November 2009

Knock Lock - Unlock a Door with a Secret Knock

  Piezoelectric elements can be used to make sound or detect sound. Steve Hoefer has made a Knock Lock, which is a device that can listen to knocks on the door. If the sequence of knocks is the same as the recorded knock sequence it unlocks the deadbolt on the door. Steve was the guy who also made the Dice Reading Machine. Via: Zedomax "While working on another project I

SCUBACRAFT - Personal Submarine

  Not exactly the most common boat you will see at your local boat launch. The SCUBACRAFT Personal Submarine will be available in 2010. There is an interview over at James List that you may be interested in if you have some extra cash burning a hole in your pocket.   "The modular configuration allows for the electric system to be removed and replaced as necessary, adding extra batteries for

DIY Foam Cutting CNC Machine

  Mitch Schoch from SimpleVoice.com built an interesting 4 axis DIY Foam Cutting CNC Machine. It has lots of control since all 4 motors can be driven independently. His design is modular, he has used phone jacks and 24 gauge phone cable to provide power the motors. Everything was purchased from the local hardware store so there are no exotic parts in the unit. From the video he looks to

PICkit 3 Programmer/Debugger Microchip Video

  Dave Jones from the EEVblog did a review of the PICkit 3 Programmer/Debugger. Watch the video above but to sum it up he was not impressed with the new version. The video below is a video that Microchip made in response to Dave’s video review. Lets just say that I am VERY impressed by Microchip putting together this great video poking fun at themselves and on such short notice.