Over in the new MAKE forums John writes “Here’s a how-to I wrote on making spaceships and sci-fi weapons from household items such as aspirin bottles, pvc pipe, toilet bolt covers, some hobby store styrene, and some parts from old models. Make Spaceships from Aspirin Bottles and Toilet Items Part 1 & Make Spaceships from Aspirin Bottles and Toilet Items Part 2.”
Hans writes – “This LED Matrix Clock is a feasability study for a much larger project I am building for my employer, the intention was to prove to myself (and my employer!) that I am able to drive an LED matrix from a PC. This is the first project I have made which is driven by a PC. The clock uses 3 B64CDM8/B48CDM8 8×8 5mm LED Matrix modules from Nexus Machines, each having an onboard MAX7219 display driver chip. These require an SPI serial interface, which I by toggling pins of the host PC’s parallel port (printer port). The small software application which drives the displays is written in Delphi 5 and runs on Windows NT 4.” Link.
Andrew writes- “I started this project when I had an idea to use a Mac to switch a solenoid on/off to control sprinklers around the house. Unfortunately I never took it that far, but I have been able to control a few other things, like a model train around the Christmas tree. Here I have documented how I did it.” Link.
MAKE was nominated in the best crafts blog category for the 2006 bloggies. Thank you so much to everyone out there who nominated us, and now that we’re up there – head on over and vote for MAKE! Today is the last day to vote!Link.
One download and you’re set – “Download TorPark for your language, and put it on a USB Flash keychain. Plug it into any internet terminal whether at home, school, or public. Run Torpark.exe and it will launch a Tor circuit connection, which creates an encrypted tunnel from your computer indirectly to a Tor exit computer, giving the appearance of having the Tor exit computer’s IP.” [via] Link.
CK sample of PSP Hack the book fame has a great how-to on using the eLoader to run homebrew on the PSP – “The solution isn’t in the form of a downgrader, but rather in the form of an eLoader (EBOOT loader) that lets you use Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories to run homebrew on a PSP with version 2.0, 2.01, 2.5, and 2.6 of the firmware. Not all homebrew will run via this method, but there is a rather easy to read compatibility chart and I’m sure more things will begin working in future releases of the eLoader.” Link.
Here are a ton of PC joystick interface circuits “Fake Joystick circuit, the wire between multi-IO card and joystick connector, adding second joystick to PC joystick interface, Y-cable problems with soundcards and how to solve them, soundcard joystick port problem solver, build your own joysticks and controllers , convert Atari-style joystick to PC joystick port, use PC joystick port to measure temperature and light levels, connect other circuits to PC joystick port , using the joystick port as general purpose input .” Link.
