DIY Hacks

Step-a-Sketch - PIC 16f84a based CNC controlled Etch a Sketch Toy

This Step-a-Sketch project is sure to bring back some memories if you are around my age. I remember having one of these growing up, I think I got it for a Christmas present one year. Unfortunately it was killed when I was going through my how does this work phase. Almost everything with screws around me got taken apart, some were even put back successfully. By using a PIC 16f84a

Bumble B Assembly

We mentioned before that Fletchtronics will be building a bunch of Bumble Bs and sharing the process with us. Well the creation of the devices are done and the videos are finished. Watch them for some tiny surface mount techniques. I haven’t played with a Bumble B before but we have featured a project that was built with the $17 controller. What is a Bumble B you may ask, here

NIXIE Clock Multimeter

This NIXIE Clock Multimeter that Flickr member Shklaw looks fantastic. I think it’s because both components are retro. We have the old world NIXIE tubes stuffed into an old multimeter housing! It is based on the NIXI clocks from this site. “These nixie tubes are NL-5440A’s. The banana sockets were replaced with switches to set the hours and minutes. When the rotary switch on the left is set to OP,

Dual Hard Drive Laser Drawing Machine

You might remember the Hard Drive Oscilloscope project that was made about 3 and a half years ago (wow how time flies). Over the years there have been lots of people who have been inspired by it and built a project similar to it. Here is one, here is another, and one more for good measure. I was amazed to see that there was actually about 30 of them built!

Emergency Excuse Generator - PIC 16F690 Microcontroller Based

If you have a hard time coming up with a good excuse in a split second then you need this PIC 16F690 based Emergency Excuse Generator. Next time the boss calls all you will need to do is give the big red button a press and bingo you will have an instant excuse to recite to your boss. 🙂 Full build details, code and schematics are provided. I haven’t heard

Dune Bug E - Dune Buggy Electric Conversion

Our friends are back at it, the Suzuki Electric Bike project wasn’t a big enough challenge I guess. 🙂 The new project is the Dune Bug E which is a Dune Buggy Electric Conversion. By the looks of the tear down there won’t be one bolt on the donor vehicle that will be left untouched.

Tool Carrying Robot

Robots are supposed to make our lives easier right? Well this Tool Carrying Robot is sure to lighten your load. I remember the days of doing service work, I would have a huge case full of hand tools in one hand, a laptop slung over the other shoulder and some type of paperwork in my one free hand. Lugging this gear through large industrial buildings becomes a pain real quick…ÂÂ