Former toy designer, current YouTube maker and general robotics, electrical and mechanical engineer, I’m a fan of doing it yourself and innovation by trial and error. My channel is where I share some of my useful and not-so-useful inventions, designs and maker advice. Iron Man is my go-to cosplay, and 3D printing can solve most issues – broken bolts, missing parts, world hunger, you name it.
My recent projects include building various Star Wars droids including BB-8, a GONK Power Droid and R2-D2 R6, as well as various Marvel projects like my Iron Man and Hulkbuster projects. More serious robotics series include Ultron the “Real Robot” and my bipedal humanoid Robot X.
From James Bruton. Ad: Thanks to Odoo for sponsoring this video, try Odoo for free now https://www.odoo.com/r/JtZ Do you remember when I made a bicycle with an omni-wheel on the front? A while later I moved on and tried to make a bike with two omni-wheels. As soon as I’d assembled that version I realised…
From James Bruton. Do you remember when Colin Furze built the Rhino tank and then got stuck in a ditch and had to pull it out with a JCB? The concept was pioneered by Elie Aghnides on the 1950s. The idea being that due to the domed-shaped wheels, the more your sink into mud, the…
From James Bruton. Do you remember when Colin Furze built the Rhino tank and then got stuck in a ditch and had to pull it out with a JCB? The concept was pioneered by Elie Aghnides on the 1950s. The idea being that due to the domed-shaped wheels, the more your sink into mud, the…
From James Bruton. AD: Go to: https://pvcase.com/JamesBruton try PVcase for free! Do you remember when Colin Furze built the Rhino tank and then got stuck in a ditch and had to pull it out with a JCB? The concept was pioneered by Elie Aghnides on the 1950s. The idea being that due to the domed-shaped…
From James Bruton. AD: Go to: https://pvcase.com/JamesBruton try PVcase for free! This project is based on some Star Wars Droids which Disney Imagineering have had walking around Galaxies Edge Theme Park. Obviously they have far more resources than me, and they trained their robots in a simulation before building them. Yeah I built mine in…
From James Bruton. Ad: Thanks to PCBWay for sponsoring this video:https://www.pcbway.com/ Do you remember when I built openDog version 3 and I designed cycloidal drives – there’s 12 of them in that machine and it’s still going strong. The motors are brushless motors controlled by ODrives and I‘ve got some more projects coming up this…
From James Bruton. AD: Go to: https://pvcase.com/JamesBruton try PVcase for free! Do you remember the time Colin Furze pulled a string and it made a cup of tea in another room? I’m building a marble machine which uses the force of gravity from the marble to make a cup of tea! A ball runs through…
From James Bruton. Ad: Thanks to PCBWay for sponsoring this video:https://www.pcbway.com/ A mobius strip or loop is a one-sided object, and we can easily demonstrate the principle by getting a strip of paper, putting one twist in it, and joining the ends together. The original tank I built has tracks like this, because it was…
From James Bruton. AD: Go to: https://pvcase.com/JamesBruton try PVcase for free! It’s time for the Makers’ Secret Santa. This year I’m making a giant animatronic robot Furby for very a special little boy. I used 3D printing, an Arduino and various other electronics, and brightly coloured fabric to make a ‘Furby Surprise’. Makers this year…
From James Bruton. Ad: Thanks to PCBWay for sponsoring this video:https://www.pcbway.com/ I previously built a small MonoWheel which is a single wheel that runs along with one motor driving it. It balances on its edge like rolling a coin. Monowheels have been built large enough for people to ride in, which looks like a fun…
From James Bruton. AD: Go to: https://pvcase.com/JamesBruton try PVcase for free! A number or people have sent me various videos of the new Star Wars Droids walking around Disney’s Galaxies Edge theme park. These are smallish bipedal Droid characters which are a bit like BD-1 but kind of bigger and with bigger joints, because they…
From James Bruton. Ad: Thanks to PCBWay for sponsoring this video:https://www.pcbway.com/ I received a YouTube comment from one of my YouTube channel members on another tank video which suggested building a Mobius strip tank. They didn’t really know why that’s a good idea, and I don’t either, but we’re going to build one anyway and…
From James Bruton. AD: Go to: https://pvcase.com/JamesBruton try PVcase for free! You can’t suck yourself along with a vacuum cleaner, so don’t bother trying that. However, I did build a vacuum cleaner powered air engine which I could ride along on. This design was inspired by YouTuber Matthias Wandell, and his original design was made…
From James Bruton. Ad: Thanks to PCBWay for sponsoring this video:https://www.pcbway.com/ Worms locomote using a system of Peristalsis, or Peristaltic motion. This means that sections of their body expand and contract to push themselves along. There have been quite a few research projects for robots that move like this, and I previously built my own…
From James Bruton. AD: Watch Qualcomm’s tutorial series and try out the RB5 Development Kit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlbXs2Sb7nw and a big thanks to Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. for sponsoring this video! I built a Star Wars Speeder Bike with omni-directional wheels powered by electric jet engines. I also have a plan for another version of the Star Wars…
From James Bruton. AD: Go to: https://pvcase.com/JamesBruton try PVcase for free! It’s time for the human egg drop challenge – it’s like the egg drops challenge where you have to protect an egg from being dropped, but with a crash test dummy! I challenged @KidsInventStuff to build something to protect our human egg from being…
From James Bruton. #Ad: Immortals of Aveum is out now: https://bit.ly/IofA_Bruton Thanks again to EA for sponsoring this video You’ve all seen lasers popping balloons and burning things before, so I decided to make something different – lasers that can apply a force. Lasers are just light though and photos of light have no mass,…
From James Bruton. AD: Go to: https://pvcase.com/JamesBruton try PVcase for free! I love riding hoverboards, so I decided to see if we could use the electronics and wheels from one to make a bigger balancing omni-directional vehicle. Other channels have attempted this, but generally they just made the wheels bigger which result in more velocity…
From James Bruton. Ad: Download Opera One today: https://opr.as/Opera-browser-James-Bruton I was recently looking at the new Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom game. It has loads of gadgets which you can use to complete the game including a Cart, Sled, Fan, a Spring, and Shock and Beam Emitters. There’s also a Stabliser device which…
From James Bruton. Ad: Enter the RealVNC Raspberry Pi competition: https://www.realvnc.com/en/discover/realvnc-raspberrypi-prize/ I recently discovered freeline skating or free skating. These are skates which each look a bit like a little skateboard. They have two wheels each but they aren’t attached to your feet like rollerblades or rollerskates, you just stand on them. Free skating is…