Author: Will O'Brien

805 Articles

Digital Camera IR Filter Removal

December 20, 2006 by 12 Comments


We’ve run across the idea of IR filter removal in the past. [Tony Z] pointed out this nice little how-to on removing the IR filter from a Canon a540 or a530 digital camera. I’m pretty blase about gutting electronics, but even I get a bit nervous about opening up recent model digi-cams. It’s so easy easy to jam sensitive gears… (don’t ask) Aside from my bad mini-dv experiences, the sub-200 6 megapixel platforms could make some interesting projects.

You guys are rocking at the Design Challenge! Keep those entries coming.

DIY MP3 How-to

December 20, 2006 by 10 Comments


Just a quick note – my How-To on building your own MP3 player is up. It’s more of a build walk-through and a review of MAKE’s Daisy MP3 player kit.

In case you missed it, Ben Heck put up a How-to on making your own robotic hand. It’s more of an exercise in CAD design with the intent to cut the parts on a CNC machine. It’s a great view into Ben’s workflow. He used to torture er train graphic artists at some point, and he puts that experience to work in his designs. Speaking of which, you might dig his SCART video switcher.

I’ve got to say that I’m impressed with the effort I’ve seen so far on the Design Challenge. You’ve got five more days to get em in.

Before I forget, I need a good supplier of teflon/ptfe insulated wire (at a decent price). Suggestions?

POV Orb Project

December 19, 2006 by 20 Comments


It’s been a while since I’ve seen a new twist on POV hardware. This time it’s ‘the Orb’ – comprised of a set of LEDs that rotate to form a sphere. Hopefully more docs are forthcoming. It looks like all the hardware except the motor is contained on the boards inside the sphere – maybe power is provided via the two ends of the spindle? The visuals are driven by a pic C18 with hall effect sensors to provide position readings.
Thanks to [phishinphree] for the tip.

Don’t forget – 6 more days to get in your Design Challenge entry. I’ve gotten some great stuff so far – it’s going to be tough to choose a winner.

Gesture Laser Pointer Control

December 17, 2006 by 34 Comments

After I linked his basic laser pointer webcam interface the other day, [mnt] sent me this excellent demo of his gesture based laser pointer control. This one works alot like graffiti on the old palm pilots. My question? What does he make when he’s not sick?

Ben Heck’s Atari 800 Laptop

December 16, 2006 by 7 Comments

Ben’s been working on this one forever. This new version 2 Atari 800 laptop features a CF drive, a RS lcd, original Atari hardware and lots and lots of friggin soldering. That keyboard is hand wired, along with the CF adapter. Unlike the xbox 360 laptop, this one’s got Ni-MH batteries that are good for about an hour of play.

Ballast… Overclocking

December 15, 2006 by 5 Comments


I started to put up this after the wash with the pentium heater. Of course, we had it already. (and it’s a fake to top it off) Sigh. There’s nothing like making yourself look like an idiot on friday night. The comments below are from my bungle, I’m not going to delete them.

Instead, I bring you an interesting thread on overclocking HID Metal Halide lamp ballasts over on the lumenlab forums. [arizonavideo] did some interesting experiments. A majority of the experiments involved changing capacitance values on transformer style ballasts. At one point he combined a 400 and 600 watt ballast in series to run a lamp at over 1000 watts. (it was rated for 400) He even smashed a bulb just so he could measure the arc tube.