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Archive: Electronics
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January 8, 2007
MedCosm Picaxe blending light
Chipwich writes -
"I had a few multicolor LEDs laying around and wanted to whip up a color-blending nightlight. I built 2 devices, each in its own 20 pin DIP socket without soldering. A 3-pin header is included so I can reprogram the light on-the-fly if desired. On my first build, I used wire-wrap. The next one used multiple wires pushed into the socket. A bit more difficult, but no wire-wrapping or soldering necessary." - Link.
Source and schematic included...
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 8, 2007 10:47 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics |
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| Comments (0)
January 7, 2007
Weller blog
Weller, the makers of some of the best soldering irons has a blog, it doesn't appear to be updated that often, but perhaps they'll post more now... The posts on the site now are very useful - Link.
Video: Soldering in space!
More:
- Soldering on the International Space Station - Link.
- Three Ways to Save Your Components and Your Tips! - Link.
- An Easy Method for Testing the Temperature Accuracy of a Soldering Tip - Link.
- Frequently Asked Questions About Lead-Free Hand Soldering - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 7, 2007 10:38 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics |
Permalink
| Comments (0)
RadioShack Canada closing
Not really a surprise - RadioShack is closing down in Canada, so if you're looking for a deal, might be worth a visit... I poked around and it appears that tools and parts are up to 60% off.
"RadioShack Corporation will close its nine company-owned stores in Canada by the end of January 2007 as the company focuses its attention and resources on strengthening its core business in the U.S." - Link.
In the USA RadioShack isn't really the place you go for parts any longer, each year the selection shrinks to make room (and $) for cell phones and iPod accessories - what stores are our Canadian makers using (online and physical)? "The Source" is the Circuit City purchased, then renamed version of RadioShack, those are still around, but I don't think they carry parts.
Here are a few, post more in the comments...
Places to shop:
- ActiveTech (electronics supply depot) - Link.
- Digi-Key - Link.
- Mouser - Link.
- McMaster - Link.
- Spark Fun - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 7, 2007 07:26 PM
Electronics |
Permalink
| Comments (11)
The Joule Thief (or just another white LED torch)
Alex writes -
"Here's the schematic, it works as a voltage converter to draw just 20mA from a 1.5V cell to light that white LED. The term 'Joule Thief' is used because the circuit will work from a cell which would otherwise be considered spent. I found that if the batteries in my Gamecube Wavebird controller stopped working, the same "spent" batteries will quite happily run this torch for a couple of weeks. Continuously." - Link.
Related:
- HOW TO - Make a Joule thief - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 7, 2007 02:39 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics |
Permalink
| Comments (5)
January 6, 2007
HOW TO - Choose a microcontroller
Westfw writes -
"It used to be that the number of different microcontroller chips available to the hobbyist was pretty limited. You got to use whatever you could manage to buy from the mail-order chip dealer, and that narrowed down the choice to a small number of chips.
But times have changed. Digikey lists over 16000 different line items under a "microcontroller" search. Which one should a hobbyist with no particular prior experience choose?
Here are some hints. These are particularly aimed at someone trying to pick a microcontroller to use for the first time at least partially as a learning experience, rather than someone who wants to accomplish a particular task." - Link.
Pictured here "Getting started with AVR microprocessors on the cheap" - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 6, 2007 07:22 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics |
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| Comments (0)
Disposable metal boxes make excellent shielded enclosures
We completely agree with Maxim/Dallas semiconductor...
"Disposable metal candy boxes, such as those from Altoids, make excellent shielded enclosures for lab tests.
Engineers put extensive effort into designing and constructing lab test circuits which often are left in a drawer, undocumented and vulnerable to damage. The next time the same function is required, either the same engineer or a new engineer builds a new circuit rather than find and analyze the previously built board.
One way to break this wasteful cycle is use the small steel tins in which candies are sold. These boxes, usually about 4" wide, 2.5" deep and 0.5" tall, can easily contain many of the test fixtures. The lids are hinged, allowing easy access to the internal circuits while protecting the same circuits during storage. The steel construction provides both electrical and magnetic shielding." - Link.
Related:
- Altoids and tin cases Archives - Link.
- iPod nano Altoids Case - Link.
