24 Solid State Drives In Raid

March 9, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 63 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96dWOEa4Djs]

In a time when marketing is all around us, companies often have to come up with new and creative ways to get us excited. Some go the viral route, others hire famous spokes people. Samsung did well with this idea. Let some computer geeks build something awesome and have fun with it. They chained 24 drives together to create a whopping 6Terrabyte array. They run various speed tests and even test the drive integrity by bouncing on a trampoline while dangling them from their chords. Yeah, they make the computer geeks a little geekier than they need to be, but who didn’t get excited to see those transfer speeds?

Motion Detecting Cat Toy

March 9, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 15 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFX8vSw42DY]

We love our pets, but sometimes we just can’t keep up with them all the time. Sometimes, we need some automated playmates for our furry pals. [Kateham] has built a motion detecting cat toy to keep their cat content and active. Their price list was roughly $5 for the whole project, but they did obtain things like microcontrollers from family members. Some places they did manage to cut costs were to harvest various parts from a VHS deck. Its great to see kids not only hacking, but recycling as well. Great job [Kateham]. This project is like a simpler version of the laser pup.

Model Rocket GPS And Data Logger

March 8, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 23 Comments

datalogger

Serious rocket hobbyists aren’t content with merely launching their rockets into the air. [wwgd] wants to have an on board computer to control his flights and log the data. He doesn’t quite know how to do it all yet, so he’s starting with the basics. He has built the basic GPS data logger using an accelerometer, a GPS unit, and a BS2P microcontroller. The overall weight is 62 grams and it can record for the whole 5 minute flight. At roughly $200 though, we’d be thinking twice before launching it into the stratosphere.

New Battery For An HP50G

March 6, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 14 Comments

calc1

According to the author, the HP 50G is an awesome calculator. But as awesome as it is, it is powered off of not-so-awesome AAA batteries. These little batteries don’t last long under the load of the calculators awesomeness, so a mod needed to be done. The battery chosen for installation was a replacement battery for a Sony PSP. He was able to find one, including the external charge regulator board for $10. Dropping it into the case and wiring it to charge off of the existing mini USB port looks fairly simple, very few actual modifications are necessary to the body. Unfortunately, they did end up with an LED protruding from the bottom that makes it wobble a bit, but they’re guessing that they get about 2x the battery life now.

Automatic Blind Opener

March 6, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 20 Comments

blinds

[Contraptionmaker] ran into a problem when putting plastic insulation over his windows during the winter. When you cover the windows from the inside to prevent drafts, your access to the stick that opens the blinds is cut off. His solution was to build an automatic blind opener from a cordless drill. He started with some motors he had around the house, but none of them were strong enough. The final solution was a $10 Black & Decker drill. After removing the handle and trigger to extend it, he made a simple wall mount for it. You may notice him soldering some batteries into it, in his directions. Those are just for backup, in case the power goes out. You can see a video of it in action after the break. If you want something triggered by an alarm, or for a different type of blind, we may be able to help you out.

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Automated DVD Dispenser

March 5, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 24 Comments

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[Andrew] made this DVD dispenser for his senior project in high school. It is using an ATmega8515 for the brains, and a custom coded driver for the LCD. As you can see in the video, after the break, you can select a DVD by various identifiers such as genre or title. It then pushes that DVD out of the rack so you can grab it. Right now, all the DVDs have to be placed in predetermined positions, but it’s not a bad start at all. Thanks for sending this in [Andrew].

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N8VEM Computer With A 3Km Wireless Link

March 4, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 26 Comments

pterm

[James] sent in this project in which he built a tiny computer with text based OS and a 3Km wireless link. The details are a bit scarce, but he used an N8VEM, a Propeller Pocket Term, a 4 line LCD and an RF Transceiver to build it. It runs CP/M, the text based operating system and uses less than a half of a watt, without the vga monitor. With a total cost of 145 and 4 serial ports for sensors, this thing could come in handy. Especially since its low power consumption could allow it to be solar powered. You may recall the N8VEM from an earlier post we did.