Perf board

Geiger Counter

Geiger Counter

This DIY Geiger counter clicks and flashes an LED each time it detects a radioactive particle. It works with most common Geiger–Müller tubes, and easily connects to radiation rate meters, data loggers, true random number generators, and the Radiation Network’s GeigerGraph software. Share your radiation readings with the whole world!

Continue Reading
Tacit: A Haptic Wrist Rangefinder

Tacit: A Haptic Wrist Rangefinder

Tacit is a wearable system that translates the distance to anything you aim your hand toward into pressure on your wrist. The closer the object, the greater the pressure. Sweep your hand around, and the device conveys to you a tactile image of your surroundings. I designed Tacit to help vision-impaired people navigate their environments, […]

Continue Reading
Trippy RGB Color-Mixing Nightlight

Trippy RGB Color-Mixing Nightlight

For this variation on the original Trippy Nightlight an inexpensive (> $2.50) USB AC charger provides a traditional nightlight plug-in-the-wall form factor. To simplify the main circuit board I removed the download circuitry from the board and instead programmed the PICAXE 08M microcontrollers on a separate breadboard. Instead of a quartz crystal, two Jell-O snack-size […]

Continue Reading
Water Leak Detector

Water Leak Detector

The average life expectancy of a hot water heater is about 10 years, so it’s not a question of if it will leak — it’s simply a matter of when. In my part of the country, homebuilders have been installing these tanks in the attic. This saves space, but also means that if you don’t […]

Continue Reading