MAKE » Tag: Telecommunications

The “Genny” Cellphone Charger and Power Source for Africa

Bill Olson — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 23:00:03 +0000

The "Genny" is a multi-purpose treadle-powered machine for rural areas of developing countries, a power source for such needs as: Charging cellphones Charging batteries Processing grain Providing peak power for undersized solar systems Turning water pumps and machine tools Local – Not Imported Gennies can be built using locally available […]

Dispatchatron

Bill Olson — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 22:55:34 +0000

Project video at http://www.flickr.com/photos/8190411@N07… For my son’s fourth birthday, we decided on a fire truck theme. We started the party with a tour of a fire station and then went back to the house for a firefighters’ obstacle course and the creation of several Duplo fire trucks (and of course, […]

Automatic Garage Door Opener

makemagazineuser — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 22:42:13 +0000

This project combines a number of unrelated technologies to provide a small convenience. The essence of this project is to remotely actuate a switch connected to the garage door opener when a GPS-enabled smartphone enters a pre-defined geographical trigger zone. In addition to the motorized garage door opener, the following […]

Digital TV Coat-Hanger Antenna

makemagazineuser — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 22:42:12 +0000

Television antennas are comprised of a series of metal rods cut to exact lengths and positioned so they receive a particular television frequency. The following design was invented in the 1960s by an engineer named Doyt Hoverman. It is particularly sensitive in the UHF frequency range, the same range used […]

DTV Antenna VHF Mod

makemagazineuser — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 21:48:13 +0000

The new DTV signals aren't all UHF, so attatch some more coat hangers to your MAKE gray-hoverman antenna

Texting Trapper Saved by a Faraday Cage

John Edgar Park — Fri, 25 May 2012 16:30:25 +0000

This is one of my favorite stories of an eleventh-hour save of a Maker Faire project. Makers Sophi Kravitz and Ollie Tanner built an 8′ bar graph that indicates the signal strength of nearby cell phones. It worked great at home, but not so much at the San Mateo Fairground: […]

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Phone Booth becomes a Photo Booth

Michael Colombo — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:00:23 +0000

Rotobooth, a project by Chris Bell, Liangjie Xia, and Mike Kelberman is a hacked rotary phone that takes your picture as you're calling your own cell phone, then sends a link to the photos to you by SMS.

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Antique Crank Phone Modded as a Music Player

Michael Colombo — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:00:23 +0000

Simon Jansen wanted an authentic prop to go with the decor of his workshop while he rebuilds an antique Austin 7 car. He got his hands on an old bakelite generator telephone with a hand crank and decided to mod it to play music while he worked.

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Stop Internet Blacklist Legislation

Phillip Torrone — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 23:00:00 +0000

We (MAKE) rarely post anything political here and we try to keep the comments non-polarizing when these topics come up - everyone is here to learn, make, share and have fun. However, I personally felt the need to get the word out about SOPA. Please feel free to discuss this the comments, the smart community here has a lot to add to this we're sure! I'll be in the comments to keep us all on topic, let's be cool and productive about solutions :)

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Project Byzantium Aims to Avoid Internet Outages

R. Mark Adams — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:00:47 +0000

At Washington, DC's hackerspace, HacDC, a team led by the enigmatic "Doctor" seeks to develop a simple system for quickly deploying an ad-hoc internet in the event of internet outages. With all of the recent disasters (both natural and human) which have severed access to the net when it is most needed, groups all over the world have been developing solutions which allow alternate internets to be brought up quickly and effectively.

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