12.05.2008

Make a Fireball Shooter



Another great video from the Internet legend KipKay. Wow, I really want to do this because not only does it look fun but, it's simple and cheap. I just need to find a store around that sells flash paper and cotton.

12.03.2008

Make Your Own Motion Detector Alarm

Have you ever thought that it would be cool to make your own motion detector? Well now you can with some well written instructions. You need very few parts and the whole thing will only cost a couple of bucks. The parts that you will need are:

2 - Cds Cells (Photocells)
1 - 741 Op Amp
1 - Buzzer or alarm
1 - 9 volt battery breadboard
1 - 10K potentiometer

Not much huh? It really is actually really easy and quick to build. Much more than you would have originally thought. Click on the link for the step by step instructions.

12.01.2008

Make Your Own Homemade LED Christmas Lights

If you have trouble with all of your Christmas lights going out when only one bulb becomes burnt out or stepped on and if you feel up to the challenge, you can build your own strand of LED Christmas lights. Whats even better is that you will wire the lights in parelell which means that when one bulb goes out the rest will stay on. Not only is it cool to have Christmas lights that you made yourself but, the LED's last over 100,000 hours, they produce little heat, they use minimal energy, and the bulbs aren't hallow which makes them virtually indestructable. Check out the instructions on how to build them. However, you will need tons of LED's, (can be bought at your local electronics store) lots of resistor, some solder, and the ability to solder. Good luck!

11.30.2008

Can You Name The Video Game Systems


Many of us remember the days of NES and Sega gaming platforms. But, I bet that you can't name all 68 of them from the year 1972 to today. If you think that you are up to the challenge than why not play the game? But, oh yeah, you only have twelve minutes.

11.29.2008

How To Beat The Candy Crane Game?


Most of us have, at least once in our lifetime, played the candy crane game, and many of us have seen on the sign on the front that says, "play until you win." Well, that gave me an idea. I started researching how the machine detects whether you have won or not and have found that it uses an infrared LED sensor and once it no longer receives the signal from the LED (when the candy falls down the chute) it knows that you're a winner and makes you pay again to play. But, what if you bought an infrared LED and shined it at the detector. Wouldn't it keep on thinking that your a loser and letting you keep on playing while you start gathering a pile of candy at the bottom of the machine? I'm skeptical about it working but, why not give it a shot?

11.28.2008

Guy Builds His Own Jet Fighter

When Arthur van Poppel found some online plans on how to build a jet fighter he took them pretty seriously. He actually built the thing! While his homemade jet won't ever take flight he can actually drive it. The jet has a scaled down version of the real thing and has collapsible wings so that he can fit it in tight spaces.



"Apart from a crafty piece of machinery, the Jet Fighter is especially some spectacular entertainment, full of surprises! In the cockpit, one finds sound equipment and a monitor with surveillance cameras. Apart from this, the Jet Fighter has many sound effects and visual entertainment, such as smoke-, water- and confetti-effects, to surprise its audience again and again. These effects can also be controlled from a distance. The spectators will be amazed!"

Via- Muziekkunstenaar

11.27.2008

CNC Hexapod Robot



Matt Denon, a dedicated robotics expert has built the worlds first CNC machine that can walk on the material that it's getting ready to cut. He uses the Hexapod robot, which you can now buy at his store, played around with the programing, and added a drill bit. Although it only can go through styrofoam and high density foam right now, Matt is looking into the possibilities of it cutting wood and he plans on using a smaller drill bit for a clearer model. However, he has come a long way from when he first started because originally it used a marker to draw pictures. Way to go Matt!

11.26.2008

5 Minute Christmas Light Controller


Max from ZedoMax built an automated Christmas light controller. All that you have to do if you want one of your own is go to his website, copy the code that he already provides, and then send it to the CuSB22R board that is shown in the video. Here is a parts list:

1. CuSB22R from | cubloc.com
2. AC power cord (like the one for your computer or get it here: cubloc.com)
3. AC Connectors from Home Depot (You can get more depending on how many Christmas Lights you are trying to control,
remember you can also put Christmas lights in series per relay)
bunch of wires

In the video it shows him controlling only three strands of lights but, you can add up to seven more. Plus, you can have more than one set of lights in a strand. What's even better is that, if you feel the need to, you can edit the code for the lights to change the blinking rate or you can change it all together to make objects look animated.

