er, [-] sent in this little project. War-dialing is classic. The Scanit is designed for VM wardialing from a cell phone. The interface is a simple sound card to cell phone device made from a cheap car kit.. A laptop does the rest of the work. Apparently the nokia they used responds to sound based send/end commands. (DTMF is easy) I’d like to see a schematic and some source code, but nothing in the project is too terribly difficult.
Misc Hacks4181 Articles
Adding USB To A Cheap Linux Router
[sprite_tm] usually sends this stuff in, but I discovered that he took some time to hack on a Sweex router. The CPU happens to have an on-board usb host controller, so he added a few components. Now the router can support memory sticks, or possibly become a USB print server. (I can’t say for sure since I haven’t checked out the software myself)
Update: the project was linked in a comment a while back, but we never gave it the attention it deserved. Enjoy.
How-To: Make Your Own Xbox 360 Laptop (part 1)
Sure, maybe you’re sick of hearing about [Ben]’s work, but he’s finally giving up the goods on building that Xbox 360 laptop. It’s not your average slap it in a case and splinch on a screen project, so you’ll just have to deal with a few more posts as he pumps out this series.
To console you people who can’t stand the major pc board redecorating that’s [Ben]’s trademark, [kiwisaft] sent along this unique use for the ol’ laser toner transfer trick.
The ball point pin dot matrix printer reminded [Tesladownunder] was reminded of this funky servo based plotteroriginally built for the dearly departed vic20.
Everybody Needs One
Not the hack o’ the day, but you guys might have noticed that I’ve been pretty quiet on the engadget How-To front. I’ve been spending all my spare time in my garage working on a CNC conversion for the mini mill I bought a few months ago. It features pic based microstepping controllers that handle up to 54 volts and 3amps. I settled for a modified PC power supply for now. I’ve got plans for this thing, including some stuff just for Hack-A-Day. All the mechanical and electronic work is completed; now I’m taking a breather while I wait for the actual beefy stepper motor for the Z-axis pictured above. I celebrated with a coffee stout.
IR Decoding With Your… Guitar
[Benjamin] sent in the craziest thing I’ve seen lately. He’s using the magnetic pickup in his electric guitar to sense IR signals. The guitar is hooked to a preamp that’s feeding into his computer. By capturing the pulses with something like audacity, you can grab samples of the codes without building any specialized hardware.
If you’ve got something for Hack-A-Day, use the tips line!
Postal Hacking
Apparently our Russian brethren have some issues ordering things online. Their shipping solution? A bit of remote social engineering. Thanks to the nature of Russian addresses – that is, the language is pretty easy to recognize – they’ve found that putting down their address in Russia along with a Canadian zip code will usually result in the package being forwarded along thanks to the thoughtful Canadian postal workers. Thanks [Jock]
Social engineering not your thing? OK, well here’s a few extra hacks to chew on. [Sam] thinks you should wrap your electronics in a condom to keep em dry. If you’re in NY, you might want to check out the circuit bending festival. Oh, and if you’ve had your head in the sand, you might have missed the steam powered R2D2.
RS-232 USB Madness
If you’ve been amused by the lengths people go through to speak to a serial device these days. [timmeh] just took the cake. He build his own frikkin’ tiny RS-232 to USB interface with the diminutive SIL CP2101. The package on it is QFN-28 (If PLCC is Darth Vader, QFN-28 is his mean little brother.) That said, if you prefer to work with stuff that talks TTL or RS-232, this could be a handy add-on to pop a USB port on your project. (Oh, look, they have samples…) Sure, we’ve beaten the serial connections to death, but they’re so handy we just can’t resist. It may be a decent way to add a serial port to your laptop. (Picture this: dell’s bluetooth cards are usb devices – you could add one of these without even voiding your warranty.)
