I just spent a little time dropping in some new ethernet jacks in my workshop tonight and stumbled on this handy little leatherman mod. I used the real thing, but I don’t usually keep one on me. [bluebomb] modded the giant redundant screwdriver on his wave to become a non-impact punch down tool.
Hackit: Laser Cutters – With A Prize!
I’m going to have a special guest in my workshop for a while: an Epilog Mini 24 45 watt laser cutter. This is entirely thanks to Epilog Laser down in Golden Colorado. Here’s today’s hackit: If you had access to your own 45 watt laser cutter – with a 12″ x 24″ work surface, what would you make with it?
Oh, and there’s a prize on this one. Whoever comes up with the best idea will get a free laptop engraving session. (You can always just ship me the display cover.) You can have your own art put on, or we can always tattoo your machine with the Hack-A-Day logo.
(Pictured is Ladyada’s laser cutter. Mine’s coming tomorrow!)
IPod Laser Pointer
If you thought there wasn’t anything else to shove on the end of your iPod, [Alex] is here to set you straight. He used the DC power that’s available on the iPod’s dock to drive a cheap laser pointer. It’s pretty easy to do – just get a dock connector (sparkfun has em) and add a laser pointer module. If you’d rather access everything else, check out the super dock I put together a while back. Hit the read link if you’d rather see the picture in color.
Desktop Soldering Press
[kruser495] put up this interesting instructable on making a desktop soldering press out of a sewing machine pedal. It uses a big chunk of carbon to create a diy high power cold-heat style soldering surface. It doesn’t work until the top is pressed down to complete the circuit. Looks like it’s only useful for wire joins, but still pretty interesting.
Playstation Controller Interfacing
This is an older set of hacks, but I’m surprised we haven’t covered them before. The playstation controller is an interesting alternative to normal robotic controls. This PS1 controller to serial interface is based on a Motorola HC68 series micro-controller. This even simpler version only needs some diodes to interface with a parallel port. Probably more interesting is this how-to on using a wireless PS2 controller with a basic stamp II.
FIRST Robotics Regional – KC – 2008
When you’re issued safety glasses at the door, you know it’s going to be interesting. As promised, I’m checking out the FIRST robotics regional in Kansas City today. The competition is pretty fierce – not quite flame throwing battle bot action, but the kids have put together some pretty serious robots.
Read on for more pics from the competition.
FPGAs Rock
I was doing some project window shopping today, and FPGA’s came up on my list. [John Kent] put together a pretty impressive documentation set. He’s written up some of his own projects, some how-to’s and linked plenty of good information for the budding FPGA programmer.
