Solving problems, fulfilling wishes.

Do you find yourself wishing for some kind of machine or system to solve a problem or fulfill a wish?

If you have a problem, tell us about it. And if you have a good solution to one of the challenges submitted below, tell us about that too. We’ll run our favorite problems and solutions in the next issue and on our website. Send your stuff to challenge@makezine.com.

A Stable Bike » I wonder if there is a way to stabilize a bike so that it can stay upright without extra wheels.

The application I have in mind is for disabled kids who don’t have the balance skills and muscle control it takes to balance a bike. This would Inexpensive Way to Track enable them to ride with their Pets » I adopted an abused friends without the social dog that ran away repeatedly. stigma of riding a three- Searching for her was a wheeler or having training lengthy and heart-rending wheels. Maybe gyroscopes process, which ultimately or a rotating motor? ended in her death on a road.

— Philippe Habib It was so frustrating that

Super 8 Film to DVD »

I’d love it if someone could develop a really high-quality way to transfer old movies (8mm and 16mm) to digital at home.

— Gary A. Peare

with all the technology avail- camera by removing the lens. able, the only ways I had to Is such a thing possible? find her were posting signs I don’t know. I don’t have and calling shelters. It took the skills and neither do weeks to get sightings that any of the guys I know who were often several days old. are interested in this since I’ve heard of Wi-Fi-type most of us are software guys networks to track pets, but Seems like a good project for that just isn’t going to hap- MAKE magazine. pen soon enough for me, if — Marc Goodner it even makes it this far into the sticks of rural Michigan. Antigravity Lifter » Here’s — Anne Norman a challenge: create the stron-gest “lifter” — a simple-to-build Pinhole Digital Camera » antigravity machine based on I have had discussions the Beifield-Brown effect. recently with a number of How to build: jnaudin.free. other camphone enthusiasts fr/html/lftbld. htm. Check out who all love them for the many videos at the American poor quality — the artifacts Antigravity website. There is in the images, the unexpect- a growing community around ed results. The problem is, lifters because they’re so the images are just too small. cool and easy to build. Plus An idea came out of these there are many variations discussions of what would on the design work, so the be really cool: a repurposed trick is finding which ones digicam that has a larger chip work best. modified to work as a pinhole — Derek Martin

190 Make: Volume 01