Fresh hacks every day
[Mike Field] got his hands on this Syma S107 helicopter with the intention of hacking it. After playing around with it for a while he set out to build his own infrared controller for the toy. It seems there is some protocol information about it published in various forum posts, but he decided it would be more fun to figure it out for himself. He started off trying to capture the IR signals … [Read more...]
Because his computer is gradually turning into an all-inclusive media display device, [Shawn] figured a remote to control the volume and a video playlist would be a reasonable addition. TV remotes for computers have been around for years, but [Shawn] decided to go the DIY route and build his own computer remote. For the build, [Shawn] used a Teensy dev board with an IR receiver module and … [Read more...]
You know you've got a good hardware platform if you can easily repurpose it with a code rewrite. And that's what [Eric] continues to do with these little Hexbugs. This time around he's bent the IR emitter and receiver downward to use as a reflectance sensor. This gives it the ability to follow a dark line on a light surface. He originally patched an MSP430 into the $25 RC toy. The IR pair was … [Read more...]
14 year-old [Connor Smith] has been busy this holiday season, thinking up ways to improve the lighting situation at home. A few weeks ago he put together this 3-channel light controller to toggle his parents’ external lights, incorporating an Arduino for control. The Arduino was used to switch the channels on and off at specified intervals in order to create a simple light show on the … [Read more...]
[Dmitry Grinberg] has to walk all the way across his bedroom to switch the lamp on and off. The drudgery of this finally became too much, so he built a remote control and added dimming for good measure. Above you can see the circuitry for the remote and the receiver, as well as the finished remote housed in what he calls a 'Chinese Altoids tin'. After the break you'll find [Dmitry's] demo … [Read more...]
[Joel] dug up this hack that he pulled off over ten years ago. It's inspired by the Nintendo PowerGlove, and uses flex sensors to react to movements of your fingers. The interesting thing is, he built these optical flex sensors himself. He likes to say that this is a ghetto fiber-optic setup. The inlaid diagram above gives you an idea of how the sensors work. An IR LED and infrared diode are … [Read more...]
[James] is one of those guys on a quest to control everything with one device. His tool of choice is an Android phone, which can do quite a lot right out of the box. But he was never satisfied with its lack of IR remote control abilities. He fixed that feature-gap by building a Bluetooth to Infrared translator. The hardware he used for the prototype is quite simple. A cheap serial Bluetooth … [Read more...]
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