Items Tag › RIT Make Club Idea Stream

I posted to hackaday.com

Controlling an AC drill using one PWM connection

http://hackaday.com/2010/08/31/controlling-an-ac-drill-using-one-pwm-connection/

This peculiar setup allows [Ben Krasnow] to control an alternating current device using one pin on a microcontroller. He’s experimenting with a power drill and has relocated the trigger circuitry that makes it spin. On that board he found a variable resistor combined with a capacitor which control a triac, actuating the speed of a drill. [Ben's] solution works great and isolates the drill from the control circuitry. He replace the variable resistor with a cadmium sulfide photoresistor (basically a variable resistor whose resistance depends on the intensity of light). Pulse-width modulation is used to adjust the brightness of an LED shining on that photoresistor and thereby affect the speed of the drill. This is such as simple alteration to the drill we’d call it MacGyver-esque.

See a demonstration after the break.
- Tags:
- led
- arduino
- Toy Hacks
- tool-hacks
- pwm
- drill
- photoresistor
- CdS
August 31 2010, 8:15am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Surgical microscope gets LED retrofit

http://hackaday.com/2010/08/24/surgical-microscope-gets-led-retrofit/

[Roberto Barrios] picked up a surgical microscope to add to those other fun lab toys you seen in the background. These work very well when soldering small components because they don’t have to be as close to the viewed objects as traditional microscopes. But [Robert] didn’t care for the heat generated by the incandescent bulb so he build his own LED replacement. If you recognize his name it’s because we saw a beautifully crafted in-visor GPS system that he built back in April. This project exhibits the same level of craftsmanship in which he utilized the base of a spare bulb to add an LED, heat sink, and driver board that is adjustable on all three axes.

He also mentioned that he overhauled his site design and it now plays nicely with all browsers.
- Tags:
- led
- tool-hacks
- microscope
- retrofit
- bulb
- replacement
- surgical
August 24 2010, 6:49am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Chainsaw/flashlight overkill

http://hackaday.com/2010/08/08/chainsawflashlight-overkill/

[Robbtoberfest] has earned our admiration with this crazy chainsaw powered spot light. It looks horribly dangerous, extremely inefficient, and woefully under engineered. We absolutely love it. This could be plucked from a video game or a movie and seems to be one UV bulb away from being the ultimate post apocalyptic zombie vampire Armageddon weapon. He has taken apart a chainsaw and attached it to a DC treadmill motor using a couple of bike sprockets and a chain. That DC motor then feeds a car headlight directly. As you can see in the video, when he cranks the gas, it shines pretty brightly. The unfinished nature of this is due to a deadline for a contest on instructables, so he plans on adding a protective cowl, some fancy paint work, and a voltage regulator down the road.

While this may be inefficient, it is certainly a step up from a steam powered spud gun.
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- flashlight
- vampire
- overkill
August 8 2010, 9:19am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Dummy loads and heat sinks

http://hackaday.com/2010/08/06/dummy-loads-and-heat-sinks/

In [Dave's] latest episode of the EEVblog he takes a look at constant current dummy loads. These are used to test power supply designs and instead of just chaining resistive loads together every time he’s decided to look into building a tool for the job. What he ends up with is a reliable constant current load that can be dialed anywhere from 1.5 mA up to just over 1A. There’s even an onboard meter so you don’t have to probe the setting before use.

It may look like he sent his design off to the board house for production but that’s actually a re-purposed PCB. In walking though his junk-box assembled dummy load [Dave] shares some great tips, like using multiple 1% resistors instead of shelling our for one large and accurate power resistor. But our favorite part comes at about 12:00 when he takes us through some rough math in calculating heat sinks. We’ve always just guessed, but like any good teacher, [Dave] explains the theory and then measures the actual performance taking the guesswork out of the design. See for yourself after the break.