11.25.2008

Giant Ceiling Clock


When Realities United, an architectural design company, was put to the task of building a creative lighting design in a building in New York they sure did. They decided to use industrial fluorescent bulbs to create a clock to display the time which served as both a light source for the room and an information display. It uses two seven segment displays, designed to look like a giant LCD clock, to display the time in minutes. What I want is this concept to be implemented into a room, act as an alarm clock, and then flash to wake you up (just a thought)

11.24.2008

Old Fasion DIY Calculator


Aaron from Arron Adding Machines.Com makes and sells "antique calculators" He hand makes each of them using old wood that he finds from various places and gives them a nice antique stain. Then he drills holes in it and adds buttons from Radio Shack which hook up to a circuit board that goes to a red led display. Although this wouldn't be too hard to make it's still a great idea so good job Aaron!

11.22.2008

Worlds Coolest Keyboard

While many people are building wooden keyboards and others are making their keyboards completely black there is one that completely blows away the competition. It is called the Optimus Keyboard and each individual key is an led display that can be changed depending on what you are
doing.

For example, if you are using Photoshop than the keys can serve as shortcut buttons or if you are playing a game than they can be the buttons to control your character like in the picture below.

However, if you are now convinced that you need on than you may want to reconsider because, it will cost you over $1500. Yes, that's right $1500. But, maybe if you wait a while the price will drop (I sure hope so because I would love one of those on my desk) and maybe even one day they'll have them installed on laptop keyboards.

11.20.2008

How to Save a Hard Copy of your Wii Games



For those of you who are prone to scratching or loosing your games for the Wii there is an easy way to back them up. First off, you will need:
-Homebrew Channel
-SD Card
-Computer With DVD-R Burner
-DVD-Rs (The higher quality the better)
-Wii (Duh)
-ImgBurn
Once you are sure that you have it all or at least have access to it than read this Instructalble on how to make it. It will only take a little while and involves minimal skill.

11.18.2008

Shut Down Your Computer With a Text Message


If you have ever left your house without turning off your computer and you need to turn it off for whatever reason but, don't want to go home than you can set your computer up with this program. It takes only a few minutes to do and even though it really isn't practicle, although it could be (I guess), it is pretty cool. For a little more fun you can set this up on a friends or family members computer and have a little fun :-).

11.16.2008

PS3 Hack- Upgrade Your Hard Drive



Upgrading your hard drive on your psp is much easier than you may think. Instead of paying hundreds more for a ps3 with a 160 GB hard drive just buy one with a 20 GB one and buy a 160 GB hard drive for about $130.00 which will end up costing you the same amount of money. Plus you'll have an extra 20 GB drive that you can use to make your own hard drive clock.

11.11.2008

Connect Your IPod To Your Car's Stereo


For those of you with newer cars you may not need this hack since, most newer cars come with an IPod input jack. However, most of us don't have the newest cars and would like to find a way to connect our IPod's to our car's stereo without buying different things to help us do it like an FM transmitter or a diskette that connects to your IPod. Well, now you can. You need to take off your dash panel. Do this by unscrewing the screws on the side of most panels. If your panel doesn't have screws you'll have to get a flathead screwdriver and gently pry it out. Once you have it off, find the two RCA jacks (they are red and white and are commonly used for an additional input device such as a cd player.) Once you have found them you'll need to make a quick trip to your local Radio Shack and ask then for a Y cable (you shouldn't have any trouble getting one). When you have the cable take the side with two female adapters and plug them into the two RCA jacks. Then, just put the dash panel back on (remember to leave the other end of the Y cable sticking out.) Once you have it installed just plug in the Y cable into the headphones jack of your IPod and play a song.

