Electronic Hacks

Custom Programming a Nintendo Gameboy Cartridge

Gerry O’Brien has made a 5 video compilation of his experience of Custom Programming a Nintendo Gameboy Cartridge. I am so jealous of the quality of the very high quality close-up video capabilities Gerry has! This isn’t a hack for the faint of heart. “TOOLS REQUIRED: – Soldering Iron with Fine tip for SMT soldering – Magnifying Lamp (Recommended) – Fine Flux Core Solder – Solder Wick – Rosin Flux

How to Replace a Capacitor

Afrotech has put together a great video that demonstrates the basics of replacing a capacitor. This is normally only important when repairing old electronics, however recently there have been many cases where faulty capacitors fail after only a few years (or less) and need to be replaced to keep the device operational. Dell is one of the computer manufacturers who had a bad issue with defective capacitors. In this case

3-Phase Brushless DC Motor Project

Dave has documented his ongoing 3-Phase Brushless DC Motor Project build on his David’s Electronics Test Tube Youtube Chanel. Why buy the controller when you can make it! “The final board layouts will use 28-pin DIP chips. One is programmed to control the motor speed and the other is a dashboard display of sorts. The motor controller will be completely programmable from the dashboard. It monitors the battery voltage and

Cornell's Ranger Robot Walks 23 km

Remember Big Dog? Well there is a new walking robot king in town. Cornell’s Ranger Robot has just broken the record for distance for a bipedal robot. It took over 65 thousand steps before the battery died! Thanks for the tip Paul. “It took 65,185 steps for Cornell’s 4-legged bipedal robot to walk 108.5 laps on Barton Hall’s 1/8-mile indoor track, setting a new world record for non-stop distance walked

LEGO Drum Machine

After 3 months of work Peter Cocteau has completed his LEGO Drum Machine. It is based on the LEGO NXT computer. It goes to show how much can be done with the NXT.

RGB LED VU Meter using TLC5940 LED Driver Chips

If you like to listen to music here is a way to jazz up the experience. We have all seen the boring analog VU meters on either old or high end audio equipment. Simon Inns from Waiting of Friday has rigged up a cool RGB LED VU Meter circuit that uses 3 TLC5940 LED driver chips that are bring controlled by a PIC18F2550 microcontroller. “This project creates a RGB LED

DIY Gate Opener Controller Replacement

These days when something electronic dies the repair bill is usually so high that it doesn’t make financial sense to repair it since there is no guarantee that the repaired out of warranty item isn’t going to fail for some other reason in a week.  When Sam from the Parallax forum was faced with this dilemma with a gate opener he decided to scrap the old gate controller and make