Complex Hacks

Smart Card Hacking

  Chris Tarnovsky, the owner of Flylogic Engineering spoke to Wired about some of his Smart Card Hacking techniques. It involves lots of dangerous acids to burn off some of the protective layers so it isn’t a DIY project. He is able to probe a data bus on the chip and read or inject information! Below is an image from his blog that shows another chip that has been modified

Robot Power Plant

This Robot Power Plant project by Ken Gracey over at Parallax shows how we can get away from using huge batteries for power hungry mobile projects. There are pictures of his second build style after the jump.  "Project Purpose:  To develop an outdoor robot power system which can deliver many more amp-hours of energy than batteries, using a gas engine and a modified automobile alternator. The initial purpose was not to build a robot,

Lego Autopilot

With the Lego NXT being such a versatile platform for building and maintaining projects, I figured I needed to mention this crazy design. Chris Anderson over at diydrones.com built a small RC plane that he transformed into a UAV with a Lego NXT controller and some Robot C code. Any follower of the Lego Mindstorm Series or anyone currently competing in or interested in FIRST robotics will really want to

Fly in Google Earth using the Wii Balance Board

  Matthieu Deru and Simon Bergweiler from the German Research Center have put together an impressive hack that allows you to Fly in Google Earth using the Wii Balance Board "After hours of testing and C# coding, you can now use your Wii Balance Board as a new input device."  

Panel Meter Clock

  I love the look of the old fashioned Box Simpson Meters. Have a look at this project that turns three meters into a functional clock! If that wasn’t enough it even synchronizes its time using NTP.  "Each meter driver is a single opamp used to sum two signals, scale them and output the result to the meter. One signal is a voltage set between -12V and +12V (actually less

Turbine Jet-Boat

  This Turbine Jet-Boat is one fast ride. Looks like 1370 horse power is just enough for a wild water ski ride that you won’t forget. "The T58-GE-8F turbine that is going in Squirt 2. It weighs 350 lbs and produces 1,370 hp @ 6000 rpm. That’s about 1,200lbs-ft of torque! The hull shown in the photos below is a 21ft aluminum white water race boat built by Eagle Power

Ethernet Controlled Security System

  Ahmad Masri has used an inexpensive ethernet chip called the WIZ5100 to create a simple but flexible ethernet based security system. The low cost of the ethernet chip makes connecting projects to computers or other microcontroller based devices very appealing. "I have constructed a TCP based security system using the Ethernet module offered within the contest , an ATmega16L microcontroller , a PIR as a sensor and few other