Check out Steve’s amazing paint ball shooting, RC controlled tank made from printer parts. There are dozens of photos on how he made it and best of all Steve talks about the different parts, problems that needed to be solved and documents some clever solutions to power, move and use compressed air for the paint balls.[via] Link.
Ryan writes in with an awesome Xbox hack! “An Xbox headtracker system – Built for around $6.00. I interfaced directly to a xbox controller pcb with photo resistors. Using some cardboard and tape and a led head mounted flashlight and some wire i made a useable headtracking system that is based on using the right thumbstick as an interface as it is usually for camera control in third person games, or direction in first person shooters.” Link.
DIY live has some good tips on fixing that old NES “I took apart my nintendo, and found the 72 pin connector. I took my smallest flat head screw-driver and pried every pin up a little. Over time, they had lost their springiness (I don’t know if that is a word, but it describes what I am talking about). This is a pretty good fix. It may not be the best, but it works. Another thing to help out is to clean the pins of your old cartridge. You can take a wooden pencil with the red eraser, and rub it on the pins of the cartridge. Make sure you get all of the eraser off of the cartridge.” Thanks Star! Link.
A few folks emailed about this, so here’s one I spotted – “This is a small wireless sensor platform providing a bluetooth SPP link to three axes of accelerometer data. The accelerometers are sampled by a PIC microcontroller (onboard ADC) at roughly 100Hz (rate can be changed via firmware). Data from the ADC conversion is sent to a remote computer using the PIC’s UART in conjunction with a drop-in bluetooth serial part. Even with two dual-axis accelerometers onboard there are up to 17 free I/O lines and two additional ADC channels depending on the device configuration. Three sockets provide access to all PIC signals. Over-the-air programming allows for easy firmware updates and rapid prototyping without the need to have a PIC programmer or special cable. Schematics, parts lists, and firmware sources are available online.” Link.
Here are two great how-tos from the Sony mini disc forums “How to build a high quality stereo / binaural miniature microphone Required parts: – 2 omnidirectional miniature electret microphone capsules (get the best ones you can find / afford – your selection will have a major influence on the sound quality) – 3.5 mm stereo connector with cable, preferrably shielded – a few inches of heat shrinkable tubing, slightly larger diameter than the capsules” Link.
Sans writes “The cheapest way to remotely control a device within a visible range is via Infra-Red light. Almost all audio and video equipment can be controlled this way nowadays. Due to this wide spread use the required components are quite cheap, thus making it ideal for us hobbyists to use IR control for our own projects. This part of my knowledge base will explain the theory of operation of IR remote control, and some of the protocols that are in use in consumer electronics.” Link.
