Water Bath Thermostat
For sous-vide and more — it controls both heating and cooling!
Solder
$3 Solar-Powered Cell Phone Charger
Hack two simple pieces of electronics for a new purpose. This cell phone charger is not for those who use their phones a lot, although it could have other purposes, like being an MP3 player charger or anything that charges from a USB connection.
Floating Glow Display
Using this simple technique, you can etch a design into a thin pane of clear plastic sheeting, then enclose the edges of the plastic with reflective tape and embed a battery-powered LED. The resulting design appears backlit and hovering in mid-air, with a laser-like textured glow that photographs cannot do justice to. Check out more […]
Beating Heart Pendant
While reading through Charles Platt’s excellent book Make: Electronics, I came across this nice little circuit for making a gentle pulsing LED. I was struck by the “humanness” of the pulse, but couldn’t figure out what to do with it. Later I found a heart-shaped tag on some pants I had bought, and well, this […]
Make Lightning
I have been fascinated with arcs and sparks, bangs and pops ever since I created an arc with a busted power adaptor. One day I thought about making a proper “big boys’ toy” that would be safer and more convenient.
The Autophenakistoscope
Motorize a phenakistoscope, a 19th-century parlor novelty that preceded motion pictures, and keep its frames synched to an LED strobe by using a sensor and an Arduino microcontroller. Invented in 1832 by Joseph Plateau, this device creates a moving picture from a sequence of stills arranged on a spinning disk and viewed through strategically cut […]
Custom LED Spiral Staircase Lighting
I needed a lighting solution for my spiral staircase. After looking at various options (such as direct lighting from above or below) I decided to create my own lighting using some cheap components and a bit of time. I’ll show how I designed and built my lighting rig. Hopefully I can help other people avoid […]