Allright, the keyboard light thing was a bit weak. Check out this el cheapo cd light spectrometer. The refractive properties of a CD are exploited to break up visible light into it’s components. Definitely an unexpected use of a CD. Of course, if you’re going for substance detection, you can use your CDROM as a spectrometer to identify uh, suspicous substances.
USB Flash Drive On A Ti84+
Another memory hack today. The TI calcs have gotten quite a following. (I’ll admit to writing blackjack for the 85 back in the day.) Michael, Brandon and Dan wrote a complete driver to let them use usb flash drives with the TI-84+.
Bluetooth Roomba Phone Remote
He’s pimping his book a bit, but Tod sent in his hack for controlling his bluetooth roomba with a bluetooth phone. He released the bluetooth interface hack Now he”s whipped up a phone application that lets him fully control the roomba via bluetooth.
Floppy Connector MMC Card Slot
Rob Wentworth sent in his simple MMC card slot hack. He used that useless card edge floppy connector to add a MMC/SD card to his WRT54G. A quick rebuild and a spacer made it perfect connector. The connector meets the MMC pins perfectly, but skips the unneccesary SD contacts.
XBox 360… Laptop
I’m posting this a little early because it’s gonna be popular. Ben Heckendorn has been up to his tricks again. This time he built a 14 pound, water cooled 17 inch XBox 360 aluminum cased laptop. It’s got all the outputs you could ever need. This one is very good. He was kind enough to write up the build and do a nice photo shoot. Oh, this is very, very nice.
[Update: Skyler] set up a mirror.]
Refrigerator Compressor Vacuum Bagging
I was looking up some construction tricks and ran across this little gem. Vacuum bagging is used to compress/remove air from resin/fiberglass/carbon lay-ups. This setup uses a common refrigerator pump with some plumbing to create the constant vacuum necessary.
We’re Back Hack-A-Day Mini-extra
Hack-A-Day got a little upgrade. We’ve got comments back, a major blogsmith update and a new server. In celebration I’m whipping up a short late night extra.
[max] sent in his ethernet temperature monitor.
I had some interest in my Tie Fighter VR joystick, so I ressurected the design.
[Todd] sent in a makeshift pizza sauce can furnace for melting metals.
We keep getting the time fountain submitted – uv leds and florescing dye.
[Kmangwing] sent in a pen sized omni 2.4ghz antenna
I don’t even know what to say about this one.
[Wiesi] sent in his linksys EFG120 NAS device hack
With all the changes things are bound to be wonky. Point, laugh and let us know what you think. The site is driven by tips, so shout out if you’ve got one.