11.10.2008

Blender Defender


If you have a cat that just won't get off the counter than the Blender Defender may be the project for you. Mark was fed up with that so he built a system so that when his cat jumped on the counter it triggered the blender and a strobe light to go off. Like that isn't cool enough, he also has a video camera facing the blender to see how to cat reacts if he's away and the video is sent to his phone directly after it is recorded. For those of you interested, plan on spending about $164.00 if you already have a blender (the main part of the cost is the camera so if you already have one you are in good shape!)and will take a few hours to set up. Please check out his website, even if you don't plan on building it, for some videos of it in action.

11.09.2008

One Handed XBox Controller

Ben Heck, a dedicated modder who strives to help others by hacking gadgets(he was also the one who made the game console laptops featured on our site in the past and the one who made the other famous one handed controller that you can buy here), has build a one handed XBox controller for those who can't use two hands for whatever reason. He got the idea from a serviceman in Iraq who had been injured and had lost one of his hands. I think that the whole thing turned out great. For the link to the page on how he built it click here.

11.07.2008

Make Your Own USB Powered Fridge




If you have ever wanted to keep you drinks cool while you surf the web than this is the perfect project for you. The best part, the whole thing will only put you back a mere $2.50.

$5.00 Burglar Alarm




While this make be very simple it is also very cool and doesn't take much time or money to build. So why not?

11.05.2008

Interactive Conversation Detecting Table



This is a pretty neat hack although it serves no real purpose. The creators say that they want it to be a more "cultural piece" and not a "problem solving gadget." To see some pictures visit their flikr page.

Sony's New Organic LED TV



If you think that your new plasma or lcd tv is nice you may need to soon rethink that. Sony has made a 3mm thin (yes, that is 3mm not a typo) telivision using the same technology that cellphone screens use. In addition, when it's off it uses no energy at all and when it's on it uses less than a lightbulb. The TV is also HD however, there is one drawback, it is quite expensive. For the only size available, 11 inches, it will put you back $2,500. But, if you wait a couple of years the price may drop even more and experts are expecting it to replace LCD and plasma TVs in about a decade. For more information please watch the video above.

10.27.2008

Baseball Bat Accelerometer



This is a cool hack on a baseball bat that allows someone to trach the speed of the bat. Also check out the automatic PB&J munchies machine.

10.26.2008

Long Range Laser Listening Device




This is another eavesdropping device that can be used from hundreds of feet away. It works by using a laser pointed at a window and then having a Cadmium Sulfide Photocell capture the laser reflection. The photocell is then connected to a headphone cord which is connected to your computer. Then, all that you need to do is open a sound recording system that you use on your computer and click record. And there you have it, for more information click here.

Turbocharged PC Cooling



If you have ever seen an ad for a "turbo charged", super speed pc than you'll think of a much more litteral meaning whenever you see one from now on. Mark Purney constantly saw many of those ads and finaly decided to do something about it, make his own REAL turbocharged pc. While the thing isn't actualy turbo charged it does use a real turbocharger from an old 90's Mitsubishi Eclipse and uses it to cool down the system. The turbocharger doesn't run at anywhere near max rpm because it is meant to be water-cooled and Mark doesn't want to make the thing any more inpracticle than it already is. He says that he uses it every once and a while for a little fun throughout the day and to show it off to friends but, he uses a regular pc for any daily usage.

Golf Club POV



"So we were thinking about how we could have a POV while making it useful. Well since people like to hit up the driving range or the golf course at times, we figured we could just make a POV out of a golf club. At the same time, we can make it kinda useful too.

As you can see, the letters will go backwards on the back swing and forwards on the forward swing. Ben Hogan’s “Five Lessons” has a good picture of correct swing arc for a golf swing."

If you already have a golf club than the whole projects will cost you about $74.00.

Read More

Send Your Name Into Space- For FREE



NASA is offering people the oppertunity to submit your name and a brief message to them and they will save it on a CD and ship it into space. The CD will be sent with the Kepler spacecraft which will try to discover more planets similar to Earth. If you would like to submit your name visit their website.

