How To Beat The Candy Crane Game?

Most of us have, at least once in our lifetime, played the candy crane game, and many of us have seen on the sign on the front that says, "play until you win." Well, that gave me an idea. I started researching how the machine detects whether you have won or not and have found that it uses an infrared LED sensor and once it no longer receives the signal from the LED (when the candy falls down the chute) it knows that you're a winner and makes you pay again to play. But, what if you bought an infrared LED and shined it at the detector. Wouldn't it keep on thinking that your a loser and letting you keep on playing while you start gathering a pile of candy at the bottom of the machine? I'm skeptical about it working but, why not give it a shot?

Guy Builds His Own Jet Fighter

When Arthur van Poppel found some online plans on how to build a jet fighter he took them pretty seriously. He actually built the thing! While his homemade jet won't ever take flight he can actually drive it. The jet has a scaled down version of the real thing and has collapsible wings so that he can fit it in tight spaces.



"Apart from a crafty piece of machinery, the Jet Fighter is especially some spectacular entertainment, full of surprises! In the cockpit, one finds sound equipment and a monitor with surveillance cameras. Apart from this, the Jet Fighter has many sound effects and visual entertainment, such as smoke-, water- and confetti-effects, to surprise its audience again and again. These effects can also be controlled from a distance. The spectators will be amazed!"

Via- Muziekkunstenaar

CNC Hexapod Robot

Matt Denon, a dedicated robotics expert has built the worlds first CNC machine that can walk on the material that it's getting ready to cut. He uses the Hexapod robot, which you can now buy at his store, played around with the programing, and added a drill bit. Although it only can go through styrofoam and high density foam right now, Matt is looking into the possibilities of it cutting wood and he plans on using a smaller drill bit for a clearer model. However, he has come a long way from when he first started because originally it used a marker to draw pictures. Way to go Matt!

5 Minute Christmas Light Controller

Max from ZedoMax built an automated Christmas light controller. All that you have to do if you want one of your own is go to his website, copy the code that he already provides, and then send it to the CuSB22R board that is shown in the video. Here is a parts list:

1. CuSB22R from | cubloc.com
2. AC power cord (like the one for your computer or get it here: cubloc.com)
3. AC Connectors from Home Depot (You can get more depending on how many Christmas Lights you are trying to control,
remember you can also put Christmas lights in series per relay)
bunch of wires

In the video it shows him controlling only three strands of lights but, you can add up to seven more. Plus, you can have more than one set of lights in a strand. What's even better is that, if you feel the need to, you can edit the code for the lights to change the blinking rate or you can change it all together to make objects look animated.

Giant Ceiling Clock

When Realities United, an architectural design company, was put to the task of building a creative lighting design in a building in New York they sure did. They decided to use industrial fluorescent bulbs to create a clock to display the time which served as both a light source for the room and an information display. It uses two seven segment displays, designed to look like a giant LCD clock, to display the time in minutes. What I want is this concept to be implemented into a room, act as an alarm clock, and then flash to wake you up (just a thought)

Old Fasion DIY Calculator

Aaron from Arron Adding Machines.Com makes and sells "antique calculators" He hand makes each of them using old wood that he finds from various places and gives them a nice antique stain. Then he drills holes in it and adds buttons from Radio Shack which hook up to a circuit board that goes to a red led display. Although this wouldn't be too hard to make it's still a great idea so good job Aaron!