Prototype This Schematics Posted

October 16, 2008 by Eliot 26 Comments

As promised, [Joe Grand] has uploaded the schematics from his part of last night’s episode of Prototype This. The device monitors the driver of a demo derby car and shuts it off if he becomes too enraged. He’ll be posting schematics for every episode as they’re released. The really interesting thing is that he scanned all of his development notes too. If you missed the episode, you can watch it on Discovery’s site. You can also grab a version that doesn’t idiotically force you to watch in full screen browser window from The Pirate Bay.

UPDATE: [Joe] has been responding to your comments.

PSP 3000 Teardown

October 16, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 51 Comments

If you absolutely feel an incessant need to see the innards of every new piece of equipment out there, you’ll probably be excited to see that the PSP 3000 has been disassembled and photographed. Apparently there isn’t much new here. The screen has been replaced with one that has 5 times the contrast ratio, twice the color range, and a refresh rate that is twice as fast. Other than that, there’s a built in microphone and a mystery “PS” button.

[via Engadget]

UberBong: Evaporative PC Cooling, Probably

October 16, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 24 Comments

We’re not 100% sure what exactly is going on here. It appears to be a massive evaporative cooling rig for a computer, though the title has us wondering if it doesn’t have any other uses. There isn’t much of a description, but we felt the sheer magnitude of this cooling system warranted some publicity. Some digging around shows that this was out in 2003, but it is new to us.

[via reddit]

Hack The Ben Heck Access Controller

October 16, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 4 Comments

[Ben Heck], in a display of true hacker spirit, has released a tutorial on how to mod the Access Controller. We have been waiting for it, but we can’t help but commend the detail he goes into. He lists pinouts, as well as digi-key part numbers for various replacement parts. Great job as usual [ben].

Internal Wireless Mouse On A Dell Mini 9

October 16, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 5 Comments

[strider_mt2k] sent in this new Dell Mini 9 hack. After seeing the recent GPS in a Dell Mini9 project, he decided to jump in and do some hacking of his own. His idea was to integrate his Logitech wireless mouse receiver internally. He basically added an internal usb port, allowing for future replacements if the mouse should it get broken or upgraded. The final result is completely hidden. There was plenty of space in the case, so there’s no bulge at all.