Our friend Sprite_tm has had some time to play a clever prank. Some HP printers have the ability for code to modify what is being displayed on the status screen. This HP Printer Display Hack uses that feature to make a stand alone module that displays some funny comments to the roommate that felt that it was OK to leave a bunch of printers laying around for others to
This drum robot was built for about $50 and a bit of time. I think this is the perfect thing to get kids involved and interested in electronics and robots. "The"body for this bot is from an old toy motor housing. The perfect size for covering all the wires, speaker, and other robot guts. (Since I have small children, this is a necessity for the bot to have any
Mark Csele has built a Laser Light Show Controller based on the dsPIC 30F6012 microcontroller. There is a good operational description that could spark some of your own project ideas. "In a basic light show, a beam from a laser is deflected by two galvanometer scanner heads, each of which moves a mirror to steer the beam in the horizontal and vertical direction independently. Given the high speeds
This is a cool video that goes over the basics of DIY Combat Robot building. Nothing very high tech but there is lots of interesting tips such as using cheap cordless drills as robot motors when you are trying to build on the cheap. "RoboGames founder and SFSU School of Engineering instructor, David Calkins, gives Patrick a primer on building a combat robot. From the wheel and controllers to
Lack of sunlight at this time of year has many people experiencing Seasonal affective disorder (SAD). One way to overcome SAD is to be exposed to bright lights, with this Sun Track project you could reflect bright sunlight into your house where you may otherwise just have a dimly lit room. "The sunTrack system can reflect the sun in my house and keep the reflection all day. That way it
Robin Massink from the Netherlands has built a cool Magnetic Levitation Light Bulb it uses Wireless Energy Transfer to power the bulb. It is always weird to see something being powered with no wires! "I used this globe (http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/science/98b8/) for the levitating part. It consists of 2 permanent magnets, and 2 electromagnets, coupled with a hall sensor to keep a third magnet (inside the globe) floating. I mounted a
I love the look of the old rotary phones. This hack turns your old phone into a cool iPhone docking station. With 16 Watts of speakers hidden in the device there is sure to be some cool sounds coming from this covert device. "Rotary Dial 1940’s Phone fitted with an iPhone speaker dock. One speaker behind the dial (10w) on the front of the phone and two speakers in
