August 2014

Name the Thing Contest – 257

    The prize this week is an SD Card Reader. This contest will run for one week (August 24 – 29, 2014). Ending time is based on central standard time. To enter, identify the item above and what it can be used for. Please note the image above is a side view of the thing. Please do not give the answer in the comments. Send an email to contest

 DIY Adjustable Electrical Load

    Our friends over at Electro Labs have a  DIY Adjustable Electrical Load project posted. There are lots of adjustable load projects out there, they can come in handy when developing your next project so you should consider building one. The heart of this one is a IRF3710 MOSFET, it simply dumps the required energy into the large board mounted  heatsink. “Since the MOSFET works as a resistive element,

DIY Component Tester - Transistor, Capacitor, Inductor, Resistor Meter

  If you are looking for a DIY meter project have a look at this DIY Component Tester (translated),  it tests Transistors, Capacitors, Inductors and Resistors. It is AVR based and is very flexible, in most cases you can just jam in a device and press the button to analyze the device. “Automatic detection of NPN and PNP transistors, N-and P-channel MOSFETs, diodes, thyristors, inductors, triacs, resistors and capacitors. Measure

MESR-100 ESR Meter Review and Teardown

  I wanted an in-circuit ESR meter (equivalent series resistance meter) to aid in determining the condition of  electrolytic capacitors without the need of desoldering them first. When capacitors fail you will often have some signs of failure such as bulging of the capacitor top. Starting in approximately 2002 and continuing till about 2010 there was a glut of high failure rate capacitors on the market which found their way

Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine - Free Subscription

  If you are an electronics professional there is no way to keep up with the latest developments in electronic technology than to read what large military budgets are able to dream up. You can subscribe for the free print or digital edition of Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine in the Hacked Gadgets free technical magazine store. You may want to use your alternative email address when signing up though

Binary Wrist Watch

    Check out this great Binary Wrist Watch. It’s a true watch for the geek since most won’t be able to read it! Via: Dangerous Prototypes “The time setting mode can be entered by holding the left button for two seconds. After that the display is blanked and the time can be set bit by bit by switching through the bits by pressing the left button. If the bit

Mini MAME Cabinet

    If you are going to be building a MAME cabinet, you should have a look at the Mini MAME Cabinet that Greg Kennedy built for some tips. He built this thing from scratch and kept the costs down, using some older electronics was a great way get some use out of the hardware that might not have had a use otherwise. The hand made cabinet turned out very