The Joy Of Forums

February 10, 2011 by Caleb Kraft 15 Comments

[John Park] over at Make posted a short story about coming home from vacation to find his espresso machine non-functional. After beating his head against the wall for a while he joined a forum and posted a video. As has happened so many times, another user had seen this exact issue and was able to send him in the right direction.

We realize that this is just a simple capacitor replacement, though we understand his frustration, the original looks perfectly fine. The point here, is that there is usually someone out there on a forum that has experience with whatever your problem is. So don’t waste any time, go join the most awesome forum on the planet and get hacking!

Update To Stairmonster

February 9, 2011 by Kevin Dady 3 Comments

The “Stairmonster 2” is an updated verison of the hyper speed, home brew stairmaster we covered back in November. It still features most of its original version’s features including a very sturdy construction, heart rate monitor, and 320×240 touchscreen interface. What is new about the Stairmonster 2 is its handlebars. V1 used stationary bike handlebars, which would be good for pull-ups or other similar exercises, but did not do much good while on the machine.

Version 2 on the other hand uses moving handles, when paired with the resistance of the machine allows the user to simulate a climbing action. The handles are also attached to rotary slip clutches so there is only resistance on the pulling cycle and not while retracting, which could be very bad at the speed this thing can run at.

Overall a good improvement to an already impressive machine, though don’t expect to see us climbing on it anytime soon.

Fowl Accommodations Provided By Mathematics

February 7, 2011 by Mike Szczys 19 Comments

[Anthony’s] chickens happily return to roost each night thanks to the spacious house he built for them. Sadly the geodesic dome never became the home of the future despite what the people were promised. But using a bit of unorthodox joinery you can create enclosures for your chickens or other animals in need of shelter.

The construction begins with 30 isosceles triangles and nine equilateral triangles which he cut from solid wood on a chop saw. To join the pieces he used metal banding and screws, which hold the edges close together but allow them to flex. This solved the problem of precision mitres at the edge of each wood piece. Once the dome was fully assembled he filled the joints with caulk and finished it with rubber roofing compound.

Our only question is: how’s he going to automate the door of the coop?

DIY Clapper

February 7, 2011 by Kevin Dady 11 Comments

[Patrick’s] latest Instructable walks us though making a clap clap on / clap clap off type of switching circuit, similar in use to that sometimes popular commercial product seen on TV. He does this by using a standard electret microphone, half of an LM324 op amp, a voltage comparator and a PIC micro controller.

The operation of the device is as simple as its wiring, the microphone picks up sound and produces a signal, that signal is stripped of its DC component and fed into the op amp, after 2 stages of amplification the signal passes though a voltage comparator, and if the sound was loud enough a timer is triggered on the pic. Two claps within the specified amount of time, the micro then switches on a relay which can toggle your outside appliance (keeping the load in mind).

On the last page [Patrick] also gives a rough outline of how to make a single clap on / off variant using a 555 timer and some flip flops. Join us for a quick video after the break, and be sure to check this one out.

Continue reading “DIY Clapper” →

Electronic Watering Can

February 7, 2011 by Kevin Dady 10 Comments

When [Deddies lab] was looking to keep their (rather large) Ficus Lyrata appropriately watered, they followed their motto, stuck a micro controller on it and whipped up an Electronic Watering Can .

The whole thing starts off with power that is switched on once a day for 15 minutes by a traditional mechanical lamp timer, and that is connected to a atmega8 micro controller running @ 1MHz which increments a counter by one. When that counter hits 7 the mega switches on a pump, watering the plant with roughly half a liter of water per week out of a bucket reservoir , which according to the article’s calculations should last about 4 months.

In order to assure that the pump does not run out of water a rubber duck was attached to a string, the other end is attached to a micro switch, and when the water gets too low the string is pulled, switching one of the micro controller’s pins low.

While we agree that it could use a low water indicator, that is trivial to add, and over all the project represents a great hack done on a Sunday using parts and materials already on hand. Join us after the break for a quick video too!

Continue reading “Electronic Watering Can” →

Custom Enclosures Made Of Paper

February 5, 2011 by Kevin Dady 47 Comments

[Sivan Toledo] needed a enclosure for a unique sized electronic project, not finding what he needed in off the shelf solutions, he went to the next best thing, … Papier Mâché!

Using a mold made out of standard corrugated cardboard, he slowly built up layers made of magazine paper, and ordinary “white glue” diluted with water. After getting near the thickness wanted he switched over to typing / copy type paper for a nice clean outer surface. Ports were made in the usual fashion when dealing with soft or thin material, drill a smaller hole, going back with successively larger holes, and then follow up with an appropriate file, all while taking things slow along the way to prevent unwanted results. Finishing up with layers of paper carefully cut into strips to meet the circumferences / edges, along with the final outer surface to make it all even.

The end result is awesome as it stands, but we cant help but wonder what some sanding and paint would look like on a enclosure made like this, though any way you finish it, the idea comes down to custom enclosures that do not need special tools or materials to complete (on the cheap).

Thanks [Drone]

8×8 LED Infinity Mirror

February 5, 2011 by Caleb Kraft 6 Comments

[chromationsystems] put out a couple instructibles on building infinity mirrors. One with an 8×8 array of LEDs and one with a 32 LED ring. These are very well documented covering the construction of the mirror enclosure as well as the circuit and code. The effect is quite nice. The 8×8 array is interesting, we haven’t seen that before. These would make a fine addition to any geek cave/electronics lab. While it looks like these were basically advertisements for a product he sells, you can definitely make your own from his instructions. We like this kind of advertising.