Here’s a collection of simple hacks you can do in between larger projects. After the break we’ll look at converting an iPod from hard drive storage to Compact Flash, build an LED desk lamp using LEGO and USB power for charging, and use an Arduino shield to add network control at the touch of a button.

iPod HDD to CF Conversion

[Richard] tipped us off about converting an iPod from a hard drive to a Compact Flash card. We actually did this a few years ago. Because we frequently buy broken electronics we had an old iPod 20GB with a broken HDD. Knowing we had seen one wire-porn type diy adapter and reported on another, a quick search produced a ready-made solution.

[Richard] went the same route by purchasing a CF to 1.8″ IDE adapter and a 32GB Compact Flash card. Just crack open your iPod, unplug the broken HDD, plug in the adapter and CF card, close the case, and go through a normal iPod recovery cycle.Compact Flash is considerably cheaper than solid state hard drives which makes this a cheaper conversion than a comparable Zune upgrade.

There you have it, what once was broken is now whole.

LED LEGO Lamp

[chAos] put together a desk lamp with parts he had on hand. A broken Bluetooth headset was used for the switch, battery, and USB charging capabilities. From there he built an articulated arm and body out of LEGO. The final step to provide illumination was just a matter of wiring up a white LED. This isn’t the most beautiful LED lamp build, but it gets the job done and adds a little “I built this” pride to your desk.

Mute button connected via the network

[Justin] needed a mute button for some speakers at the other end of the room. The music was played by a Mac mini so he built a mute button that sends commands over a network. By using an Ethernet shield for an Arduino he’s able to detect a button press and send commands over an XML-RPC server to get some peace and quite around here. The device gets its electricity by using power over Ethernet. The Ethernet shield is one of our favorite add-ons, taking on the brunt of the work in getting connected.

Don’t be afraid to send in hacks of all difficulty levels. If you’ve got one that’s a bit simpler, we may feature it as part of a group.

Friends, pilgrims, send us your hacks. Most especially, your Thanksgiving hacks. We had a wonderful time over the past six weeks collecting and highlighting your Halloween props and now it’s on to the next holiday. Did you build your own deep fried turkey rig with some special features? How about that pie making robot you built for last year’s celebration?  Can’t live without your twittering cornucopia? Document it and send it to our tip line! All Thanksgiving themed hacks will be considered but only the well documented and creative entries will be featured.

If you just joined us, here’s a roundup of the Halloween Props we encountered this year:

• Halloween props: Techy Jack-o-lanterns
• Halloween props: Servo eyes
• Halloween prop: glowing spooky eyes
• Shift powered pumpkins
• Animatronic winged demon terrorizes local garage
• A modular Halloween with grid beam
• Scare ‘em silly with a moving pumpkin
• Halloween prop: Bigmouth billy bass
• Halloween props: Low cost popup
• Quoth the Raven: hack some more
• Halloween prop: portable black light
• Halloween props: DMX controlled skeleton
• Halloween prop: the ground-breaker
• Piecax the Poltergeist reinvents the Knock Block
• Halloween props: Alien Costume
• Halloween Props: Pie of Sauron
• Halloween props: Skeleton springs from coffin
• Halloween prop: DIY fog machine
• Halloween props: flying crank ghost

disclaimer: boiling oil is dangerous, that’s why it used to be used for torture. Always consider your own safety!

[Turkey photo source]

The Atmega168 at the heart of every Arduino is an eminently capable chip; its ilk have been seen working as a basic web server, playing back digital audio, even generating TV signals. But as projects continue to grow in sophistication, reality rears its ugly head: Arduino can handle any one of these tasks very well, but it often requires squeezing every last instruction cycle or bit of memory in the device. Even the ’368 chip and the Arduino Mega are stopgap measures. Sooner or later, you have to graduate to long trousers—move up to a more capable microcontroller platform—an uncomfortable change usually involving a hefty investment in new hardware and an intimidating learning curve. Leaf Labs’ Maple aims to change all that…

Maple, expected to ship in October for about $40, brings together the STM32 microcontroller, a 32-bit 72MHz beast of a chip, with the familiar Arduino footprint and even compatible library functions. Users can jump right in, preserving their existing investment in Arduino shields and know-how, then expand their repertoire with the new capabilities afforded by this beefier processor.

