Charge up your USB devices with the power of the sun. By adding a small solar panel and two diodes to a standard USB cable, you can plug that cable into USB devices needing a recharge. It’s so easy. Let’s get started making a solar USB charger. Video shows the Solar USB Charger being tested […]
This simple, wearable circuit uses an operational amplifier (or “op-amp”) chip to convert sound into light. An LM324 op-amp and a transistor boost input from a mini condenser microphone to light a series of LEDs. Watch it blink to the beat of your favorite music. Check out more Weekend Projects.
As complicated as I thought this would be, this circuit is using the basic fundamentals of electronics and algebra. The only hard part is perfecting it and expanding it. Click here to see the finished project.
For sous-vide and more — it controls both heating and cooling!
Powering a TV remote with the sun means you won’t have to buy batteries every six months to surf from your sofa. Low-voltage devices that use power only occasionally, like remotes, are good candidates for a solar-powered trickle-charge. Here’s how we modded our remote to live off of the sun, using rechargeable batteries connected in parallel with a small solar cell and a diode to keep any power from trickling back out.
This guide will break down how to make this top into such easy steps that a monkey could do it.
Back in the 1970s, my friend Wayne Gillis and I used to do light shows at science fiction conventions. We had the usual panoply of overhead, slide, and custom-made projectors, and a single, very expensive, helium-neon laser from Edmund Scientific. Calling ourselves Light Opera, and later, Illuminatus, we performed at ConFusion conventions in Ann Arbor, […]
