RGB just got a lot brighter by using 3x60Watt flood lights instead of an LED. The bulbs are driven via TRIACs and the whole thing uses a remote control to change the levels of the three bulbs. It is also able to store these levels for later recall. The IR receiver was taken from a dead TV set along with its remote control, or a universal remote set to a Phillips TV can be used. The source code and schematic for this project are available.
We’ve seen our fair share of home made arcade machines, some complex and some simple. This one stands head and shoulders above the rest with its ability to combine two of our deepest loves: beer and video games. There’s not a lot of information, just a few pictures. We’d love to see some build shots or action shots. We’d love to test it out actually.
Here’s an update: [Burke LaShell] is the maker of this fine project. You can see more pictures of it in this thread. Thanks, [Shawn].
[via Gizmodo]
With the weather getting colder, [Daniel] decided it would be a good idea to monitor how much energy his gas heating was using in real time. He used a Nokia 6680 cameraphone to monitor the heater’s flame through the sight glass. PyS60, a Symbian implementation of Python, checks the image sent by the camera and measures how much blue flame is visible. These values are stored in a SQL DB on the phone that can be polled over Bluetooth. At the end of the billing cycle, he’ll be able to correlate the amount of gas used with what the phone reported.
[Thanks, florent bayle]
Cat poo stinks. We all know it. Those of us who have cats, though frequently amazed at the sheer magnitude of stench our cuddly friends are capable of, do little to remedy the situation. Sure, sometimes we buy the fancier kitty litter or the special food. [agraham999] decided to be a little more proactive. He built an automated exhaust system for the litter box. He wasn’t content to just rig a fan blowing to an exhaust vent either, he hooked it up to an automation system and a motion detector. The total cost for the project was $80, not including the mac mini that serves as the brains.
Be sure to read through the comments for some very in depth discussion about power usage and solar conversions.
[via Boing Boing Gadgets]
What is it about pseudo random flashing LEDs that make us go gaga? We don’t know, but there’s definitely something there. [seligtobiason] has this obsession too. After seeing several more complicated projects, he created this elegant, simple, and cheap piece of art. The entire thing is pretty much just some flashing LEDs, some resistors, and a power supply. It really isn’t anything groundbreaking, but the effort and cost involved are tiny compared to some other similar projects. sure, it doesn’t synchronize over time based on input like the firefly project. But for a quick cheap project, the results are quite nice.
We would put one in our home, right next to the node blinky.
Discouraged at the mounds of packaging you’re throwing away every time you buy new stuff? Artist [David Gardener] may have just the solution for you: design products where the packaging is an integral part of the product itself. We can envision a whole line of IKEA furniture, for example, that turns inside-out and uses the cardboard box as part of its internal support structure. On the whole, this may be just a touch less tacky than making furniture out of packaging not intended to be used as furniture at all (i.e. FedEx boxes).
[via DVICE]
In the same vein as our recent Defcon article on biometric cloning, White Wolf Security has released this article about turning a biometric door lock into a trojan. They note that there are many common ways to break into one, from harvesting fingerprints to using gummy bears to fake a finger. This hack involves having full access to the unit so you can disassemble it.
The unit has a system built-in where you can touch a 9-volt battery to some connectors on the bottom to power it in case of a building power failure. The researchers simply routed some wires from the motorized lock to the plates used for the 9-volt and then reassembled the lock. The door can then be opened at any time without verification, even if the software on the unit is reset.
[Thanks, dwight]
