This innocent typewriter was modded to act as a keyboard and typewriter. The idea is to remove the computer interface from the process, giving a user the ability to interact via email but avoid computer frustrations. (The idea came from the creators mothers frustration with computers) Thanks to [BBCmicro] for sending it it.
Peripherals Hacks1561 Articles
Turntable Mouse Interface
Despite digital mixing, some guys just love their old turntables. TerminatorX has one concept: allow users to scratch music like it’s on vinyl. Some guys hate using their mouse for it, so they’ve been connecting mice to their turntables. Some use belt drives, other use optical sensors up top. Thanks to [Dylan] for the tip.
Automatic Cable Modem Power Cycling
If you’ve got a cable modem, you know the drill when it goes offline. Unplug it, wait 30 seconds, plug it back in, reset your dhcp request. I’m pretty sure that [brian] mentioned this in a comment a while back, but now he’s written it up. He’s using a cron job on his linux box to check the internet connection, and if the test fails, power cycle the hardware with some X10 hardware and a little scripting. (Just don’t tell your friends or they’ll be outside trying to guess the code.)
XT To AT Keyboard Adapter
If you dig the older switch based keyboards, you’ll like this. As a favor to a friend, [Bob van Loosen] built a small converter using a pic16F84 to make an XT telex keyboard usable with modern AT style computers.
Steampunk LCD
Milkscanner – 3D Mapping That’s Good For You
[Blind Tree Frog] sent in the Milkscanner. It’s an oh-so-simple method of mapping a 3d object. [fiezi] used a small tub, a lego mounted webcam, a small supply of milk and a bit of software to create the map and import it to moviesandbox.. The object is placed in the tub, then then it’s scanned by the camera as the milk level is slowly raised (in this case, via spoon power) and voila: 3d map.
Video is after the jump, or at the top of the read link.
Continue reading “Milkscanner – 3D Mapping That’s Good For You”
Serial Port Power Booster
This one(coral cache) is a bit of a head slapper, but I thought it might come in handy. Laptop (or usb) serial ports are pretty notorious for being stingy on power output. [Roberto] came up with a clever solution. He used a MAX205 (sort of a double+ MAX232) and a singe capacitor to convert the low power serial connection on his laptop to a TTL signal and back again to RS-232. The result is a simple dongle that needs 5v and gives you a high power serial port for those power hungry devices – like [Roberto]’s PIC programmer.
