[hb] was having some serious issues with noise in the power line communication of his X10 home automation system. He decided to switch to an all RF module system eliminating the need for power line communication. While trying to improve his reliability he built a data logger. It is constructed out of a LEGO RCX and an X10 universal module. Once the RCX is set to listen it records every time that the module activates. A script is used to tell the universal module to trip at regular intervals. Missing time steps in the RCX’s log relate to missed commands. If you’re interested in home automation you should check our previous story and its comments.

Continue reading “X10 Signal Analyzer” →

[Mojo Jojo] mentioned this link in yesterday’s comments. It’s really simple and the author has expanded the description since it was featured on Slashdot. The hack describes how to wire sets of red, green, and blue LEDs with the goal of producing all possible colors. Definitely a cool effect with minimal effort, a good starter project. Not sure if kits are still being sold, but they should save you some money on parts. Can someone come up with an adaptive color controller for this?

Continue reading “LED Pimp Bed” →

[Clinton Mann] sent in how he built a rack mount stereo. I’d normally pass this to the links, but it was so heavily photographed, had a price list, and covered the problems encountered, I couldn’t pass it up. It really is as simple as you think of course the bizarre justification and results video really help sell it. Any other must haves for a data center?

Continue reading “Rack Mounted Car Stereo” →

Here’s the latest entry in “future robot overlord watch”. Each stick is driven by a pneumatic cylinder. The control is generated using a midi file as the source. The system is completely modular. You assign instruments to individual channels based on what you have so it should be able to play any kit. My favorite quote from the FAQ: Q: What do you use to generate the midi files? A: Google.

[thanks synth-c]

Continue reading “Pneumatic Drumming Robot” →

The Atari Flashback is a game system that includes 40 original Atari 2600 games for about $30. The games are placed on a rom chip just like the original except it is soldered inside the case instead of on a cartridge. You can bypass the rom chip with a couple toggle switches and add an external cartridge adapter to play any of the original 2600 games. All of the pinouts are marked on board and the site has links to get the proper connector. Time to start hitting up ebay for the big game lots.

[thanks hk-47]

Continue reading “Use Cartridges With Atari Flashback 2” →

Ah, back in Nebraska, back to work, and back to regular installments of hacking. For the musicians out there (I know there are quite a few of you) here is a guide to building electronic drum triggers. Full disclosure: they sell the parts on the site. So here is a different link for some free info.

[thanks patrick]

Continue reading “Homemade Drum Triggers” →

Mister House is a long standing open source home automation project. It’s written entirely in Perl and works on almost any platform. It also supports many different home automation devices like X10. Control is driven through a web interface and has voice feedback and recognition. Lots of extra modules have been developed for this project so you’re sure to find something unique: from voice announced caller ID, to GPS vehicle tracking over FRS.

[thanks Clu]

Continue reading “Linux Home Automation” →