[lain]’s newest wearable project features two 21×10 dot displays (front and back). The panels are constructed from 5×7 LED modules from HP. The display is driven by an AVR ATMEGA32L. The 21×10 matrix would require 31 wires, but lain implemented a shift register so only 4 wires are needed. The hat has a microphone so it can do beat detection and VU display. It can also scroll space invaders, play pong and show text. The batteries and control board are in the ear flaps. Lain keeps referring to this as the perfect summer season hat which I can’t understand since today it’s going to hit 101degF at my house.

Continue reading “Pong LED Hat” →

[don] built this RC car using two $10 cordless screwdrivers and a few parts from his bin. He cracked open the screwdrivers and relocated the switches to the outside. These micro-switches are activated using some servos and radio gear he had laying around. For as little time as it took to build, the car seems pretty serviceable. He mounted a camera to a turning servo so he could see the car’s perspective. The camera looks into the turn so it’s easier to drive the car than if it was in a fixed position.

Continue reading “Screwdriver RC Car” →

[xander] sent in links to two machines designed to solve padlocks automatically. The first one just modified an old robot project since it already had the necessary stepper motor. The second one was built from scratch and includes a solenoid to test the lock. Both systems are just brute forcing the combination, but they do use some shortcuts. Even though locks have 60 numbers there is less than 20 actual divisions. Also, multiple final numbers can be tested without putting in the first two. With these two shortcuts there are approx. 400 passes. These machines can solve a lock in about 30 minutes. Of course we’ve shown before that any human can solve one in about 10 minutes.

Continue reading “Automated Master Lock Crackers” →

Master modder ZapWizard has completed work on version 3 of his home built powder coating gun. Powder coat is applied using air pressure to blow negatively charged thermoplastic particles onto a grounded metal surface. The metal part is then baked to make a hard finish. ZapWizard’s gun uses an air pistol with regulator at the bottom operating at 15 PSI. The powder is held in an acrylic kitchen canister with a reinforced seal. The final element is an ionizer element placed in front of the discharge nozzle. Version 2 had a trigger operated switch for the ionizer, but that was replaced with just a simple toggle.

Continue reading “DIY Powder Coating Gun” →

Eddie has an interesting writeup about his experience playing around with echo location. He uses a cheap computer speaker and microphone for all of the measurements. The program he wrote generates a sweeping chirp from 5-20kHz in the space of 4.5 milliseconds. Eddie knows what a perfect echo would look like so he can compare the measured values to the theoretical to determine the distance. For his final test he moved the box while it took 150 measurements. This data generated a parabola showing where the object was in the room. Have a look at his site for more details and his code if you are interested.

Continue reading “Homebrew Sonar” →

Hans Summers has an amazing collection of projects. His most popular project is the binary clock. It runs off of mains, uses a bunch of TTL logic chips and a binary counter. He has posted links to the many projects that have been derived from his original post. Warning: project uses LEDs. If the binary clock isn’t your thing he has lots of other clocks, radio, frequency counters, computer and other projects.

[thanks Alan Parekh]

Continue reading “Binary Clock” →