Complex Hacks

Geek Group Impulse Generator Demonstration - Project Thumper

The Geek Group has lots of interesting equipment but the Thumper Project is one of the most impressive. The system has gone through 7 revisions so far and more are in the works. Our friend Bob Davis has been making lots of similar devices but on a bit of a smaller scale. “Thumper is a High Energy DC Impulse Generator that is capable of producing a 1,800 Volt discharge of

Motorcycle Universal Gear Indicator

Vassilis Papanikolaou has made a nice Motorcycle Universal Gear Indicator Circuit which allows you to easily see what gear you are in. I am now curious how my first motorcycle indicated the current gear, there was a single 7 segment display between the speedometer and tachometer. I am guessing that it was probably all mechanical but who knows, it might have been this complex! Thanks sending it in Vassilis. “The

Flash Destroyer - Testing an EEPROM device to Death

Designing a circuit requires reading lots of data sheets. The data sheets contain lots of parameters, for Flash memory one of those values is the number of times the device can be read and written to. In the case of a Microchip 24AA01-I/P 128byte I2C EEPROM the rated number off write cycles is 1 million. Our friend Ian Lesnet from Dangerous Prototypes has designed a device he calls the Flash

MegaHex - 6 Propeller RC Chopper

We have seen quite a few multi propeller RC choppers but the MegaHex – 6 Propeller RC Chopper takes the cake! This bad boy has enough power to soar to great heights carrying a decent payload. Watch the nice clear video to see MegaHex in action. The MegaHex weighs 2.8kg without batteries and with its 1kg of batteries it can fly for 14 minutes. I am thinking that this technology

Human Tetris Video Game

If you like video games and DIY electronics have a look at this cool version of Tetris that Adam Papamarcos and Kerran Flanagan made. It’s called Human Tetris since you need to use your body to simulate the puzzle shapes to play the game. This is another great project from the Cornell ECE 4760 Course. Unlike most of the 4760 projects this team went to the extra trouble of having

DIY Temperature controlled Soldering Station

A good soldering station can be a big investment. The biggest drawback from a $20 soldering iron is that the tip temperature is not regulated. An inexpensive iron is simply a heating element that is connected to power, the issue with this is that you ideally would like to solder different types of components at different temperatures, and those temperatures should stay consistent. Many people hook up their cheap irons

DIY Spinning LED Globe Build Log

We recently saw this Rotating LED Globe that was built by Csaba Bleuer. Gleb left a comment with a link to 32 LED Spinning Globe that his friend Riko built. The site is in Russian but if you use Google Translator you will be able to see that is going on. The design is interesting, power is being delivered by a rotating coil, an ATTiny is the microcontroller and the