[Thanks Strider_mt2k]
- Tags:
- mosfet
- tool-hacks
- power supply
- switching
- bench panel
- dummy load
August 6 2010, 9:54am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Driving with Android

http://hackaday.com/2010/08/03/driving-with-android/

[Elrik] converted an RC car so that it can be controlled with an Android phone. He wisely uses the accelerometer for steering with a button for forward and another for reverse. There’s even control for the headlights. The car itself has had a servo retrofit for steering but it’s the Bluetooth module that catches our eye. It’s a GP-GC021 which you can get your hands on for under $20. It has a serial UART for easy interface with a microcontroller at up to 9600 baud.

Now you can convert over that larger vehicle to use Bluetooth instead of WiFi, just don’t hurt yourself. And if you’re just starting out with writing Android apps, don’t miss our series: Android Development 101.
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- rc
- bluetooth
- android hacks
- radio control
- gp-gc021
August 3 2010, 1:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Multi-purpose welding cart

http://hackaday.com/2010/08/01/multi-purpose-welding-cart/

[Todd Harrison] put together a welding cart that has all kinds of tricks built-in. The carcass is a cheap rolling cart that has been reinforced with steel plate and beefier wheels. The top tray can be loaded up with fire brick for oxygen-acetylene welding or with a grate for cutting. That grate lets the slag fall through and into the red-rimmed fire-box below. Finally, there’s a steel plate to the right of the cart that rotates and slides over the top of the unit to prepare it for MIG welding. Todd walks us through his versatile invention in the video after the break. This will nicely augment your other welding hacks.
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- cart
- plasma
- welding
- harbor freight
- mig
August 1 2010, 11:54am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

DS1307 breakout board

http://hackaday.com/2010/07/26/ds1307-breakout-board/

Adafruit’s got a handy breakout board for the DS1307 RTC available. This chip isn’t nearly as accurate as the DS3231 used in the Chronodot but it’s quite a bit cheaper. The breakout makes this easy to breadboard or plug into an Arduino and has everything you need; clock crystal, a backup battery, filtering capacitor, and pull-up resistors. Our favorite part is that Adafruit designs are open source so you can etch the board yourself if you checkout the files from their git repository. This will make a great addition to our prototyping hardware collection.

Incidentally, we were surprised to see the choice of 2.2k resistors for the I2C bus pull-ups. We were under the impression that 4.7k was a standard value here. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments.

[via Dangerous Prototypes]
- Tags:
- adafruit
- tool-hacks
- breakout
- rtc
- ds1307
- chronodot
July 26 2010, 11:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Extremely organized prototyping

http://hackaday.com/2010/07/25/extremely-organized-prototyping/

We’ve got a couple of very high-tech shoe boxes in which we store our prototyping accessories. You’ll find a collection of LCD modules, chips on breakout boards, switches soldered to homemade boards for easy breadboarding, and much more. That is assuming you can find anything in that mess of components.

[Shahriar] took a different approach. He’s mounted all of his prototyping gear inside of a briefcase. This large collection of high-end boards include PIC prototyping, various LCD screens, and a large portion of SparkFun’s stocked boards. It’s much more advanced than the Arduino to-go platform, and you can see a full walk through of the system after the break.

Short overview

Full monte
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- pic
- prototyping
- briefcase
- organize
July 25 2010, 10:35am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

3D printing with chemicals

http://hackaday.com/2010/07/15/3d-printing-with-chemicals/

From the horse’s mouth,

“In this lithography experiment light creates free radicals from phenylbis(2,4,6-trimethylbenzoyl)phosphine oxide which induce polymerization of 1,6-hexanediol diacrylate.”

Or for those without a Chemical Engineering degree, light from a (high resolution) projector interacts with a special liquid, producing a hard polymer on the surface. A platform within the liquid is lowered, taking the layer of polymer with it. Shine the projector again to produce another layer: lather, rinse, repeat. Long story short, an atypical 3D printer using light on a very small scale.

You get the chemicals and lab equipment, we’ll get the laptop and projector, and for goodness sake [Jimmie] stop bumping the table.

