January 2012

Electric Skateboard hack driven using a Kinect

  Check out this cool Electric Skateboard hack driven using a Kinect by Chaotic Moons Labs. An all-terrain long skateboard is equipped with a Microsoft’s Kinect controlled by a Windows 8 Samsung Tab. It has an 800 watt electric motor and uses a 36 volt power pack to set it in the motion.   This high tech skateboard works with voice and video recognition and also has accelerometers for feedback. The

LED Lighting Project uses PIR Sensor

    Bogdan Raducanu from Electro Bob has installed some LED Lighting that uses PIR Sensors in his kitchen and bathroom, the LED strips provide sufficient light for the areas and only turn on when someone id in the area because of the motion sensors that have been placed in strategic locations. He has documented his steps so you can also have some automatic lighting in your house. “Tiny PIR

Pacemaker Camera Flash Project

  Who knew pacemakers were so versatile, I thought they only had one purpose. This Pacemaker Camera Flash Project sure proved me wrong. 🙂 David Prutchi sent in his latest project where he has used an old pacemaker as a millisecond timer for high-speed photography. I guess after 20 years designing medical electronic instrumentation and developing 70 patents your electronics junk box has a bunch of medical devices that are

DIY Arduino based LED Stair Lights Automation

An automatic stair lighting system is one which lights each step LED when a user starts to climb or descend.  Erica Kane has developed a similar Open Source DIY Automated LED Stair Lighting system using an Arduino Pro Mini, a M5451 LED Display Driver to power the LEDs and a PING ultrasound distance sensors to detect when someone enters the stairwell. The Eagle schematic file is here and the Arduino Processing

Hacked VNC Server for Jailbroken AppleTV 2G (Exposed)

According to 9to5Mac, Jailbroken AppleTV 2G owners can now enable a VNC server on their black boxes with a new Brandon Holland’s VNC server hack. This will allow you to control the device remotely using apps like Screens running on your PC or Mac. “Finished a quick and dirty VNC server plugin for the 2G that I call “Exposedâ€Â. It’s method for getting screen data isn’t great and lacks some

Voice Controlled Hex Bugs

  Check out this interesting project which uses some remote controlled Hex Bugs. By adding a computer, an IR Toy from our friend Ian and an Arduino Jim Choate has created a way to add voice control to these cool little bug toys. The voice commands are deciphered by custom software running on the computer which was written in C#. If you are interested in having a look at the

Name the Thing Contest – 196

    The prize this week is a jet lighter, just what you need when you are starting that campfire with damp wood. This contest will run for the rest of the year (January 15 – 20, 2012). Ending time is based on central standard time. To enter, identify the item above and what it can be used for. Please do not give the answer in the comments. Send an