10.25.2008

Roomba Controlled via Wiimote



Criss Hughes from The Internet Patrol has posted a hack that he did that allows him to control his Roomba. The wiimote sends signals to the computer which then sends codes to the Roomba via bluetooth. For the code he used and for more details visit his website.

10.22.2008

RC Steam Powered Tank



Here are some of the specs of this steam rolling monster

Engine: Wilesco D49 Marine Double Piston Steam Engine
Boiler: Mamod SE3
Fuel: Alcohol or Solid Fuel Tablets
Chassis & Gearbox: Tamiya 1/16 (Clutch drive, aluminum chassis with metal tracks)
RC: 2 Channel Futaba
Running Time: 10-15 min per full tank of water, pressure at about .75 - 1.5 Bars



The gears all together look amazing. It sure is a piece of machinery. READ MORE

Flatbed Scanner Camera



"I started playing around with my flatbed scanner to see if I could capture images of stuff around it, by holding the scanner in my hand and rotating it as it scanned. This allowed the focusing lens in the scanner to pick up some of the light from the surroundings." Later on Wandel added a motor (see the picture) to move the camera for him which resulted in a much clearer picture. For pictures before and after the motor and for more details visit his site

DIY Rocket Engine

jetZILLA has mad a DIY rocket engine from some coffee mugs, a strainer, some scrap metal, and J-B Weld. The full set of instructions is too long to post so if you are interested just visit the link.

Build a 1/4 Mile Range FM Transmitter



If you've ever wanted to eavesdrop on a conversation from up to 1/4 mile away than you can build this simple and cheap FM transmitter. It is suprisingly high quility and defidently worth the little time and cost.

PARTS:
R1, R4, R6 10K resistor
R2 1Meg resistor
R3 100K resistor
R5 100 ohm resistor
R7 1K resistor
C1, C2 0.1uf capacitor
C3 0.01uf capacitor
C4 5 - 30pf variable capacitor
C5 4.7pf capacitor
Q1, Q2 2N3904 transistor
L1 9 turns of #22 gauge
Microphone Electret Mic
Circuit Board
Battery Clip

It is all easy to solder together and requires no programming!
See the electrical schematic below for more details and visit the original website.

Floating Light Bulb



While many people will think that this was Photoshoped or edited in some way, it wasn't. The lightbulb is held in the air by an electromagnet that keeps the magnets that are hidden inside of the lightbulb about 2.5 inches from the nearest object and is powered wirelessly by a wireless transmit coil. MORE

10.21.2008

The Best Game Console Laptops

We've all seen some of the gaming system laptops and while some are just flat out ugly, some are actually pretty slick and cool. Below are just some pictures of some of the coolest looking gaming system laptops that we could find out there.



This one (above) is personally my favorite since it has the built in Blue-Ray player, a keyboard, and it just looks cool, plus the PS3 has insanely good graphics and games

The essential specs:

Original backwards compatible 60GB model
17-inch LCD HDTV screen: 720p
HDMI-DVI connection (same as last Xbox 360 laptop)
Built-in keyboard, USB ports, stereo speakers, headphone jack
Size: 17 x 13.75 x 3-inches
Weight: 16 pounds!

Check out this page about Ben Hecks laptop's and on information on how to build one of your own.



The Wii laptop looks great and is nice and compact, but is sort of pointless because the purpose of a laptop is to be able to use it while you are sitting down, or on a plane, ect. However, since this is a Wii laptop it requires you to move around. It just doesn't make too much sense to me.



This XBox laptop it the nicest that I have seen out there. There isn't too much to say about it, but look at the picture below to see another XBox laptop that was made and just use it as a comparison. It is put inside of a briefcase!

Power Generating Shoe


While this DIY water turbine shoe may not be going on sale in stores anytime soon, it is still pretty cool (and after all it is a homemade DIY project... what would you expect). Whenever you step down water is forced through a miniature water turbine which then goes through a tube that goes back into the sole of the shoe. This version of the shoe may not be practical for everyday usage, but if the hardware was all packed into the bottom it may actually be a good way to get "free energy".

