Rob writes “One of my co-workers and his brother are somewhat serious about their Christmas lights. They welcomed the introduction of LED lights, because it meant that they could stop adding new electrical panels to their house. Of particular interest to MAKE readers are the technical notes on the sidebar of their site.” Link. But wait, there’s more! Snopes on another music sync’d home, and you can see it on Google video. Lastly, build your own – with MAKE!
Great step-by-step guide on hacking the Atari Flashback 2 Console, adding a cartridge port to play old 2600 games – “So, you’ve decided to take your Atari Flashback 2 console to the next level? Well then, here are the basic details to help assist you in hacking/modding your console into a full fledged Atari 2600 system that can use your original cartridges.” Link.
MAKE reader Matthew writes “I woud like to suggest a make project to design and build a hard drive/electronics shredder, not one to shred software but something to shred actual metal hard drives, they have commercial versions. The end product can be recylced.” Awhile back there was a round up on G4’s Destroy All Data and I’ve also seen this company and their crazy couch shredding, computer devouring videos, as far as DIY solutions – how about a hard drive clock? Post suggestions in the comments!
Steve writes “Here’s how to make a soda-can Van de Graaf generator. This site contains detailed directions for making a simple Van de Graaf generator with a soda can, some PVC pipe and a few simple everyday components. The site even features a picture of the finished product in action.” Link.
Nice mod, adding Bluetooth to laptop with an extra USB port…TomTheGeek writes “This weekend I added internal bluetooth to my Dell CPx laptop. These laptops have a two port USB hub in them but only one is available on the outside. The other one is only used if you have a docking station. Since I don’t have a docking station I found the traces for the unused USB port and placed my USB bluetooth module internally. These are the connections I had to add to the main board in order to use the USB port…” Link.
“A laser harp is basically a big frame resembling a real harp. There are no strings. Instead, beams of laser light are projected from the bottom of the harp. These beams strike light sensors at the top of the frame. When something (a hand, foot, etc.) blocks the beam, a note is triggered on a synthesizer or some type of tone generator. Theoretically the harp could control anything but I’m interested in its musical possibilities.” Here’s how to make one! [via] Link.
In MAKE 01 we showed you how to make a “gauss rifle” – A linear accelerator for studying high-energy physics costs around $5 billion. But you can make one for about 30 bucks with four strong magnets, a wooden ruler, some plastic tape, and nine steel balls. Here is Daniel’s photo set on Flickr of the one he’s making… Link.
