2015

Name the Thing Contest – 279

  The prize this week is a HMC5883L Triple Axis Compass Magnetometer Sensor so you can add some directionality to your next project. This contest will run for one week (April 25- May 1, 2015). 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

Arduino Mega based Speedometer and Tachometer

  Gravi Capa is building a great looking Arduino Mega based speedometer and tachometer. It is still a work in progress and hopefully Gravi shares all the build details when he is complete. You can see the display performing a self test above and a rev test below when he tied it into his Honda motorcycle. The LED based display should look great in all lighting conditions!  

Dead Macbook Pro Logic Board Diagnosis

  Louis Rossmann shows us how he troubleshoots a Dead Macbook Pro Logic Board. He goes deep into the diagnosis using his microscope and a nice big monitor to nicely view the schematic. You can tell that he has been through this circuit many times since it seems to be a familiar as the back of his hand.  “Here I diagnose a board that has issues on PP3V42_G3H which caused issues with the

DIY Mini Gimbal Project

  There are quite a few camera gimbal projects around. They allow for smooth fluid video capture even when hand held or mounted to things like quad copters. You can purchase kits and fully assembled systems but by looking at a few and getting an idea of the basics you should have enough knowledge to build your own.         

DIY Animatronic Puppet Head

  The Ben Heck Show has a cool DIY Animatronic Puppet Head project. This project listens for speech and moves the puppet mouth accordingly.  “In this episode Ben sets out to help Backflip films with their upcoming puppet movie The Princess Knight. The film requires its actors to memorize prerecorded dialogue in order to match it with the mouth of a puppet. In this episode Ben sets out to create an animatronic

Name the Thing Contest – 278

  The prize this week is a HMC5883L Triple Axis Compass Magnetometer Sensor so you can add some directionality to your next project. This contest will run for one week (April 19- 24, 2015). 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 @

BB-8 Robot

   The BB8 Robot looks amazing, there is a lot of discussion how it is done. My bet is that there is a heavy drive mechanism in the marge sphere with an arm that can turn and tilt, This is them magnetically coupled to the top piece which simply sits on wheels.