DIY solar collector boost your hot water system

diy-solar-collector

This home is heated by a wood stove in the winter, which also produces hot water. But the other three seasons it's an electric water heater that does the work. This latest hack is a solar collector meant to take over the hot water production work for the house. it uses basic building materials and rudimentary construction skills, making it much more approachable than trying to make electricity … [Read more...]

Hackaday Store: It exists again

hackaday store

We used to have a store. Actually, it was just me, pumping out shirts and stickers from my garage.  However, I found that over time, I wasn't particularly happy with the quality of the shirts. The vinyl would crack over time, and I wasn't the fastest person in the world to get an order out the door. I shut down the store because I didn't want to too poorly in the name of hackaday.  I've had TONS … [Read more...]

Grab your iron and add GameCube back to the Wii

adding-gc-support-back-to-wii

One of the really cool things about the Nintendo Wii when it was first introduced was the ability to play GameCube games on it. This made it a no-brainer for a lot of folks to upgrade. But as the heyday of legacy systems fades into history, Nintendo decided this was no longer a selling point and stopped populating those components. The good new is, if you don't mind a lot of PCB soldering you … [Read more...]

Arduino tells you how rough your last mountain bike ride was

mountain-bike-data-harvesting

If you want to see what kind of abuse you're causing your body when out on those single-track rides this system is just the thing. It's an Arduino data logger that [Wdm006] takes along on the rides with him. When he gets back home, a Python scripts captures the data dump and graphs it. It may sound like a neat trick, but he's got something planned for that information. The enclosure mounts to … [Read more...]

LayerOne badges stop bullets; drive away

layerone-arduino-badge

We love badges. And we've really got to thank [Charliex] for taking the time to write a huge post about this year's LayerOne badges, especially since they've got their backs up against the deadline for pulling everything together in time. Here it is, the stock badge on the left, with an add-on shield on the right. Now the original intent was to make this badge the chassis of an RC car. … [Read more...]

Hacking color and battery life on a solar powered garden light

solar-garden-light-hack

Give your garden lights a little bit more life by changing out the LEDs. In the process, you can also choose a different color if you like. It really is as simple as cracking it open and replacing the stock LED, but a bit of a change may also prolong the stored charge. These garden lights consist of a small solar cell and an LED, both controlled by a small PCB powered from a … [Read more...]

Cemetech’s ultimate calculator V2

ultimate calculator

[Christopher] piped up in our comments on a recent post about using laptop touch pads in other things, noting that he had done this on his Ultimate Calculator Version 2. What he's done is upgraded his TI-83+ calculator to house a number of improvements and customizations. It now has a stronger RGB backlight so he can illuminate his screen in whatever color strikes his mood. He also integrated a … [Read more...]