[imajes] brought this sweet project to my attention. The table is reactive thanks to the combination of a projector and a video camera below the surface. The position and unique pattern of each block on the table is used to manipulate the operations of the synth. The software is open source – so you can build your own. (And it’ll run on linux, mac and windows) Check out the videos for a good demonstration. I’m thinking that one of these could be built on a budget using lumenlab/overhead LCD technology.
Misc Hacks4130 Articles
Cheap 1 Hz Clock Source
[Alberto] sent this along. [Jose Pino] put up a nice how-to on modifying a cheap quartz clock to be used as a 1Hz (1 second) pulse generator. I can think of a number of past projects where this would have been really friggin’ handy.
Tesla Powered Sauron’s Eye
[Peter] sent in his latest Tesla coil experiment. He calls it the “Eye of Sauron” effect. It was created by adding a rotating breakout to an already powerful Tesla coil. It isn’t quite the same as the old evil eye of Tolkien’s dreams, the picture is a 22 second exposure of two rotations of the 7 foot aluminum tube.
Build Your Own ECG Heart Monitor
Our own Hack-A-Day emeritus took some time out from his showgirl pursuits to pass this along. The ECG was built to pad a resume, but it doesn’t make it less useful. Be warned, too much power could stop your heart. If you build one, triple check everything before wiring yourself up. Basically, an electrical differential is generated by the contraction of muscles in the heart. This slight signal is amplified by an op-amp and sampled with an A/D converter.
RS-232 Serial Laser Link
[ashish] sent in this one via the tips line. (Ed Note: link rot. Try this one.) It’s a project to create a laser based RS-232 link. It’s based on cheap laser pointers, a MAX232 and a photo-resistor to receive the signal.
Atari Punk Console
It seems Hack-A-Day’s resident snow bunny has run off to Utah and left me holding the proverbial bag. How could a heart broken hacker possibly console himself? How about the soothing sounds of the Atari Punk Console? Well… soothing is a subjective term, but the screaming, bleeping, fuzzy sound generated by this simple circuit is great. Since their first post on the Atari Punk Console circuit last fall, GetLoFi has collected many different examples of the circuit. It’s just a 556, a few caps, and pots so it lends itself easily to modification. The most recent post is built in an actual Atari mouse.
Going Snowboarding Extra
I’m heading west to do some snowboarding, so I thought I’d clean out the stuff I’ve been saving for you guys.
[Nagi Punyamurthula] sent his notes on making PCBs. It’s a nice introduction if you’re new to it.
[Monster] sent in his how to on making a solder mask
He suggests using mcmaster-carr p/n 9709K61 (4 mil) or 9709K55 (3 mil) copper sheet.
[monster] and [uchobby] sent in using a scanner to take measurements on a PCB
[MoneyOx] sent in a DIY Wii sensor bar
[Tom] sent in Water cooling via swimming pool. This made slashdot, but worth a look if you missed it.
Meta is another DIY segway, similar to [Trevor Blackwells]. (I’ve actually ridden that one) Thanks [Peter]
[Zack] sent along details on using a Nintendo DS for VoIP.
[Bruce] sent in his shuffle in a hockey helmet hack. I like the pseudo-dock he created for it.
This was on engadget a while back, but we’ve been getting lots of tips. Check out the iPod in a gameboy mod.
Finally, [everyone on the planet] sent in this Xbox 360 tilt controller hack.
Thanks to everyone for their tips!
