Part 6 of my DIY HD Projector How-To is up on Engadget. It wraps up the series (sans final review, which willl be up later this week.) I think I managed to come up with a few new twists on the design. (Yes, the Hack will be up later. Sheesh.) I’m pretty happy with how it came out, even if it does appear to be larger than my old CRT projector.
Month: December 2006
Guitar Hero Guitar Controller
[Chuck] sent me this How-To on building your own custom Guitar Hero controller. I love the idea – the stock controller is a bit small for me. This one was built for a Child’s Play fund-raiser, so maybe you can score it and help get some games to some kids in need.
Remember, there are just 20 more days to get your entry in for the Design Challenge!
Binary Clock
[Walter] sent in his version of a PIC binary clock. It’s a nice alternative If you don’t want one that runs off TTL logic, This one runs on a PIC 16F628 (Microchip is great for samples) and displays hours in 5 bits and minutes in 6. His blog also features a decent looking programmer, and he shows off his version of the Suunto dive computer interface that’s been around for quite a while.
One Handed Xbox Controller
I’m going to have to poke Ben to tell me about these things when he finishes them. He’s released his one handed xbox controller. This one was built by request of a veteran of Iraq. He re-designed the layout and re-positioned the entire right half of the controls to make the controls available to a one handed user.
How do you get a SUMO bean bag, an iPod, and some sweet hardware to hack on? Submit a design to the Hack-A-Day Design Challenge. You’ve got 22 days to submit your design!
Wiimote Windows Drivers!
Just a quick update to yesterday’s Wiimote bluetooth hack. [steve] pointed out [CarlKenner]’s release of a windows driver. Let us know how this works. Looks like you have to use the slightly deprecated/abandoned PPjoy to get the joystick functions working.
So, if you have a HTPC, maybe the Wiimote could make an interesting home theater remote? (I use linux on mine these days. The windows display drivers kept breaking)
Defcon Bot Rules Announced
The DefconBots rules have been announced for Defcon 15. The reference design is actually pretty good on it’s own – I’m curious to see what sort of improvements the teams will come up with. The RD includes a full tutorial, so teams will definitely have a fighting chance. [via Midnight Research Labs]
The only rule is speed, so I wonder how many guns will feature multiple barrels. It seems that they don’t care how much ammuntion is used. (It does say no shotguns) Hrm, maybe a mini-gun that covers the 5×5 area with fine enough resolution to hit everything? Sure it lacks finesse, but firepower-a-plenty!
Now I can’t find his page but one of the Danger founders had built something similar using a Mac as the controller and a paintball gun. Of course, we’ve seen similar guns before.
Hacking Wiimote Bluetooth
[mo] sent me this video showing the latest on hacking the wiimote via bluetooth . They haven’t figured out all the values yet, but this is only the beginning. How long until we see some mac/pc games that can use the Wiimote?