Batcave-style Entrance (on A Budget)

September 29, 2009 by Jake W 8 Comments

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Want to enter your hidden lair in style? Well [Jimmy] simply wanted to create a cool prop for his school’s homecoming dance. This project includes some obvious inspiration from Wayne Manor. [Jimmy] wired up the automated entrance with a 12VDC motor. In order for it to be able to push the door , the motor had to be attached to a gearbox, which directly powered a wheel. Current consumption issues were solved by using a wall-wart. Because a real bookshelf would still be too heavy, [Jimmy] dressed up a regular door with some patterned wallpaper to give it the right look. Coupled with a Shakespearean bust concealing the button, and some other cosmetic touches, this project was sure to impress any student who knew its secret.

The Incredible Breakfast Machine

September 28, 2009 by Matt Schulz 11 Comments

A lot of us skip breakfast in the morning, be it because we don’t have time to make something, don’t have the patience, or for some other reason. Yuri Suzuki and Masa Kimura are aiming to make your breakfast a little easier, a little quicker, and a lot more interesting. Their latest project is a Rube Goldberg-like machine that does everything from fry your eggs to brew your coffee. The coolest part about this project is it was built with the help of the public. The two designers put out an open invitation for people to come help in constructing the device at Platform21, a publicly accessible design forum in Amsterdam. Now if someone would tie this into an alarm clock, we could all wake up to the smell of toast and coffee instead of the super loud 140db alarm clock or the confusing (albeit effective) wake up machine.

Halloween Props: DMX Controlled Skeleton

September 28, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 12 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TSbxErzhkI]

[scarylady] has posted this video about her setup. The skeleton was rigged up to a rotating base with a single pneumatic solenoid to jostle it. She then goes on to show how she has it all connected to her computer with an explanation of the software setup. Though some of us might feel she could have accomplished very similar results with a simple oscillating fan, this is a decent intro to DMX.

We also had several people submit this fantastic list of Halloween projects, The Halloween monster list. There is enough information there to keep you busy for quite a while. We were going to list our favorites, but there are so many fantastic ones, we think you should just go look at them all. Remember to send us more of your projects.

Open Source Weapon Makes You Puke

September 28, 2009 by Devlin Thyne 44 Comments

[Limor] of Adafruit Industries and the Ice Tube Clock has made her own open source non-lethal weapon: The Bedazzler. After attending a conference by the DHS where she saw the big-budget Dazzler, she decided to make her own. Thirty-six LEDs, six switching FETs, a Boarduino, and a former flashlight later, the Bedazzler makes a better rave toy than a weapon. It doesn’t work as-is, but we figure it will only be a matter of time before someone hacks this to make people… umm hack. See the video after the break.

Continue reading “Open Source Weapon Makes You Puke” →

Word Clock: Tell The Time With Words

September 27, 2009 by Gerrit Coetzee 24 Comments

[drj113] posts his cool word clock. After seeing a similar clock on an industrial design website, he set out to make his own version. He made custom pcbs with the toner-etch method. The front is a solid piece of copper clad board and the light shines through the etched areas. It’s powered by a PIC microcontroller and uses approximately 120 ultra bright LEDs. [drj113] has all of the circuit board diagrams, silkscreens, etch negatives, and code on the intructable so you can build your own.

Open Garage Door Indicator

September 26, 2009 by Jakob Griffith 49 Comments

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How many times has this one happened to you? Just coming home from work, you walk in from the garage, settle down, and pick up the newspaper. But wait, did you remember to shut the garage door?

Presenting the open garage door indicator. [xjc2010] chose the simplest circuit possible, using only a switch to turn on and off the setup, an LED acting as the signal, and a transformer/resistor combo to drop the voltage to an acceptable LED friendly 2.8 volts. We don’t like how he strung wire all over his house to place the beacon, and would have preferred something wireless in one way or another, but for under 6 bucks this gets the job done quickly and cheaply. Now if only we could get it to remind us if we turned off the oven while on vacation.

[thanks Craig]

140 Db Alarm Clock Hack

September 25, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 37 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zEH5GxPNO8]

This silly little video caught our attention. It is an alarm clock, hacked with two amazingly loud car horns. They are using a laptop power brick to push the two external car horns. The horns are triggered by a relay wired to the internal speaker of the alarm clock. This is a super quick project that could be done, not only to help yourself, but it is the perfect amount of effort for a prank. We bet you guys could probably wire one of these up and hide the horns in only a few minutes. If you are having problems waking up, you might also want to check out some of the other alarm hacks we’ve seen.

[via gizmodo]