Every so often I learn a new microwave trick. [skuhl] sent in this …. myspace video. It appears that with a microwave, a jar and a candle to get things going, you can create you r very own plasma in a jar. You’ll probably kill your microwave doing this, but damn it looks cool.
Year: 2007
Real Life Avatar Style Video Recording
[salvo] enjoys searching for ‘untitled document’ with google. He ran across this crazy little project that just cracked me up. It’s a video camera rig that’s designed to simulate the video presentation of virtual reality games (everquest, etc.) and it actually does a decent job. It would probably get you arrested if you wore it in Boston…
Mini V3 Headphone Amp
Every so often, I like to check out the headphone amp scene at [headwize]. The headphone lovers there never seem to stop. This little amp is one of the latest creations. The latest is the mini v3 – it reflects a trend I’ve been seeing on homebrew hardware: SMD core chips and through hole components for support hardware. A 9 volt supplies power, and a pair of linear regulators. It’s a nice simple, solid design – and you’ve gotta love the thumb screws. (I’m not sure how a more efficient PWM regulated power source would affect the audio output)
Acoustically Generated Holograms
I found this on [hackedgadgets] and checked out the paper describing the project. I’m not sure if it will generate any truly usable graphics any time soon, but the technology is pretty interesting. It combines six video channels and uses acoustic frequencies and tiny but simple looking transducers to vibrate the crystal that channels a laser to generate the hologram. (If I read that paper correctly) Surprisingly, a single nvidia chip generates all six channels for the system. Annoyingly, there’s a lack of info on MITs site, but there’s a nice group of images under the multimedia link of this article.
Battery Powered Tesla Coil
I happened across this nice simple PWM circuit, and eventually ran across this excellent little tesla coil. The build information is pretty interesting. Between the capacitor brick and the car ignition coils, I’d say it gets pretty creative.
Xbox 360 Joystick Retrofit
Arcade joystick retrofits aren’t usually that interesting. This one sent in by [Jock] caught my eye for one reason – using those cheap RadioShack reed switch relays to adapt the joystick output to the 360 controllers Dpad. Personally, I think I would have thrown some opto-isolators at it – but the one’s that RS (sometimes) has are pretty crappy.
Solderless Aux In For Bose Sound Dock, Etc
This little how-to was sent in by [Ed]. The sound dock posts get quite a few hits, so I figured I’d share.
There is a solderless way to hack an aux input for the Sounddock.
(1)Go to Wal-mart (or elsewhere) and buy the Griffin Dock Adapter for iPod Shuffle (~$20) and a Belkin Speaker and Headphone splitter (~$4). (The Belkin splitter is needed in order to fit properly over the Shuffle plug on the device, but other cables/adapters might work.)
(2)Remove the existing adapter plate and replace it with the Dock adapter.
(3) Set the switch to speaker. (Very Important!) (4)Plug in one end of the Belkin adapter and you are ready to go! Any input signal automatically activates the Sounddock. Now you have a fully functional female and male stereo headphone input for your Sounddock.
–>Total cost ~$25 and no soldering required.
