Pinball Stomp: Part1

April 27, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 16 Comments

Despite my atrociously short attention span, I’ve always loved pinball. Maybe it is something about all the flashing lights and clunking solenoids. Maybe it is just the simple physics at the center of it all. I’m not really sure. My kids, however, don’t share my enthusiasm. I suspect part of it is that they never wandered through a fog filled arcade in the middle of the night, hopped up on Reese’s Pieces with a shrinking pile of quarters in their pocket. The other part might be the fact that they have gotten used to the Nintendo Wii and the Xbox Kinect (we just got one last week).

Watching them jump up and down playing an extremely simple and repetitive game with the Kinect gave me an idea. I envisioned pinball projected on the side of my house, the kids jumping up and down in front of it to move the paddles. Keep reading to see how I plan to build it and what I’ve done so far. There’s a full video, but also text of the entire thing.
Continue reading “Pinball Stomp: Part1” →

µPhone Is Small And Home Made

April 26, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 28 Comments

[Victor] popped up in the comments of yesterday’s DIy Cellphone to show off his own home made phone, the µPhone (google translated). [Victor] has put some effort into making this thing very compact. As you can see in the video after the break, he even left off the number pad to save space. Instead, you do everything by using a small joystick and two buttons. He claims that he really only calls a small number of people, so this layout works fine once he has programmed their contact information in.

For some reason none of the pictures are showing up in the extensive forum thread on the project. It is fun though, to follow along as he tries to get this thing working.

Continue reading “µPhone Is Small And Home Made” →

Hackerspace Intro: Hackerspace.gr In Athens Greece

April 26, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 4 Comments

This is a fitting video to be the first of our Hackerspace introductions. After our call for hackerspace tours yesterday, [Nikos] emailed us to let us know that their hackerspace already had a video ready. While this is more of a general video, explaining the idea behind hackerspaces, we do get to see a little bit of what is going on there. You can catch the video after the break (english subtitled), or head on over to their site to see what is going on at Hackerspace.gr in Athens Greece.

Though this video is very well made, yours doesn’t have to be. We don’t care if you are filming in your basement with 2 other members, showing off a couple projects, we want to see it! If you’re making a video for us, remember that we already know what a hackerspace is, so show us what you are doing!

Continue reading “Hackerspace Intro: Hackerspace.gr In Athens Greece” →

DIY Cellphone

April 25, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 35 Comments

Here’s an interesting concept. Lets make a kit to build your own super simple cell phone. Thats basically what a group at the MIT media lab is proposing with this prototype. Consisting of an SM5100b GSM module and a 1.8″ 160×128 pixel LCD screen on a very basic board holding some buttons, this thing is pretty bare bones. Barely any features aside from sending/receiving calls. It does have caller ID though. At$150, it isn’t really that competitive compared to the phones you’d get from your provider, but it is just a prototype.

We particularly like the laser cut flex areas for the buttons on the front.

[Thanks Paul]

3 Axis Accelerometer With LED Bar Displays

April 25, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 7 Comments

[Viktor] doesn’t remember why he started this project. He doesn’t know what he had in mind in the beginning, nor what the intended use was.He knows he wanted something interactive with blue LEDs. What he ended up with, was a 3 axis Accelerometer with a pretty cool display that sits on his desk to amuse visitors.

Constructed using a PIC16F887 for the brains and a Freescale MM7361 3 axis accelerometer, you can pull the schematics from his site. The code is available on demand as well.

[via HackedGadgets]

Continue reading “3 Axis Accelerometer With LED Bar Displays” →

Controlling The Power With Bluetooth

April 25, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 7 Comments

[Mike] dropped us a tip to show off a system he has built to control some power sockets based on his proximity. Initially the project started as a parallel port controlled box to switch the mains power. Then he got the idea of turning this into a little more interactive of an automation tool. He is utilizing the bluetooth from his cell phone as a locator. When the box senses that he’s in the room, the power is on. When he leaves the area, the power is off. You can see his ruby code on his web site if you wanted to give it a try or offer improvements.

Hacking The Trampofoil To Be Pedal Powered

April 25, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 31 Comments

We’ve seen a few different versions of the “trampofoil” before. That’s the contraption that utilizes a hydrofoil and human power to scoot you across the water above the surface. It is somewhat difficult to explain, so just check out the first video after the break to see how the original works.

Today, we stumbled upon a cool video where someone is attempting to make a pedal powered one instead. Their first prototype, shown above is literally just a trampofoil with an added seat and pedal powered prop. They did manage to take it a step further though and came up with a second prototype that has a better designed hydrofoil as well as using a bike frame for the main structure. This looks really fun as you can see in the second video below.

Continue reading “Hacking The Trampofoil To Be Pedal Powered” →