But Maple is not the first. Coridium Corporation’s $30 ARMite PRO (below) is a 60MHz ARM7 board that’s pin- and footprint-compatible with Arduino Pro. The CPU isn’t quite as powerful as the STM32, nor do they provide Arduino-compatible libraries, but it’s still a significant step up from the Atmega and is available today.

Also worth mentioning, though it lies in an entirely different direction, is Raisonance’s STM32 Primer (also called the STM32 Circle), shown below. This kit is neither hardware- nor software-compatible with Arduino, and the bundled software tools are Windows-only, but it’s similarly affordable (about $40), self-contained (no external programmer), and will give you a head start with the STM32 chip right now. And while you can’t bring your Arduino shields to this party, the Primer brings its own fun: a color LCD, 3D accelerometer, and rechargeable battery. The original “Circle” Primer is a little tricky to track down, but a little Google searching can help here. A “Primer 2” with more features has since been released, if you don’t mind paying half again as much.

Maple is just the first of several increasingly powerful Leaf Labs projects that are planned. FPGAs and gigahertz-speed CPUs are in the pipeline.

Here is a classic project used to increase wireless signal strength. Cantennas focus using a waveguide very much like a magnifying glass focuses light. [Robert] made a Natural Light beer cantenna, pictured in the upper left. His approach used three beer cans, a paper towel holder, and a shower curtain rod. On the tipline, he noted a signal boost from 11Mbps to 54Mbps. This is certainly something we can hack together if our room lacks adequate signal. Read about parabolic and seeking versions after the break.

The lower right image is an example of a parabolic soup cantenna constructed using an old satellite dish. No figures seem to be cited, though the construction is worth noting. We’ve had success with old satellite dishes in the past. The upper right and lower left pictures are scanning Cantennas. They use servos to seek out stronger connections by moving and checking the signal strength. Below is an in line video of the lower left cantenna while scanning. Maybe you want to know How to build a tin can waveguide WiFi Antenna. All the instructions are provided complete with a rough cost break down, and the site has a calculator to determine cut off frequencies given a can’s diameter.

With the 4th of July around the corner, we thought it would be a good idea to give a controller wrap up and show you how to make some ignitors. Last year we covered a microcontroller based fireworks launcher. If you like the idea of a controller but don’t want to run all the wire, we have the wireless fireworks controller. Adding a little twist to the wireless scene are cell phone triggered fireworks. Maybe controllers are not your cup of tea, you could try to microwave your fireworks. After the break we show you how to make ignitors from a diode and a match.

Using a 1N914 diode, match, and 4 ohm ballast you can make your own ignitors. Using the leads for support, the diode is attached to the match. A current is passed through the device to cause rapid heating. The match head and component must touch one another, in order to ignite. In the video embedded below we show you exactly how.

Vacuum formers are still fairly rare in our community, so it was a surprise to see that in the 1960s Mattel marketed one as a toy. It used a hot plate to mold plastic sheets into various shapes. The design was updated by Toymax in the early ’90s to use a light bulb heating element to make car bodies, like some sort of manly Easy-Bake Oven. The home-built machines we’ve seen are a much larger scale. In 2005, we posted [Ralis Kahn]’s version that employed an electric grill as the heating element. [drcrash] has since built on those plans, hoping to develop an even cheaper device.

[via Gizmodo]

Every year, as it gets cold, many of us put our faithful two wheeled companion away for the winter.  Despite that, there have been a veritable smorgasbord of bicycle related projects posted to instructables this last week. In honor of our human powered transportation, lets take a peak at a few projects.

Bicycle safety is always paramount. They can be fairly difficult to see compared to a car. There are many ways to make them easier to spot, such as wrapping them in reflective material, or adding blinking tail lights. Even if people do see us, they often have no idea where we are planning on going. To remedy this, we can always add turn signals. It can also be hard to see where you are going at times. Adding a head light, or helmet light can really help. If you’re not a big fan of LEDs and want a little retro flair, you can always add an oil lamp.

For those who live in warmer climates, or just can’t give up their bicycles, you may wish to add some festive decorations. Covering your bike in Christmas lights doesn’t look too difficult, and a CFL lit wheel is a cheap way of adding some cool effects.

