Solar Water Heater

December 14, 2009 by Mike Szczys 49 Comments

[Jake] built himself a solar water heater. The system has an 82 gallon insulated water tank and uses a solar collection grid made of PVC pipe. As the water heats, it rises to the top of the collector and runs into the tank while pulling colder water from the bottom of the tank back into the collector.

A sunny day yields temperatures around 130 degrees Fahrenheit. On a cloudy day the water can still be heated to about 90 Fahrenheit. This is about 19 degrees cooler that one might desire but the difference is made up by an electric shower head that heats as the water comes out. [Jake’s] system, seen in the video after the break, allows him to forgo the use of electricity on sunny days, and reduce its use by around half on cloudy days. Continue reading “Solar Water Heater” →

Bulbdial Clock Kit Released

December 10, 2009 by Mike Szczys 12 Comments

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories has just released a Bulbdial clock kit. This has come a long way since their first prototype, featuring three PCBs to carry the 72 charlieplexed LEDs. For accuracy they’ve included an optional header for a ChronoDot precision RTC.

With a great looking face and laser-cut acrylic case available, this may soon adorn our mantle. Time to write that letter to Santa…

Update: [Windell] of EvilMadScientist.com posted some video of the clock in action. We’ve embedded it after the break.

Continue reading “Bulbdial Clock Kit Released” →

Homebrew Kodachrome

December 8, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 19 Comments

What do you do if you can’t find the film that your camera uses? The answer seems pretty simple, you just make it yourself. Making film is not a simple task. There are multiple stages involved and it all has to be done in complete darkness. This project is causing a bit of stir in its respective communities. Though not completely finished yet, it is already an impressive piece. Everyone is waiting eagerly for it to be completed. You can find a few of the discussion groups linked from the flickr page.

[via BoingBoing]

Water The Tree – There’s An App For That?

December 8, 2009 by Mike Szczys 16 Comments

Well no, but [Chris] needed something to remind him when to water the tree. Most folks would use their nifty iPhone to set up a calendar reminder, but why do that when you can purpose a 32 bit microcontroller to do it for you?

To detect a falling water level [Chris] attached a two-pin header to the end of a clothes pin clipped to the side of the tree stand. When the water level is covering the pins it completes a circuit, verified by a measurable current. When the water level drops the mbed microcontroller detects the loss of conductivity and through some creative code sends out an email and SMS reminder.

If you’re in love with your iPhone but not your living things, this will keep that tree kicking until after the new year.

Internet Enabled Cat Feeder

December 3, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 35 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSCC2Z96s3g]

When travelling, it can always be a pain to have your cats cared for. There are some commercial automated solutions out there, but they tend to be pricey, especially when there are two required. These two cats don’t need to worry though. They have an internet enabled monster of a system.

The system used is pretty unique. They wanted internet connected relays, but didn’t want to put an entire computer in line just for the cat feeder. Instead, a Cisco router was hacked to run relays hooked to the status lights on the ports. Not only can it be controlled over the internet, there is also a live feed so you can see the cats as the binge. These are some pretty lucky cats. They also have an automatic cat door.

[via Hackedgadgets]

X-mas Hack: 8-channel Musical Show

December 2, 2009 by Mike Szczys 22 Comments

We’ve been seeing them appear one house at a time over the last few weeks as Christmas lights are making their annual appearance. Some folks just throw a set of net-style lights on the bushes and call it good but that wouldn’t suit [Noel]. He’s outfitted his house with a show that includes music, 8 controllable light channels, and an Internet interface.

He’s used a plastic toolbox as an enclosure to house everything. Affixed to the base of the enclosure are eight solid state relays for the strings of lights. An Arduino is used to control the SSR switching, playback music through an FM transmitter, and to interface with the wireless bridge.

Rubberneckers can tune their radio to the broadcast frequency and log into the web interface to request their favorite tune or track Santa’s current location. The device even implements VU monitoring to sync the light show with the music. If you want more, watch the video after the break or check out his step-by-step instructions. The Arduino library sure makes the code pulling this all together pretty simple!

Continue reading “X-mas Hack: 8-channel Musical Show” →

IPv6 To 1-wire Protocol Translator

December 2, 2009 by Mike Szczys 16 Comments

[Fli] assembled an AVR based system that can assign IPv6 addresses to 1-wire components. An AVR ATmega644 microcontroller is used in conjunction with an ENC28J60 ethernet controller chip. To get up and running with IPv6 on this meek hardware [Fli] ported the uIPv6 stack from the contiki project over to the AVR framework. Although he encountered some hardware snafus along the way, in the end he managed to get five sensors connected to the device, each with their own IP assigned using the stack’s alias capability.

This is great if you’re looking for a low-cost IPv6 solution. We’re not sure if there’s much demand for that, but it’s useful for that 1-wire home automation setup you’re considering.