The Geek Scooter


ThoughtLab has taken a new Vino scooter and decided to make it into the ultimate geek machine. "The end result was a rolling system capable of long distance war driving, GPS navigation, Skype calls on the road and the ability to record TV programs so you don’t miss Lost because you are lost."
Their website has some great instruction on how they did this project and many more pictures.

10.20.2008

Giant DIY LED Clock



This giant clock from SparkFun looks expensive and hard to build however, it is made mostly of styrofoam, fiberboard and green LED strips. The whole thing is controlled by a simple circuit and didn't cost much to build. See the picture below for a better understanding of the basic design.

Homemade RC Airsoft Turret


Invent Geek has built their very own remote controlled airsoft turret that it made using parts salvaged from an old airsoft gun, some servos, plexiglass, and some hardware. It shoots 1500 rounds per minute and can hold tens of thousands of bb's. Their website has step-by-step instructions but don't plan on making one unless you have about $200.00 to burn. Below you can see the turret in action.

10.19.2008

Guitar Hero LED Mod



Guitar Hero rocks, but it really needs some lights to liven up the virtual shredding.

What to do? Cram in some LEDs!

Maker Faire is Over

The third Maker Faire was a HUGE success! The estimated turnout was 100,000 people. People from all over the world came to show off and see projects. Watch the video below for some of the faires highlights.

Cell Phone Detector

Circuit Projects has made a sort of pointless yet cool gadget... a cellphone detector. It is a pretty basic project as long as you have some decent soldering skills. However, the detector can only pickup signals and not the actual conversation since the signals are encrypted. Below the picture is the complete list from the website

R1, R5 : 100K 1/4W Resistor
R2, R6 : 1k 1/4W Resistor
R3, R7 : 8.2M 1/4W Resistor
R4, R8 : 220 Ohm 1/4W Resistor
R9 : 2.2K 1/4W Resistor
D1, D2 : BAT43 Schottky Diode
C1, C2, C4 : 100nF Polyester Capacitor
C3 : 100uF 16V Electrolytic Capacitor
L1, L2 : See Text
U1 : LM358
J1 : 8 Pin Socket
J2 : Stereo Jack
1 x 9V Battery
1 x 9V Battery Socket
1 x LED
1 x On/Off Switch

10.18.2008

RC Car Controlled by IPhone

Nerd Kits.com has created some hardware to allow your IPhone to connect to an R/C car controller via the Internet which then sends the signals to the RC car. You control the car by moving your finger in different parts of a box that is on the IPhone screen which in turn moves the car in that direction.

DIY Halloween Spider Webs

While most people go to stores like Wal-Mart or Party City to buy some commercially made cotton spider webs, you can make your own by making your own web-shooter. Not only is it really cool, but it also makes Hollywood style webs, because it is actually almost the same process that they use in most movies to make webs. For more instructions see the video below and go to the Instructables web page.


Self Balancing Table

At the Retis Laboratory of Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna a team of engineers and DIYer's built a table that automatically tilts to make a ball stay on it even when the ball is pushed or dropped. The team uses a touch screen to locate the position of the ball and two servo motors to adjust the table. See the video below to watch the table in action. See their website for more details.

DIY Animatronic Hand




A pretty cool Halloween prop. It would be cool to add some servos to make it automated. View the Instructable here.

LED Hard Drive Clock



Ian
has made an LED hard drive clock by using flashing LED's and a spinning CD with a slit in it to create patterns. He uses an LED strip from Super Bright LED's and programed the whole thing himself. The CD spins at 90 RPM which tricks the human eyes into thinking that it isn't flashing which is the reason that we see solid patterns. The thing, as you can hear from the video, is pretty loud, but later on Ian plans on building a plexiglass case to enclose the project to reduce the sound levels.

10.16.2008

Evaporation PC Cooling System?