[Thanks Tomas]
- Tags:
- 3d
- tool-hacks
- printer
- projector
- light
- liquid
- cnc hacks
- chemical
- layer
- polymer
July 15 2010, 4:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Calibrate those instruments

http://hackaday.com/2010/07/04/calibrate-those-instruments/

This tip was a pleasant surprise on a Sunday morning. This site explains cheap and relatively easy ways of calibrating the instruments we hold so dear. Not only how, but when and why. Included are instructions on calibrating Voltage (DC and AC), frequency, RF and more.

[thanks Jan]
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- calibration
July 4 2010, 11:11am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Open source logic analyzer software

http://hackaday.com/2010/07/01/open-source-logic-analyzer-software/

[Christian Weichel] has been hard at work developing LogicAnalyzer, an open source tool that may interest you. It is designed with SUMP Logic Analyzers in mind but a main goal is expandability. What this means is that it plays nicely with things like the Open Workbench Logic Sniffer or you can do a bit of fiddling to get it to work with your own designs. The program is based on Eclipse so you should be familiar with how it works and you can get it running easily on multiple platforms. Take a look at the wiki for a quick start.
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- logic analyzer
- eclipse
- logicanalyzer
- sump
July 1 2010, 1:10pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

How to design your gears

http://hackaday.com/2010/06/30/how-to-design-your-gears/

[Dustyn Roberts] takes us through the process of designing gears for a specific application. Using Inkscape and Ponoko.com [Dustyn] takes us from equation to physical gear. While there is a plugin for Inkscape that allows you to basically drag and drop gears, this writeup will take you through the math to get exactly what you need. Those laser cut wooden gears are pretty cool looking too.
- Tags:
- parts
- ponoko
- tool-hacks
- laser
- gear
June 30 2010, 9:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Simple shutter speed tester

http://hackaday.com/2010/06/16/simple-shutter-speed-tester/

[Pablo] likes to buy and repair broken cameras. When he was in need of a way to test the shutter speed, his brother came up with a great idea. Harvest the photo transistor from an old ball mouse. It turned out to be just as easy as it sounds. He plugs the circuit into some sound editing software to get the signal. We think this is pretty slick.

[via Makezine]
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- digital cameras hacks
- SLR
- shutter
June 16 2010, 9:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Electro Luminescent fun with Jeri Ellsworth

http://hackaday.com/2010/06/14/electro-luminescent-fun-with-jeri-ellsworth/

[Jeri] got her hands on some of the DuPont Luxprint EL ink and had some fun conducting experiments. She tried different materials for the base and the display itself. Not only does she just play with materials, she also tears apart a VFD and an LCD to see if she could use them for parts. The LCD turned out to be the most successful. We saw this stuff show up at the Bay Area Maker Faire and we’re excited to see it become more accessible.

[via Makezine]
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- electro luminescent
- el
June 14 2010, 8:56am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Intelligent battery charging

http://hackaday.com/2010/06/11/intelligent-battery-charging/

[Razor] shares with us the plans for an intelligent battery charging circuit. Instead of blindly charging your battery into oblivion, this one shuts off once the battery is fully charged. It is a nice clean circuit that can be adjusted and fine tuned to your specific needs via some trim pots and dip switches.

[via HackedGadgets]
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- battery
- charge
- classic hacks
June 11 2010, 9:30am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Superprobe

http://hackaday.com/2010/06/04/superprobe/

The Superprobe is a logic analyzer, multimeter, and much more rolled into a fun to build project. [Ben Ryves] didn’t come up with the original idea, but he definitely took a good thing and made it better. You can use it to test logic, inject logic into a circuit, read capacitors and resistors, test frequency, read the device address from 1-wire devices, and more. Interchangeable probes, choice of internal or external power, simple two-button operation, and a powerful PIC microcontroller at the heart of it all make this a fantastic tool for your electronics workbench. Check out the quality video after the break that [Ben] put together to show off the results of his tinkering.
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- logic analyzer
- pic
- multimeter
- Superprobe
June 4 2010, 11:30am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

