Junk CD/DVD

Teacup Stirling Engine

Teacup Stirling Engine

Thereโ€™s energy all around us, just waiting to be tapped. Whether itโ€™s a hot cup of coffee on a cold day, light from the sun, scented candles, or waste heat wafting from electronics, itโ€™s all potential power waiting to be harnessed! This is the world of the Stirling engine. Have you ever tried this fun […]

CD/Suction Cup Status Dial

CD/Suction Cup Status Dial

This project is derived from LifeHacker alum Jason Fitzpatrick’s improvised clean/dirty dishes indicator, which uses the same CD + suction cup idea. When I tried Jason’s trick for myself, however, I found that, while the hole in an optical disc does fit nicely over the hub of a hardware-store suction cup, all the cups I […]

Arduino Drum Pad & Game

Arduino Drum Pad & Game

This fun and easy project shows you how to create a simple input device with little more than a cheap piezo sensor, an old mousepad, and an Arduino board. Using household supplies and a few passive electrical components, you can create a basic physical-computing game input device for your Arduino.