Whoever made this thing sure has an imagination! We think that he has built an evaporation based PC cooling system. As interesting as this sounds it seems to work. He has some not to detailed plans on his website, but it's pretty cool to look at.

Weed Wacker Blender


If you think that you have a nice blender you may want to rethink that. Brett decided that he'd try to find a use for his old weed wacker engine from when he was a kid and he sure did! He took the engine and used it to power a blender, but that's not all. He is a huge drag racing fan and created his own miniature starting lights (christmas tree) as well as a nice looking RPM gauge and a cool trigger to power the speed as well as a cool LCD display. His favorite part.... The fact that he gets crouds to walk away from the drag race just to see his blender.

10.15.2008

New Discovery Show "Prototype This" Better than Expected


"If you're a fan of things like MythBusters, Make magazine, Burning Man, the do-it-yourself movement and the like, you are probably going to love Prototype This!

The basic theme of Prototype This! is that the four hosts, Terry Sandin, Zoz Brooks, Mike North, and Joe Grand take their combined skills and use each episode to conceive of and craft some entirely new design, product, or technology. The end result? A full season of prototypes that are off-the-wall, entirely practical, and everything in between." -CNet News

Insanely Cool DIY Electric Guitar

Dan Wagoner decided to go all out on his first re-born electric guitar. He took apart a sound generator from "Music From Outer Space" and placed the knobs and buttons into the guitars body. You can also see him expressing his creativity and love for DIY projects by looking at the pick guard he made from a real motherboard.



(ABOVE)The "Music From Outer Space" sound generator.
(BELOW)The finished guitar

Hack a Wind-Up Flashlight for Emergancy Cellphone Battery



Hack A Flashlight To Power Your...! - video powered by Metacafe

A DIY video on how to hack a wind-up flashlight for a power source for any cellphone or PDA. All you need is a wind-up flashlight, a cellphone charger, and a cellphone or PDA.

Worlds First Fan LED Sign



The Ultimate Sports Fan Sign!! - video powered by Metacafe

Another video by KipKay. What a great idea!

Ferris Bueller's Day Off Intercom Prank

Matt Meerian decided that he wanted to try to build a near replica of the intercom the Ferris Bueller used to try to fool his teacher into thinking that he was sick in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Matt searched on EBay for the same intercom that they used in the movie but, he couldn't find it so he just found an old intercom that looked like it had been outside for a while. He uses a Vinculum VMusic2 MP3 player as the main hardware for the intercom. The Vinculum VMusic2 MP3 player allows him to just plug in a thumbdrive into it and allows for the easy ability to jump from one sound file to another. If you are interested in building one of these intercoms for yourself or if you just want to see more information regarding how to build it visit Matt's website.


10.14.2008

New Discovery Show- Prototype This Premiers Tomorrow

The new Discovery show Prototype This premiers tomorrow (10/15/08). The Show involves four engineers who try to make a prototype of ridiculously insane ideas. Check out the schedule from the discovery site bellow and for show dates and episodes.


MIND CONTROLLED CAR - October 15 @ 10 e/p
Our team of inventors attempts to prototype a car that utilizes biofeedback sensors to restrict a cars performance as its driver's agitation level increases. Joe and Zoz will use cutting edge biofeedback and mind control technologies as the brains of the prototypes while Terry and Mike retrofit the test cars for an extreme test to prove the concept: a demolition derby where road rage is inevitable.

BOXING ROBOTS - October 22 @ 10 e/p
The prototype team looks into the future of gaming -- and giant, boxing robots are what they see. Joe and Zoz utilize a technology called optical glyph tracking to allow the robots to register and mimic their human counterparts' boxing movements while Mike is charged with dressing the metallic skeletons and Terry with building the metal beasts themselves. And then it's into the boxing ring for a metallic monster slugfest!

TRAFFIC BUSTING TRUCK - October 29 @ 10 e/p
The boys take on the challenge of building a car that will beat traffic by rising up -- and driving over it. And as an added bonus, the lift allows the vehicle to find parking like nothing else on wheels. The key to this build is a set of amazing wheels that can move in all directions without actually turning.

