kno one forwarded me a link to a diy lazer tag system that is off the hook.

MilesTag uses a digitally encoded signal allowing differentiation between up to 32 players and 7 teams, and supports a wide range of weapon types, including mines, area-denial and even non-conventional weapons.  Damage inflicted by each weapon is scalable, and the performance of each weapon is fully configurable (rate of fire, ammo capacity, reload time, etc.).

the trogdornator (pictured above) really caught my eye.  source and schematics are included so you and your friends can get together and build you own game.  but make sure to pick your friends carefully — they must have courage, cunning and the ability to hack.

Continue reading “Homemade Lazer Tag System” →

hackaday reader john young writes:

This is a beautiful hack.  Australian grad student Scott Mitchell turned a (pedigreed, as it turns out) sixties desk lamp into a parabolic microphone, a la Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation.”  If that movie had spy-desk-lamps, that is.

the result is a really nice looking, covert, directional mic with integrated amp.  the cmoy amp circuit that is used is described in detail and scott does a really nice job of seamlessly integrating the power led, volume control, and  headphone socket into the lamp.  awesome.

Continue reading “Covert Desk Lamp Mic” →

remember greg the high voltage hacker that brought us the homemade night vision scope?  one reader commented:

Greg is a great guy with a ton of ingenuity. He is an inspiration for all high-voltage enthusiasts, and is the only person i know to have constructed a working Tesla coil out of nothing but junk. He is a Class-A hacker!

with a comment like that, and a few other tips i’ve recieved, i figured i should take a closer look at the other articles on his site.  his electromagnetic coil gun howtos are of particular interest.  on his site, they come in two sizes, small and large.

The total peak energy storage for this system is 1874 Joules, the same amount of caloric (not mass) energy found in 4.7 tablespoons of SKIPPY peanut butter. For reference, my other coil gun’s peak energy was 55 Joules or 0.14 tablespoons of peanut butter

i spent the weekend trying to come up with a design for a cheap, portable espresso machine.  what i ended up with was a caulk gun actuated pvc tube contraption.  you can read all about it over at engadget.  several users have written that pvc is not approved for hot water use and may be dangerous, so i’d recommend checking out cpvc (or something completely different and more eco-friendly).  there’s room for improvement, so beat me to the punch.  come up with a better diy espresso machine and send it in.  i’ll make sure to post it and you’ll make caffeinated hikers everywhere happy.

so, on the topic of hikers and diy portable gagetry, i just recieved a great link that i had to move to the front of the queue.  scott henderson wrote a great howto on making a nifty little backpacking stove out of a chimeric combination of pepsi and guiness cans.  it’s a simple, elegant design that really makes you think about how you can use every day items in creative ways.

these are my favorite kinds of hacks, bar none.  everybody thank bruce for sending this our way, and make sure to send in your favorite hacks.

Continue reading “Aluminum Can Backpacking Stove” →

i found this link in my inbox, courtesy of j. peterson.  we’ve posted a peltier beverage cooler before, but i think this one deserves mention as well.  it hasn’t had the finishing touches, so it’s not as pretty yet.  however, this one does come with a digital temperature readout.  more importantly, it’s big.  you could countersink a couple of these babies into your dining room table and start living the 21st century good life, as imagined way back in the mid-1900s.

just think, your home of the future, complete with soda-cooling, plate-heating countertops and a kitchen computer.

Continue reading “Peltier Desktop Drink Cooler” →

if you haven’t seen this project before, it’s well worth a look.  the author shows us how to control billy from a pc104 embedded pc running linux.  included is an introduction into using open source tools for creating audio transcriptions, which can then be used to make billy lip-sync to custom audio clips.

the software controls the bass via the pc’s parallel port.  if you are interested in doing something like this, you might also want to check out the article we recently posted on controlling an r/c car from your parallel port.

toy hacks and controlling devices from your pc are really great topics.  i’d love to see more hacks like this.  make sure to send in your tips!

Continue reading “Embedded Linux Billy Bass” →