We’re barely past Halloween and people are already working on their next LED based holiday decorations. For Hanukkah, Gizmodo pointed out the PCB menorah pictured above. It uses a set of DIP switches to control which LEDs are lit. A couple years ago, Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories put together a tutorial for building a more minimal LED menorah. Each of the nine LEDs are soldered directly to the legs of an ATtiny2313 microcontroller. Every time you power up the device an additional LED is lit. [Ori] liked the project and decided to take a slightly different approach. He used an LM3914 DIP18 LED bar driver. A potentiometer controls how many of the LEDs are illuminated.

With the election coming up in less than a week, voting machine security (or the lack thereof) is critical, especially with the popularity of early voting this year. While we’ve previously discussed voting machine insecurities, it looks like the problems haven’t been fixed, and in some cases, it’s escalated. Voters in states like West Virginia and Tennessee have complained about voting machines “flipping” their votes, even after they were recalibrated as in the video above. Voters have been advised to avoid voting straight Republican or Democratic tickets, to avoid the likelihood of their votes being flipped. What if you actually do want to vote a straight ticket? Video the Vote is an organization that advises documenting as much of your voting process as possible. Other ways you can protect your vote include voting absentee so that a paper trail is available, and refusing to accept provisional ballots, which are often thrown out. After seeing videos of ROM swapping and finding out that the locks can be opened with hotel minibar keys, we’re waiting to see what’s going to fail this year… and voting absentee.

Yesterday, Gizmodo published a roundup of wearable gadgets for people who “don’t mind looking like a tool”. It’s interesting to see what has been deemed commercially viable and put into mass production. The list covers HMDs, embedded WiFi detectors, integrated keyboards, tech jackets, speaker hats, and others. We thought you might find some inspiration from the list for your next project. In the past, we embedded a WiFi detector in a backpack strap for our Engadget how-to. The natural choice for wearable projects is the LilyPad Arduino which was featured most recently in the turn signal jacket.

[photo: cksthree]

[David Kernell], the 20-year-old son of Democratic politician [Mike Kernell], turned himself in for hacking into Vice Presidential nominee Governor [Sarah Palin]’s Yahoo! email account. He was indicted on one felony count of violating the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Although the charge would normally be a misdemeanor, the indictment invokes another statute, the Stored Communications Act to beef up its claim. Some lawyers are of the opinion that the U.S. Department of Justice overreached in charging [Kernell] with a felony. They claim that the government’s justification is flawed and relies on “circuitous logic”. [Kernell] has been released without bond, and instructed not to have any contact with [Governor Palin], her family, or any witnesses to the case. If convicted fully, he faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. We also discovered that this isn’t [Kernell]’s first time in trouble. In high school, he received detention for guessing the password of the school server and obtaining access to some lesson plans.

Yesterday we linked to an OCZ Neural Acutator Interface teardown. Several in the comments wanted to know more about the sensor electrodes. Check out the OpenEEG project and OpenEEG mailing list for information on sensing, amplifying, and recording brain activity (EEG). The OpenEEG project maintains an open source Simple ModularEEG design. Two other open source variants of the ModularEEG are the MonolithEEG and [Joshua Wojnas'] Programmable Chip EEG BCI. All three projects use Atmel microcontrollers, with designs in Cadsoft Eagle.

Brain activity is measured using passive or active electrodes. Passive electrodes require a conductive paste to make proper contact with the skin (examples: 1, 2). Active EEG sensors don’t need conductive goop because they have an amplifier directly on the electrode (examples: 1, 2, 3).

[via anonymous reader, comments]

Considering an iPhone but not sure if you can live without SSH in your pocket? Have no fear! Hot off the press is this review of four SSH clients for the iPhone: iSSH, pTerm, TouchTerm, and SSH. All four clients have their strengths and weaknesses, and iSSH seems to be the best option so far. Although each of these is an early release, and therefore has its own idiosyncrasies, they’ve got improved features being planned for the next major release. Furthermore, they’re surprisingly inexpensive (none of them are more than five dollars), and so you should give them a shot if you see the need to SSH without being bound to your terminal.

iSSH is the best of the reviewed clients, giving you a good balance of usability and features. It has is share of problems, though, primarily related to the way it handles scrolling, pTerm comes in second, and is almost perfect. Its two rather glaring weaknesses are a too-large font that requires plenty of scrolling, and a lack of Ctrl, ESC, and Tab keys. TouchTerm, which comes in third, is the most configurable of the reviewed SSH clients,but is otherwise irrationally quirky. SSH is even quirkier than TouchTerm, and is a waste of your time and money.