USBasp: AVR programmer based on ATmega8

http://hackaday.com/2010/06/03/usbasp-avr-programmer-based-on-atmega8/

We love our AVR Dragon programmer but it can be nice to have a cheap and simple in system programmer on hand too. The USBasp is one such programmer that uses and ATmega8 as its only IC. It requires just a handful of components and can be purchased as a kit, or etched and assembled at home. If you source your own parts the chip does need to be programmed which makes for a chicken-or-egg scenario. We’ve used the Parallel-port dongle (schematic) from Adafruit’s Spoke POV before. It’s basically just a DAPA cable and a few resistors, a ribbon cable (use and old IDE cable if you have to) and a parallel port connector can have you up and running in no time. This is also a great way to get a friend into working with embedded systems. Order parts for a few of these and give them away to your buddies.
- Tags:
- AVR
- tool-hacks
- programmer
- atmega8
- dragon
- dapa
- usbasp
June 3 2010, 3:22pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Brighten up your PCB drilling station

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/30/brighten-up-your-pcb-drilling-station/

Being able to see what you’re doing can be the hardest part of drilling the through holes in those freshly etched printed circuit boards. We don’t know why we didn’t come up with this, but [Markus Gebhard] solved his shadowy woes with his 20-LED Dremel light ring. Honestly, how many times have we seen lights rings in photography without putting it together that a light ring is perfect for this purpose. So kudos to [Markus], now we’ve got to go and dig up some surface mount LEDs and uncork the copper chloride.
- Tags:
- pcb
- tool-hacks
- drill
- dremel
- light ring
May 30 2010, 12:03pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Power drill solder spooler

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/21/power-drill-solder-spooler/

[Scott] over at curiousinventor.com has posted an instructable detailing how to use an Arduino and a power drill to spool solder. The Arduino senses the speed that the drill is going via an opto interrupter and a laser and adjusts with a servo hooked to the trigger. While we don’t think many people will be dying to spool some solder, this system might be useful for all kinds of things, like winding yarn or making coils.
- Tags:
- arduino
- wind
- tool-hacks
- coil
- spool
May 21 2010, 10:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Solder station hack adds temperature control

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/19/solder-station-hack-adds-temperature-control/

Take that cheap fire stick you call a soldering iron and turn it into a real tool. [Giorgos Lazaridis] turned his 30 watt soldering iron into a temperature controlled soldering station by adding a thermistor just above the tip to monitor how hot things are getting. A MAX6675 takes care of the thermocouple and shoots a digital temperature value off to the PIC 16F88 which controls the unit by taking user input from a potentiometer and displaying the settings on an HD44780 character display. His use of a dissected ‘wall wort’ inside of the ATX power supply carcass used as the case for the station is a clever hack. See it melt some metal in the clip after the break.

This makes a nice upgrade to our solder station guide, which had a temperature controlled iron but lacked the sensor and automation seen here.
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- temperature
- soldering iron
- hd44780
- 16f88
- max6675
- solder station
May 19 2010, 11:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Magically repair AVR chips

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/17/magically-repair-avr-chips/

If you’ve ever spent time working with AVR microcontrollers you’ve probably set the fuse bits incorrectly at least once. The ATmega fusebit doctor will automatically repair the fuse bits and get you back in business until your next mishap. The ATtiny2313 that powers the device has the chip signatures for the ATmega family stored inside so it will automatically detect which chip you’re trying to ‘unbrick’. From there it looks up the correct fuse bits and resurrects the sick microcontroller. This is useful in recovering a chip that has serial programming disabled, used the reset pin as I/O, or just enabled an external clock without the necessary hardware to deliver on that feature.

This magic is taken care of by using High Voltage Parallel Programming. We’ve seen HVPP used in the Arduino rescue shield and it is a valuable feature of the AVR Dragon, our favorite AVR programmer, as well as others. Still, you can hardly beat the ease of plugging a dead chip into this board and pressing one button. Oh, did you brick a member of the ATtiny family? There’s a rescue board for those too.

