January 2009

DIY Vinyl Cutter from a HP Draftmaster RX Pen Plotter

  Technology will come and go, if you can come up with a good idea for the dying technology you may be able to create some cool toys on the cheap. That’s the case with pen plotters, from what I have seen most are being phased out and replaced with large roll inkjet printers. Steve invested some time and effort finding an old large format plotter, converted it into a

Tango Electric Car - Good in Snow and Faster than the Tesla

  We have all seen the amazing Tesla, it is a beautiful electric car that has some huge off the line power. When I first saw the Tango I thought it was s joke, but on second glance this Tango has some surprising power hiding under that strange body style. This car is half the size of a normal car but has faster acceleration than the Tesla roadster! Even though

Guess the Price Contest

  We are going to try a new contest idea that I think should be lots of fun. Let me know what you think of the contest idea. Above is an ad that is quite old, the source and date will not be given to add to the challenge. This contest will run for one week (Jan 17 – Jan 22, 2009) . Ending time is based on central standard

Penny Heatsink

  Next time you are building a project and find a component running a bit hot you may want to look in your pocket for a few pennies to solve the problem. This Penny Heatsink idea is a nice idea since I can think of a number of times that I have bolted on expensive heatsinks when I only needed a bit of heat dissipation but a large heat sink

Beehive Monitoring System - PIC32 Microcontroller Based

  We had a number of beehives on our farm years ago. Monitoring the health of the hives was a big job and when neglected could spell disaster. This Beehive Monitoring System could mean the end of that problem. Have a look below for a short list of system features. "This project provides a means to monitor honeybee health parameters in a hive, to allow efficient bee management and research

Electric Trike

  Since this Electric Trike was a school project there were lots of cool tools that were are the disposal of Smegger. By the looks of it the electronics and motors are top notch. Video after the jump. "- I used two 12v 32amp batteries – A 75amp 24V speed controller made by 4QD in England- quite pricey but really reliable – 5 LED battery condition meter – Plunger pot

Wii Balance Board controlled Labyrinth Game

  Jestin Stoffel and Vince Thompson of the CCCKC have created a cool Wii Balance Board controlled Labyrinth Game which uses an Arduino microcontroller to handle some of the interface. "Currently the game is using two servos and an Arduino to turn the knobs that move the game surface. I bought my Labyrinth game at a Tuesday Morning store for less than $10. The servos were about $10 each and