GET UP AND GO - November 5 @ 10 e/p
The team of engineers attempts to invent a space-age sleeping pod that gets you up, fed, showered, groomed, dressed, informed and out the door in a matter of minutes. Initial attempts to automate things like shaving and eating turn out to be either scary or messy, but some surprising breakthroughs pave the way for a triumphant public demonstration.

WATERSLIDE SIMULATOR - November 12 @ 10 e/p
No water theme park is complete without a long run on a water slide, but what do you do when you don't have the room in your backyard? Let the the laws of physics give you a ride! In what may be their most massive build, the team puts together an amazing, fun-filled "slide-in-a-ring" and then turns on the hose for some aquatic fun.

SIX-LEGGED ALL TERRAIN VEHICLE - November 19 @ 10 e/p
Inspired by the "legs" of an innovative robot called RHex, the prototypers decide to use this basic design with its synchronized alternating tripod gait and build it BIG! What first appears as a simple upscaling project becomes a real challenge when the team discovers that size can change everything.

Pop-Up Coffin

This is a pop-up coffin that the Halloween Prop Master has made of PVC pipe, a screen door closer, some plywood, a $6.00 Walmart mask, an old tux, and a sprinkler valve along with some other non-essential things for an added "scare".
Check out the Propmaster's website for more complete instructions, videos, and many other Halloween prop ideas.

Sawdust Air Cannon Explosion


Sawdust Cannon. from Ben Stone on Vimeo.

(Above) This is the original sawdust air cannon from Ben Stone. (Below) The Mythbusters tested the great air cannon out to see if it was really possible or if there were some other things in the cannon besides sawdust.


I was a little sceptical at first until I saw the Mythbusters confirm the myth... What a great idea!

Portable Generators

BAE Systems, a major hybrid bus manufacturer is thinking about the possibility of using the energy left over that is stored in the bus's batteries as an energy source in the result of an emergancy in their newest generation of buses. The companies current buses are also hybrids but don't use the newest lithium-ion energy storage technology to improve the amount of power generated. The current buses from BAE Systems that are in use already are saving cities 40% less to maintain and 24% less to operate than the earlier hybrid buses. The new bus will even reduce the operating and maintenence costs even more and more importanly serve as mobile generators to supply power to essential things in the result of an emergency such as hospitals (the company estimates that on a 100 gallon tank of fuel the bus could power a 12,400 square foot hospital for 22 hours.

Animatronic Pumpkin Head Monster

This is an animatronic pumpkin head monster created by Woddy, a self taught animatronics expert. Woddy even made the local news with his creation. You can view his Youtube page for even more videos of his monster before and after it was completed.

10.13.2008

BPExplorer- Drive a Real Robot in Australia

BPExplorer is an online game that allows you to drive a REAL robot all the way over in Australia. You first go to there website and join the waiting list. While you waiting you can view the live webcams of the other robots in action. Then, after a little waiting it's your turn to drive and you have complete control of "your" robot for 4 minutes. You can also extend the 4 minute time limit by entering codes from the course. However, these robots are part of BP's clean energy program so they are solar powered and only work when it's daytime in Australia.

Halloween Animated LED Lights


Here is a picture from Daughtery of his finished animated LED Halloween eyes. He uses an LMDriver Platform and the whole think is driven by an Atmel ATMega169 Micro controller. Check out his website for the video which really shows how cool these things really are because, the picture doesn't do a justice. He also has the code that he used and is selling them on his website so for anyone interested just visit the link.

10.12.2008

PSP Controlled with a PS2 Controller

"Blizzrad" has found a way to mod a PS2 controller to work with a PSP. Just visit the link for more information on how to make it.

What a 100,000 amp Capacitor Bank Does to a Quarter

This is unlike many other hacks on this website due to the fact that you can't do it at home..... well, unless you have access to a 100,000 amp capacitor bank