posted Nov 9th 2009 3:00pm by
Mike Szczys
filed under:
roundup

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.
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posted Nov 3rd 2009 1:27pm by
Mike Szczys
filed under:
macs hacks

The hard drive in [Jason's] 24″ iMac was on the blink. He decided that instead of just swapping out the bad drive for a traditional unit he would upgrade to a solid state drive. Tearing apart high-end hardware like this can be a bit nerve-racking but luckily the drive is mounted right behind the screen so he didn’t have to take everything apart.
The SSD he picked up was 2.5″ but the mounting hardware in the iMac is only setup for 3.5″ form factors. We would have used a bit of hackery to make it work but [Jason] went with an adapter kit. Uh-oh, once installed there was no problem with the mounting but the SATA cable didn’t reach far enough to plug it in. The cable snaked around under the motherboard and would have been a lot of work to swap forĀ a longer one. He ended up removing all of the mounting screws except for one coercing the drive close enough for the connection.
It worked for him and it can for you as well. If you do this make sure to devise your own mounting scheme so that you don’t hit the same snag.
[Photo: AppleInsider iMac teardown]
[via TUAW]
posted Sep 25th 2009 7:02am by
Mike Szczys
filed under:
macs hacks

Saying that [Ian] had some overheating issues with his iMac G5 would be an understatement. After losing three hard drives due to heat he decided to do something about it. The first step was replacing the thermal paste with Arctic Silver. The solution for the hard drive was a little more unorthodox.
[Ian] picked up a 320GB Western Digital Caviar Blue drive because of its very low noise rating. He used rubber grommets to mount it outside the case and ran SATA data and power extension cables through a quarter inch hole to the motherboard. He mentioned to us that the cutout seen above the drive is from a previous mod.
This certainly will fix an overheating problem but it doesn’t do much for the sexy style we’re accustomed to with Apple hardware.
posted Sep 14th 2009 12:23pm by
Matt Schultz
filed under:
digital audio hacks,
home entertainment hacks,
peripherals hacks,
portable audio hacks

Hard drive speakers aren’t anything new, but they have yet to be done very professionally. Most hard drive speaker hacks are awesome, but aren’t meant to be a showpiece. [Oliver] took the opportunity to put together a set of 20GB drives and a custom-built acrylic case with a horizontal VU meter up front. The project is well-photographed and documented and can be recreated without the use of laser cutters or other expensive tools. The only thing it’s missing is an iPod dock!
Related: Giant bulb VU meter
posted Sep 8th 2009 8:00am by
Mike Szczys
filed under:
gameboy hacks,
peripherals hacks
posted Sep 4th 2009 11:00am by
Mike Szczys
filed under:
linux hacks
posted Sep 4th 2009 8:58am by
Mike Szczys
filed under:
gameboy hacks,
peripherals hacks

[_n3o_] put together a nice external storage mod by fitting a 2.5″ drive into a broken Game Boy. This mod fooled quite a few people because it appears that the device still plays games with the drive stuffed inside of it. Sadly, this is not the case. The reflective backing has been removed from the screen and replaced by a piece of paper with a graphic printed on it. The LED from the hard drive was moved to the battery indicator for the Game Boy for added realism. There is no build log for this project but [_n3o_] did give a short explanation of it in a forum post. You can see two more pictures of the project after the break. Read the rest of this entry »
posted Dec 21st 2008 4:33pm by
Eliot Phillips
filed under:
peripherals hacks,
security hacks

The Janus team have published a preview of their new Privacy Adapter. It’s a small two port router. You just plug it in-line between your computer/switch and your internet connection. It will then anonymize all of you traffic via the Tor network. You can also use it with OpenVPN. The hardware appears to be a Gumstix computer mounted to a daughtercard with two ethernet ports. It will have a web configuration just like a standard router. This looks like a great plug-n-play privacy device. The only improvement we would suggest is adding auto-detect so a crossover cable isn’t required.
Janus is responsible for JanusVM, a virtual machine designed to protect your privacy with technologies like Tor and OpenVPN.
[via @hdmoore]
posted Nov 12th 2008 1:56pm by
Caleb Kraft
filed under:
digital audio hacks

[nvillar] wanted a relatively cheap way to make a rotary input device for audio mixing. After looking at several options including turn tables and professional audio scrubbers, they decided on the hard drive due to its size, price, and the feel of the disk. The geek factor of using a hard drive as an input device probably didn’t hurt either. They provide schematics and details on how to make it all work. There’s a video after the break of the unit sending signals to a computer. No performances though, sorry.
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