October 2008

Energy Monitoring Project

  Tim Robinson wanted to know how much energy his household was spending on gas and electricity. How convenient was it that the gas meter that was installed has a rotating magnet! A switch that is commonly used for door alarm switches looks like the perfect match. Have a look at the project site for some details of his gas and electrical monitoring solution. "The goal was to find a

WowWee Rovio Hack allows Wiimote Control

  The WowWee Rovio robot looks like a great robot on its own but with some extra software from our friends at Robots Rule it can be controlled using a Wiimote! "To run Robodance in conjunction with the WowWee Rovio spy robot you will need A personal computer running Windows 2000 or better. If you want to control your Rovio over the Web with a Nintendo Wii Remote you will

Crazy Zoetrope like Creations

  These three creations are not exactly Zoetrope creations. But they take the idea to the next level. The first example uses a record player to turn the work at a known rate, then by viewing the piece at a particular frame rate the background of the image appears to be static and the objects seem to interact! The videos below are Burning Man creations by Peter Hudson that use

Sawdust Cannon - Proven by Mythbusters

  This experiment is one of those things that looks too simple but it has been proven by Mythbusters to be true. A large container is filled with sawdust, a road flare is stuck in the top and some compressed air is released in the bottom of the sawdust container. The results are amazing! I would have been one of the skeptics if I didn’t see the recreation by Mythbusters.

FunCount - Frequency Counter

  Nuxie1 has a new Frequency Counter project kit called FunCount, looks like it would be fun to put together. If you act now you can get it on sale for only $20! Kit Page "This kit includes everything needed to build a frequency counter capable of measuring frequencies from 1Hz to over 2MHz. Perfect for use with the FunGen also available. The kit uses the ATTiny2313 Atmel Microcontroller. The

Lego 8291 Fat Boy Motorcycle

  This Lego Fat Boy Motorcycle is a thing of beauty! How cool would it be to build a creation like this that you can drive around when you are done. There is also code available if you want to create you own. Thanks Stagueve

Name the Thing Contest - 63

The prize this week is a clamp meter, it will let you go green by spying on you power consumption with ease. One hint, this item has been featured on Hacked Gadgets in the past so with a little looking you are guaranteed to find it. This contest will run for one week (Oct 11 – Oct 16, 2008) . Ending time is based on central standard time. To enter,