Jump Start Your Car With Sega Parts

October 5, 2009 by 47 Comments

sega_jump_start

[Jenn’s] family is a single-car household. Because of this, it’s a little more difficult to get a jump start when the headlights run down the battery. Not wanting to ask the neighbors for help, her husband [Richard] decided to come up with his own solution.

Rummaging through the parts on hand, [Richard] went with his old friend Sonic the Hedgehog. He used two 12-volt, 1 amp Sega Genesis power adapters in parallel hooked up to a 12 volt, 3 amp  power supply. The end result is a 12-volt 5 amp source hooked to the car’s electrical system and used to get their road machine started.

We have enjoyed some of [Richard’s] offerings in the past, such as Super Nintoaster and the Super Genintari but this is a bit less… eloquent. A few questions do come to mind. First of all, is this the best way to use parts of your 20-year-old gaming system?  How many amps does your average car starter pull down?  And finally, what kind of issues are we looking at with the lead acid battery under these conditions?  Weigh in on the conversation in the comments.

Halloween Props: Low Cost Popup

October 5, 2009 by 3 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJoedH9thds]

[Backroads] has put together this nicely detailed writeup explaining how to make a low cost popup prop. He’s using a single pneumatic valve and a home made PVC piston to raise and lower a scary mask. He’s using an off-the-shelf 110v AC valve controller to control the valve. A flickering light, a “screamer” and a fog machine help fill out the project. The result is quite nice. We would be tempted to put a pressure sensor in front of it to optimize the scare timing.

Building An IR Receiver For The Popcorn Hour C-200

October 5, 2009 by 10 Comments

IR_module

[Linuxworks] has posted a writeup on how to build an IR module for the popcorn hour c-200. We weren’t familiar with the popcorn hour c-200, so we had to look it up. It seems to be a media center pc sort of thing. We’re not reviewing the unit itself, since we’ve never used one, so we’ll just get back to the mod. The device uses an RF remote, which some people didn’t like as much. Luckily it has an expansion port which can be utilized to get IR signals into the machine. [Linuxworks] has used a cheap IR sensor and a standard headphone plug. He notes that equipment passing power through these plugs should be turned off before plugging them in or removing them as they short momentarily during insertion.

Monome Case Mod: Vintage Radio

October 5, 2009 by 4 Comments

monome_vintage_radio

We’ve seen a lot of the Monome, a USB based controller often used as a sampler, here at Hack a Day. This is one of the more creative hacks. [brothernigel] took a Monome 40h kit and fit it inside the case of a vintage radio. The faceplate was a custom order to fit his purposes and incorporates the original radio frequency display. The USB port was well placed in the side of the wooden housing. For extra “soul”, pen and ink art adorns the insides. His work log gallery takes you through the process from start to finish.

We never noticed before, but the Monome makes a great vintage-looking-electronics project. All the lighted buttons are straight out of a ’60s military command center.

[Thanks Antonio]

Dance Of The… (construction) Cranes

October 4, 2009 by 16 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP_RhEstx_c]

Hacking is all about using parts and resources in an unconventional way. If stringing a pair of high-rise cranes with LED Christmas lights and making them move to a piece of classical music isn’t unconventional, then we don’t know what is. For nearly a quarter of every hour last night, 2 crane operators, along with two ‘choreographers’, swung and spun the cranes around in a coordinated fashion. The project was created by [Brandon Vickerd] as part of Nuit Blanche.  Its purpose was to showcase the technology that builds the cities we live in. A live video stream from various viewpoints was projected on site, below the cranes.

A Bright Way To Cycle

October 4, 2009 by 19 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQrNmnU8kJk]

Want to be visible when cycling at night? [Neon Dean] came up with this possible solution, which he cruised on at Nuit Blanche. Its a bicycle with neon lights mounted on every surface possible. [Dean], who gave a similar treatment to his car, explained how it worked. All of the tubes take their power from a 12VDC battery he carries in a fanny pack. 12V is a far too low voltage to power the tubes, so a step up transformer is used to bring that number way up. [Dean] also decided to install a neon tube on each wheel. In order to deliver power to them, he mounted a rotor on each wheel, with two conductive tracks running close to the edge of each rotor. Two strips of steel act as brushes (in a manner similar to those on slot cars), and deliver the stepped-up power to the tubes. One creative, but perhaps not so bright, idea is [Dean]’s neon tube helmet.

NeonDeanBrushes12Vfanny transformer copy

CN Tower Synced With Techno

October 4, 2009 by 17 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idC8lyuBVHQ]

As part of Nuit Blanche, Toronto’s annual community art event, the CN Tower’s lighting system got put to some creative use. Installed 2 years ago, the RGB LED-based system is composed of 1330 individually addressable lights lining the glass elevator shafts. It costs just under $1000 to run almost every evening for a month. Named ‘Bright Lights Big City’ (not to be confused with the book, movie, or song of the same name), this project was coordinated by [Ryan Stec]. The lights on the tallest freestanding structure in North America were animated to CIUT 89.5 FM for the entire night. This innovative solution allowed one to appreciate the light show from almost anywhere in the city with access to a radio.