The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for digital gadgetry, open code, smart hacks, and more. Processing power to the people!
Being able to tear down a project into reusable components is always a plus. If you can save yourself from purchasing a $30 paperweight or wasting perfectly good materials on something that will ultimately make it into the waste bin, all the better, right? That’s why I like Julian Horsey’s Pencil iPad Stand. It’s just six pencils and four rubber bands. Presumably, when you’re done watching a movie or playing PvZ, you can break it down and tuck it away into a pencil box.
How would you like to run Ubuntu on your Nexus One? Max from NexusOneHacks.net spent this past Independence Day weekend cramming Ubuntu on to his Nexus One and has produced a short how-to explaining the process.
Instructables user 5Volt writes: This little rig infact interfaces via USB to your PC clock and generates hours and half hours dings on a real bronze bell. Great stuff to bring into your office and surprise then amuse then annoy your helpless friends.
Jared Bouck is the driving force behind Sprout Board, an Arduino breakout board that lets you plug in a Duemilanove and a shield and provides a panel-mount set of screw terminals, all in a rack-mountable form factor. The prototype application for the SproutBoard is a DIY server room monitor that can be configured to provide remote temperature and humidity, motion, liquid water, smoke, room entry, and mains power monitoring. Local monitoring options include an LCD display and an audio alarm module. They’ll sell you the Sprout Board itself, in kit form, for $50, or a complete bare-bones server monitor with a fully assembled and tested Spout Board, an Arduino, an Ethernet Shield, a serial LCD display, a wall mount chassis, and a temperature/humidity sensor board for $250, which is about 1/5th the price of a comparable commercial system.
Nick Starno’s 3D-printed Makerbot watch case (can haz STLs in Thingiverse?) is pretty neat, but it also made me think it would be super cool to have a version of the PCB with a compass module included — pocket watch slash compass? [Via clothbot]
And we’re back with our fifth installment of Your Comments. Here are our favorites from the past week, from Make: Online, our Facebook page, and Twitter. vt-pete sends his regards to the creator of the 30MPH electric mountain bike: “Unfortunately, Jennifer has already wrecked the bike and broken her elbow,” — ha! Get well soon, […]
I, too, was impressed when Apple unveiled its integrated antenna case design at the iPhone 4 announcement event back in May. Little did I know the actual reception of the iPhone 4 would be worse than my original first generation (OG) iPhone. The issue has even prompted Apple to seek out actual antenna engineers (seriously). Until there’s an official fix to this problem, folks experiencing the “death grip” can try Oliver Nelson’s 99-cent “Ghetto iPhone 4 case”.
