 Pendulum clocks are wonderful works of art but they aren’t always the most accurate time keepers. Keith, who we featured back in 2009 for his Servo Guitar has built an automated solution to keep pendulum clocks in time. He uses a hall effect sensor to monitor the pendulum swings. An Arduino circuit is configured to count the number of transitions on the AC power supply that feeds the
Looking for a new powerful development environment to hack together some quick powerful projects? Have a look at the Espruino. It is a JavaScript Interpreter for STM32 ARM Microcontrollers which will let you get up and running fast because there is no IDE running on your computer. Just connect to the device and start programming. The pricing looks very attractive also. Thanks for sending in the tip Gordon. “How
There are some projects that provide you with hours of enjoyment. This Color Organ is one of those types of projects since you can play different songs and watch the dancing colors. Ledartist goes through all of the parts needed for the project and some of the issues in developing the circuit. Hearing about problems is great since you can learn what not to do without going down the
 The prize this week is a breadboard power supply. This contest will run for one week (January 13 2013 – January 18, 2013). 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 email to contest @ hackedgadgets.com with “Name the Thing Contest” as the subject,
David Prutchi has just put together a DIY Gamma-Ray Probe using a Philips XP5312/SN photomultiplier tube and a piece of scintillation plastic. A paint can was selected as a nice solid enclosure, the tube and plastic are supported by some foam on the inside to protect them from damage. “The probe yields a background count of approximately 1,000 counts/minute (cpm) in our lab, and 7,400 cpm from a 137Cs
You might remember a few years ago when I shared how I monitor my running CNC machine. Looks like Dave from Plastibots has added a cool twist to the idea. Dave uses a wireless IP camera to monitor his equipment but he also came up with a way to wirelessly e-stop the machine by remotely pressing the escape button if the system is acting up. Instead of coming up
 If you like to dig through your bag of skittles to eat all of one color before moving on to the next this Skittles Sorting Machine might be just for you. It uses a BASIC Stamp 2 to control the system. A few sensors and actuators get the job of sorting done. The main thing at work here is a TAOS color sensor, this sensor allows the stamp
