Electronic Hacks

LVL1 Hackerspace builds a Fire Breathing Pony

We have seen quite a few Nintendo Nunchuck hacks. The Nunchuck is a great piece of hardware for hackers since it packs lots of great sensors and switches in a nice looking, functional package and best of all they are cheap! The LVL1 Hackerspace decided to use a Nunchuck in a Fire Breathing Pony project that they brought to Maker Faire Detroit. There isn’t much details on the build yet

DIY Animatronic Eyes

This DIY Animatronic Eye tutorial by PyroElectro might be just the thing your next Halloween project needs! “This tutorial will present a single method for controlling 2-axis of robotic eye movement using an improvised gimbal system. This will give us control for the animatronic eye to move up and down as well as left and right, just like a human’s eye. Four micro Servo Motors will be used to acuate

Electronic Sketching Pantograph

I remember before small CNC machines became popular I would see engraving pantograph system in all of the small engraving stores in the mall. They had large letter blocks which could be traced and the result would be a tiny accurate letter engraved onto whatever was under the cutting head. When I first saw the picture of this Electronic Sketching Pantograph by Laura Harris I was wondering what the wires

Stereo Hacked into RGB LED Controller

Marklar who is a senior member over at the Arduino forums converted a junked radio into a fantastic RGB LED controller. When he looked inside an old radio to salvage some IR parts he spied a Rotary Encoder, these are a bit tricky to setup for the first time but they are great when you are done. For those who aren’t sure what a rotary encoder is, be sure to

WASP Drone Plane Sniffs Open Wifi Networks

If you thought all you needed to do was keep an eye out for a van parked outside your house who might be sniffing your Wifi, you better think again. This WASP Drone Plane Sniffs for Open Wifi Networks. Of course it is unmanned and once airborne it can fly a mission by itself hunting down unsecure Wifi networks. Via: DIY Drones “At the Black Hat and Defcon security conferences

Open Source DIY Automated LED Stair Lights

Erica Kane has developed an Open Source DIY Automated LED Stair Lighting system. It uses an Arduino Pro Mini as the brain and a M5451 LED Display Driver to power the LEDs. She used PING sensors to detect when someone enters the stairwell. Currently the lights just turn on one at a time but that is all customizable by changing a bit of Arduino code. If you are looking for

Damage Designs Circuit Board Business Card

If you want to leave an impression lots of people recommend you get heavy stock business cards, the next step up is to get color glossy print on the cards. About 20 steps up from that is a business card made from FR4, the PCB business card might cost a bunch more than the paper alternative but you are guaranteed it won’t find its way to the trash 5 minutes