- Altoids tin survival kit... - Link.
- Altoids switchbox - Link.
- Altoids headphone amp - Link.
- Altoids tin remote control - Link.
From the pages of MAKE:
- Mint-Tin Amp. Pocket amplifier punches up headphones. MAKE 04 - Page 131. Subscribers--read this article now in your digital edition or get MAKE 04.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 6, 2007 06:57 PM
Altoids and tin cases, Electronics |
Permalink
| Comments (2)
Teamspeak radio project
Wimpinator writes -
"I often forget to fire up teamspeak before I start a game, so I built a hardware radio to talk to teamspeak. It's complete with an LCD to display the current channel, a mute control, and a toggle switch to change channels. The project is run by an Arduino board and talks to the computer via a USB cable." - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 6, 2007 11:13 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics |
Permalink
| Comments (2)
January 5, 2007
Happy or Sad gadget
Ralf writes -
"Here's a microcontroller based gadget that lets you express emotions or other information. There is information on the hardware schematics as well as the C program for a ATMEL ATTiny2313 microcontroller linked from the photos."- Link.
Related:
- Tons and tons of ATMEL projects - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 5, 2007 06:48 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics |
Permalink
| Comments (0)
HOW TO - Make a function generator
Nuxie1 writes -
"Two cool projects I've just finished. One is a function generator, the other is a PIC USB prototyping board. After aquiring a brand new 20MHz Two Channel Oscilloscope, I felt I needed something to actually use with it. Including component selection, designing the circuit, breadboarding, PCB layout, homemade PCB manufacture through to the finished product." - Link & PIC USB board.
Function generators seem to be popular at the moment.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 5, 2007 05:17 PM
Electronics |
Permalink
| Comments (1)
PicGloGlobe - Make a (DUNE Holtzman effect) glowing orb
MAKE Flickr photo pool member Tres frijoles writes -
"My finished gloglobe uses a 3" styrofoam ball as the outer casing. The electronics shown below as well as a small battery are shoved up into the ball. It turns out that a Sharpie makes the right size whole for the globe assembly to fit into and the styrofoam does an amazing job of mixing the colors into a uniform glow. This project has been moved to the attiny26 AVR and the code has been rewritten in C. I have made the move to AVRs for better linux support." [via] Source code and more here - Link.
Nice DUNE build...
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 5, 2007 04:12 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics |
Permalink
| Comments (0)
HOW TO - Build a Bluetooth-enabled, Linux-controlled LED sign
Here's our new Make Projects: Small Form Factor PC ebook (sample chapter) on LinuxDevices...
"This detailed book chapter describes how to add a Linux-based, Bluetooth-connected control interface to a scrolling LED sign. The 35-page chapter is excerpted from Make Projects: Small Form Factor PCs, a 232-page O'Reilly book featuring nine interesting and instructive embedded projects, many based on Linux." - Link.
Make Projects: Small Form Factor PCs is the only book available that shows you how to build small-form-factor PCs -- from kits and from scratch -- that are more interesting and more personalized than what a full-sized PC can give you. Included in the book are projects for building personal video recorders, versatile wireless access points, digital audio jukeboxes, portable firewalls, and much more. This book shows you how to build eight different systems, from the shoebox-sized Shuttle system down to the stick-of-gum-sized gumstix - Link.
Thanks gnomic.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 5, 2007 09:56 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics |
Permalink
| Comments (4)
Conductive velcro
Mikest picked up some conductive velco, he writes -
"It finally arrived! This stuff is expensive at 15$ a foot, but check it out, full current to a luxeon through 2 feet of hook-and-loop :) it has the neat property of acting as a resistor too... " - Link.
Any makers use this stuff? Post up in the comments.
Related:
- EMF Safety Superstore- "Electromagnetic Field Detection & Protection" - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 5, 2007 04:51 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics |
Permalink
| Comments (7)
HOW TO - Build a simple vibration meter
Meg writes -
Here's a guide on how to make a basic vibration meter that might be helpful for people working on cars/machines - Commercial vibration meters will typically cost $1000+, and may be more than your average hobbyist needs. The parts cost of this project is $85, and it gives you a basic vibration meter that could be used for comparative testing." - Link.
