Make: Online: Make Challenge Archives

Archive: Make Challenge

November 28, 2005

IR control from USB?

Gene is looking for a scriptable USB-IR controller - "So far I have not been able to find such an animal. I bought the first generation of Robosapian. The robot from wowwe toys. It comes with a real crazy remote control. You have to press many keys in certain combinations to make the robot do anything. If I could program a dynamic IR device with the codes and then create scripts.. It would be possible for me to make my robot do all kinds of neat things. Also I am into doing time lapse videos. That is where you setup a camera and let it run for about an hour.. I throw the video into my computer and use the editing software to speed things up. That is fine.. But I have an Olympus 8mp digital SLR camera. It also has an IR control out. A programmable IR device as I described above would really help me out with my camera. I could setup a high resolution picture every 15 seconds using a laptop on location replacing the IR controller. This would produce a very high quality time lapse once I put it in my editing software." I think the USB-UIRT might be a good start, any other suggestions for Gene? Link.

November 20, 2005

MAKE Challenge: Auto gain amplifier

Amp Charles is looking for some help with a project, read the challenge and post up in the comments if you have ideas! "When you listen to music or speech in a noisy environment you have to constantly, continuously adjust the volume control: boost the gain when the sound level is low, reduce the gain when the level is high. For example trying to listen to a movie in an airplane, or to a program in a car. What's needed is a gadget that automatically changes the gain of the amplifier, as a function of the average sound level, to reduce the dynamic range of the sound source -- an audio compressor."

Read full story

November 18, 2005

MAKE Challenge: What to do with an old Tivo?

Daniel writes "I purchased a first generation Tivo unit a few years ago and used it in the "normal " way. But since then I have moved and I do not have a use for a landline. I am relutant to toss it because it is still good hardware. Which brings me to the question: What alternative use is there for a first generation Tivo unit?." Link to Tivo hacks...add your suggestions in the comments!

November 3, 2005

Low cost wireless bridging?

Judah writes "We run free community events around the NY/NJ metro area, and have a great opportunity to have our events broadcast nationwide, via a cable modem to sattelite uplink. The challenge: some of these events take place in buildings with SLOW internet connections. After some research, I have found in every location a cable modem within about 1,000 feet (either in an office or someone's house) that we can use, but these cable connections can be across a busy street and/or a few buildings away. Attaching antenas to these buildings is not really an option. We need a free standing ethernet port (i.e. not a card in a computer - needs to be a port on a router, access point, etc.) to connect the polycom camera to so it can talk directly via IP to the sattelite uplink. My first guess was the Belkin pre-n routers, but it turns out you can NOT bridge them. Any ideas for a low budget solution?" Post up in the comments!

October 19, 2005

Maker Challenge: Prius - Music hack

Michael Tiemann here at OSCON has a challenge "Many car audio systems have a feature that increases the volume of the program to keep the signal level constant over the noise level. But with cars like the Prius, we can control the level of the noise based on the signal--a better approach. The first hack is to mod the Prius power management system so that in addition to battery level, acceleration, and speed, it takes GPS data into account..."

Read full story

October 16, 2005

DIY Plasma pencil?

Janet sent this in and has issued a Maker challenge to build a "Plasma Pencil" - "The pencil generates a "cold plasma," which can be used to kill germs that contaminate surfaces, infect wounds and rot your teeth. In the future, it might be used to destroy tumors without damaging surrounding tissue. Laroussi, an associate professor at Old Dominion University, hopes the beam will soon find its way into doctors' and dentists' offices." Link.

October 13, 2005

MAKER CHALLENGE: DIY ventilators?

Stefan sent in this Maker challenge, seems like there's an opportunity to do something here..."in a dentist's office waiting room [reading in a] copy of TIME, that a full-blown Avian Flu pandemic would seriously stress the nation's supply of ventilators . . . those bellow-and-tube gadgets that keep your chest going up and down when you can't breath on your own. This suggests a topic for a MAKE Challenge: A DIY ventilator! Only for use in serious, horrible, unthinkable circumstances, but [stuff] happens and it would make for an interesting project. Extra credit if it runs off of a 12 V battery. (Or maybe not...a possible design I'm thinking of right now would use a windshield wiper motor set to intermittent).

September 1, 2005

Show your benches!

MAKE Flickr pool member BenSinclair cleaned up his workshop area and has a challenge for all of us - show your work benches! My freshly cleaned work bench. Normally it looks like something exploded. Let's see some more benches from the MAKE group! Join in and post up! Link.

August 27, 2005

Maker challenge: Wiring a House

Here's a good tip from the comments on our Maker challenge: Wiring a House - I'm an architect, AND I recently renovated my own house from bare studs on up. I'm with the guy who said to run conduit. It's called ENT (Electrical Nonmetallic Tubing), some contractors call it Smurf Tube, cause it's usually blue. You run it from junction juntion box to box inside the walls and cover the standard boxes with a standard wall plate. You can then run any type of wire in them in the future and you can run the wire anywhere in the system by skipping from box to box. Even if you run structured cable, run it in smurf. Link.

DS + ElectroPlankton for Music: More Details, Hacking Mic

Here's a good MAKER challenge, if you want to help hack a Nintendo DS check this - Tom Wilburn continues to document music-making using a Nintendo DS and Nintendo's bizarre game, ElectroPlankton. Since we last checked in with him, he's gotten further content up, plus an evolving table-of-contents. There's just one hitch: it'd be great to get audio into the Nintendo DS via a cable instead of the mic. Thomas tried hacking the built-in jack, but with less-than-desirable results. Any experienced benders out there wanna help out? Any word on headsets for the DS? Give him or me a holler and let us know. Link.

< Previous | Make Challenge Home