Back From Belize Extra


Yesterday, I was standing on a tropical island off the coast of Belize. Vacation rocked with lots of SCUBA diving, spearfishing and snorkeling. I’m back home, shaking off the jet lag and clearing up my inbox. Thanks to [fabienne] for filling in and letting me unplug for a while!

[Darkrom] has set a new standard for Hack-A-Day readers… I haven’t seen it in person, but that looks like a legit Hack-A-Day tattoo.

[null] sent in a new use for a frequency generator, a spare car amp, a sub-woofer and a plastic coffee can – brass cartridge polishing.

[LoopyMind] sent in this Game Boy Advanced Movie Player IDE hack. It’s pretty much a direct CF to laptop drive cable with an external battery supply.

[Dingolishious] sent in a POE UPS/remote power control solution. Could be handy if you’re using many POE devices, or if you’re having power issues. He added an inexpensive remote power monitor/switch solution behind his UPS. It senses power outages and kicks out an email – and allows remote power cycling of his POE devices. Of course, if you’ve got a linux box behind the UPS, it can monitor the output from the UPS and send notifications.

[William] added a preamp stage to his iKEY usb recorder. looks like an interesting toy – it’ll record audio directly to a USB flash key. The pre-amp allows him to record in more challenging environments.

[Andrew] noted a simple mod to increase the deadly fire power of the ubiquitous airsoft pellet gun. It’s just a matter of reducing some extra space in the spring compression area.

Last but not least, [VIPER] modded his projector to use a 12v halogen headlight bulb. Not a bad idea – at one point I was pondering a 550 watt source four halogen as a possible replacement.

12 thoughts on “Back From Belize Extra

  1. the CF to laptop IDE thing is interesting… do we think it would work if the CF interface is only using 3.3v signaling? I have an old PDA which takes CF and I wanted to hook up an IDE drive but I suspect it is using 3.3v signals…

  2. Careful with the airsoft bit, that gun will probably break after a couple hundred shots with the spacer because of the weak plastic body.

    Also, I think we should enable passwords.

  3. I’ve never actually been the one to buy them, but having worked many hours in theater, I didn’t think source 4 bulbs were that cheap? I prefer some of the lumenlab methods anyways and their $30 bulbs. Anything is better then commercial projector bulb cost.

  4. Source 4 lamps are pretty expensive, at about £48 here in the u.k. Personally I would use a HID headlamp – you can get kits to convert halogen headlights to HID – and lamps are still expenive, but alot cheaper than standard projector lamps. It would mean the colour temperature would be closer to the original lamp and that it wouldn’t cause (possible) focus issues caused by the length and shape of a fliament.

  5. @ex-parrot The signaling level won’t be the trouble,as most newer notebook drives will work with 3.3Volt signals and power. However, an IDE drive won’t work in the CF slot, as most PDAs actually use a PCMCIA interface(which is how Wifi cards and the like work), not IDE for that slot. Most CF cards will work in either PCMCIA or IDE mode.

  6. the ups trick is s pretty nifty idea… i just did some research on those controllers and i might just get one for myself… 8 output switches, 8 input (4 voltage, 4 resistance), and the embedded web server. all for ~$90. well worth it

  7. Well; thinking that it’s possible that a time can come that, extra identifying marks on my person, could jeopardize my freedom, tatts aren’t my thing. Forgive me if I don’t meet the new standard. But, I’m ambiguous about those who do have tatts.

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