[dajjhman] wrote in to show us how he added a microphone jack to the handset of his Yaesu radio while retaining the DTMF functions. He states that there were some adapters available on the market, but they are non standard and didn’t really fit his needs. The modification itself is pretty simple, especially with his great documentation and clear pictures. For anyone else who might need this setup, this should be a great resource.
[Robbtoberfest] has earned our admiration with this crazy chainsaw powered spot light. It looks horribly dangerous, extremely inefficient, and woefully under engineered. We absolutely love it.
This could be plucked from a video game or a movie and seems to be one UV bulb away from being the ultimate post apocalyptic zombie vampire Armageddon weapon. He has taken apart a chainsaw and attached it to a DC treadmill motor using a couple of bike sprockets and a chain. That DC motor then feeds a car headlight directly. As you can see in the video, when he cranks the gas, it shines pretty brightly. The unfinished nature of this is due to a deadline for a contest on instructables, so he plans on adding a protective cowl, some fancy paint work, and a voltage regulator down the road.
[vimeo = http://vimeo.com/13936259%5D
[Phillip Torrone], one of the original crew of HackaDay, now working with [LadyAda] tipped us off to this video of her explaining the device they built for configuring the charging circuits to be used with their solar panels. Unlike most of their tutorials, this one is not intended to be a final product sold on their store. Rather, this is a project that helps them deliver the best quality they can.
The unit itself is built around an Arduino and can log the statistics to an SD card, show battery voltage, panel voltage, and current from panel to charger. You can see in the video above how she uses this to refine her design in real time for optimal results.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwFrCpYavt4]
ATHLETE, or the All Terrain Hex-Limbed Extra Terrestrial Explorer, looks pretty cool. This Hexapod is actually a pair of 3 legged robots that have joined together to haul some cargo off the top of stationary module. While this time-lapse shows it going pretty slowly, you get a hint at the end that it isn’t required to be quite so lethargic. One of the really cool things about this robot is the fact that the legs are multi purpose. It has a “tool belt” from which it can pull different attachments for its feet. There are many more videos available on their site.
[via BotJunkie]
Some new products have worked their way into our hands and are just waiting for some awesome Hack a Day logos to be put on them. We’ve added a couple bags, some huge mouse pads as well as normal ones, and we’re considering adding the Hack A Day badge. You’ve seen the badges before, when we took them to CES. [Devlin] estimates that the cost would be $25 each before shipping. We would like to get some feedback before he starts pumping these things out. How many of you want one?
[Magx1] has filled his living room with laser-y goodness. You can get tons of build pictures and information from his Flickr set. There are many cool aspects of this build, but one that stands out is how he gets his C02. He simply exhales into a balloon. Check out the video after the break to see him melting glass with his laser.
Open source GSM cracking software called “Kraken” has been released into the wild. You may recognize some of the information from back in December when we announced that they had cracked GSM encryption. Well, now you can participate as well. You’ll need a pretty beefy Linux machine and some patience. They say that an easier GUI and support for GPU processing is coming in the near future.
