NotesSince getting my hands on a compatible TV tuner, I’ve been able to listen to police radio, pager networks, garage door openers, air traffic control, and lots more.FeedUnfurl
Notes In this instructable, you will learn how to transform an old, broken laptop into a nice desktop. This project involves a total rework of the computer case. With this mod, you can give new life to an old laptop.In order to do this, you do not need any advanced craftmanship or tools (but if you have them, they will come handy).Unfurl
NotesIt turns out that there are several ways to get such a thing going again (thank you, Google). I ended up buying a DPMI/VGA interface board on eBay, complete with high-voltage supply and cables. It worked right out of the box:Unfurl
NotesOne dynamic that happens in a lot of idealist communities: we praise our opponents who make even a small step in our direction, but we attack our own mercilessly when they make even a small step away from us. It’s counter-productive.Unfurl
NotesBy making the Kinect portable, [Mike] et al made the Microsoft’s 3D imaging device much more capable than its present task of computing the volumetric space of the inside of a cabinet. The Reconstructme project allows the Kinect to be used as a hand-held 3D scanner and Kintinuous can be used to create a 3D model of entire houses, buildings, or caves.FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesEconomical alternative to original Arduino ethernet shields, allows data rates up to 10 Mbps and is achieved with a traditional assembly components.FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesFrom the moment these LED displays made an appearance on our weekly Ask an Engineer show, comparisons were being made to the DeLorean time circuit from the Back to the Future films. It was a moral imperative then to make a demo! If you’re handy with Arduino and some shop tools, you should be able to pull off something similar (better, even), or adapt the ideas to other projects. This was quickly built in fun, so please don’t expect the same level of polish as a finished product tutorial.FeedUnfurl
Notes Tweet-a-Watt is a DIY wireless power monitoring system. The project uses an 'off the shelf' power monitor called the Kill-a-Watt and adds wireless reporting. Each plug transmits the power usage at that outlet to a central computer receiver. The receiver can then log, graph and report the data. This pack contains nearly everything* necessary to build a single outlet monitor and receiver. To monitor additional outlets, you will need an add-on transmitter pack. One outlet can monitor up to 1500 Watts.FeedUnfurl
NotesPhil Torrone of Adafruit sent me a bag full of maker skill patches. When my 9-year-old daughter came home from school today, her eyes popped out like a Tex Avery wolf. I told her she could have them all, but she has to earn them! I’ll work with her to help her earn the LED patch first.FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesMarriage is a sacred commitment; it's no kind of small thing to consider. You need to show you mean business. You need to put some effort into a proposal.
Jered McFerron did when he decided to rewrite the code for the 1986 NES classic, Metroid, in the C++ programming language. This undertaking wasn't initially to propose to his love, Jenni, but struck as an inspiration mid-project when he knew she was the gal for him.FeedUnfurl
Notes A LOT of people are having the problem that the xbox turns on automatically when you plug in the power and then they must unplug it to turn it off. This is going to help most of those people I hope. Unfurl
NotesIt has been pointed out by chunkhead from the afterdawn.com and llama.com Forums that some X-Box motherboards have a corrosion problem on some traces.
This corrosion is due to some sort of contamination from the factory.
Due to this corrosion, it was found that some X-Boxes affected can produce the following symptoms:
(1) The X-Box fails to power down using the power on/off button on the front panel. The power cord has to be pulled out to shut it down.
(2) As soon as the power cord is plugged in, the X-Box powers up without pressing either the on/off or eject buttons.
