Smashed Tablet In NES Case Lives Out Its Days As An Emulator

February 26, 2013 by Mike Szczys 25 Comments

smashed-tablet-nes-emulator

The creator of this project started off with a 7″ tablet he received from a coworker. The screen was horribly smashed from one corner spreading out through the entire surface. But the hardware inside still worked, including the HDMI out port. He ended up transplanting the tablet hardware for use as an emulator.

After a bit of sizing up it was determined that the tablet hardware would fit inside the case of a broken NES. The battery would have been a tough fit, but this thing is always going to need to be connected to a television so there’s no need to work without mains power. The back plate was cut down to size and used as a try for mounting the motherboard in the case. Before that step he wired up a USB hub and mounted it so that two ports could be accessed through the original controller port openings.

There’s no details on the software used, but the final image in the gallery shows a game of Starfox being played.

[Thanks Cody]

How To Used An Android Device With A Shattered Screen

December 13, 2012 by Mike Szczys 31 Comments

This screen is not just cracked, it’s devastated. We can all agree that you’re not going to be carrying this around with you anymore, but it might still be useful in other endeavors. [Mr Westie] wanted to use it for the camera which is undamaged. The issue is how do you control an Android device with a broken screen?

He knew there are apps out there that let you control your device remotely. But these still depend on you being able to install and launch the program. He found he could get the image from the screen on his computer using a package called Screencast. It runs on your computer and doesn’t need to be installed on the phone, but it will require a rooted phone and the user must click to authorize root access. He got around that hangup by pushing keypress commands to the phone via ADB. The only problem left is if debugging mode is not enable.

Digital Camera LCD Replacement

September 8, 2009 by Mike Szczys 11 Comments

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Turning on your camera to this kind of black blotch will ruin your day. Cracked LCD screens have got to be the biggest digital camera killer out there. Although you can still take pictures with it, a non-functioning screen makes it difficult if not impossible to change settings and take decent photos.

[myles_h] has document the process of replacing a broken screen in his digital camera. As professional repair usually costs more than a brand new camera you’ll want to do this yourself. New screens can be purchased online, but we’ve also considered buying the same model of camera from ebay (screen intact but broken in a different way). This model, a Sony Cybershot DSC-W50, has fairly easy access to the LCD and its connection to the logic board. Before buying parts, you may want to investigate how much disassembly your camera will require.

7 Really Creepy Robots

July 11, 2008 by Kimberly Lau 1 Comment

Creepiness is a hard feeling to objectively evaluate, but we dare you to not get creeped out by these realistic robots listed by Cracked.com. It’s the uncanny valley of robots that are almost, but not completely lifelike, and which repulse most humans. It begs the question: how could you resolve the uncanny valley problem? Would you build a robot to look exactly like you, as [Hiroshi Ishiguro] did, or would you build one to look like a famous figure, like the Albert Hubo?