HexPummer
Making a bit of techno-sculpture.
I'm a bit pusher, not a hardware jockey. I took the required EE courses as an undergraduate, so I've demonstrated some degree of theoretical and practical understanding about how electronics work. Truth is, however, I only remember one intersting EE lab. Near the end of the course, we built a four bit adder. That was magical. Mostly what I remember are countless hours building circuits that made various sorts of waves on the oscilloscope.
However, when I saw the “Pummer” article in Make Magazine, I knew I had to try to build one. They just looked so cool!
I ordered the HexPummer Kit from Solarbotics sometime before Christmas and bought myself a soldering iron.
It took a little longer than I expected to get around to building it, but this afternoon I did just that.

I can't recall ever soldering anything before but, except for one small blister to show for a moment of carelessness, it was straightforward and fun.
I'll definitely be making some more. Deb suggested making a bunch of them and putting them in the backyard so we can watch them flicker in the evenings. That is a great idea.