[Taufeeq] sent in his “Circle of Light” bulbdial clock. You may remember when we showed you Evil Mad Scientist’s version a while back, and [Taufeeq] did use it as a base but he’s added some of his own little touches. Some of the changes include using a PIC with an RTC chip instead of AVR, which allowed him to shrink the board down small enough to fit behind the clock face, rather than on front. He’s even zipped everything up conveniently to help you build your own.
Here’s a quick and easy illuminated umbrella that [Mikeasaurus] built. How’s this for economical? He found an umbrella that someone left on the bus, and used an LED flashlight and clear poncho from the dollar store for the rest of the parts.
The scavenged LED circuit board is the perfect diameter to fit inside the handle of his umbrella. He removed the middle LED and drilled a hole in the board for the shaft to pass through. Although not well detailed, we gather he managed to shoehorn two CR2032 3v batteries underneath the PCB to power the device. The poncho is wrapped around the shaft to diffuse the light. This is a clever solution as the flexible plastic still allows the telescoping shaft to collapse down to its most compact size.
[Mikasaurus’] umbrella doesn’t make noise or emulate the weather but it is a clever idea. The low difficulty level and availability of parts makes this a great project to do with the young ones who don’t get included in your more intricate hacks.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiYYJ5WMG6I&feature=player_embedded%5D
120 LEDs and NerdKit, check. Python and appropriate Google Voice module, check. Blend on high for 2 minutes, bake for an hour at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Your soufflé is done, whoops, we mean your voice controlled LED sign is done. Leave a voicemail on Davis’ Google Voice account that starts with “message” and it will be displayed for all to read within a matter of minutes. We think: make it bigger and add a security code before you can leave a message, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for some over sized message fun.
[via Make]
Here’s a collection of simple hacks you can do in between larger projects. After the break we’ll look at converting an iPod from hard drive storage to Compact Flash, build an LED desk lamp using LEGO and USB power for charging, and use an Arduino shield to add network control at the touch of a button.
[Ellindsey000] posted this neat little pendant to his flickr stream. We like the way it looks, and the fact that it is a functional circuit. The schematic is even pretty neat. We would maybe wear this, as a belt buckle or something. When we looked at this though, we thought it looked really familiar. Yeah, it kind of looks like the arc reactor from Iron Man, but what we thought of was this cool looking walker. As you could probably already tell, it’s the same person. Great job again [Ellindsey000], and thanks for posting the schemtaic.
[Computergeek] made an Arduino Shield in order to use it as an Apple remote. We like the construction technique that he used; taking perf-board and soldering the circuit and using stripped wire to interface with the pin sockets on the Arduino. He’s written the code needed to function as an Apple Remote but this shield has a lot more potential. This is an excellent opportunity to delve into the different IR protocols out there and create a universal remote for all of your random devices. We’d also want to give it a try as a TV-B-Gone.
The parts are easy to find or salvage without putting in an order. We’re not certain about his design, he should probably have invited a resistor to the party the two IR LEDs are having.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI-6wMlaVTc]
We know the folks at MIT are the cutting edge scientists of tomorrow right? We’re always impressed by the stuff coming out of their labs. Well, almost always. This rethinking of pop-up books does not let us down. We’ve seen some pretty complicated pop-up books. Some that made us really wonder how they pulled it off. But all of those were simply paper and card stock. At MIT, they’re wondering how we can improve the interactive experience now that the electronic components are so cheap and easily available. Even if you don’t have kids, or have no interest in pop-up books, consider this some inspiration for things like packaging and art. This looks fantastic and we know we would enjoy it. Then again, a few flashing LEDs always pique our interest.
[via Gizmodo]
