Craigslist Power Wheels

As part of our upcoming project we needed to get a Power Wheels. Let me just say, owning a power wheels has been a dream of mine ever since I was three. I still know the jingle (granted its just the words power wheels over and over - but there's a beat to it you have to get right). My parents had an outstanding deal with my sister and I growing up that if they ever won the lottery they would by us a power wheels and in fact that deal still stands to this day.

We decided it wasnt a good decision though to just wait on my parents to win the lottery. So we did what every lottery loser does when they want cool stuff on the cheap - Craigslist. We found a nice man named Trent whose dog had gotten a hold of his kids power wheels and was willing to sell his kids dreams for the bargain price of $30. Needless to say I felt a little jipped that my parents couldn't part with $30 when I was a kid, but regardless, power wheels acquired.

Stay tuned to see what we do with a chewed up miniature F150 and a whole lot of modifications!

UDPATE: It's been brought to our attention that there's a lot of beer in the background of this picture we took at work and that's maybe not appropriate. Our company has beer at work; you're probably just jealous.

Our special thanks and a promise for more

We wanted to take a second to thank everyone who watched our video, give a special thanks to everyone who then sent it on to someone else, and send an even more special thanks to those of you who blogged, tweeted, or otherwise broadcast the video. Our success isn't possible without you!

Second, we wanted to let you know that we have at least half a dozen other projects in the pipeline now. Many of them are direct results of your input! Keep giving us great project ideas and we'll keep cooking them up and sending them right back at you!

Calling All Crazy Project Ideas!

It's been really great to see tens of thousands of people viewing our video, but here's the rub. We want to make more videos!

We've got a few vids already in the works, but we think the best way to get even more ideas is to ask those of you who made our Half-Life with Real Guns video popular. Post your project ideas as comments on this blog post and maybe you'll see your crazy idea brought to life in a future episode.

FPS with Real Guns - Episode 02

Here's the second episode from Waterloo Labs. This time we are playing Half-Life (well, the flash version at least), with a real gun. Using accelerometers and LabVIEW, we can triangulate the position of where a bullet hits a piece of drywall and use that location to generate a mouse click in the game, which has been projected onto the wall.

UPDATE (8/12): If you have other crazy project ideas, comment on our newest blog post with your ideas!

UPDATE: Here is the code to complete the demo yourself.

UPDATE (14:49): Here is the system overview, parts list, and explanation of the math behind this.

Greetings, NI Week Visitors!

Keep an eye out for our new video to be released this evening! In the meantime, check out our previous videos in the sidebar to the right or at our YouTube channel.

Meet us at NI Week Tech Theater

Come talk to Waterloo Labs at the Tech Theater at NI Week on Tuesday at 10:30a. Also, we'll be blending things with the Will It Blend? blender and playing with medieval weapons for Deadliest Warrior throughout the day. Look for the labcoats!

P.S. - Coming to see us at NI Week is free! You can see the cool demos on the expo floor and the keynotes for $0.00 if you select 'expo pass'.