Gadget design, robotics, hacks, DIY technology and more.

I just found an X-Ray machine in the garbage. Yes, you read right, I now have one of those X-Ray machines like the ones your dentist uses.

The X-Ray Machine is watching You

Of course, I have no experience whatsoever with X-Ray machines so I am open to suggestions. What should I do with it? Any suggestions? Any projects that you would like to see me do with it?

Also, how safe is operating this thing? I guess I will need a lead jacket.

Here are more details about the machine, it is a General Electric, and comes with an arm that makes it easy to handle since it is extremely heavy. The arm is lovely, the only problem is that it is heavier than the machine and needs to be wall mount. Needless to say, I have no walls that could endure so much torque.

X-Ray machine With Arm and Weird Base

The arm is designed to transfer pretty much all of its weight and that of the X-Ray generator into the wall. This makes it very convenient and also impossible to install in a regular house. At least, as far as I can imagine for now.

I also found what seems to be a very heavy base but I am not sure what it is suppose to do. nevertheless, I always have a good use for a large square steel plate.

X-Ray Machine from the garbage

Let me know your ideas and suggestions by posting a comment below.

As promised, I improved on my initial rather silly design of the universal gripper as inspired by iRobot and University of Chicago.

The DIY Jamming Gripper

My main goal was to create a universal gripper that could be made from off-the shelves parts in a simple way with minimum customization.

Materials

• A shower head (that you will need to modify slightly)
• Some 1/4″ silicon tubing
• Some cottons balls
• A balloon
• A DC pump
• A DC wall adaptor
• A switch
• Some coffee
• A coupling
• A funnel to fill the balloon with coffee

DIY Jamming Gripper Materials

Putting it together

I think I succeeded my goal as you will see below: the gripper is quite easy to assemble and only required very minor modification of the shower head in order to fit the balloon in.

The steps for putting the gripper together are outlined in the video below.

As shown in the video below the proper works pretty well. unfortunately, I did not film it but it can also hold a glass filled with water as the original.

See the picture gallery below for more details about the building steps and the final result.

Benoît from Geeks and Com was kind enough to interview me a while back at the Geekfest. I am not sure I perform particularly well in an interview but I guess this might be interesting for those who want to know more about Nao. BTW, the interview is in French.

Oh! I forgot. The preview is hilarious.