21. it appears I went over the post limit. or my use of lessthan borked it up
... continued

i would second the scope but it is cheap to get a half way decent digital scope from ebay for sub $150 prices and creating one from scratch involves FPGA hardware tricky coding, soldering and filtering. This is something I did a few years ago and it became more expensive than a cheap scope.

my 2p

Posted at 8:37PM on Jan 27th 2008 by ginge

22. An o-scope or logic analyzer gets my vote. Even if it isn't the fastest thing on the market, it would be better than what the majority of us can afford.

Posted at 8:40PM on Jan 27th 2008 by phishinphree

23. not sure if this is what everyone is looking for but Circuit-Test makes a USB oscilliscope. Two channels and I think it comes with the software. www.circuittest.com Part Number: DSO-2032

Posted at 8:53PM on Jan 27th 2008 by computerwiz_222

24. vote #3 ++

other than that all I can think of is an arm processor board reference design or board itself with somewhere from 16-128mb ram and USB host/slave, small enough to be a cell mobo, yet flexible enough to be a robotics brain or controller, modularity being key.

the way I see it, make everything smart, I want my toaster to complain if I use white bread to much and tell me it's boring, to try english muffins, then make a joke about tea and crumpets or something.

Posted at 9:27PM on Jan 27th 2008 by alexb

25. Totally agree with the O-scope idea. Even very old second hand units go for prohibitively(for some of us) high prices on ebay

Posted at 9:31PM on Jan 27th 2008 by bencoder

26. any chance we could get rid of the 20 comments per page and bump it up to 50?

Posted at 9:34PM on Jan 27th 2008 by Emperor

27. a) Need free hardware? Sign up for freecycle.org. Lots and lots of free hardware being given away. Just be patient.

b) #3 - the o-scope-man - he gets my vote, too.

c) I need someone out there to figure out how to convert multiple cordless phones into a set of personal boom mics for a troupe of improv actors. For Bluetooth ear boom mics, the BT stack on a laptop cannot handle pairing with multiple devices. Someone's got to figure out how to hack that, too.

Thanks hackaday, ur so kewl.

(/|\) Peace

Posted at 9:43PM on Jan 27th 2008 by Doug Parker

28. Honestly, I would like a forum.

For projects, I can think of many things that are made for niche markets and therefore, overpriced. However, it is usually simple enough that someone on their own could figure it out, but a forum would help ;)

Posted at 9:52PM on Jan 27th 2008 by Weirdguy

29. I also agree that a pc based scope would be extremely useful! I wouldn't know where to start making one though, other than you would need something that runs at a fairly high frequency.

Posted at 9:54PM on Jan 27th 2008 by David

30. A lot of good ideas here, but for the first project, I vote for the USB o'scope/logic analyzer combo. Can we do it for under $200.00?

Posted at 10:02PM on Jan 27th 2008 by Brian Howell

31. I like the idea of #3

What I would suggest, would be a modular controller platform, linux based, similar in size to gumstix or COG, but flexible enough that it could be a cell phone mobo, robotics platform, soft/hardware radio, connected to an FPGA, USB host/slave, maybe an LCD controller, with a code base so someone new to electronics and with minimal understanding of code, could purchase an assembled version, maybe a motor controller "module", and an I/O sensor interface yet still powerfull enough to interface to something like the PSP LCD from sparkfun, or a cellular module per say, maybe IDE and definately SD interface...
anyways what a wishlist

Posted at 10:06PM on Jan 27th 2008 by alexb

32. A modular robotics platform sounds interesting. Something that has easy to use software and hardware modules that can be put together simply.

Posted at 10:30PM on Jan 27th 2008 by MaverickNZ

33. Yea a usb o-scope would be sweet but i do like the idea of a beginner hacker ebook. It could just be a collaboration of everyone's favorite beginner hacks, a ton of good tutorials from soldering to program design for hacks. also include design ideas and sample code. a universal troubleshooting guide that includes basics that a new hacker would forget.

A quick start guide that gets them to make something they could use in less than an hour or 2 of work, so they find it fun and not repetitive reading.(think of absolutely everything u would need and try to find it on the net for under $200 cause i know it needs to be cheap.)

Thats about all i could think of but hey it should be comprehensive and go from a maybe a simple tv-b-gone to mircocontrollers and basic robotics.

Posted at 10:32PM on Jan 27th 2008 by Rhomp

34. what ever it is im in!

Posted at 10:36PM on Jan 27th 2008 by jetblack

35. truly there is only one answer, a fskin gundam of course

Posted at 11:24PM on Jan 27th 2008 by andres

36. Definitely a laser show from the tip of the robot's antenna :D

Posted at 11:42PM on Jan 27th 2008 by D4rk

37. Perhaps my ambitions are low, but I'd like some software that emulates simple hardware devices (like calculators, speak'n'spells, those cheap handheld game devices, etc.). Let the user lay out circuits in a GUI.

I can see a few uses for this. You can test a hack idea on your computer before dedicating hardware to the project. You could test a device to predict power requirements and bugs. You could circuit-bend. You could see if that device you just made really could run off of solar power, without having to buy solar panels and then discover it can't.

Posted at 12:14AM on Jan 28th 2008 by Taehl

38. how about an instructional DVD for basic hardware hacking or best practicies compilation of some sort? how about a movie showcasing hardware hacking? let's invite McGyver as the narrator :D

Posted at 12:28AM on Jan 28th 2008 by cloner

39. Silly Pooh Bear, have them take over Canada. It would just be the stepping stone. Our real target would be Wal*Mart, but we'd still be too week to take it head on...that's where Canada comes in...

Posted at 1:29AM on Jan 28th 2008 by Christopher Reitmann

40. 1.) I would be for a Printed Circuit Board maker that is a little more durable then just ones made from laser/inc printers. Could use a CNC machine as a basis and build from there to deal with copper.

2.) A hack a day guide to getting copper on those through holes your drill on a pcb.

Posted at 1:42AM on Jan 28th 2008 by Daren