Fresh hacks every day
[Michael] built his own LED marquee using individual diodes. Despite his choice to forego the 8x8 or 5x7 modules we often see in these projects, his decision to spin a dedicated PCB saved him a lot of trouble during assembly. Sure, he still had to solder 180 leads on the 9x18 grid of lights, but at least he didn't have to deal with wiring up the complex display layout. The chip driving the … [Read more...]
[Dominic] decided to take control of his cloud storage by switching to OwnCloud. Unlike most cloud storage solutions, this isn't a company offering you free space. It's an open source software package which your run on your own machine. [Dom] didn't want to leave his box running 24/7 as it would be unused the majority of the time. So he hacked this router to switch on the computer whenever he … [Read more...]
Here's a weekend junk bin project if we've ever seen one. [Pat] used a quartet of computer fans to make his laser Spirograph. Deciding to try this simple build for yourself will run you through a lot of basics when it comes to interfacing hardware with a microcontroller. In this case it's the Arduino Nano. The Spirograph works by bouncing a laser off of mirrors which are attached to the PC … [Read more...]
If you've ever looked into low-level parallel port access you may have learned that it only works with actual parallel port hardware, and not with USB parallel port adapters. But here's a solution that will change your thinking. It borrows from the way printers communicate to allow USB to parallel port bit banging without a microcontroller. Sure, adding a microcontroller would make this dead … [Read more...]
[Victor] may be onto something when it comes to project enclosures. He's using a picture frame to house his electronics projects. This is made especially easy by the variety of sizes you can find at Ikea. Possibly the most important dimension is to have enough frame thickness to sandwich your components between the glass and the back plate of the frame. The project seen here is a temperature … [Read more...]
You can look and look, but you won't find a Super Nintendo inside of this retro gaming rig. [Webrow] is giving his vintage hardware a rest, and taking this all-in-one game emulator suitcase wherever he goes. The machine at the heart of his build is of course a Raspberry Pi. You really can't beat the ubiquitous board for cost, power, and hardware extensibility. An LCD panel from a broken laptop … [Read more...]
This isn't a hack that shows you how to start a car without the keys. It's a way to ditch the bulky keyring for a set of fold-out keys. [Colonel Crunch] removed the blades from the pocket knife and replaced them with the two keys for his car (one is ignition and door locks, the other opens the trunk). He didn't take pictures of the process, but he did link to this unrelated guide on how it's … [Read more...]
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