JAN6
Emergency Excuse Generator - EEG
Tired of making up new excuses and half-truths? Now you can download them from the Internet and into your pocket-sized device for daily use :-)
This is a device that generates a fresh new excuse on a press of a button that you can use to get out of work or school. It uses 20x4 LCD display and Microchip PIC16F960 microcontroller with a random generator to generate a line of text. You can customize the generator itself or even try the online version! Schematics and firmware are on the project page, so go and build one and try not to use it all the time.
Source: Alexander Avtanski
JAN1
Happy New Year 2010!
We wish a *very* Happy New Year 2010 to all of our visitors!
DEC31
Useless piece of electronics - a prank?
I have seen this today on Hack-A-Day and it really made me laugh, simply because it is funny as hell!
So, as you can see it is a wooden box but inside is a servo motor, servo controller and some batteries. When you push the button,... I don't want to ruin this for you, just see the video! Servo motor is controlled with NE555 timer, no Arduino - I thank the Lord.
Pretty scary at first but really cool stuff, so don't forget to check out the video after the break!
Source: SaskView via Hack-A-Day
DEC29
New Year's POV project
New Year's Eve is coming fast, and if you want to stand out from the crowd this is the project for you. I know we have seen a lot of these POVs before but since this one is about the New Year's Eve it is logical that we feature it.
Being a classic hand-held POV it is built around a microcontroller (Atmel ATtiny26 in this case), has 8 bright LEDs and onboard 3V Lithium battery so it will last for a few hours of spin. It also has a few jumpers for setting different modes, but in video we can see just two: "happy new year 2010" and "infernoz".
Source: Infernoz
DEC21
DIY AC amp sensor for Tweet-a-Watt
Ok, this might not be some blinky and spectacular thing but it is a very good starting point for something that might become pretty serious.
We all know what Tweet-a-Watt is. It is a device based on a Kill-a-Watt device that you can buy in your local store and it measures current consumption up to 15A (1.8kW). The problem with this thing is that it uses shunt resistor inside to measure the current, so the current that can pass through that shunt is limited. Now, if only we could measure the current through the load's wire without redirecting it through a device, than the measured current would practically be unlimited... well, we can! By using some wire and a C-clamp we can make a clamp-on ampere meter. Next thing would be to configure the ZigBee module to read this induced AC mV value and we have our own Tweet-a-Watt!
Source: hydronics
DEC16
How much electric current does your vehicle use?
How much electric current does your vehicle use in its various running states? I bet you have no idea... If you think it is under 150 Amps you can test it with this excellent device.
It is based on Allegro's ACS758xCB (ALLEGRO0758) IC that uses Hall effect to measure current flowing through it's terminals and ATmega8 microcontroller for the brains. According to the Allegro's IC specification, the maximum current that can flow through it is 150 Amps. The ATmega8 reads analog voltage that the sensing IC produces and sends it over RS232 to PC which receives and plots data for later analyzing. Installation of this digital ampere meter is a matter of placing it between the output of the alternator and its connecting wire. The source code is pretty straightforward and it is available for download on the project page.
Source: Josh - ImSolidState.com
DEC11
ArduiNIX is now open source hardware
When trying to make a nixie or VFD tube clock/display one might find it a bit hard to interface high voltages required to light up the display and low controlling voltages from a microcontroller.
This device handles all that and makes it extremely easy to interface many tubes since it supports multiplexing. The only thing left is to write some Arduino code and - voila, you are back in 1950's. Even if you don't like Arduino you can still interface this shield to any other microcontroller you like. The interesting thing about this project is that now it is totally open source hardware. So, if you don't want to buy the KIT, you can etch your own PCB and make one yourself! I just need to ask: Who doesn't love nixies?
Source: ArduiNIX
DEC8
Single Button Code Entry System
Don't want to use keys to enter your home... don't want that boring keypad either? If so, than this device is made just for you!
With a secret keying combination, actually 4 secret "modulated" key-presses on a single button, a relay is activated and any end-device can be actuated such as motor or a solenoid. This is great for garage doors but it might be a bit tricky to enter that code with lots of nines in it on a cold winter day. In the video we can see the automatic key-press entering with a rotary phone's dial, so it would be cool to open doors with this rotary input device instead of common boring keypad.
Source: Alan Parekh
