High Voltage: How To Cook Your Goose In 62 Easy Steps

March 22, 2011 by Mike Szczys 18 Comments

Prepare to learn. [Grenadier] has put together a collection of information about AC electricity that can safely be called a super-post. In 62 parts he covers a myriad of topics, some of them safe, many of them not so much. You may want to spend time reading through everything that he has to offer, but just in case you don’t, step one is a table of contents. In it you’ll find a listing of major points including transformers of every kind imaginable; from microwave ovens, neon signs, bug zappers, x-rays, and televisions. [Grenadier] covers the type of transformers that these items use, where to find them, and how to set up your own experiments. There’s plenty of pictures and several videos where the high-powered sparks fly. We feel like there’s enough here that we can be satisfied with vicarious AC interactions while safely in front of our monitor and far away from the heart-stopping action.

[Thanks Marcus]

Magic 8 Thing Answers All Of Your Burning Questions

March 21, 2011 by Mike Nathan 6 Comments

magic_8_thing

[Pete] was hard at work putting off a repair job for a friend, and wondered how much longer he could possibly procrastinate. With no fellow humans in earshot to which he could propose this question, he thought it would be great if he could ask a Magic 8-ball for an answer. Alas, he doesn’t have a Magic 8-ball, so he would have to build one if he wanted his answer.

Continuing to delay the repair job, he scrounged around his house and dug up an ATmega328 to control the 8-ball and a LCD panel to display the sage-like responses. He wanted the 8-ball to be as authentic in operation as he could, so he had to locate some sort of sensor that would register if the device had been shaken. With no accelerometer at hand, he opted to use a mercury tilt switch that he scavenged from an old thermostat. He wrote some software to display the responses from the original Magic 8-ball when shaken, then he threw the components together in a small plastic case.

As you can see in the video below, his Magic 8-thing works just like the original, sans the dark fluid and icosahedron. If you were wondering, he did finally ask the 8-thing whether he had procrastinated long enough on his initial task – the response: “Yes”

If you’re in the mood for more Magic 8-ball shenanigans, check out these posts!

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HERF Gun Zaps More Than Your Dinner

March 21, 2011 by Mike Nathan 76 Comments

Instructables user [Jimmy Neutron] had an old microwave sitting around and figured he might as well gut it to build a high-energy radio frequency (HERF) gun.

The concept of a HERF gun is not incredibly complex. Much like your microwave at home functions, a high voltage power source is used to drive a magnetron, which produces micro wave radiation at 2.45GHz. These waves are then guided away from the magnetron using a waveguide, towards whatever the target might be. These waves then energize the target in a similar fashion as the water molecules in your food are energized during cooking.

[Jimmy] has not quite finished his HERF gun as he still needs to build a waveguide for it and then safely mount it for use. In the meantime, check out the pair of HERF guns we found in the videos below.

As a parting note, we must stress that building a similar device is dangerous, very dangerous – especially if you do not know what you are doing. Microwaves contain high voltage components, and exposure to microwave radiation can be deadly under certain circumstances. Stay safe!

Looking for more microwave fun? Check these out!

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Test Your Etching Chops With PCB Map Making

March 19, 2011 by Mike Nathan 17 Comments

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[Martin] had been using standard perf board for most of his electronics projects, but as he was starting to utilize more surface mount ICs, he quickly realized that it was time to start making his own PCBs. Having never etched any PCBs using the toner transfer method, he figured it was as good a time as any to give it a try.

Rather than make a board for a particular project, he decided to try his hand at etching a very detailed map of the Paris Metro as a test pattern instead. He grabbed a large image of the subway map, then printed it out on the back of a supermarket flyer. He attached it to his PCB and ran it through a lamination machine to transfer the toner. He figured that the laminator would be easier than an iron to use, and was right for the most part. The only issue he had was that the laminator did not generate enough heat, so he supplemented the its heat output with a hair dryer.

When everything was said and done, he had a pretty good looking PCB on his hands. Most of the Metro tracks and text came out just fine, though he admits there is a bit of room for improvement. It looks nice when mounted in a frame, though we would love to see a functional circuit made out of a PCB map like that. Heck, we’d even settle for a double-sided PCB with a street-level map on one side an the Metro on the other!

Building A Zoetrope Using Kinect, Processing, And A Laser Cutter

March 19, 2011 by Mike Szczys 8 Comments

A zoetrope is a device that contains a disk full with a series of images that make up and animation. A couple of different methods can be used to trick the eye into seeing a single animated image. In the past this was done by placing the images inside of a cylinder with slits at regular distances. When spun quickly, the slits appear to be stationary, with the images creating the animation. But the same effect can be accomplished using a strobe light.

The disk you see above uses the strobe method, but it’s design and construction is what caught our eye. The animated shapes were captured with a Kinect and isolated using Processing. [Greg Borenstein] takes a depth movie recorded while someone danced in front of a Kinect. He ran it through a Processing sketch and was able to isolate a set of slides that where then turned into the objects seen above using a laser cutter.

You can watch a video of this particular zoetrope after the break. But we’ve also embedded the Pixal 3D zoetrope clip which, although unrelated to this hack, is extremely interesting. Don’t have a laser cutter to try this out yourself? You could always build a zoetrope that uses a printed disk.

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LCD Twofer

March 17, 2011 by Kevin Dady 13 Comments

Inexpensive character LCDs are a popular choice for outputting data on many projects. Easily controlled , often back lit, and compact. If you have not found a reason to get one yet, here are a couple.

First up is a Programmable digital timer switch. Based around a PIC15f628A micro controller this handy little device allows you to set both on and off times to switch (light duty) devices through its relay. A standard 16×2 LCD , piezo buzzer, and 4 push buttons offer the device’s I / O. The four buttons are assigned to on / off time, select, enter, and start / stop making it easy for anyone to use. All this and sporting a clean perf-board layout which often goes out the window when using jumper wire.

Next for the AVR crowd is a LCD Name badge. Powered by a Attiny 2313 and using another 16×2 LCD, this time in blue this large, but functional name badge is ready to give out all the information people need on you while boasting your nerd credit.

Source and schematics are available for both, and yes we know these little gadgets are not exactly earth shattering so that is why we invite you to share your LCD projects on quite possibly the most awesome forum ever, the Hack A Day forums, we even have a little spot setup just for project logs.

But first join us after the break for a couple quick videos.

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PWM-controlled LED Display Is Truly A Gift From The Heart

March 16, 2011 by Mike Nathan 7 Comments

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Instructables user [Simon] admits he addicted to electronics. Lucky for him, his wife of 15 years is pretty cool with, or at least tolerant of his need to fiddle with anything that plugs in. As a gift for their wedding anniversary, he decided it would be neat to combine his love for his wife with his love for electronics. The result is the the RGB LED “Love Heart” you see above. He built an RGB LED circuit controlled by a PIC12F683 microcontroller, which shines into a hand-etched plexi-glass panel.

The LED color is controlled using PWM, as you would expect. What you might not expect however, is the lengths [Simon] would travel to ensure nearly perfect color and brightness matching across the 5 LEDs he used in his project. Since RGB LEDs do not have a uniform output brightness, he used a Lux meter to precisely measure the white balance of each LED. He then plotted the results in Excel before coding the PWM driver. Now that’s devotion! Once the LEDs were settled, he went about constructing the rest of the LED panel.

If you are interested in building one for your sweetheart, [Simon] has you covered – he provides all of the schematics, templates, and source code required to get the job done.

Continue reading to see a video of his heart panel in action.

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