The Greatest Thing Since (Toasted) Sliced Bread

June 9, 2015 by James Hobson 55 Comments

That’s right. [Colin Furze] just made a household appliance obsolete. Who needs a toaster when you can cut your bread… and toast it at the same time!

Leave it to [Furze] to make something out of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy a reality. Submitted as an idea by one of his subscribers to his new series called Furze’s Invention Show, he took it upon himself to make the long revered lightsaber bread knife. We were waiting for this day.

Unfortunately, it’s not exactly a light saber. In fact, its more of a light-saw-ber, which, pronounced with the right accent could be easily mistaken for the real deal. Using a re-wrapped microwave transformer — much like home-made spot welder rigs — [Furze] is pumping a ton of amps at low voltage through a hacksaw blade, making it red hot and ready to toast bread.

Continue reading “The Greatest Thing Since (Toasted) Sliced Bread” →

Interactive Fur Mirror Follows Your Every Move

May 30, 2015 by James Hobson 24 Comments

We think artist [Daniel Rozin] spent a bit too much time wondering if he could make an interactive fur mirror, without wondering if he should. The result is… strange — to say the least.

It’s called the PomPom Mirror, and its one of many interactive installations in the Descent With Modification at Bitforms — there’s even a super cute flock of penguins which spin around to create the same effect.

The mirror is 4 by 4 feet and 18″ deep. It has 928 faux fur pom poms which are controlled by 464 motors, each effectively with an “on” and “off” state. A Microsoft Kinect tracks movement and creates a black and white binary image of what it sees. The artist also programmed in a few animation sequences which make the mirror come alive — like some weird furry alien / plant thing…

Continue reading “Interactive Fur Mirror Follows Your Every Move” →

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxL68u_YJ_g

50 Shades Of Gray Water Reuse

May 30, 2015 by James Hobson 54 Comments

Entered into this year’s Hackaday Prize, [TVMiller] built a super cheap Arduino powered gray water recovery system.

The system is very simple and can be easily made for almost any bathroom. By making a zig-zag of PVC pipe underneath the sink, he’s created a simple grey water reservoir sized for his toilet’s flushing capability. And if you use too much water, it just backs into the drain — think of it as a giant P-Trap! A 12V solenoid and 240L/h water pump switch on after the toilet has been flushed — refilling the tank with reused gray water! He’s also added an Arduino and an LCD screen to keep track of the water saved; with the nice touch of a HaD logo of course.

We love [TVMiller’s] project brief build logs — he doesn’t hold anything back.

Pipes were glued, the inhaled toxins coursing through my lungs and penetrating the cells, turning me in an enhanced human, now capable of lifting small things with great ease, like a stapler or Big Gulp.

Continue reading “50 Shades Of Gray Water Reuse” →

Itemizing Water Consumption At Home

May 29, 2015 by James Hobson 79 Comments

For a while now [Florian] has wanted to itemize his water usage at home to keep better track of where his water bill is coming from — and to help him develop water conscious habits. He’s not done yet, but has had a pretty good start.

The problem with measuring the water usage of everything in your house is that the plumbing involved to install sensors is a rather big job — so instead he assumed constant flow in some places and just used sensors on the valves to determine how long the valve was open for, which gives him a fairly accurate number for water usage.

On the right is his kitchen faucet which features a super quick arcade button hack to keep track of it being on or off.

The toilet was a bit trickier. He ended up designing a 3D printed mount attached to the lever on the inside of the tank — it’s pretty universal so he’s included the .STL files on his website if anyone wants to try implementing this system.

Continue reading “Itemizing Water Consumption At Home” →

Making Your Own Laser Cut PSU

May 27, 2015 by James Hobson 26 Comments

[Csaba] and his friend bought a 600W switching lab-style power supply unit off eBay a while ago, and after about a year of tangled wires and mess, finally decided to enclose it in a fancy box.

The PSU itself required some modification as it was just a controller and a power board — so they added a dedicated mains transformer, and a buffer capacitor. The housing is made out of 3mm plywood which they designed and laser cut specifically for the PSU — and it looks fantastic.

It includes a cooling fan, a small digital display and a whole bunch of controls for finely tuning your electronics power requirement — take a look at the demonstration video after the break.

Continue reading “Making Your Own Laser Cut PSU” →

The Biggest Game Boy Ever?

May 25, 2015 by James Hobson 8 Comments

Feeling nostalgic? Miss the solid feel of an original Nintendo Game Boy? You could smash a window with one and keep playing Pokemon the whole time! Well, [Raz] was, and he built what might just be the biggest Gameboy ever. Gameboy XXL: The Texas Edition.

Actually, it was commissioned for a Belgian music festival called Nintendoom — picture video game music + rave. Anyway, the organizer thought it would be so cool to have a giant functional Game Boy, so [Raz] got to work. He made it out of 10 square meters of 3mm thick MDF, which he laser cut into shape at the Brussels FabLab. The electronics inside consist of a 19″ LCD monitor, a Raspberry Pi, and a few jumbo size buttons.

It’s pretty freaking awesome. It runs Retropie which allows you to play pretty much whatever game you want. Check it out after the break.

Continue reading “The Biggest Game Boy Ever?” →

From Broken Drill Bit To Knife: Backyard Forging Basics

May 23, 2015 by James Hobson 21 Comments

One of our tipsters sent in a great video showing how to make knives out of old broken drill bits. It comes from [The Art of Weapons] YouTube channel which is run by a 15 year old from the UK. He’s applying old techniques to modern technology and it’s awesome to see someone young with these skills.

The beauty of this hack is aside from the tools you’ll need, it’s practically free to do. Worn out drill bit or other steel tool? No problem – heat it up and make something new. At the heart of this build is making your own forge. There’s lot of options, from using firebricks, to making a soup can forge like he did. From there, it’s really just a matter of annealing the steel (heating it up to red hot, and letting it cool down slowly in sand), and then heating it up again and forming it with a hammer and anvil.

But he doesn’t stop there: he also shows us his method of making handles for knives out of hardwood — its a pretty cool process and the finished knives are beautiful. The video below is a bit long, but well worth the watch if you’re interested in trying your own hand at forging.

Continue reading “From Broken Drill Bit To Knife: Backyard Forging Basics” →