Hack247 has posted their first project: a portable media center extender. It has a wireless video sender that’s connected to an Xbox running XBMC. The receiver is housed in a box with the popular Sony PSone LCD. The box can transmit remote commands back to the Xbox for full control. It’s a nice bit of kit, but he still needs to build the battery pack.
[Jared Bouck] has posted the latest project at Inventgeek: Thermaltake minifridge. Jared isn’t a big fan of the cost/reliability trade-off that comes with most overclocking projects so he decided to take on an entirely different cooling project. He found this Thermaltake case that resembled a refrigerator and took it the rest of the way. The cooling components came out of two 65W peltier camping coolers. After gutting the case, he mounted the power supply so that the intake and exhaust are external to the case. The peltier coolers were wired directly to the PS and the entire case was lined with foam. The last step was to add plexiglass ramps for the cans.
[SeBsZ] built this 16 dimmable lights controller based on his friend Christian N?g’s PC_DIMMER project. The PC_DIMMER project supports up to 128 individual lamps with 255 steps each. The controller boards feature an Atmel ATTiny2313 microcontroller that controls 8 lamps. Sebsz built two boards for his project and has status indicators mounted on the side of the box. Everything is driven by Christian’s free software through a serial connection. SeBsZ warns that this is a 230V@50Hz design and you will need to modify it if you intend to use it in the US.
Continue reading “Computer Controlled Multiple Light Dimmer”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkqoPkuJaMI]
David Worden let us know that he has completed work on his Disco Bar which we covered earlier. To save his bandwidth, I suggest you watch the video on YouTube.
Reader [Chris Rybitski] had a pair of RCA IR headphones laying around from the Radiohut. He’d never really used them and decided they would be much better suited as a wireless audio bridge between his computer and stereo. Since it was going to be a permanent installation his first task was to find a wall wart to power the receiving end. He then reboxed the receiver in an old laptop battery case with the IR LEDs from each ear and an output jack for his stereo. Not to complex, but I’m sure the system works a lot better now that it is in a fixed position instead of strapped to someone’s head.
The original C64 DTV was a joystick containing 30 games sold in 2004. It attracted hackers because it could be modified into a fully functioning console. The latest version of the chip is being sold inside a Radio Shack Hummer game. This version fixes bugs in the original and adds several features to improve memory access and CPU speed. Before you get started there are several modifications that need to be done to improve the video and audio quality of the system. Once these mods are complete you can start playing with the machine just like an original C64. Oh, the Hummer game will look a lot better too.
[thanks av1d]
Pete (AC7ZL) wrote in to tell us about his latest project: building a flat response microphone and channel amplifier. You may remember his previous project: building a crystal radio from modern junk. Sounds are “colored” by their surroundings; things like furniture, wall coverings, drapes and building materials all affect the way something sounds. To measure the effect that a space has on sound you need a microphone with a flat frequency response. The core element of Pete’s mic is a modified Panasonic WM61A condenser capsule. He rewired it so that it had a broader dynamic range and could handle a higher SPL at the cost of reduced gain. To boost the signal to a usable level he built a preamp with three stages of amplification. He’s got schematics and a more detailed description on the site.
