October 2007

Car PC Controller using PIC Microcontroller
Complex Hacks

16

LUWE SYGABU has installed a totally custom car PC into his 2006 Honda Civic. It has a microcontroller brain that controls the power on/off of the computer along with monitoring other things such as temperature. Video and construction pictures after the jump. “I got my shutdown controller completed and it’s pretty sweet. It displays to a 16 x 2 character display which I mounted into the dash that displays loading

Tesla CD Turbine
Crazy Hacks

10

  I don’t think this engine is very efficient or reliable but sure looks like lots of fun to build. 🙂 However I wouldn’t recommend spinning a saw blade at high RPM when it is magnetically connected to a plastic CD cake box. “The Making of the Tesla CD Turbine Prototype is the story of how the Tesla CD Turbine came into being. It starts with the initial thought process

Electronic Halloween Pumpkins
Electronic Hacks

3

Here are a few cool Electronic Halloween Pumpkins to give you some ideas when you are carving yours this year. If you have some cool designs you want to share, add them to the Hacked Gadgets Forum (doesn’t have to be electronic). Videos after the jump. Via: Make and Hacked Gadgets Forum

Peltier Cooler
Computer Hacks

18

Have a look at this High School Peltier Cooling system, the bars make it look real high tech. Have a look here for more information about peltier devices. “This little project is what really got me excited in engineering way back in High School. Two other students and I decided to build a computer cooling system that fit in 2 cd-rom slots and cooled he air entering the case. In

LED Fan Clock
Complex Hacks

6

A microcontroller, a computer, a single RGB LED and a handfull of supporting components is all that is required to make this very interesting LED Fan Clock! “While I haven’t found an use for a led-fan yet, the thinking process did give me another idea: It’s possible to create a steady image of a fan using a stroboscope, which is nothing more than a device to create precisely-timed flashes of

Name the Thing Contest - 26
Contests

12

Congratulation to the last contest winner. This weeks prize would be perfect to mount your camera on and document your hacks. 🙂 This contest will run for this weekend only (October 27- 28, 2007) . Ending time is based on central standard time. To enter, identify the item pictured above and give an example of what can be done with it. Please do not give the answer in the comments.