Making a smaller keyboard The keyboard on [Marek's] laptop stopped working. He didn’t want to buy a replacement so he decided to start using an external keyboard. But hauling around a full 104-key model is a bit of a pain so he decided to make himself a shorter keyboard. He basically chopped off the 10-key [...]
Use a big magnet to set the time This bulky package is a Nixie tube wristwatch. We still like [Woz's] watch better but this one has a few nice tricks of its own. Notably, there aren’t any buttons to set the time. Instead, a large magnet is used to actuate a magnetic switch inside the [...]
From RepStrap to RepRap; a 3D printer is born [Gavilan Steinman] just printed and assembled his own RepRap machine and filmed the process. This isn’t news but we found it very interesting to watch. He started with a RepStrap, a rapid-prototyping 3D printer that as built by hand instead of printed by a similar machine. [...]
Beginner Concepts: Analog circuits We look at a lot of projects that have microcontrollers in them. That’s because microcontrollers do cool stuff, but there are still plenty of tricks you can pull off with analog circuits. [Osgeld's] latest project explores this realm, controlling the discharge of capacitors through an LED. His setup uses just nine [...]
Airport Express speaker mashup [Wei] salvaged the internals from an Airport Express that had a blown power supply. From there he built this streaming music box. The case is from an IKEA clock with the face removed. He added some decorative fabric around a grill to make an acoustically transparent front panel. Inside you’ll find the [...]
LED goggles make you trip out? Who knows if this works and should you really want to try to induce hallucinations by flashing colors in front of your eyes? But we do love the zaniness of the project. [Everett's] homemade hallucination goggles come in two flavors, the small swimming-goggle-type model and the heavy-duty trip visor [...]
Take better pictures of your projects [PT] let us know about a fantastic guide to taking better photographs of your projects. It’s a hefty read but well worth the effort. Author [Johngineer] helps us understand how to use simple (and possibly inexpensive) tools like lights, mirrors, and a background material. He also gives some tips [...]
Adventures in Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) [Valkyrie-MT] was frustrated by the inability to control TrueHD audio volume from his computer. That’s because digital audio passes through the cable to the receiver where the volume adjustments are done. This meant that his RF computer remote was no good because the receiver uses an IR remote. He [...]
WiFi controlled Arduino-bot This little robot was built very quickly thanks to the rapid prototyping capabilities of the Arduino. It uses a WiShield 1.0 from AsyncLabs to connect to a wireless network for control via a TCP connection. The body and wheels are wood, with a servo for each motor and a third used to scan a [...]
Not too long ago I took an interested in Starz’s Spartacus: Blood and Sand. It is about the adventures of Spartacus the gladiator, who later leads a slave revolt. The show is so fantastic that I end up even creating a fan website here — Spartacus: Blood and Sand. It is full of information about [...]
