, has gone on to create a tiny microcontroller-driven laser cutter using an Arduino UNO, a laser diode, drive and a few wires.

In this project called a Microslice, SilverJimny used a larger 50W CO2 laser cutter to carve out pieces for the smaller one but this can also be fabricate using a lathe machine.

The inspiration comes from Gantry cranes which is used in ports for hoisting and lifting heavy containers in parallel movement. The cutting head along with the X-axis is a unit that moves on the Y-axis to cut anything that is on the cutting table.

The Instructable consists of more details with the source code. The video of how it works is below.

[via Instructables]

Originally Published on October 28, 2013

With the introduction of open source hardware, the internet has been pooling up with fun projects to tinker around using hardware components.

One such is the LED 8x8x8 cube project that is an array of LEDs to create beautiful visual display by timing the LEDs. Being digital, this project is easier to implement than using analog.

The LEDs are multiplexed and controlled in an array using a microcontroller. More details and instructions can be foundhere.

It is quite fun to tinker and get it started in 36 hours. Anyone up for tinkering this in the next edition?

Hattip: Hasan Ali Khan

[via Instructables]

Originally Published on September 27, 2013