From the pages of MAKE:
Mod Your Rod: a collection of car hacks and mods - MAKE 03. Subscribers--read this article now in your digital edition or get MAKE 03.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 5, 2007 02:16 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Transportation |
Permalink
| Comments (0)
TinyScope - DIY all-valve 1-inch oscilloscope
Ian and Hans made this fantastic DIY all-valve 1-inch oscilloscope...
"This oscilloscope uses a 1-inch diameter Mullard DH3-91 CRT. Some nice pictures of the DH3-91 are here. I found it at a car boot sale, priced £1. I'm ashamed to say I didn't recognise what it was: I only bought it because it looked wierd and interesting! Ian did the main design and prototype work on the 'scope, then I rebuilt it with a PSU and front panel controls, and packaged it nicely. Click here to read about Ian's prototype. The size of this oscilloscope is 164 x 83 x 83mm (6.5 x 3.25 x 3.25 inches)." [via] - Link.
Related scope'in:
- Vector-based Pong on an Oscilloscope - Link.
- PIC Based Oscilloscope with LCD - Link.
- ScopeOnPC - Turn your PC into a an oscilloscope - Link.
- Low cost oscilloscope - Link.
- Using an Oscilloscope - Link.
- Oscilloscope alarm clock project... - Link.
- HOW TO - Using an oscilloscope - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 5, 2007 01:36 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics |
Permalink
| Comments (0)
January 4, 2007
Homemade Pong watch!
John dropped this update on us over the holiday, the pong watch is almost done!, He writes -
"I succeeded in compressing all the electronics for this watch in to a 10mm-thick case. The 96x64 OLED display runs continuously - unlike older LED watches, there is no need to press a button to see the time. Battery life is 25 hours, so recharging is done every night." [via] - Link.
Related:
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 4, 2007 03:35 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics |
Permalink
| Comments (3)
HOW TO - Improve the range of a very cheap RF mouse
Nico shows you how to boost the RF of a cheap wireless mouse -
"While shopping at Microcenter, I found a "bargain" wireless mouse and keyboard combination on sale for $12.99. I wanted to add something like this to my media center and the price was really low so I decided to give it a try. The first attempt at using this proved that you really do get what you pay for. Both the mouse and keyboard work fine if they are only a foot or two from the receiver, however, the mouse stops working intermittently as the range is increased. I opened the receiver up and noticed that it was an inductively coupled system running at around 27MHz." [via] - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 4, 2007 01:19 PM
Computers, DIY Projects, Electronics |
Permalink
| Comments (0)
January 2, 2007
What's inside a 9 Volt Battery? More Batteries!
Axecollector took apart a 9 volt batter.
I remember thinking at one point that a 9 volt battery was just a small box full of acid or something, but as you can clearly see, this one is is just constructed of six smaller 1.5 volt cells wired in series.
I've been collecting disclaimers lately and he's got a good one!
Disclaimer: I am not an electrician. There really isn't any easy way to hurt yourself doing this that I can think of, but I guess someone out there could probably find one anyway! This article is not intended as professional advice, and I take no responsibility for any harm this information may cause you now or in the future. There. I said it. Now go rip apart some 9 volts and see for yourself! [via] - Link
Posted by Bre Pettis |
Jan 2, 2007 10:55 AM
Electronics |
Permalink
| Comments (19)
December 31, 2006
Binary Clock
This then drives a 4024 7bit counter for seconds connected to a 4 input AND gate, half of a 4082, which in turn drives the clock input of another 4024 which counts minutes. A similar thing happens for minutes to hours. - Link
Posted by Bre Pettis |
Dec 31, 2006 03:14 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics |
Permalink
| Comments (2)
December 29, 2006
LED's for beginners
Great beginner guide on using LEDs - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 29, 2006 07:44 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics |
Permalink
| Comments (3)
December 27, 2006
Presents - Made
Riskable writes -
"This Christmas my wife gave me two items from the Make Store... The "Build your own electronic game" kit and the POV kit. I soldered it all on Christmas day in the time it takes to watch Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." - Link & poem!
If you made some stuff over the holiday, let us know in the comments, or the MAKE photo pool.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 27, 2006 12:36 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics |
Permalink
| Comments (5)
Page 64 of 143 << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 >>
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