Cool Gadgets

Hi-Tec Sketch Art - Modern Day Lite Brite

  I remember playing with my Lite Brite when I was young. What looks better than sticking solid plastic pegs into fixed holes in a grid of plastic? The answer is the beautiful glow of individual LEDs soldered into a perf board! There is of course some added complexity that comes with that choice. These days I am answering lots of questions on LED applications from our LED customers, what

Gear Clock - PIC 16F628A Based

  Here is my latest creation, it’s a Gear Clock. It consists of a bunch of wooden gears, a PIC microcontroller and a stepper motor. The heart of the clock is a PIC 16f628A microcontroller. This microcontroller has an internal oscillator however an external 20MHz crystal oscillator is being used since it will have to accurately keep track of time for weeks and months. The microcontroller is interfaced to two

5K Volt Can Crusher with a 100uF Capacitor

  Bob Davis has made another can crusher with a huge 5 thousand volt power supply eBay score. A 100uF capacitor doesn’t sound that big, heck I have ones that are 10 times that size in a tray right beside me as I type this. Well the big difference is the one that is beside me has a voltage rating of 50 volts. That is a far cry from the

GPS Hunt Project

  This GPS Hunt Project is very interesting, the box is electronically locked and the only way to open it (without using the emergency backdoor) is to go to a certain location. It gives lets you know how far from the target location you are each time the button is pressed but you only have 50 presses to figure it out.  Thanks for the tip Jim. "Major components 1 Arduino

PSP GO Mod

  Have a look at this cool PSP GO Mod. There isn’t much details since the creator doesn’t speak English. Thanks Wouter!  

Hard Drive Camera Stabilizer

  BobS has come up with a creative Hard Drive Camera Stabilizer. We have seen other ways to Gyro Stabilize a Camera but this one is nice because it has the possibility of making use of a hard drive that otherwise would have no purpose. "In an experiment, I connected a loose HD to a computer power supply, and felt the resistance to its change of position. I figured a

Bumble-b LED Matrix Computer Interface

  Guysoft shows us how to create a Bumble-b LED Matrix Computer Interface. I have never used a Bumble-b but for $17 how could you go wrong? It seams like one of the best ways to communicate directly via USB to a computer. Via: HG Forum "After getting my LED matrix to display messages, I wanted to make use of the USB port, and get the matrix to work as