Posted May 1st 2008 11:26PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: misc hacks
Despite the resemblance to an alien robot that might rebuild your house from scratch,
this is actually the first mod for a solar yard lamp that I've seen. By adding a brighter LED, a couple of tubes, a laser printed transparency and a lens, you end with with a relatively inexpensive image projector that can project custom graphics from odd locations. [
via]
Posted Apr 30th 2008 10:32PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: misc hacks
[Ryan] sent in [Bill]'s
project to build his own JAMMA arcade game console. It's actually a take off from one of [Ben Heck]'s
how-tos, but I thought it might interest people who think that they can't pull off any of the projects we feature on their own. We definitely like to show off some original, complex hacks, but success stories can be just as inspiring.
Posted Apr 29th 2008 9:09PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: misc hacks
[Yuri] spent some time building a computer controlled, arduino interfaced beer brewing rig. A cooler serves as a mash tun, while the arduino controls a steam source that's used to raise the temperature of the mash as desired. A java app talks to the arduino to set the temperature parameters and monitor the steam boiler. You can catch a nice
video walkthrough of the setup, see some
screen shots of his java interface.
Posted Apr 28th 2008 8:44PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: misc hacks, peripherals hacks
Whenever [sprite_tm] sends in his
latest project, it's like getting a Christmas present and a night off. He put together a whiteboard, x/y stepper system, serial interfaced microcontroller and added a webcam with perspective correction for the online view. Me? I'm tempted to build one of these for leaving notes for the wife when I'm out.
Posted Apr 27th 2008 11:27PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: misc hacks, transportation hacks
This one's In honor of my
new project bike. [wildwestsyndey] converted his Suzuki DR 350 from the stock carbs to EFI using the
megasquirt EFI controller and a custom machined throttle body. You can find a few pictures of the conversion
here. To handle the ever annoying need for a high pressure fuel pump, he adapted an in-tank scooter pump with a machined mini-reservoir to fit in-line with the original tank. For more motorcycle builds, check out the megasquirt
success stories forum.Posted Apr 26th 2008 11:03PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: laptops hacks, misc hacks
Certain OS installers cough*osx*cough don't like the on-board displays on some machines. [Ziddan]
posted a paperclip based work around for them on the eeeuser forums (originally posted by [mugan] on insanelymac). Apparently by shorting the pins, the video card will report that there is an unknown external display attached.
Posted Apr 25th 2008 11:20PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: misc hacks
There's nothing quite like a nice, simple hack.
This serial servo controller uses a PIC12C671 and a pair of resistors. Leaving out the power supply, that's the lowest part count I've ever seen.
Posted Apr 24th 2008 9:35PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: misc hacks
When I built
my LumenLab projector, I used a thermal switch to run the fan.
This simple control circuit looks like a nice alternative. The circuit is a simple adjustable temperature triggered Fet. If you know the resistance needed, you can replace the potentiometer with a cheap resistor. (You'll want to use a DC fan)
Posted Apr 23rd 2008 9:11PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: pcs hacks
[Janne] does freelance animation and wanted something with
a bit more CPU to get his rendering jobs done. He picked up an Ikea 'Helmer' cabinet and refitted it to hold six Intel quad cores, six Gigabyte motherboards with 8GB of ram each and six 400 watt power supplies. He seems happy with it - I think it just needs some custom power wiring and an integrated Gig-E switch to achieve perfection. What? I'm not jealous at all.
Posted Apr 22nd 2008 9:17PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: misc hacks
[everett] sent in
his final project for his mechanisms class. In an attempt to create his own bolt on X gene, he built a wrist mounted hand activated flame thrower: The Pyro System. The wrist mount has an igniter and a nozzle for dispersing fuel. When he flexes his hand back, a switch actuates a servo on the fuel and fires the igniter. Quick disclaimer: Don't try replicating this one! If you want to skip the movie clip, skip 33 seconds into the video.
Posted Apr 21st 2008 8:37PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: home entertainment hacks, peripherals hacks, xbox hacks
[CyberPyrot] and [l0rdnic0] released their
spitfire mod on acidmods for XBox 360 controllers. It involves some fine wiring, but a relatively low parts count. The heart of the mod is a PIC16F84A, a crystal for the clock and a few passive parts. It took me a little while to find it, but the code for the pic hiding under the parts list. For a lengthy demo of the mod in action, you can check out this
video.
Posted Apr 20th 2008 7:22AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: gps hacks, misc hacks
[
Gabriel] put together an impressive writeup of his autonomous catamaran,
Atlantis(PDF). It was certainly done as an academic project, but there's a thorough explanation of the math logic behind the control systems. The heart of the boat was a waterproofed Pentium laptop with a CAN bus parallel interface used to talk to everything on-board. Sensors included GPS, wind, hull speed and rudder angle. In case the site can't handle the load, I've mirrored the 1.4MB PDF
here.
Posted Apr 19th 2008 9:42PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: misc hacks
[Dennis] sent in
the glider that [Art] built, but I had to feature his
dinghy autopilot. It runs on solar power, takes GPS data via serial and maintains the heading using a servo motor to drive the line. It's an excellent solution for the hardware hacking boater.
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