Old school libretto mods


Somehow, [acidx] knew that I coveted a libretto for years. He sent in his writeup on modding his Libretto 50ct to be a bit more useful. The mods are pretty basic, he overclocked it to 133Mhz and added a ps/2 port. The tweaks keep the well aged libretto a usable platform.

Pssst. wanna see your hack on Hack-A-Day? Use the … Read the rest

DC Entries: Last Batch


Here’s the final batch of entries we received and considered for the Design Challenge.

[Chris] sent in a stereo amplifier (watch out for pop-ups) designed for iPods (or similar) using LM386 amps and a minimal parts count.

[Fabian] submitted this excellent tube amp. It’s based on the ECC83/12AX7 tube, and runs off a mere 12-14VAC.

[Edgar] sent in this … Read the rest

Adding 802.11n into your macbook


According to Apple, all of their current machines are compatible with their new 802.11n wireless hardware. The guys at MacBidouille wanted to know if they could get it functioning in their early rev macbook core duo. They ganged a new card from a MacPro and got busy.Things came out ridiculously easily, with a simple hardware swap. Considering that the pci … Read the rest

DC Entries: Almost done


We finally came to a decision about the winner of the Design Challenge! (But I’m not telling you until Friday.) Before the winner is announced, there are some more entries that deserve attention.

First, there’s [Henk]‘s g-force meter. It’s based on an ATiny26 micro-controller, 30 LEDs to display the force and the ADXL103 accelerometer.

There’s an adaptation of the … Read the rest

Robotic beer launching fridge

This robotic beer launching fridge is one of those ultimate projects that you are guaranteed to see posted all over the internet today. Robots, beer, the possibility of maiming innocent bystanders… what’s not to love? I’d be lying if I said my mechanical engineering friends and I weren’t contemplating this at many points during college. Kudos to John W. Cornwell … Read the rest

Solar GPS logger


We don’t normally chase after commercial products, but when I ran across this guys work, I was impressed. My favorite has to be this solar powered GPS logger. It logs your trek to a SD card and it’s oh so tiny. Other notable projects include a li-poly battery backpack for charging USB devices. (Li-Poly batteries require some specialized charging)… Read the rest

DIY fiber backlit keyboard


In honor of the 17 inch aircraft carrier of a laptop I ordered, I started looking for a backlit keyboard mod that might come close to the one on my powerbook. I found this mod that used fiber optic cable, a single 10,000mcd white LED, some epoxy and simple current regulation to light it up. The original write up is … Read the rest