Fresh hacks every day
[Stephen] took the safe route when getting his Raspberry Pi to dim an AC light bulb. He didn't roll his own outlet box with a mains-rated relay inside, going with a mechanical connection instead of electrical. By attaching a servo motor to the dimmer knob the RPi can adjust the light level without risk of electric shock. He is using the ServoBlaster package to drive the servo motor with the … [Read more...]
It seems like tinkerers are always being tapped to build or repair exhibit hardware. This time around it's [Dino's] turn. He's been asked to alter a light bulb efficiency demo so that it includes an LED option. The idea here is that you crank a generator to power different types of light bulbs. There's an ammeter built in, but possibly the best feedback is knowing how hard you have to crank to … [Read more...]
[Todd Harrison] needed a way to run a 12 volt PC fan from mains voltage. Well, we think he really just needed something to keep him occupied on a Sunday, but that's beside the point. He shows us how he did this in a non-traditional way by using the resistive load of an incandescent light bulb, a diode, and a capacitor to convert voltage to what he needed. You can read his article, or settle in for … [Read more...]
This is the Edison clock, designed by [David Krawczyk]. It shows time in the same way as the multimeter clock, regulating power to two analog needle meters. The feature that makes this one a bit different is the alarm. You can see the series of holes on the front of the base. These have a small light bulb socked in each, and correspond to hours and 5-minute increments. Insert two bulbs to set the … [Read more...]
Almost a month ago I started trying to reverse engineer an inexpensive LED color changing light bulb. With your help I've mapped out the circuit, and taken control of the bulb. But there's still a few mysteries in this little blinker. Join me after the break to see what I've done so far, peruse the schematic and source code, and to help solve the two remaining mysteries. … [Read more...]
I went to the last monthly meeting of Sector 67, a hackerspace in Madison, WI. One of the things shown off was a color changing LED light bulb that Menards was clearing out for $1.99. Inside there's two RGB LEDs controlled by an ATtiny13 and powered by an AC/DC buck converter. An ATtiny13 will run you around $1.25 by itself so this price is quite amazing. I grabbed a couple of these bulbs and set … [Read more...]
This computer can be mounted in any standard light bulb socket. It uses a pico projector combined with a camera to generate a touch display wherever you shine it. The photo above and the video after the break show the bulb in a motorized lamp arm but that's just smoke and mirrors, the bulb itself is the core concept. We think there's real potential for home-built versions. We've seen touch … [Read more...]
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