Cool Gadgets

Lasershark - Laser Projector Project

  Thanks to David Powell from the Baltimore Hackerspace for sending in some details about the Lasershark which is a  Laser Projector Project. It uses a LPC1343 – 32-bit ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller to run the show, make sure you watch the video below to see this thing in action! “This board is intended to be a low cost open-source USB Showcard for folks who want to make their own 1

POV Wheel Display for a Longboard

    A ATTiny24 is running the show here. This POV Wheel Display for a Longboard from ch00ftech looks like it took quite a bit of time to put together. Those tiny surface mount parts on the home made board must have taken a steady have to get right! There are more LEDs than microsontroller outputs but instead of using a serial to parallel  chip to do the work the

8x8x8 LED Cube

  If you have been listening to the latest episodes of The Amp Hour you have probably heard of Club Jameco. Chris from Pyroelectro has checkout it out, he purchased the 8X8X8 LED Cube to check it out.  It is Arduino based and looks like a well thought of design. If you decide to give it a try it looks like you will need to set aside a large amount

Automated Dartboard Score Monitoring

  Dan sent in a cool Automated Dartboard Score Monitoring project that he just completed. It is based around a dartboard that already has a ton of smarts built into it. The cheap ($15) dartboard has built in sensors that can detect what score area was hit and keeps track of the score on a built in LCD screen. How can this system be made better? Well you could install

piGate - Raspberry-Pi Automatic Packet Reporting System

  Thanks to Sunny for sending in his latest project, the Raspberry-Pi Automatic Packet Reporting System called the piGate. “I present here, an implementation of an APRS iGate using the Raspberry-Pi. An APRS iGate is an Internet gateway that gates packets from the radio/RF side to the  APRS-IS on the Internet (and vice-versa). The APRS-IS is an Internet based network that connects APRS networks from all around the world and

Haunted Mirror Project

  We have seen Al Linke’s project before. His latest creation is powered by an IOIO Board and uses a large RGB matrix display for the users to see what is going on.  An IR proximity sensor shines through the mirror to sense when someone comes close, the display looks great even though this isn’t a 2 way mirror. Al scored the back of a regular mirror to allow the

Automated Drink Fridge

  This Automated Drink Fridge would be great in a business or roommate setting where you want to charge people based on consumption without needing a box to deposit money. All it takes is a swipe of a card to get your drink, an email at the end of the day will let you pay for your drinks using an online payment method. The fridge has ramps on the inside