2014

DIY 100W LED Flashlight

  With high output LEDs falling in price it might finally be the time to add them into some inexpensive projects. Julian Ilett made a holder using a chunk of wood where a few power tool batteries can slide into. The LED is bolted to some metal which will allow it to run for some time but not long durations since the LED module does generate quite a bit of

QSC A21 Amplifier Repair

  Maxxarcade demonstrates a QSC A21 Amplifier Repair, the defective amp would blow the fuse on power up. He has an interesting technique of using a variac and a low wattage light bulb in series with the power input to lessen the current draw to prevent additional damage. The over current prevention technique didn’t allow the amp to draw enough power to work properly and sound good but it proved

iPhone Unlocks Door with the help of a Raspberry Pi a Wood Spoon and a Tea Cup

  Fabrizio Giordano used some items in his kitchen to allow him to remotely unlock his apartment door. When you are in an apartment you will quickly eat up your damage deposit if you start drilling holes for wires and screw things to the walls and doors. With a bit of tape and some wires hanging in some creative ways Fabrizio was able to mount his unlocking mechanism so that

DIY Four-Terminal Kelvin Sensing Connection

  If you are taking very low resistance measurements you have a few options. Many meters have a low ohms mode where you are able to zero out the meter resistance but the best method is using a Four-Terminal ohm meter and appropriate connection. In the video above ROBRENZ shows us some typical issue with the clips that are currently available and as a machinist he also demonstrates with some

Remote Flower Watering Project

  Lucy Matchett, Nicole Yi Messier, and Joselyn McDonald used Spacebrew to make this Remote Flower Watering Project. This fun little project uses a photoresistor to detect when a watering cup has been lifted off the base and sends this information to the remote unit, the remote unit then pours the water that has been prepared onto the plant using a small servo motor.The only issue is that someone on

Dummy Load Water Bucket

  When you need to ensure your power supply is up to snuff a dummy load is often used when it isn’t feasible to test with the real load. You will often see this on a big scale when load testing emergency generators. Normally you would use a large resistive load that is air cooled by fans.  Mikeselectricstuff demonstrates his array of resistive loads but for a new project he

Name the Thing Contest – 249

  The prize this week is an Arduino Pro Mini. This contest will run for one week (February 23 – 28, 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 @