[Thanks Stewe]
- Tags:
- attiny
- atmega
- AVR
- tool-hacks
- high voltage
- rescue
- hvpp
May 17 2010, 5:34pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Ghetto repairs: Desoldering with a candle

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/13/ghetto-repairs-desoldering-with-a-candle/

Yes, that picture you are seeing is serious. [Roland] needed a chip for a damaged piece of electronics. He was lucky enough to find one on an old board at a local shop. The problem was, he didn’t have the hot air gun to remove the chip the correct way. Instead, he simply cooked the board over a candle to melt the solder. Interestingly, after he cleaned the candle-cooked board, it looked like it survived without damage. The chip worked fine and fixed his problems. Sometimes, we just don’t have the right tools for the job.

[via HackedGadgets]
- Tags:
- candle
- tool-hacks
- ghetto
May 13 2010, 8:59am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Building air variable capacitors

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/12/building-air-variable-capacitors/

In keeping with our opinion that radio operators were the original electronic hackers here’s a guide to building your own transmitting air variable capacitors. Using some roof flashing, Plexiglas, and various fasteners [David Hammack] was able to make it work. It’s not a perfect solution but he has some ideas to make the next one better. Give this a try after you’re done tweaking your crystals and building input devices.

[Thanks Rich]
- Tags:
- wireless hacks
- tool-hacks
- radio
- capacitors
May 12 2010, 11:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

5×2 patch board

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/07/5x2-patch-board/

Sometimes we want to sit on the back porch, crack a beer, and do some prototyping. Other times we’d like to do the same but on the couch in the livingroom. To that end we added a 5×2 pin to 10×1 pin patch board to our solderless breadboard.

The 5×2 pin form factor is pretty common, used as an AVR programming header, on development boards like the Dragon Rider 500 and the STK 500, and in small prototyping devices like the Bus Pirate. We like the freedom of using IDC cables as interconnects and that’s where this board comes in. Now we can patch into the IDC cables yet still quickly disconnect them when moving to a different prototyping location. Check out the PCB artwork and this handy device in use after the break.

Above is an image of the DS3232 breakout board we made a while back. We have probe cables that we could use to connect directly to the pins on the breakout board but as you can see, we need a smoothing capacitor and three pullup resistors in this circuit so we’re using a breadboard. In the past we’ve connected jumper wires directly to one end of an IDC cable but it’s difficult to ensure you’re made the proper connection and the wires frequently come loose. With our new breakout board attached to the breadboard, solid connects can be made to the 10×1 pin sockets while preserving portability with the 5×2 pin header.

If you want to make you’re own, the PCB artwork is below. We used 6-32 machine screws, nylon spacers, washers, lock washers, and nuts to firmly affix the PCB to holes we drilled in the base of the breadboard. Good luck and let us know how you like this addition.
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- breadboard
- breakout
- idc
- pin header
- pin socket
May 7 2010, 4:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Peltier cooler based cloud chamber

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/07/peltier-cooler-based-cloud-chamber/

[Rich] shares with us his build of a Peltier cooler based cloud chamber. This nifty little tool allows him to see the paths that radioactive particles take through alcohol vapor. The system he has come up with is fairly cheap at roughly $100. He’s using Peltier coolers from computers and a cheap ATX power supply. You can see a more detailed instructable here.

[via Make]
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- peltier
- cloud
- radioactive
May 7 2010, 8:13am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

QFN or MLF soldering without solder paste

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/04/qfn-or-mlf-soldering-without-solder-paste/

Take a few minutes to watch this amazingly informative video on how to solder QFN or MLF components without solder paste. The quality of the video and the information within is quite nice. Even if you don’t intend to work with these parts, you could pick up some tips for soldering with hot air.
- Tags:
- smd
- tool-hacks
- how-to
- solder
- paste
- mlf
- qfn
May 4 2010, 10:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

9 digit pulse counter

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/30/9-digit-pulse-counter/

At roughly $20 to build, this 9 digit pulse counter is an excellent example of home built tools. The builder, [Josh] found himself repairing a device and in need of a pulse counter. With the components cheaply available, he just built his own. He says that it has a few limitations, like display brightness, but overall it seems to do the job well. You can download the PCB from his site.

