Month: June 2009

Lexlrie

June 24, 2009 by 11 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbIzhlZHJfk]

Lexlrie is basically a feed display. It can connect to twitter, facebook and we feel fine for its updates. What makes this project different is that it is supposed to alter its lighting based on the mood of the updates. The system looks for words like “better” and “sorry” and displays color patterns based on those. We have no idea what “better” should look like, but it’s a cool idea. You can get more details of its construction here. This project vaguely reminds of Pulse, which intended to show the emotion of blogger.com updates.

The Holy Toaster Kit

June 23, 2009 by 39 Comments

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The holy toaster is an open source kit to put Jesus on your toast, complete with cost breakdown and engineering data files. A laser machined stainless steel Jesus blocks a pattern of radiation from browning the toast. Installation is quite simple. Use a pair of pliers to bend a few tabs for support, and then insert the pattern in the toaster. Browning adjustments may be required to obtain adequate contrast. Best results appear to come from Honey Bran Country Bread. Their Flickr page contains more photos and a video of the prototype being cut. Let everyone know about your divine toast with the twittering toaster we had covered in 2008. Below is the instructional video.

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IPhone 3G Ultrasn0w Unlock Released

June 23, 2009 by 11 Comments

The iPhone dev-team has released Ultrasn0w to SIM unlock the iPhone 3G running the 3.0 firmware. It’s available via Cydia, which installs when you use the recently released PwnageTool to unlock the 3.0 firmware. There doesn’t seem to be any caveats besides advising T-Mobile US users to turn off 3G before install.

Wii MotionPlus + Arduino

June 23, 2009 by 13 Comments

wiimoteplus

[knuckles904] was able to use the new Wii MotionPlus with an Arduino. Nintendo has released the WM+ in order to detect the motion of the controller better. The Wiimote only detects acceleration, whereas the WM+ detects rotation along 3 axes. The Arduino communicates with it over I2C, the same protocol that is used with the Nunchuk. To connect the two devices, he used jumper wires, but breakout boards are also available. He was able to create some example code with help from wiibrew.org. When paired with a Nunchuk, which contains a 3-axis accelerometer, you can have a 6 degrees-of-freedom IMU for under $40, perfect for controlling your robots or logging data.

[via adafruit]

How-to: Build Your Own Spot Welder

June 23, 2009 by 85 Comments

Spot welders are used in the fabrication of automobiles, PC cases, power supplies, microwave ovens, electrical junction boxes, Faraday cages, and various electronics. A spot welder is used because it produces a highly defined point of contact weld. The materials are welded without excessive heating, so working pieces are handled easily. The weld is also highly controlled and repeatable. In this how-to we cover the basics of a spot welder, and then show you how to build one from a microwave oven transformer.

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IPodGyro

June 23, 2009 by 7 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG8khSe5gBQ&feature=player_embedded]

[Benjamin] submitted this slick project. It’s a gesture based control unit for the ipod and iphone. It plugs into the dock port and allows you to control the track and volume with simple gestures. While accellerometer equipped units can already “shake to shuffle”, they lack the ability to simply skip tracks forward or backward. He notes that with an accellerometer, simple gestures can be harder to decipher than with a gyro. The gyro gives the ability to tell which direction you are twisting it, so it’s easier to utilize. [Benjamin] was previously covered when he released the iPodGPS.