With some free samples from Maxim/Dallas you could build this on the cheap. “I had a little bit of free time to work with the MAX3222 chips that Dallas Semi sent me. These have all of the features of the MAX232 (two TX and two RX channels) as well as shutdown and output enable. The best feature is that the chip can operate from 3.0V to 5.5V so it can
The EggLight is a high tech light. Inside that tiny egg like housing is a microcontroller that powers an LED. A simple code based touch sensor was designed to turn the light on. To see more projects by Proteus have a look at his site. Video after the jump. “This is a Bedside Night Light I’ve built for my girlfriend according to her valentine’s specifications (hahaha I’m NOT kidding): +It
You will have to put aside 5 or 6 hours to understand this project! Good thing is that it comes with a 115 page manual! I would bet that David is the first to publish plans for a DIY Laser Beam Analyzer. “The laser beam spot is the tool in laser welding cutting. Industrial lasers are really great, but there’s a huge problem when it comes to knowing the state
Chris sent in his Radio Controlled Tank that is controlled by a SparkFun BlueSmirf module. Anyone interested in the plans to build your own? Update: Chris provided a link with more details. “I made the chassis completely out of a sheet of brushed alu. It uses the Tamiya twin motor gearbox, a PCB of my own design, a BlueSmirf radio from SparkFun and has two servos to pan/tilt a video
Keith Wakeham, an engineering student replaced the backlight of a LCD monitor to operate using LED lighting. “My very wonderful cousin gave me an old 17″ LCD made by the company GEM (I don’t know who they are) which was making a big racket with squealing. I knew it was the backlight so I said I’d take it knowing that to get it repaired by a pro would cost 30-60
Have a look at the TechDweeb, Univac has made a circuit bending mod to a Staples easy button. There are samples of the effects on his site also. Bent Staples Button (listen to more) [audio:EasySlo.mp3] “This is a terrible Staples Easy button (“That was easy!”) that I added a 1Meg pot to control pitch way way down until it now sounds really quite interesting, in a grainy, annoying, girl-killer-frequency (you
If you are wanting to make circuit boards using the UV exposure method you may want to recycle an old scanner into your UV light source. “I opted for 3 tubes (around 8 Euro each), with ballasts and starters (6/7 Euro for each set). The switch, fuse holder and mains socket I scavenged from somewhere. For the bottom plane I used a tin sheet. This acts as a sort of