(3) While the X-Box is on for a certain amount of time, it shuts down by itself for no reason. The time factor before shut down can vary wildly. Unfurl
NotesWe can learn several crucial lessons from this diverse, creative group, and that understanding will allow us to encourage innovation. For some, the main impetus for DIY is that it provides an outlet from their daily grind: Many employees suffer the life of the cubicle-bound "knowledge worker." In his best-selling Shop Class As Soulcraft, Matthew Crawford argues that the elimination of industrial arts and home economics classes from public school curricula has left us dependent on machines that we don’t understand and frustrated by the outsourcing and off-shoring of production. We also derive little satisfaction from what we “produce” at work. We’ve become a nation of shoppers and consumers. DIY is a way to engage the physical things around us and create durable (and drinkable) objects. Based on informal conversations with other DIYers, some of these motivations include self-reliance, community-building, autonomy, independence from monopolies, an alternative to rampant consumerism, innate curiosity, and the desire to make something cool.FeedUnfurl
Notes Presenting the Dymaxion Auto-Matic Buckminster Fuller. It's a retro-futuristic black and white screen mounted into a 1950s (or so) radio chassis, which generates and displays text that American luminary R. Buckminster Fuller might have said if he were a piece of software.FeedUnfurl
NotesCommunicating with a host computer can allow a simple Arduino-based system to gain access to a wide variety of devices and information. Most people link an Arduino to a host using serial communications across a USB connection with custom code running on the host to send information to the Arduino or receive it in return, but giving your Arduino the ability to pretend to be a keyboard or mouse opens up a whole world of possibilities because it means your Arduino can interact with software that was never intended for external control. That could be desktop software such as a game or a web browser: your Arduino could "type" into a web form and submit it on your behalf, or act as a custom controller for a game!Unfurl
NotesIn a follow-up to his rocketry reviews in the Make: Ultimate Kit Guide, Stefan Jones sent us this wonderful backstory on how he got involved in hobby rocketry. It really brought back memories for me because I was introduced to model rocketry through the same year’s Estes catalog and had a very similar reaction. I’m sure many makers of our generation had a similar experience. -GarethUnfurl
NotesThe ADK TinkerKit is a complete pack of 25 TinkerKit Modules, Arduino Mega ADK, Mega Sensor Shield, and necessary wires to kickstart your Android development experience without soldering. Unfurl
NotesThis shield allows you to connect a HP C6602 inkjet cartridge to your Arduino turning it into a 96dpi print platform. It only uses 5 pins which can be jumper selected to avoid other shields. It is designed with a Arduino Mega footprint but fully supports both the Arduino and the Arduino Mega. It uses all through-hole components to make assembly easy even for beginners.FeedEmbedUnfurl
Notes If we had to imagine our dream DIY project chances are it would involve Arduino, Twitter and, of course, cats. How we'd combine those things we're not sure, but we'll admit to being big fans of Samuel Cox's eSleeper, which turns a hollowed-out eMac into a bed for his feline. Inside the shell is an Arduino Ethernet connected to an IR sensor, some LEDs and a sound shield. When the cat breaks the infrared beam it triggers the iconic Mac chime and turns on a series color-shifting LEDs for a little mood lighting. From there the clock starts ticking. When little Fluffy (Captain Whiskers? Matlock? Penny? Greg?) decides she's had enough napping and leaves the white plastic cocoon, tripping the IR sensor again, a random phrase is tweeted, along with the length of the cat's siesta. Check out the video after the break to see the eSleeper in all its adorable DIY glory. FeedUnfurl
NotesWhen it came time to try out some old-school computing [Quinn Dunki] grabbed a 6502 processor and got to work. For those that are unfamiliar, this is the first chip that was both powerful, affordable, and available to the hobby computing market back in the 1970′s. They were used in Apple computers, Commodore 64, and a slew of other hardware.Unfurl
NotesThe μWave is a hack involving an Arduino and a TouchPad taped to a microwave door, which plays YouTube clips perfectly matched to your cooking time. This Frankenstein uses the Arduino to send data from the microwave's seven-segment displays to a web server, which finds a highly-rated YouTube video of the right length. The web client running in the browser treats you to a video clip that ends right when your food is done, then optionally tweets or sends a text message. The hack was created by students at the University of Pennsylvania, where it won first place in the PennApps Hackathon. There are no stated plans for commercialization, but the team will present the project to Google as part of the grand prize. If Mountain View announces a microwave any time soon, we'll know to expect great things.FeedUnfurl
NotesCome this (Black) Friday, it'll officially be the season for gift-giving and general family dysfunction. So, why not warm that tech-tinkering heart while heating up the creative juices of the baby-bound set with a Freaklabs purchase that puts your money to good use? The outfit's got a monster mash FredBoard up for order that splices together an Arduino and breadboard to make your first brush with homegrown modding a relatively painless affair. Oh, and the proceeds are destined for a Mommy-centric hackerspace -- dubbed Mothership HackerMoms -- in San Francisco that does double duty as a day care for little leg-clingers and a lab for their electronics-inclined parents. These ladies-in-programming currently swap house hosting duties, but with the boost from your potential feel-good donations, could snag a proper venue of their own. Feel like getting in the holiday spirit early? Then click on the source below to bring some early cheer to Bay Area baby Mommas. FeedUnfurl
Notes<blockquote>I wanted to add vi cursor keys and mouse keys to HHKB. Original HHKB controller is not programmable and
firmware source code is not open. So, customizing HHKB needs to replace original controller with programmable one.
