January 2012

Capricious Clock  - Crazy Time Clock

     When I was living the cubicle like it sometimes seemed what time either flew by or slowed to a crawl. This Capricious Clock by our friend Pete Mills makes the second hand move in some strange ways which makes it makes the seconds tick by the way time sometimes feels. 🙂  “The code keeps track of the 1pps pulses coming from the quartz clock movement, it delays for

Exuberant Clock

  Dave Molmen has sent in the picture build log of his custom Exuberant Clock. The clock concept is very interesting. The center of the clock slowly rotates, to read the time all you need to do is see which slot the brass circle is in, this is the hour representation and what minute indication it is beside. The clock face moves the brass indicator across the minute number one per

How to Fix a Worn out Video Game Controller

  Viktor sent in a great tutorial on How to Fix a Worn out Video Game Controller. Most remote controls use rubber membranes that have conductive end that press against the circuit board when pushed. The circuit board has some gold fingers that get shorted out to register the button press. Viktor uses some metal foil on the rubber membrane to bring the controller back to life. This trick should

Wifi Garage Door Opener Project Build

    Tod from d’innovative wanted a way to control his garage door remotely. Have a look at his Wifi Garage Door Opener Project Build for some inspiration when you are ready to build yours. If you are looking for some other options be sure to check out some of the ones we have featured in the past. Thanks for sending this in Tod “A wifi garage door opener that

A look inside a 270mW RGV Laser Show System

  Laser shows are really cool, Matt from Openschemes cracks into one to show us what the inside looks like. “The device under investigation will be the CASA CTL-BM RGV Laser Show.  This is a 3-beam laser projector with Red, Green, and Blu-Ray Violet lasers.  It’s legal status for commercial use is doubtful at best, and the safety aspects are extremely suspect due to the use of DPSS green and

Carnival Style Breathalyzer

  Here is a great use for a ton of shiftbrights, it’s a DIY breathalyzer that uses an Arduino to monitor a Gas/Alcohol sensor and display the results on a big row of LEDs. Via: LED Projects “The 25 Shiftbrite modules are lined up in a column, which is connected to an Arduino tucked away in a cardboard box and are powered by a 4.5volt 500mA adapter. The Arduino takes readings from

CNC Solar Woodburner

  Remember burning things with magnifying glasses when you were young.  Johnie Sublett built this CNC Solar Woodburner for us to reclaim our youth and start burning things with the power of the sun again. It uses a fresnel lens to concentrate the sun and a CNC platform to automatically move the piece being burned around. “Here is the parts: Scrap Acryllic (like from my High School’s engineering academy) Metal