There's nothing quite like a nice, simple hack. This serial servo controller uses a PIC12C671 and a pair of resistors. Leaving out the power supply, that's the lowest part count I've ever seen.
Simple serial servo controller
There's nothing quite like a nice, simple hack. This serial servo controller uses a PIC12C671 and a pair of resistors. Leaving out the power supply, that's the lowest part count I've ever seen.
Buy Ben's PS3 Laptop
Just a little public service message: If you've been drooling over [Ben]'s work and have plenty of loose change, his PS3 laptop is up for auction to benefit the National Cancer Coalition.
Simple fan controller
When I built my LumenLab projector, I used a thermal switch to run the fan. This simple control circuit looks like a nice alternative. The circuit is a simple adjustable temperature triggered Fet. If you know the resistance needed, you can replace the potentiometer with a cheap resistor. (You'll want to use a DC fan)
Make your own PS3 laptop (part 1)
Let the how-to's begin: [Ben Heck] put up the first installment of his how-to series on making your own PS3 laptop. Since this one is all about the tear down, you might dig the PS3 design even if you're not interested in making your own portable.
24 core Ikea cluster
[Janne] does freelance animation and wanted something with a bit more CPU to get his rendering jobs done. He picked up an Ikea 'Helmer' cabinet and refitted it to hold six Intel quad cores, six Gigabyte motherboards with 8GB of ram each and six 400 watt power supplies. He seems happy with it - I think it just needs some custom power wiring and an integrated Gig-E switch to achieve perfection. What? I'm not jealous at all.
DIY X-Men: flame throwing wrist guard
[everett] sent in his final project for his mechanisms class. In an attempt to create his own bolt on X gene, he built a wrist mounted hand activated flame thrower: The Pyro System. The wrist mount has an igniter and a nozzle for dispersing fuel. When he flexes his hand back, a switch actuates a servo on the fuel and fires the igniter. Quick disclaimer: Don't try replicating this one! If you want to skip the movie clip, skip 33 seconds into the video.
modchip your XBox 360 controller
[CyberPyrot] and [l0rdnic0] released their spitfire mod on acidmods for XBox 360 controllers. It involves some fine wiring, but a relatively low parts count. The heart of the mod is a PIC16F84A, a crystal for the clock and a few passive parts. It took me a little while to find it, but the code for the pic hiding under the parts list. For a lengthy demo of the mod in action, you can check out this video.
Autonomous Catamaran
[Gabriel] put together an impressive writeup of his autonomous catamaran, Atlantis(PDF). It was certainly done as an academic project, but there's a thorough explanation of the math logic behind the control systems. The heart of the boat was a waterproofed Pentium laptop with a CAN bus parallel interface used to talk to everything on-board. Sensors included GPS, wind, hull speed and rudder angle. In case the site can't handle the load, I've mirrored the 1.4MB PDF here.
Tiller autopilot for small sailboats
[Dennis] sent in the glider that [Art] built, but I had to feature his dinghy autopilot. It runs on solar power, takes GPS data via serial and maintains the heading using a servo motor to drive the line. It's an excellent solution for the hardware hacking boater.
DIY Midi pedalboard
[Nick] sent in this sweet midi pedal organ. [Seffan] modded an old set of organ pedals with the cheapest midi keyboard he could find. Each pedal was equipped with a switch mechanism, so it was just a matter of patience and wiring. To come up with enough wire for the job, he sacrificed some IDE cables. If you've ever played with some organ pedals, you know that these things can really add another dimension to music - especially with the newly added MIDI interface.
Soekris laser guided squirrel trap
Got a bit of a pest problem? [Chad] built a better squirrel/rabbit/thing trap using a soekris box, a laser pointer, serial controlled relay and a small motor. When the laser beam is broken, the Soekris activates the relay, pulling the door pins. Then it take a picture with a webcam and send him a page.
Electric (off-road) skateboard
[Joe] sent along this sweet little instructable on making an electric skateboard. I like this one especially for the how-to nature of the build. [Vurp] used an off the shelf mountain board with a brake addition, a 300w scooter motor/controller and a pair of 12v SLA batteries. Now that I'm back on campus, I might just be tempted to build something along these lines. Just in time for this electric vehicle post, [Darin] sent in the forkencycle.
Apple IIGS laptop
I may hit my limit on DIY laptops soon, but [Ben Heck] has been extra quiet for a while. Now we know why. Just after the release of his PS3 laptop comes his Apple IIGS laptop. Thanks to [Ed] for the tip. It features original Apple hardware and even uses the original keyboard PC board. A CF drive adapter replaces the hard drive and a 15 inch screen shows off the true power of 8 bit computing.
DIY iMac Mini
[Phyro-Mane] sent in his home built iMac mini. He based it on an old laptop with an install of
Arduino + Nunchuck +espresso = awesome
Remember the voltage detector that I mentioned a while back? [Tim] hasn't put up quite enough info to make me happy, but definitely enough to make me jealous. He updated his NES controlled Silvia to become a Wii nunchuck controlled (via Arduino) Silvia. That said, his last couple of blog posts have me questioning just how much espresso he's been drinking. Theoretically, he could actually program the Silvia to refuse shots to people who are too jittery.
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