Modded TI-83 Calculator


[Christopher] sent in his modded TI-83 calculator. (Hit the read link, a bug is broke the one I tried to embed) Besides the uh, racing stripes, he added a PS/2 port (though I see drivers for this mod are up on ticalc.org) and an integrated (cpu controlled) RGB backlight. The backlight is controlled with a programmable AND array that’s slaved off a pair of the CPU I/O lines. Just to top everything off, I poked around and found that you can overclock these puppies, as well as expand their memory. I’m hopeful that wetsanding and varnishing the thing 10 times smoothed out the paintbrush lines, but an inexpensive airbrush would yield much smoother results.

Zune Antenna Extension


[Dyer13] sent in his Zune antenna mod. It’s a simple one, but we haven’t seen too many Zune mods yet. It’s really just a matter of adding more surface area to the transmitter. I’d suggest adding a wire that’s actually tuned to an appropriate wavelength. If you want something with a bit more power, check out this Belkin Tunecase power upgrade.

IPod Dock Extension Cable


I’ve lost count of the number of emails from people looking for these things, so here it is. The hardest part of [Mike’s] little hack is the soldering. The pins on those iPod connectors are just evil to solder. You’ll need the patience of a saint.

I’ve worked with these same connectors and I came up with an easier, if bulkier method of soldering those things in my iPod super dock How-To.

Quickie: Hack-A-Day On G4TV

Thanks to [Ryan Bucshon] for letting me know that Hack-A-Day is up on Attack of the Show tonight. Looks like they’re talking about the Wii Laptop by Ben. Hit it right now.

Update: Excellent, I got mentioned, Hack-A-Day got direct coverage, then they hit Ben’s site, and mentioned Ben’s How-To series on Engadget.

Reactable: Visual, Interactive Synth


[imajes] brought this sweet project to my attention. The table is reactive thanks to the combination of a projector and a video camera below the surface. The position and unique pattern of each block on the table is used to manipulate the operations of the synth. The software is open source – so you can build your own. (And it’ll run on linux, mac and windows) Check out the videos for a good demonstration. I’m thinking that one of these could be built on a budget using lumenlab/overhead LCD technology.