Piezoelectric materials are about as close to magic as you can get. They turn physical pressure into electricity and can even turn electricity into physical pressure – an amazing sort...
Posted by Collin Cunningham | Friday March 11th, 2011 6:30 PM
Categories: Electronics, General, Music, Science | 29 Comments
The Monotron mini analog synthesizer is a simple but sweet-sounding little synth that sports a few basic features that give a nod to us hardware hacker-folk. In the above vid,...
Posted by Collin Cunningham | Tuesday March 1st, 2011 9:30 PM
Categories: Electronics, General, Hacks, Music | 3 Comments
It’s true – I love DACs. There’s something awesome about the role they play, translating information from one paradigm over to another form. Sure, you can pick up a precision...
Posted by Collin Cunningham | Tuesday February 15th, 2011 2:28 PM
Categories: Electronics, General, Music | 11 Comments
USB devices are so common nowadays – wouldn’t it be nice to use one with your homebrew electronics projects? I wanted to use my compact USB-MIDI keyboard with my homebrew...
Posted by Collin Cunningham | Tuesday November 30th, 2010 2:22 PM
Categories: Arduino, Electronics, General, Music | 39 Comments
5mm or 10mm LEDs will work just fine for most projects, but if you really want to light up a room, consider using some of the “high-power” variety. With forward...
Posted by Collin Cunningham | Friday November 19th, 2010 2:33 AM
Categories: Electronics, General, Music | 5 Comments
I’ve used quite a variety of sound-isolating personal audio gear; around-ear cans, in-ear buds, as well as active noise-canceling models. All of these posed problems for me in one way...
Posted by Collin Cunningham | Wednesday August 25th, 2010 7:17 AM
Categories: General, Music | 10 Comments
Fingertip input is great for most touchscreen usage like typing, web-browsing – all sorts of virtual button-pushing tasks. But for many people, drawing remains an activity best approached with a...
Posted by Collin Cunningham | Wednesday May 5th, 2010 10:09 AM
Categories: General | 26 Comments
Inspired by last month’s DIY Movie Making theme, I present to you the above-seen piece of homegrown science fiction. While waiting patiently for what is likely the galaxy’s slowest turbolift,...
Posted by Collin Cunningham | Monday April 5th, 2010 10:07 AM
Categories: General | 2 Comments
When recently faced with the dauntingly tedious task of assembling my first-ever batch of electronics kits, I was lucky enough to have the ever-helpful eye of seasoned kit-maker Becky Stern...
Posted by Collin Cunningham | Wednesday March 3rd, 2010 6:36 AM
Categories: Electronics, General, Tools | 8 Comments
After checking out a few projects involving IR heart monitors, I decided to have a go at the interface myself. Seen above are the results of my first experimentation with...
Posted by Collin Cunningham | Monday November 30th, 2009 8:57 AM
Categories: Arduino, Electronics, General | 6 Comments
Instead of chaining multiple guitar effects in search of a new sound, I decided to mod just one. Using an Arduino microcontroller board + digi-pot chip (MCP41100), I was able...
Posted by Collin Cunningham | Wednesday August 19th, 2009 4:37 PM
Categories: Arduino, General, Music | 28 Comments
Sound can have some amazing effects on liquids – and some downright bizarre effects on non-newtonian fluids such as the conveniently simple mixture of cornstarch & water. I’d experimented a...
Posted by Collin Cunningham | Monday August 3rd, 2009 8:18 AM
Categories: General, Science | 11 Comments
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