Complex Hacks

WDTV Remote Control External Power Circuit

With all the technology around us there will often come a time when you wish it would work in a slightly different way. Well unless you work as one of the design engineers in the company that made the product chances are you will just have to suck it up and live with what was produced. Well when Matt from Openschemes was in this situation with his Western Digital WDTV

1953 Radio upgraded and now plays MP3s

I had never heard of the system that this radio used to be used on. It was tied into the telephone system and received the audio programming over the phone line. Since this system has been discontinued the 1953 Radio was upgraded to play MP3s and FM Radio. The neat thing about the conversion is that it still uses all the original electronics to make the sound so it still

MSP430 Based Meter Clock

You all know I have a thing for meter clocks. Instructables user Doug Paradis built this one around the MSP430 microcontroller platform, check out the cool variety of meters that he is using! I love the big clunky looking Simpson meter that is being used for the hours. Doug got his inspiration from the ShareBrained clock. Via: Hack a Day “It has 3 push buttons, two of which allow you

CMU Snakebots Climbs Tree

We normally see snakebots swimming in pools and they can climb inside pipes but check out how well this CMU Snakebots can Climb Trees, it is a creation from the Biorobotics Lab at Carnegie Mellon University. Via: Botjunkie “From the Biorobotics Lab at Carnegie Mellon University, a snake robot (Snakebot) demonstrates how it can climb a tree and look around. Please keep in mind that this robot climbed a specific

Recording Emotions with the Emotiv Headset

Robert Oschler sent in this interesting project which allows Recording Emotions with the Emotiv EEG Headset to sense your mood. Just like the read receipt tells you if and when your email was read this would let you know what type of emotion it conjured. “EmoRate is an application that demonstrates the power of Affective Computing, a technology that allows computers to detect and react to human emotions and will

Levitating Rotating Globe

Have a look at this Levitating Rotating Globe that Alexey Sha built. Not content with the standard levitating products out there he decided to step it up a notch. “There are many globes available today which are levitating and rotating along vertical axis. This one is the world first globe levitating and rotating along TILTED axis. It uses wireless power transmittance and geared motor inside the floating globe. In brief,

Launchpad MSP 430 Programming with Linux

Mike Szczys from Hack a Day shows us how to Programming Launchpad MSP 430 with Linux. The basic method that people use to program their Launchpad MSP 430 is a Windows box but for those on Linux there is still hope. “We’ll be working with Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx. When the Launchpad is connected to USB it is identified and mounted to /dev/ttyACM0. It’s not immediately apparent how to use