Author: Will O'Brien

805 Articles

Defcon Bot Challenge Prototype

May 1, 2007 by 19 Comments


[Colin] sent in his prototype for the Defcon bot contest. The performance of the bot in the video is impressive. Hit it after the break. His build looks clean and simple – he even managed to score some sponsorship in the form of pololu servo controllers. Targeting the moving white sensor reminds me of the old MacGuyver episode with the lethal heat seeking robots.

If you’re working on any attack bots, feel free to let us know via the tips line.

Update: I woke up to realize that I forgot to embed the video. It should work now.

Continue reading “Defcon Bot Challenge Prototype” →

AVR Modified EV Charger

April 30, 2007 by 11 Comments


[Gary]’s built some nice AVR projects. The most interesting is the charge controller/monitor he built for his EV Porsche. Each board controls a charger – with one charger per battery. When the system isn’t charging the batteries, it provides real-time data to a VFD display in the dashboard of the 1978 Porsche 924. Hopefully he’ll notice the spike in traffic and will update the charger project page.

Bulletproof PC Case

April 28, 2007 by 29 Comments


Not our typical fare, but I can’t resist. [RCarter] is building a PC from scratch with a single unique feature – it’s designed to be bulletproof. Apparently, when it’s done he’s going to take it out back and teach it a lesson. Right now he’s more concerned with shock-proofing the hardware. Most people do this sort of thing at the end of the PC’s useful life.

Accessing The RPM Sensor On A Pc Fan

April 26, 2007 by 21 Comments


This one is almost too simple, but it might come in handy. It turns out that Pabst fans (and probably several others) already have the circuitry for RPM monitoring. Pop it apart allow pcb access and add your own RPM sensor lead to the PC board. Not all fans will have it, but it’s a safe bet that it’ll have an RPM sensor instead of a rotor lock indicator on the common PC board component.