Misc Hacks

4181 Articles

Finally Networking My New House Extra

August 21, 2007 by 11 Comments


My new house is taking far more time to get into shape than I ever imagined. I’ve finally gotten most of the network and coax drops in place, and I wanted to show off my new mini-rack. Behind the door up top, my home theater gear is hiding. Below, my switch, patch panel, firewall and cable modem are happily humming along.

[Benjamin] send in a quick post on messing with DoorKings.

Another [Ben] sent in this cheap-o multi-touch interface. It’s just a webcam, a glass desk and some software.

[Tarun] sent in this interesting low cost laser range finder project. It’s webcam based, but uses a laser line (laser level style/simple beam splitter) to measure distances.

Oh, I’m freaking house poor this month, so I’m selling off some of my toys. (If you do buy something, let me know and I’ll put some stickers in the shipping box, but only on request – As a rule, we don’t sell our swag!)

Yes, we’re going to do something to get more stickers out there, so stay tuned.

Python On The Telit GSM/GPS Module (vehicle Tracking)

August 18, 2007 by 2 Comments


[Nick] caught [Alex]s GPS enabled AVR, so he sent in his project using the same Telit GM862 module. Rather than depend on an external AVR, he wanted to use the on-board python interpreter. Apparently, documentation is a bit sparse, so he put together a good write-up on developing python for the device. Since the GPS unit takes up the com port previously used for debugging info, he added a hardware python debugging board to speed development.

Propeller Based UAV Helicopter

August 17, 2007 by 11 Comments

I guess we’re on a UAV kick – I ran across this one when I was looking for interesting propeller projects. [Glenn]’s building this one based on a R/C helicopter he picked up. Both the controller and the heli recieved a propeller chip, along with a pretty standard array of navigation sensors for the heli. It’s a work in progress, but sometimes those are the most inspiring.

VUFan – VU Meter

August 16, 2007 by 21 Comments


This hack isn’t really all that, but I’m giving it points for creativity. [Christopher] pulled some blue led case fans and used them to make a giant VU meter. Each I/O line has a transistor to drive a TIP120 FET. Personally, I’ll like to see even more of them stacked end to end and pulling fog from a conduit placed behind the stack.

Solid State Amp (with Style)

August 14, 2007 by 15 Comments


[Jesse] sent in this beautiful 300 watt amp project. It uses six LM3886 amps to create a pair of 150 watt amps that are bridged to create a single 300 watt amplifier. Usually I don’t mind my lack of multi-language ability, but many of the parts were sourced from this site. It looks like the cases were bought in Hong Kong, anybody know were I could get some in the US?

DIY Plasma Gun

August 8, 2007 by 12 Comments


[Richard] took another shot at his battery powered tesla coils. He sent in his latest hand held plasma gun. He modified his battery powered tesla coil to work as a handheld. He added a large copper pad to the drill handle to couple the RF ground to the human torch holding it.. Sure, we’ve seen plenty of tesla lately, but who here wouldn’t want one? (Maybe the guy in the server room…)

All the parts needed are listed – just be sure you fully understand everything before you get into this one.