2010

Name the Thing Contest - 132

The prize this week is a loupe magnifier, this will let you get a close look at whatever you are working on. This contest will run for one week (May 22 – May 28, 2010) . 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

Hard Disk Drive Oscilloscope

WA5ZNU has made a cool version of the Hard Disk Drive Laser Oscilloscope. For all of those going to the Bay Area Maker Faire look out for it since it will be on display! Via: HG Forum “A local ham club is privileged to have a table at the SF Bay Area Maker Faire next weekend, and one of the demonstrations we’re doing is oscilloscopes. I’ve built this to help

DIY Temperature controlled Soldering Station

A good soldering station can be a big investment. The biggest drawback from a $20 soldering iron is that the tip temperature is not regulated. An inexpensive iron is simply a heating element that is connected to power, the issue with this is that you ideally would like to solder different types of components at different temperatures, and those temperatures should stay consistent. Many people hook up their cheap irons

Nerf Gun Hack - Secure Area and Fire on Intruders - Part 1

UPDATE: The project is complete have a look at everything here. Nerf Gun Hack part 1, part 2, part 3 This is part 1 of a multiple part build of a Nerf Gun Hack which will monitor an area using a infrared beam and fire on anyone who walks through the beam. The goal which is just a loose guideline at this point is to have a microcontroller monitor an

DIY Spinning LED Globe Build Log

We recently saw this Rotating LED Globe that was built by Csaba Bleuer. Gleb left a comment with a link to 32 LED Spinning Globe that his friend Riko built. The site is in Russian but if you use Google Translator you will be able to see that is going on. The design is interesting, power is being delivered by a rotating coil, an ATTiny is the microcontroller and the

Play Tennis with your Quadcopter

For indoor flight this Quadcopter uses 4 Sharp IR sensors, they are able to determine the range of obstacles by bouncing IR light off an object and calculate the angle of return. The flight is amazingly stable, this quadcopter allows for automatic takeoff, landing and hovering. “For the IR range finder (Sharp GP2Y0A02) I needed to use a separate Arduino Pro mini (again we don´t have any analog input free).

Wifi Controlled Coil Gun Turret

Chris Farnell and Michael Helms built this multi-stage coil gun that has a wireless iPhone (or touch or iPad) interface. The project was a year long build while they were at the University of Arkansas taking Electrical Engineering. “What begins as a simple project grows in the minds of able youth. The credit for the four stage coil gun and the 8051 controlled charging circuitry goes to Chris Farnell. I