Electronic Hacks

Grow Plants using LEDs

If you are thinking of growing some plants indoors LEDs might be what you are looking for. BVnursery has built some LED panels for growing plants and has had some great results. “The target of the project is to develop an inexpensive, effective method of providing light to plants using only leds. This unit is designed to light standard horticultural starter trays measuing 10 x 20″. The logic follows several

Build an emergency LED Light

UtahNature has a few interesting emergency light project uses a few white LEDs to create an inexpensive light. Project 1 Project 2 “We will describe constructing an emergency light using 3 or 4 white LEDs fitted into a 1/2 or 3/4 inch PVC pipe coupling and mounted into a clamp-on miniture light housing. Since most radio shacks have a 13.8 VDC emergency supply, we will configure the light to use

Coil Making 101: Pancake Coils

We featured FastMHz’s fantastic rocket that was launched using an EM coil. Lots of people have been asking him how to make one. This is a video that documents the steps required so that you too can have a cool EM rocket launcher!

Giant T-shaped LED Matrix

After seeing the post about the giant MP3-Player LED display panel Dave left a comment about this one. Thanks Dave. “Construction uses 1.6mm diameter tinned copper wire for the ground and +5V connections to the modules (ground connections run horizontally and vertically, +5V connections run horizontally). The vertical ground connections up the vertical leg of the T are 12 1.6mm diameter tinned copper wires. The horizontal power connectors are connected

Plants Watering Watcher-2

This is a simple circuit that can easily be perfboarded. With just a handful of components you can monitor the water content of your plants soil. The picture is of the new version, have a look at the old version also. “Circuit Operation: 1) When the soil is very dry, the LED flashes brightly, since the soils resistance is very high. 2) When the soil has been watered a few

Build a Low-Cost, Extended-Range RFID Skimmer

If you are looking to sniff for RFID information, this is the project for you! “In this study we show that the modeling predictions are quite accurate. We show how to build a portable, extended-range RFID skimmer, using only electronics hobbyist supplies and tools. Our skimmer is able to read ISO-14443 tags from a distance of $25cm, uses a lightweight 40cm-diameter copper-tube antenna, is powered by a 12V battery–and requires

Microsoft doing Robots

I didn’t think I would see the day that Microsoft would get into the robot game. You can download the new Microsoft Robotics Studio now. Here is the official anouncement from the Microsoft blog. “At the RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition 2006, Microsoft Corp. showcased the community technology preview (CTP) of a new Windows®-based environment for academic, hobbyist and commercial developers to easily create robotic applications for a wide variety of