Between the idiosyncrasies of iSSH, pTerm, and TouchTerm, you’re bound to find one that you like. Furthermore, these are initial releases; all three have exciting features on the roadmap (like implementing the ESC key) which should improve their usability.

Should you give one of them a try? For five bucks, it wouldn’t hurt.

[photo: edans]

[via Waxy]

The Segway may be a technological wonder, but motorized balancing transportation has been around for a while. We’ve gathered up some of our favorite motorized unicycles for your knee scraping enjoyment.

The design above makes us immediately think of the very recent wonder by [Ben Gulak] that earned him the cover of Popular Science. Strangely enough, when reading about [Ben] we didn’t see any mention of Noah. Designed by [Andre Franca] of Brazil, it won 2nd place in the Plascar Automotive Design Contest in 2007. The designs are extremely similar.

[scheerti] posted the mysterious wonder above on S-blog. It’s in Hungarian though, so we’ll just have to live in suspense until someone helps us out with the translation.

Bombardier, the maker of many popular recreational vehicles, released a design a while back. Unfortunately, they stated that it may never be produced. It has a unique “landing gear” system for parking. You can see it under the front fender in the left shot above. The EMBRIO was an exercise in design, showing what Bombardier envisions recreational vehicles to be like in the year 2025.

Not to be left out of the race, Audi has shown off a unique design. Designed by [Tilmann Schlootz] This award winning design incorporates a spherical wheel and multidirectional drive train. That means that this bad boy can go any direction while facing any direction. Check out the seating, it converts smoothly from one seat to two. Just imagine helping your date into the SNOOK for a night on the town.

If those others were too wild or fast for you, why not check out some more traditional models. Pictured above is [Trevor Blackwell]’s electric unicycle, which is pretty much exactly as it sounds. There is also the enicycle and the Einrad-Fahrzeug.

For a more rugged application,look at Le Monorue. It was designed by [Jackie Chabanais] who has also created a ton of other single wheeled vehicles.

Out on the fringe, you will find the Riot Wheel . Different from any other single wheel design out there, it defies classification. Built for a trip to Burning Man, it gained instant publicity and has since been featured on Discovery Channel’s Monster Nation. While we’re talking about different ones, check out Leviskate. You stand on it like a skateboard… or at least try.

Lets not forget about good old [Dean Kamen], the inventor of the Segway. He’s filed a patent for a single wheeled version too. Unlike the Segway, this one comes with a seat!

We’ve lost track of the number of home built CNC machines we’ve covered in the past, but we thought a comprehensive list of the best would help you understand why we’re so excited about the LumenLab CNC machine.

The hoss machine router is the result of one man’s quest to upgrade the living hell out of a Chinese made mini-mill. He put together a nice USB controller, created his own five axis version thanks to an articulating head and a rotating lathe style table attachment. He even added an automatic tool changer. We’ve had the creator make parts for us before; he does fantastic work.

We built our own modest version of the X2 CNC Mini-mill. It’s based on the same X2 Mini-mill with stepper motors, ball screws, and PIC controller based stepper drivers.

The MechMate CNC router came about by upgrading a ShopBot CNC machine so much that it just wasn’t a ShopBot anymore. The plans are completely free (aside from the odd requirement to paint it blue and slap “MechMate” on it). The claim to fame is that it’s scalable to to greater than 4×8′ sheets for full shop quality production.

Since CNC machines are usually somewhat pocket intensive, we put together a series of How-To’s for Engadget on building a CNC machine from cutting boards and printer parts. Check out part 1, part 2 and part 3 of the build.

[Steve], of the KillaCycle project, set up his CNC machine for pick and place operations. We wrote about it a while back, and since then he put together a PDF writeup of his work. It’s not as detailed as we like, but still interesting.

[Mike] built his own CNC router just for building his custom snowboards. It features a wood router, 80/20 aluminum construction, and a vacuum brush head for collecting the chaff produced as it mills the boards.

The RepRap project has come a long way since we first started covering it. Now it can produce all of the custom plastic parts needed to reproduce itself. SkyNet approves.

Probably one of the nicest mods for a CNC machine is a digital read out. This kit version uses some inexpensive Chinese scales/calipers to get the position data and outputs it to a nice LED display. For manual machining or just calibrating a mill, these things rock.