[via MakeZine]
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- tool
- stepper
- classic hacks
- pulse
April 30 2010, 8:20am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

40 MSPS Digital oscilloscope

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/27/40-msps-digital-oscilloscope/

If you can fabricate single-sided circuit boards at home you can build this digital oscilloscope. It uses mostly through-hole components with just a couple of surface mount chips to contend with. An ATmega162 handles the hardware end of things with a CPLD used to manage the sampling rate. Data is displayed on a 240×128 LCD display which will be the most expensive component to acquire. It’s still a lot cheaper than buying a commercially available oscilloscope, even if you get a base model and hack it to unlock all the features.

[Thanks Juan]
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- cpld
- oscilloscope
- atmega162
April 27 2010, 1:05pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Lawnmower converted to Hoe/scraper

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/27/lawnmower-converted-to-hoescraper/

[Torx] wrote this instructable on how to convert a lawnmower to another useful tool. We’re not sure what language he natively speaks, but we doubt it is english, so you might be better off just looking at the pictures to figure out what he’s doing. To summarize, he has lowered the mower and reversed/bent the blade to scrape the ground. He has also added thick rubber edges all around to try to keep debris from coming out. You might be wondering why he would need something like this, but the last page sums it up pretty well. We could imagine this possibly getting some use in the garden as well. This one does look pretty dangerous though, so don’t blame us if you cut off a hand or lose an eye to some debris. Then again, a regular lawnmower looks pretty dangerous too.
- Tags:
- home hacks
- tool-hacks
- lawn
- hoe
April 27 2010, 10:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Lawnmower+stake+rope=Analog robotic lawn service

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/26/lawnmowerstakeropeanalog-robotic-lawn-service/

[Kirov], a regular reader and one of our most notorious commenters, tipped us off about this lawn mowing hack. On one hand we’re wary that this is bait for a huge flame war, but on the other hand it’s a hack that brings a smile to our mischievous faces. By pounding a stake into the center of the yard and connecting a mower to it with a piece of rope, [Korey99] has achieve an automated lawn mower. He tied the self-propelled mower’s throttle bar down to make the machine run unattended. There’s no kill switch or any kind of remote control for the lawn mower so we wonder what happens when the rope gets all wound up?
- Tags:
- home hacks
- tool-hacks
- mower
- dangerous
- lawn
- rope
April 26 2010, 5:04pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Flux-cored to MIG welder conversion

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/23/flux-cored-to-mig-welder-conversion/

[Rob] sent us some information on how he converted his flux-cored welder to a metal inert gas welder. He used a piece of DOM tubing as a collet with a side inlet tube that he uses to inject carbon dioxide. The gas is sourced from a 12 ounce paint ball CO2 tank and it looks like there’s a valve right at the junction with the collet. We wonder how long it would take to tear through one of those tanks, but if you’re not doing a lot of MIG welding this saves on the upfront cost of buying a separate setup.
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- welder
- welding
- flux-cored
- mig
April 23 2010, 9:14am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Four channel logic analyzer

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/17/four-channel-logic-analyzer/

If you’ve got a graphic LCD lying around you can build this four-channel logic analyzer with a couple handfuls of cheap components. [Ronald de Bruijn's] design uses a PIC18F4580 to sample up to four logic inputs at a maximum resolution of 2 MHz. He’s included the PCB artwork so that you can etch your own board. Having a logic analyzer around can really make your life easier, allowing you to reverse engineer communication protocols and troubleshoot your own design problems.

[Thanks Juan]
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- logic analyzer
- pic18f4580
April 17 2010, 2:30pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Victorian styled nixie tester

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/16/victorian-styled-nixie-tester/

While building some nixie clocks,[Blue_Metal] ended up destroying a few tubes. He found that having a tester sitting around would have been most helpful. Taking some pride in his tools, he put some major effort into building his nixie tube tester. It is quite visually pleasing, featuring hand cut brass framing, custom etched information panels. Scroll through his flickr set to see the build process in detail.
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- steampunk
- nixie
- tube
April 16 2010, 10:12am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

PWM fan controller for external hard drive

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/14/pwm-fan-controller-for-external-hard-drive/

