Here is a full conversion of a typewriter into a computer keyboard. There’s actually something more nefarious at work here. Since you can still use the typewriter normally after the mod, Erik has essentially made a typewriter keystroke logger. Okay, so that isn’t really a threat, but this is a nice project that tries to overcome the stress inducing on/off nature of modern keyboards. All it needs now is a buffer and some nixie tubes and we’d have the coolest word processor yet.
[thanks ron]
We’ve mentioned Christoffer’s Skype phone before; Jeroen decided to make a device that could work with any standard phone. Seeing the Chat-Cord he decided that one could be built really easily. The main component is a transformer to demux the the mic and line signals. I’m guessing you could grab the appropriate one off of an old modem. To translate the DTFM tones for dialing he downloaded the Chat-Cord software. The only problem left is how to ring the phone using Skype and Jeroen has enough tips to put you on track. I know at least one reader requested this after seeing the Chat-Cord so I hope you guys enjoy.
[thanks usergentoo]
Kentaro Fukuchi originally built this simple controller for an art installation. He needed an easy way for visitors to switch effects on an EffecTV system. To avoid writing device drivers he canabilized a cheap game pad. There were 16 available buttons but only 12 were needed. Once the rotary switch was wired to all of the buttons he could use simple scripting to grab the button press events. You could use this to control a variety of things and Kentaro gives a couple possible ideas on his site.
[thanks Jaime Wong]
The CueCat will always hold a place in hardware hacking history. Actually, anything that makes C&D letters start the to fly will guarantee memory. The CueCat is a simple barcode scanner that was a magazine throw-in. Most people got their’s from Wired, but you could get them from Radio Shack for free. The idea was to scan barcodes embedded in magazine ads and the included software would take you directly to the related website. The problem was that each of these devices transmitted its unique serial number to the software so the parent company could track what you were interested in. Well techies weren’t having any of that and soon began stripping off the serial number. The device also didn’t work as a regular barcode scanner because of some built-in obfuscation. People were able to change the device to read regular UPC codes and then cataloging software was developed so you could keep track of your movies, books, and CDs. Needless to say the company was not happy with this development. Here is one site’s story.
[carpespasm] had sent this in last week and I had brushed it off thinking “yeah I’ve seen it before, and it is interesting, but the old specialized hardware gives it limited appeal”. In a bit of zen BoingBoing recently posted about a liquidator selling two million of these things. You don’t have to buy that many though. I bumped over to eBay and found that for a couple of bucks you can get one of these. So, if you’re curious the hardware is out there.
Everyone has at least one extra mouse laying around; why not get some use out of it? Disassembling the mouse you can get two optical encoders plus four infrared emitter/detector pairs. Then you can reassemble your new sensors into a quadrature incremental optical encoder. You’ll be able to tell how much the sensor has rotated and by comparing the signals from the two IR pairs you can also determine the direction. These cheap devices would be good for keeping track of robot wheel movements or doing absolute positioning telescopes.
[thanks joelanders]
Continue reading “Quadrature Optical Encoder Built From A Mouse”
This project initially started as an attempt to build a Mellotron, a tape based sampling synth. Paul Slocum recorded samples using a tape recorder and then taped the segments to the printer’s feed drum. The samples were then played back by varying drum speed and read head location. Later versions of the printer synth used a hacked EPROM and generated sound using the noise of the firing print head. The site features plenty of sound samples which are slightly more pleasant than my parent’s Panasonic “quiet” series dot-matrix printer.
Seems reader [Bucky] is just as annoyed with those ambient orbs as we are. I fully support unique ways to present information, but this executive toy stuff is nothing to look forward to. Bucky legally acquired a traffic light and then developed a parallel interface to the traffic light to display different types of information. This project does require switching 120 volt AC, so you should make sure your comfortable with electrocuting yourself before proceeding. I hope someday lots of extra interfaces show up. Until then I guess we’ve got people like Bucky to keep us sane.
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