Screamer Doll Prank Toy

February 15, 2011 by Mike Nathan 10 Comments

screamer_doll

While it is only the middle of February, it might be a good time to start thinking about your plans for April Fool’s day. [Dino’s] Screamer Doll is his submission to the upcoming 555 Contest. This fun little circuit can be used to easily annoy your cube or house mates and is perfect for all of the April Fool’s day pranksters out there. He fit all the components into a small plastic toy, replacing the eyes and mouth of the doll with three photo cells, and swapping the nose out for a bright LED. When light hits the photo cells, a loud high-pitched squeal is emitted, and the LED blinks furiously until the light source is removed. Shielding the device from light will cause both the sound and LED to slow down, but the brightness of the LED ensures that the toy still makes noise when covered.

It would be great to see a version of this project that is completely silent in the dark, allowing it to be hidden at night, greeting its victims come morning.

If you want to see video of the device in action, read on – just be sure to keep your speaker volume at a reasonable level!

Continue reading “Screamer Doll Prank Toy” →

Pactuator: Mechanical Pac-Man Frame

February 14, 2011 by James Munns 16 Comments

As a proof of concept for his long term work in progress “The Pac-Machina” (an electro-mechanical reimagining of a Pac-Man cabinet), [Jonathan] needed some way to make a mechanical Pac-Man, flappy jaw and all. After working through a couple different design possibilities, he decided on an interesting setup which includes using a cog with only half its teeth to make the mouth open and close. Unfortunately, NAMCO BANDAI has asked him nicely not to sell these as kits, but he has helpfully included just about all that is required to make one of these from scratch. [Jonathan] even cut and laser etched his own faux-Victorian frame to keep his proof of concept Pac-Man ready until needed for the main project.

Nixie Tube Thermometer

February 14, 2011 by Mike Nathan 17 Comments

nixie_therm

After seeing a picture of a thermometer using a bargraph style nixie tube in place of a mercury column, [Juergen Grau] decided he wanted to build his own. Dubbed the “Nixietherm”, his replica looks even better than the original. He used an IN-9 Nixie tube mounted on top of a custom plastic case, all powered by a 5v USB connection. He points out that his version does not use a PIC or any other sort of processor – it is built entirely from analog circuits. There are some RGB LEDs embedded in the plastic case that make for a cool effect, but they seem to simply cycle through the colors rather than represent how warm or cold the temperature is at any given time.

[Juergen] does not give a lot of details regarding the build as far as PCB layout or a parts list is concernred, but most of that can be extrapolated from the wiring schematic he provided. He also mentions that he will be making kits available in the near future. Be sure to keep reading to see the thermometer in action.

Thanks [Brian]

Continue reading “Nixie Tube Thermometer” →

RFID Triggered Presentation Box

February 11, 2011 by Mike Nathan 12 Comments

blasphemous_bible_box

[Lace] needed to build a “box project” for his college art class and figured he could spice things up a bit by adding some electronic components to the mix. His project, dubbed the ‘Blasphemous Bible Box‘ consists of a bible opened up the section of the book of Revelations that discusses the mark of the beast in an old cigar box. The box is normally locked, but has been programmed to unhook an internal latch when he passes the RFID chip embedded in his hand over it. The effect could have been achieved using a simpler circuit, but the enclosed Arduino seems to do the job decently enough. [Lace] has not mentioned if he has considered revising the box any, but a spring-loaded external latch secured with a magnetic lock would make for a nice effect if version 2 was ever built. Adding a servo to slowly open the box as well as including a speaker blaring Carmina Burana – O Fortuna upon opening would be pretty cool as well (hint, hint). We have video of the box in action after the break.

Continue reading “RFID Triggered Presentation Box” →

Thermic Lance Made From Spaghetti

February 11, 2011 by Mike Nathan 38 Comments

[Frogz] sent in a video he found of a thermic lance constructed from spaghetti. If you are not familiar, thermic lances are typically comprised of an iron tube filled with iron rods, which are then burned using highly pressurized oxygen. This lance however, was built by tightly wrapping a bundle of spaghetti in aluminum foil and attaching it to an oxygen tank. While thermic lances are commonly used in heavy construction where thick steel needs to be cut, [latexiron] and his friends use theirs to cut apart a chair. While we don’t necessarily condone drunken destruction of innocent patio furniture, we can’t help but watch this video again and again in amazement of the incredibly novel use of everyday pasta. You too can join in the drunken revelry after the jump. If food-based cutting torches are your thing, be sure to check out this bacon lance as well.

Continue reading “Thermic Lance Made From Spaghetti” →

Hamster Powered Strandbeest

February 7, 2011 by Mike Nathan 22 Comments

hamster_strandbeest

Gakken magazine featured a miniature wind-powered Strandbeest recently, converting it to run on everything from rubber bands to solar power. [Crabfu] thought it would be worthwhile to hack the Strandbeest kit that shipped with the magazine as well, so he started to brainstorm. Well-known for his steam powered hacks previously featured here, he did originally consider adding a steam plant to the walker. In the end, he scrapped that idea due to concerns about heat and weight. Thinking about it further he settled on something he considered ridiculous, even stupid: A hamster powered Strandbeest.

[Crabfu] added a few components including a hamster ball and a simple chain drive from a Meccano building set before testing the device with a toy train as the power source. Once he was certain that he had the proper gear ratio set, in went a friend’s hamster. The device worked wonderfully, much to the delight of his nieces, as you can see in the video on his site.

Ego Box Monitors Web Hits

January 29, 2011 by Mike Szczys 12 Comments

[Bogdan’s] latest project is a box that displays web hits for a chosen site. He calls it the Ego Box because depending on how traffic goes it either bloats or crushes your ego. This provides similar functionality as our Troll Sniffing Rat but the biggest difference is that this is a stand-alone Ethernet device. That’s thanks to the ENC28J60 Ethernet controller chip which manages the stack and has been quite popular in DIY electronic projects. In order to monitor your hits [Bogdan] crafted a bit of code to add to the header of your index page. It increments the counter file each time the page is loaded, and the Ego Box simply monitors that file, displaying the traffic on an eight digit 7 segment display.

[via Adafruit]