Cast Concrete RGB Lamp

December 22, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 1 Comment

lamp

[matthew venn] shows us how to create this cool RGB LED lamp. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, but some good information on casting the base out of concrete. The body of the lap is formed by two thin rods folded in half, stuck in holes in the base, with a lycra sleeve slid over them. The final effect is quite nice and can be controlled by 3 knobs recessed in the front of the base. Information on the actual circuit used is very limited, as there are so many tutorials out there for that, but he does show how he mounted it all, and plans on releasing the source code soon.

Gas Powered Blender

December 21, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 22 Comments

gas_mixer1

We aren’t sure what [stubman] needs to blend, but whatever it is, it must require some serious power. [stubman] put together this industrial looking gas powered blender. While gas powered blenders certainly aren’t a new thing, he did add a nice touch with an electric starter. While maybe not as cool looking as some we’ve previously covered, this one would look good in any shop. Why are gas powered blenders so popular? Why not gas powered pencil sharpeners or gas powered can openers? We’ve seen a gas powered vacuum!

Parallax Christmas Light Show

December 19, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 16 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btUh–1xbls]

[iboucher] wanted to do some crazy Christmas light choreography. Finding the cost of the off the shelf system to be way too much, he set out to build his own. After a visit to eBay to pick up some cheap 1 amp relays, he was ready to get started. Using a Basic Stamp2 that he had laying around, he was able to put together a fairly complete 16 port system. Great job [iboucher]

[via Hacked Gadgets]

Twittering Toaster

December 16, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 31 Comments

[nothans] felt that there were enough people curious about his toaster’s status that he built a system to update the world via twitter. Using the ioBridge module and a switch on the toaster, the world can now know when [Hans] is making toast. We recently saw someone use the same unit to feed their dog remotely.

A Welcome Train For The Holidays

December 15, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 9 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnFyI0a-55s]

[Eric] was charged with the task of setting up the train to welcome people on the porch. The train had been in the family for a long time, so he didn’t want to modify the train itself. Luckily, it has an IR port. He recorded the IR signal from the remote and used a home made pressure sensor to signal the train to start.

A ShiftBrite Christmas

December 13, 2008 by Eliot 11 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PVC5jABuB8]

[Garrett] took 30 of his ShiftBrite modules and mounted them to his front fence for Christmas. The ShiftBrite is a serially addressable high output RGB LED. The individual modules are quite adept at applications like this where you’re stringing multiple lights together. They have identical buses on either side, specifically for daisychaining. The installation above looks great.

Parts: 1-Wire Temperature Sensor (DS1822)

December 10, 2008 by Ian 18 Comments

1wire

Download: buspirate.v0d.zip

Dallas/Maxim’s 1-Wire protocol is the most requested addition to the Bus Pirate. We finally got some 1-Wire parts, and today we’ll demonstrate the DS1822 1-Wire digital thermometer. Grab the datasheet (PDF) and follow along.

This post is accompanied by release v.0d of the Bus Pirate firmware for hardware version 0. This includes the new 1-Wire protocol library, more configuration options, and other improvements.

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