There are lots of programs for things such as providing sports equipment to kids who would otherwise not be able to afford it. The Chicago area has a great bunch of people who are bringing robot building to young people who would otherwise not be able to afford it. The group is called Bots 4 Tots, if you want to give someone a helping hand into this wonderful industry
There are many ways to go about automating your home. One of the easiest methods is to use X10 technology which uses the existing AC house wiring for communication. This is nice because you can control lights and appliances without running any wires in your walls. Xtenscape which was developed by Scott Hather allows you to take control of this X10 technology using the free custom built app. There
Muris over at Elektronika.ba has built a 250mW Range Extender for the CC1101 RF Modem. At first glance it does not look anything like a DIY project until you read further and realize that the surface mount components on the board were soldered using a clothes iron. Full project details are included so even if you don’t need this project you can learn some techniques from it. "Here is
If you want a battery box that would look at home at the cottage have a look at this Vintage 9 Volt Battery Box creation made by JingleJoe. Before you pass it by as a quick hack keep in mind that everything was custom made including the terminals. "Here is one of my most recent creations, a "casemod" of sorts for a 9 volt battery. Made all but the
Looks like the cheap prepaid Motorola cell phones that you can find at many of the convenience stores can be used for projects such as this Open GPS Tracker project. It would be interesting to make a device that worked like a poor mans LoJack. "The Open GPS Tracker is a small device which plugs into a $20 prepaid mobile phone to make a GPS tracker. The Tracker responds
Using the SHARP GP2Y0A02YK Long Distance Measuring Sensor (PDF), a few servos and an Arduino this 3D Arduino Scanner project is able to make a polar coordinate scan of its surroundings. "The Arduino is only listening, the PC is sending commands where to set the Servos and to feedback the Analog value. On the PC a VB.net programm is running letting the Servos do a "meander style" motion and
You may remember the Sparkfun article a few years ago when they experimented in using a skillet to reflow solder on SMD parts. Limor Fried of Adafruit Industries has made a new version of the skillet that has an Arduino for a brain and can process boards with timed heating stages. "We use the Arduino controlled robot skillet to surface mount a chip on the USB Boarduino"
