DIY Wireless NES Controllers For Wii/Gamecube

February 20, 2007 by 11 Comments


[Mark] sent in his wireless classic nintendo controller project. He built a wireless NES and SNES controller to use with his Wii via the Gamecube port. He used off the shelf TX/RX hardware and used some PIC controllers to glue everything together. iPod batteries keep em powered and keep the weight down. He provides all the schematics and a walk through on constructing the SNES controller. The circuits are pretty simple, so it’s definitely repeatable. This is almost enough to get me to buy a Wii.

— video after the break.

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Keybot – Serial Controllable Keyboard Interface

February 18, 2007 by 13 Comments


[john] sent in his uncles Keybot project. The device accepts input (a parallel port in this case) and generates standard keyboard output. It allows a computer to create its keyboard input for itself or another machine. Personally, I go for serial consoles, but it’s a good study of our old friend the keyboard. (If legos are more your thing, you could do something like this.)

Micron Laser Beam Analyser

February 17, 2007 by 4 Comments


[David] sent in his laser beam analyzer project. It’s a complete analysis system built from off the shelf hardware. Even if you’re not into lasers, the project combines several technologies that are useful for the hardware hacker. A laser beam is focused to shine onto a spinning reflector. Beam signal is attenuated by adjusting the distance with a stepper actuated sled. The beam is then measured using various sensors.

I thought we were due for a laser hacks category, so I created it and added some of the older laser hacks to it.

IBook Wireless Retrofit

February 16, 2007 by 44 Comments


[squishy] sent in his iBook refit project. Normally a laptop ressurection wouldn’t grab my attention, but the wireless card caught my eye. Because his ebay deal didn’t come with an airport card, he refitted it with a Senao 200mW wireless card. The card just fit – and with some dremel work on the antenna connector, it was plug and play under linux.

USB CNC Controller

February 15, 2007 by 10 Comments


This one reminds me of a MAME arcade controller. This control panel is just the gravy on top of a very nice CNC conversion for a Sieg X2 mini mill. (Like mine.) [Hoss] used a Logitech attack 3 joystick and a philips PC game pad to provide the interface. Of course, the case was machined on the mill. The thread covering his conversion provides DXF diagrams of all the parts he used for his CNC conversion, as well as explanation diagrams. (If you need a decent DXF viewer/cad program, try Qcad in the ubuntu repositories.)

Bluetooth Enabled… London Bridge

February 14, 2007 by 27 Comments


[Mike] sent in a different sort of hack – as part of the switched on London festival, these guys added bluetooth sensors to London Bridge. When a bluetooth enabled device is detected on the bridge, a blue ‘pixel’ will show up on the upper tower bridge. Once the device is detected at the other side of the bridge, the ‘pixel’ will move across the bridge at the same speed as the device did. You’ve got a few more days to check it out if you’re in the area.

Update: Just to be clear – the sensors are on the new London bridge, and the pixel/light appears along the top of Tower bridge. Sorry for the confustion, I haven’t been in London since 1995 or so. I mistakenly assumed that the lights were on the upper tower of the bridge.