InventGeek‘s newest contributor, Dan Williams, has just posted his first project: hiding a server in a UPS surge protector. Dan found himself with a dead UPS surge protector and decided to do something fun. The brick has two built in RJ-45 connectors and power so he figured he could easily hide a server in it. There are three main components involved: a 4-port router, an NSLU, and a USB enclosure for a laptop hard drive. The router and the NSLU were both stripped of their cases to save space. The wall warts were stripped of their cases as well. There aren’t a lot legitimate reasons to make one of these. It is still a fun project and if a burglar runs off with your laptop, but not your disguised file server, you might feel a little better.

[thanks Jared]

Continue reading “Rogue Server In A UPS” →

Derek Anderson enjoys building robot prototypes using the LEGO Mindstorms kit, but he found his progress hampered by the RCX’s minimal processing power and connections. He decided to build a custom LEGO style housing for a Gumstix waysmall computer. He has experience milling custom LEGO parts so this was an easy first step; he does wish he would have used a material more rigid than Delrin though. Derek has several future articles planned to cover how to integrate and interact with the system. I’d prefer to wait for the new Mindstorms NXT coming out in August or March if I’m lucky.

[thanks William Cox of GoRobotics.net]

Continue reading “Gumbrix: Gumstix LEGO Controller” →

Not one to be constrained by specifications, Montac decided to construct an ATA cable that was well over the 18 inch maximum length.  PATA cables use 80 conductor wire, even though they only have 40 pin connectors. The extra 40 lines are all tied to ground. The cable was constructed from 10 pieces of Cat5e with one line from each twisted pair going to ground. The construction is as tedious as it sounds and at each end there are a few signal lines that also need to be pulled to ground. Once the cable was finished with heat-shrink tubing it was tested. The cable performed as well as, if not slightly better than the standard cables.

[thanks Luke Skaff]

Continue reading “5 Foot Long PATA Cable From Cat5e” →

The Stirling engine seems like an odd-ball design when you’ve only encountered gas and Diesel engines. Even though the Stirling engine is piston based it doesn’t use valves. It has a sealed working fluid and no exhaust gas. Stirling engines aren’t very common, but are being produced commercially as cryocoolers and for use in solar farms. Here are some thorough plans for constructing a model Stirling engine from aluminum cans.

[thanks haq]

Continue reading “Stirling Engine From Aluminum Cans” →

This is a proof of concept magnetic stripe card emulator. Adron embedded a thin strip of metal into track 2 of the magnetic stripe. The ends of that strip are wrapped with thin copper wire to create a solenoid. The solenoid is driven by a PIC microprocessor and some transistors to boost the signal. The software provided can pulse a test pattern and any additional card numbers you supply.

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Greg Miller prides himself on his dumpster-diving ability. To encourage others to take up the terrestrial sport he developed this Tesla coil built entirely from trash (Coral cache link). The power supply is from a neon sign he found behind a frat house. The capacitor bank is constructed from high voltage caps found in televisions. The spark gap is a pair of 1/4 inch bolts. The primary coil  is formed on a lamp shade using a cord from a humidifier. The secondary coil is made from the wire of a microwave fan and a cardboard tube. The toroid, pictured above, is constructed from two stove eyes. The chokes are wire wrapped around ballpoint pens. He’s got some nice pictures of it in action plus a guide to what goodies you should salvage from consumer electronics.

[thanks Victor]

Continue reading “Tesla Coil Built From Trash” →

Alright, one last holiday hack before we finish out the year. Every Christmas Eve [ryan rose]’s family has a contest with a new theme. The challenge this year was to construct a Christmas wreath. Ryan decided to make a Simon Christmas wreath. He cut up a string of lights to produce the four separate color regions. He triggered the lights using an opti-isolator circuit and built buttons that look like presents. You can view his construction photos at Flickr and watch a video of it in action at YouTube.

Continue reading “Simon Christmas Wreath” →