Peripherals Hacks

1524 Articles

Adding A DisplayLink Monitor To A Linux Router

August 24, 2009 by 14 Comments

slugterm_dl

Routers aren’t just for routing network traffic any more. With the help of alternative operating systems such as DD-WRT, Tomato, and OpenWrt, routers are now extremely customizable and can be utilized to suit a number of needs. The main issue with projects built around routers is the need to telnet or SSH into them to get to a console. [Sven Killig] came up with a useful solution that utilizes the USB ports available on an Asus router to display video on a DisplayLink device, allowing a user to sit down and use the device as though it were a physical terminal. This would be a good DIY alternative to commercially available routers that display network graphs, system information, incoming email, and other data.

Klipsch Speaker Mods

August 23, 2009 by 8 Comments

P1010021 (Custom)

[Patrick] has a pair of Klipsch speakers that continually needed the volume knob cleaned. After a bit of research, he found it was a common problem with the potentiometer chosen for the task. He decided to resolve the problem, not by replacing that potentiometer, but by modifying the speakers to be passive and running them from an external amp. While this does sound simple at first, he wanted to retain the rest of the electronics in the unit, so a bit of hacking was required. You can follow along through the whole process on his site.

Second Hard Drive In A Macbook Pro

August 23, 2009 by 23 Comments

Picture 4 (Custom)

[Reid] wrote in to show us how to add a second hard drive to his Macbook Pro. He found that he hardly ever used his DVD drive, so sacrificed it in favor of added storage. What he found was that it had a proprietary adapter that he was unable to find for sale anywhere. Making an adapter may seem like a pretty simple hack, but this could save some people considerable time. Its also worth noting that upgrading the firmware got him an 18% speed increase, so don’t ignore those updates. We don’t see too many mac hacks around here, you may recall the mac tablet hacks and the logo monitor.

Collect And Analyze ECG Data

August 22, 2009 by 14 Comments

ecg

Although we’ve covered DIY ECGs before, [Scott Harden] sent in his version that gives an in-depth explanation of what to do with the collected data. He built a basic battery-powered op-amp-based ECG for under $1. The circuit just amplifies the signal from the chest leads and feeds it into a computer via the microphone port. He then used GoldWave to record, filter, and save the signal. From there, he used python to analyze the heartbeat and calculate his heart rate and further manipulate the data. His previous blog posts go into more detail on how the python code works and why he chose software over hardware filters.

Arduino USB Host Shield

August 21, 2009 by 18 Comments

UsbHostShield

Circuits@Home has been journaling their development of a USB host mode shield for Arduino, which could bring the platform a veritable explosion of mass storage, keyboard input and countless other peripheral options (and a corresponding raft of new hacks). Currently at the prototype stage, a ready-made shield and library are forthcoming, so keep checking back. Meanwhile, for embedded developers wanting to learn the ropes of USB, the in-progress articles will likely provide some valuable insights.

[thanks Kersny]

Pressure Sensitive Keyboard

August 9, 2009 by 45 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDI8eYIASf0]

The Applied Sciences group in Microsoft Hardware have come up with an interesting tool. This is a pressure sensitive keyboard. Our minds went strait to gaming, as theirs did too apparently. They show how this could give you more control in your games based on how hard you push the button. Remember the first time you got to use an analog stick, it sure is hard to go back to a D-pad. We want to know when we’ll get to play with these cool toys made by Microsoft.

Tiny Bluetooth Teardown

August 8, 2009 by 38 Comments

minibluetooth

The folks at SparkFun were startled by how small USB bluetooth adapters had become so they split one open. They noted a few interesting design features. It has a small folded trace antenna on the board edge. The metal USB housing acts as the RF shield. The bluetooth IC is an AS3620QA. Now we wonder what those tiny Buffalo drives look like inside.

Related: Eye-Fi teardown, storage/WiFi in an SD card