I used Teensy++ as alternative controller. Though a Teensy has enough ports to drive HHKB,
Teensy++ has clean pinout and it makes programing and wiring easier.</blockquote>
I should look into this to see if I can fix the PS/2 HHKB that I apparently fried with a USB adapter.FeedUnfurl
NotesWe have seen some amazing projects centered around the Arduino system and now that Arduino is available at RadioShack, we want to challenge you! What can you make with Arduino? You’ll have three weeks (11/11-12/2) to come up with an idea, build it, submit your project to the Great Create and leave a link to your project in the comments below. We’ll go through and pick the project that uses Arduino in the most creative and innovative way – the chosen project will get a $500 RadioShack gift card – just imagine the awesome projects you could build with that!Unfurl
NotesThe kit contains everything — except harddisks — that is needed to build the Evercube: enclosure, motherboard (with onboard CPU and memory), 5-port SATA multiplexer backplane, internal disk scaffold, ultra-silent fan, power supply, wires, clamps, wedges, screws, nuts, washers ... everything. FeedEmbedUnfurl
Notes<blockquote>Oftentimes makers will build MAME cabinets that resemble old-time arcade games, but ultimately they’re just PCs with buttons and joysticks wired in. With the Coffee Table MAME Console, we’re going to build a stripped-down version of the arcade machine. It doesn’t need a monitor because you can use your TV, and instead of having the computer inside the enclosure, the console connects to your PC via Bluetooth.</blockquote>Unfurl
NotesWe’re super excited about our new issue, MAKE Volume 28, which just hit newsstands last week. The issue theme is Toys and Games, and naturally, our entire focus was on fun, from the playful 8-bit graphics style of the cover design by eBoy to the 176 pages of projects and profiles that give you ...Unfurl
Notes[Blaise Jarrett] has been grinding away to get the WebSocket protocol to play nicely with PIC microcontrollers. Here he’s using the PIC 18F4620 along with a Roving Networks RN-XV WiFi module to get the device on the network. He had started with a smaller processor but ran into some RAM restricti...Unfurl
NotesAdding quality audio to an electronic project is surprisingly difficult. People tend to end up either using low-quality ISD chips (you might get 8Khz sampling rate for 30seconds out of these, if you're lucky!) or mucking around with trying to control a CD or MP3 player. Although it's possible to generate audio direct from a microcontroller using a PWM output, the quality is often low and its hard to fit a lot of music in an EEPROM chip. You can buy an embedded MP3 player board, but they're either expensive or difficult to use!FeedUnfurl
Notes"These aren't my creation... The following images contain the blueprints for a Dalek. I used them to create my Ray-traced Dalek. These files were originally found at the Doctor Who FTP archive at frontios.niagara.edu (now defunct)."Unfurl
Notes"Your very own Moleskine-like-notebook/journal/sketchbook. The one we'll be making is 3.5 x 5.5 x .5 inches. I use this size because it fits nicely into my back or front pants pocket. Strangely enough it is also the same size as the Moleskine notebook."Unfurl
Notes"Tinkering is what happens when you try something you don't quite know how to do, guided by whim, imagination, and curiosity.<br />
<br />
When you tinker, there are no instructions — but there are also no failures, no right or wrong ways of doing things. It's about figuring out how things work and reworking them.<br />
<br />
Contraptions, machines, wildly mismatched objects working in harmony—this is the stuff of tinkering."Unfurl
Notes"So you want to build USB enabled devices. Bumble-B is here to help!
It is a breakout board for Atmel's at90usb162 microcontroller, along with supporting hardware and USB connector. It is DIP-24/600mil shape, and works very well on a breadboard."Unfurl
Notes"Carbonating tap water to make seltzer is easy, fast, and absurdly inexpensive with my improvised apparatus. All that is required is to place CO2 (carbon dioxide) gas in agitated contact with chilled water for a few seconds. In this essay, I'll show you how it is done with easy-to-find parts and common PET (polyethylene terephthalate, sometimes called PETE) soda bottles. I'll also explain the kinetic chemistry of why it works so well. And in the second half of this essay, I'll explain how I progressed from this improvised apparatus to installing a complete soda fountain in my home.
"Unfurl