Cool Gadgets

IR Jammer Version 2 - No Remote Controls are Safe

We had some feedback about the IR Jammer and how the button snap was not the best way to attach the 9 volt battery to the IR Jammer. The IR Jammer version 2 now has a plastic 9 volt battery box that holds the battery and with the included double stick foam it is now a much better looking evil device.  It also has much better feel in the hand.

Shoot a Bullet through a Spinning Propeller Blade

It is sometimes fun to think of a cool problem and come up with an electronic solution. Have a look at this project that Matt Meerian from Home Brew Electronics put together, it is a way to Shoot a Bullet through a Spinning Propeller Blade. This was a common problem years ago when planes needed to have a forward mounted gun shoot through a center propeller. Matt thought it would

RGB LED Tetris Game

Stanislav Ponomarev has been working hard with his NerdKit Microcontroller. He developed an impressive RGB LED Tetris Game. I think this version is probably more fun than the original version. 🙂 I could just imagine scaling this up and playing it on the side of an apartment building with each window acting as a pixel of the game. Stanislav will send in the code and schematics as soon as they

Inside the Microsoft Kinect

iFixit has cracked open a Microsoft Kinect and wow is there a ton of technology packed in there. This sensor bar is the total opposite of the Wii Sensor Bar which has virtually no tech in it. After seeing what makes the Kinect tick I totally understand why Adafruit Industries has offered a $2000 bounty for the first person to write some open source drivers for the Kinect. I have

Video Tour of Apex Electronics

Dave Jones walked through Apex Electronics in Sun Valley California. The video he took really shows off how much stuff the place really has! I wish I had a store like this in my city. 🙁 They have aisles of related items such as reels of wire but as you will see in the video the shelves are stacked about 20 feet tall so there is no way you would

Typewriter automated using Solenoids

Remember ZORK? Take a look at this typewriter which has been automated by hooking up tons of electro-mechanical goodness to an old typewriter! Thanks for the tip Jack. “Each key is attached by fishing line to a solenoid, an electromechanical device that pulls down when electric current is passed through it. The solenoids sit behind and underneath the typewriter in a multi-layer structure. The solenoids are connected to a MOSFET,