[Alan] noticed that his external hard drive was getting quite hot to the touch after a few hours. He says that it was probably designed to handle the heat sufficiently, he thought it would be fun to beef it up. He’s using a pic 12f675 microcontroller as the brain and an LM35 temperature sensor. The Fan speed is varried in 8 steps from 35 degrees C to 45 degrees C.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- tool-hacks
- pic
- pwm
- fan
- classic hacks
April 14 2010, 9:05am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

PICMAN, a diy prototyping setup

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/13/picman-a-diy-prototyping-setup/

[Ytai Ben-Tsvi] wanted a rapid prototyping tool that could be easily and cheaply built at home. He came up with the PICMAN, a breadboard compatible PIC based board that has everything you need to get the ball rolling. He’s using a PIC18LF4553 which has built-in USB support that can be used with a bootloader for programming. The board also features a voltage regulator for non-USB power sources, some indicator LEDs, a user-defined button, and a reset button. The chip is on the underside and a combination of through-hole and surface-mount parts make for a one-sided PCB that can easily be etched using the toner transfer method. You will need a PIC programmer to burn the bootloader firmware the first time but once that’s done this becomes a self-contained package.
- Tags:
- pcb
- tool-hacks
- usb
- pic18lf4553
- picman
April 13 2010, 3:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Make a bandsaw

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/09/make-a-bandsaw/

Thinking of buying a new bandsaw? Stop it. Make one instead. Not only could you save some money, you could customize it to be exactly what you need. There is a step by step breakdown of the entire construction with tons of great pictures. He even has some great info for general bandsaw use if you’ve already got one.

[via makezine]
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- wood
- band saw
- bandsaw
April 9 2010, 12:24pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Flux paste applicator gun

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/08/flux-paste-applicator-gun/

[Luciano] didn’t want to drop a lot of cash into a flux and solder paste applicator so he built his own for about $5. He re-purposed a hot glue gun which you can usually find at a dollar store. After removing the heating element he inserted the body of a syringe. The plunger has been modified to use a knitting needle inside of some plastic tubing. After taking the picture above he made an improvement by adding a milliliter scale to the plunger, allowing you to meter out the paste and also gauge how much remains.
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- solder
- paste
- gun
- hot glue
- flux
April 8 2010, 3:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

On-the-go prototyping

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/06/on-the-go-prototyping/

[Riley Porter] has been working on several different custom enclosure designs. Above, you can see his Proto Desk which holds a breadboard, Arduino, and has two recessed boxes with sliding tops for components and patch wires. He’s got a miniature version that gets rid of the breadboard, as well as slick-looking cases for the Bus Pirate, tinyISP, and face plates for word clocks.

Well, if you’ve got a laser cutter you should be using it right? We’ve seen [Riley's] wares in the past; he wrote the guide for laser cutting solder stencils.

[Thanks Brian]
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- laser
- case
- enclosure
- proto desk
April 6 2010, 2:33pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

PC fan failure alarm

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/06/pc-fan-failure-alarm/

Need to monitor not only if a fan is running, but if it is running fast enough? Check out this PC fan failure alarm circuit. After several failed attempts using various circuits, they settled on a Schmitt trigger. They even show a couple variations including a manual reset and a relay instead of a buzzer.

[via HackedGadgets]
- Tags:
- pcs hacks
- tool-hacks
- alarm
- monitor
April 6 2010, 2:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

HDD power tools: the sander

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/03/hdd-power-tools-the-sander/

At first we thought this looked hastily thrown together and quite possible useless. Then we watched the video, embedded after the break, and realized it is quite a handy bench sander. [Mhkabir] opened up an older hard drive, removed the read head, and added a piece of carefully cut sand paper. When you hook it up to your bench supply you’ve got a small sander ready to use. We can’t wait to try it on some small PCB edges. Now that we’ve seen a sander and a chop saw, we wonder what’s next?
- Tags:
- tool-hacks
- hard drive
- hdd
- sander
April 3 2010, 2:12pm | More »

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