[David]’s been building his own game platform based on an ATMega chip and an eight by eight LED matrix. Looks like he’s used the project as an excuse to get familiar with eagle and doing his own PC board design. Even if the game doesn’t really interest you, future project designs can probably benefit from his roadmap.
Misc Hacks4085 Articles
Plumb In Your Espresso Machine (cheap)
A while back, I wrote up a how-to on some mods I made to my ECM Giotto espresso machine. After giving it some break-in time, I finally wrote up my cheap plumbed in espresso trick. Plumbing kits use a $50 solenoid that requires special plumbing. My version uses a $12 fridge solenoid, easily adds on to my previous mods, and only requires some tubing size adaptation.
Li-ion For Your Roomba
[gim] gutted some li-ion laptop batteries to replace his roomba’s battery pack. He had to pick up a li-ion charger and add a protection circuit to deal with the li-ion cells, but ended up with a new lighter pack for his roomba. If you head this way, the protection circuit is a vital component to prevent fires/explisions/etc. Looks like a great resource for robot power or even R/C projects.
Contactless Voltage Detection
[Tim], builder of that sweet NES pad controlled Silvia espresso machine put up an interesting idea for voltage current monitoring – at least, for AC circuits. In a nutshell, he created a mini transformer by wrapping some wire around the outside of one wire of an insulated AC power cord. Espresso machines use 120/220VAC actuated solenoids, so that’s why he’s so interested. I love the idea, since the detection circuit is just a piece of wire.
Leatherman Punch-down Tool
I just spent a little time dropping in some new ethernet jacks in my workshop tonight and stumbled on this handy little leatherman mod. I used the real thing, but I don’t usually keep one on me. [bluebomb] modded the giant redundant screwdriver on his wave to become a non-impact punch down tool.
IPod Laser Pointer
If you thought there wasn’t anything else to shove on the end of your iPod, [Alex] is here to set you straight. He used the DC power that’s available on the iPod’s dock to drive a cheap laser pointer. It’s pretty easy to do – just get a dock connector (sparkfun has em) and add a laser pointer module. If you’d rather access everything else, check out the super dock I put together a while back. Hit the read link if you’d rather see the picture in color.
Desktop Soldering Press
[kruser495] put up this interesting instructable on making a desktop soldering press out of a sewing machine pedal. It uses a big chunk of carbon to create a diy high power cold-heat style soldering surface. It doesn’t work until the top is pressed down to complete the circuit. Looks like it’s only useful for wire joins, but still pretty interesting.
