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.)
Misc Hacks4130 Articles
G-force Logger W/video Sync
[Marcus] sent in his rather interesting g-force logger. He’s posted most of the bits, but hasn’t quite released all the info you’d need to build your own. The most interesting part is the video camera time sync. He used a SD development board for the data logging along with an accelerometer to produce the data. The latest version features selectable internal and external sensors and decent size reduction. I’d like to see something like this combined with a high sensitivity GPS sensor to record skydiving or hangliding.
Double The Battery Life With A New Voltage Regulator
[Alexander] sent in his instructable on upgrading the inefficient linear regulator in a DX3 RC radio transmitter to double the battery life. I’m actually more interested in the switching regulator (high res image) than the radio – this could be really useful. $15 to replace a $1 component hurts a bit – but it has the caps and coil needed to support the switching regulator.
DTVii: C64 Wireless Tilt Accelerometer Joystick
[Doug] sent in his DTVii project. (It’s on earthlink, so here’s the coralcache) You can also find updates in his forum posts. He modded the ever popular DTV C64 with an expansion bay for this, keyboard input and future mods. Then he built a RF joystick complete with accelerometer joystick emulation mode.
You can hit the user demo video is after the break.
Continue reading “DTVii: C64 Wireless Tilt Accelerometer Joystick”
Solar Powered EL Window Light/shade
One of my weird google searches turned up this little project. Looks like the big images are broken on the site, but all the important files actually exist. [Doria] combined a window shade with solar power and EL cells to create one hacked window shade. It’ll charge up during the day and the EL cells that cover it can be activated day or night to give your room that extra funky glow.
We’re Giving Up
We’ve had it with all these dark hardware hacking conferences. We’re giving up on Hack-A-Day and becoming Craft-A-Day. From now on we’ll be featuring great content like the latest knitting needle mods, yarn spinning and scrap booking. It’s been a great ride, but from now on we’ll see you at Hobby Lobby.
Thanks for setting us straight, [Steve].
Steampunk: RSS Telegraph, Keybard, Etc.
[Jake von Slatt] has sent along a few of his projects, but his timing never quite coincides with mine. It’s about time I give this guy some coverage. His latest project was a pair telegraph sounders – he uses them to tap out RSS feeds from his linux box. The amateur radio code requirement in the US has been dropped, but this is probably a great way to practice your Morse code. His keyboard build is definitely one of the most original efforts I’ve seen.
