Electric poncho keeps you warm on the go

electric-poncho

With the mild winter and spring we have had, it might seem strange to think about ways to keep yourself warm, but there’s no better time than the present to prepare for chilly weather down the line. In his blog [Berto] was thinking about how to keep warm when things cool off again, and decided that a heated poncho would be great to have on hand. He found a dead simple way to craft his heated … [Read more...]

Remove your Arduino’s external oscillator to gain a free pair of IO pins

2free-arduino-io-pins

[Mark] from SpikenzieLabs was wrapping up a project using an Arduino the other day and found himself in need of a few more I/O pins. He could have added extra circuitry to the project, but he decided to see if he could gain a few pins by removing a few components instead. He put together one of his Minuino boards, but rather than installing the crystal and its associated capacitors, he added a … [Read more...]

Baby’s first star light projector and a foil slip ring

star

For a newborn, everything is magical; a lack of object permanence means everything is new, wonderful, and novel. What then, could be better than a projected star field circling an infant's room, gently sending them to sleep? [Pete] was inspired by this earlier starlight projector that projects a rotating star field onto the walls and ceiling of a nursery. Instead of a rather loud servo, … [Read more...]

Adding new features and controlling a Kinect from a couch

media center

Upon the release of the Kinect, Microsoft showed off its golden child as the beginnings of a revolution in user interface technology. The skeleton and motion detection promised a futuristic, hand-waving "Minority Report-style" interface where your entire body controls a computer. The expectations haven't exactly lived up reality, but [Steve], along with his coworkers at Amulet Devices have vastly … [Read more...]

The first Raspberry Pi build is a MAME machine

mame

The Raspberry Pi was launched nearly a month ago, but these wonderful cheap single-board computers are still on their way from China to the workbenches of hackers and builders around the globe. Although they haven't shipped yet, plenty of people are chomping at the bit to do something useful with the Raspi. [Nicholas] figured he should hit the ground running, so he emulated a Raspberry Pi to get … [Read more...]

Kinect for Windows Resources

kinect

Despite having been out for nearly two months, the world has yet to see a decent guide to the Kinect for Windows. While the Xbox and Windows  versions of the Kinect use basically the same hardware, there are subtle but important differences. Thanks to [Matthew Leone] and his awesome summary of developer resources, getting your Kinect project up and running is now a lot easier. After getting … [Read more...]

Ancient laptop given new life as mobile prototyping platform

ancient-laptop-become-prototyping-case

What can you do with a broken Compaq SLT 286? Its briefcase-like size and shape actually make for a pretty interesting portable electronic prototyping station. [Philip] gutted the components and started adding back the items he most commonly uses when developing a project. He shares all of the details in the video after the break. At center stage is a double breadboard where the keyboard would … [Read more...]