[PKM] decided to breathe new life into a Psion 5mx handheld. He slapped linux on it, added a wikipedia dump to a CD card, and voila: pocket wikipedia. It’s the closest thing to an actual hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy I’ve ever seen. So long and thanks for all the fish!
classic hacks2818 Articles
Smart Car Sensing With RF
In order to tell his home automation system that he’s home, [Jim] mounted a RF transmitter in each of his cars. When the car is on, the transmitter is powered up. The house picks up the transmitter signal when the car arrives or departs. With that information, he was able to set up some stateful rules that can be activated when people arrive or depart. Some people prefer to use APRS and read vehicle location from the transmitted GPS coordinates, but this is a bit cheaper and doesn’t transmit your position to the entire world all the time. The useful range is about 100 feet, so this can work even if you have to park in the street.
Human Sync Optical Tachometer
[Jared] sent in this optical tachometer by [Mike Freeman]. The write-up and code requires a free registration, but if you’ve got a use for it, it’s probably worth the hassle. The zip archive includes a nice writeup in PDF format, and the code needed for the pic controller. The tach was built specifically for model helicopters. The user looks through the viewfinder and adjusts the pot on the side until the spinning helicopter blade visually stops turning.
Mod The Cuecat, And Scan Barcodes…
the cuecat, which you can still get on ebay and other places, was a neat little device that scanned in bar codes and with a net connection go to sites, offer up discounts, etc
