BOOKS

THE ART OF TINKERING

by Karen Wilkinson & Mike Petrich $33: Weldon Owen

Not your typical “art” book, The Art of Tinkering is not just a must-read, it’s a must-make: Like many of the featured tinkerers welcomed to transform the book, you too can hack into the cover’s conductive ink to make your own clever circuits. I got lost in Tinkering’s pages, awed by its density of information and inspiration. Lushly illustrated profiles pair up with beautifully photographed, relevant projects — each accessible and appealing to makers of any age. Authors Karen Wilkinson and Mike Petrich direct The Tinkering Studio at the Explor atorium in San Francisco, to which they invite people they’ve discovered at the intersection of art, science, mechanism, and delight. This book takes you there with them.

—Michelle Hlubinka

LEARN TO PROGRAM WITH SCRATCH

by Majed Marji $35: No Starch Press

Create games and art, and learn programming while you’re at it. Scratch is a graphical programming language developed at MIT to teach kids how to program and think creatively. By dragging, dropping, and connecting colored blocks, you can create games with animation and sound effects.

The explanations throughout Learn to Program with Scratch are excellent and easy to follow. As a STEM enthusiast, I loved author Majed Marji’s code examples that used high school-level math for drawing spirograph patterns, like roses and sunflowers. The book also covers the extended capabilities of Scratch 2.0. It’s a great resource for schools and public libraries, as well as makerspaces. I know I’ll be sharing it with my local programming club.

—Phil Shapiro

21ST CENTURY ROBOT

by Brian David Johnson $25: Maker Media, Inc.

I was a little incredulous when I first saw Brian David Johnson’s spindly, dare I say adorable, robot of the future. Where are the servos going to go? How are you going to fit all the wires through those tiny little arms and legs? What finally made it click was that “Jimmy” (because every robot has a name) isn’t about what we can do now, but what we want to do with the future of robotics. Imagination should drive robotics, not spec sheets.

Johnson is a Futurist-in-Residence for Intel, and this collection of stories uses science fiction to explore the implications of new technologies for the people who will actually use them. Following each story is a “how-to” chapter that describes how the robotic concepts in the story might become a reality. Johnson describes these chapters as unfinished and encourages readers to contribute to the discussion at robots21.com.

—Craig Couden

MAKE: SENSORS

by Tero Karvinen, Kimmo Karvinen, Ville Valtokari $35: Maker Media, Inc.

Like a big brother to Getting Started with Sensors, Make: Sensors takes an in-depth look at using sensors with Arduino and Raspberry Pi platforms to interact with the physical world. Sensors are critical to any kind of interactive electronic project, robot, or environmental monitoring system, and cheap ones are available for sensing all kinds of physical phenomena: humidity, temperature, movement, distance, gases, and light. Even a simple button or volume control knob is a sensor. The trick is understanding how these sensors communicate with the Arduino or Raspberry Pi, and how to write code that not only reads the sensors’ values, but accounts for variations in conditions that could cause bad sensor readings. The book's detailed circuit diagrams, illustrations, full-color images, and hands-on projects are easy to parse for beginners, but they're also useful for intermediate users who want to learn more.

—CC

For the budding roboticist, MAKE and RadioShack have partnered up on an engaging new series of kits that lets you start building bots, and expand them into a variety of fun and clever creations.

The Make: it Robotics Starter Kit provides supplies to make a rolling line-follower or walking robot, including motors, sensors, circuit boards and hardware. Add-on kits transform your gadget into anything from a surveil-lance bot to a mobile mini-catapult, while additional motor kits push the possibilities even further. Simply add an Arduino or other controller and watch young minds get to work.

MAKERSHED

makershed.com

STAFF PICKS FROM THE MAKER SHED

The Official Store of Make:

ROBOTIC ARM EDGE

This bot has auto-industry robotic arm functions, but in a compact size. You control the gripper, wrist, elbow, and base joints, and base rotations using the included remote. Want to add intelligence? You can readily hack this arm using an Arduino for automated control.

MKOW07 $62

WE HAVE A SOFT SPOT IN OUR HEARTS FOR ROBOTS because they provide a fun, simple starting point for young makers. Robots promote mechanical thinking and can be created from something as commonplace as a tin can. Even for more advanced tinkerers, robots still hold sway. With the addition of micro-controllers, programming, and engineering skills, robotics kits are as complex or simple as you desire. Whether you’re building a bot from an Arduino or a Lego set, you can find supplies and kits to incite creativity at makershed.com.

Written by Natalie Wiersma and Michael Castor

SPARKI

Robotics is one of the most involved areas of making. You need to build a frame, add motors, wheels, accessories, install the electronics, and then worry about programming. Sparki from ArcBotics was designed to make learning robotics easy and fun. Sparki is loaded with features such as a motorized gripper, stepper driven wheels for precise control, a host of onboard sensors, and even a Bluetooth module for wireless communication. The enhanced Arduino IDE includes dozens of sample programs that you can upload and modify so you can spend less time troubleshooting and more time learning.

MKAB2 $150

MULTIPLO

Need a completely open-source, robot-focused building system — one with flexible configurations, plug-in sensors, and an easy to use, drag-and-drop IDE? Multiplo delivers, with its plethora of plates, connectors, gears, and other parts allowing for a nearly unlimited number of configurations. Sensors and motors connect directly to the DuinoBot controller and a custom version of the MiniBloq IDE allows for drag-and-drop programming and displays Arduino code in real time to assist learning. Multiplo is perfect for hobbyists, tinkerers, students, and anyone looking to get a start in making and robotics.

MKMTP02 $269

CUBELETS

Sometimes you just want to build an interactive robot and not worry about programming. Cubelets are self-contained modules, each with a different function that interacts with the rest once you put them together. They connect together magnetically to form robots with complex behaviors. Each kit includes six Cubelets and a battery charger to get you started. Add more Cubelets for additional functionality and to create your own robot army!

MKMR01 $175

GROVE MIXER PACK

Build functional prototypes quickly and easily with the Grove Mixer Pack’s collection of modules. They are colorful, tiny, and accessible enough for young makers and makers new to sensors and microcontrollers. Every kit includes 10 demo cards to get you up and running out of the box. QR Codes on the cards link to a wiki for each project for you to explore and collaborate with others.

MKSEEED23 $75

BIT BLOB JR. KIT

Explore funky sounds and digital synthesis with the Bit Blob Jr. Kit from Bleep Labs. Designed to be an introductory soldering kit, the Bit Blob Jr. allows you to create nearly endless sounds and overlays using 8 pads and alligator clip patch cords. Our friends at Bleep Labs call this product “digital noise insanity,” and we are apt to agree.

MKBL6 $50

FOLDABLE MINI-SPECTROMETER

Ever wonder what gasses are present in a light bulb or our atmosphere? This Mini-Spectrometer kit is a fun, inexpensive way to get into spectroscopy, the interaction between matter and energy. When excited, matter emits specific wavelengths. Spectrometers allow you to view these wavelengths and determine what a gas is made up of. It includes complete instructions and an attachment to mount it to your phone or webcam for further analysis, calibration, and sharing.

MKPBL02 $10

Make: Marketplace