Felix of LowPowerLab posted an update on his DoorBell Mote project we covered previously: My first DoorBell Mote prototype was working nicely and it allowed monitoring the door bell (while also triggering it remotely – toddlers love it). But I wanted more. On weekends the family likes to get a well deserved nap during the day […]
Category Archives: DIY
Interfacing a chord keypad to Papilio Duo FPGA board
Ken writes: This is a simple chord style keypad that I made up a few years ago. It is loosely based on the Microwriter – an early UK designed portable keypad / notewriter. The five main keys are located under the fingertips and thumb of the right hand, plus an additional shift key that can […]
Build a drawbot from two CD drives and a Raspberry Pi
A DIY plotter build using old CD drives and a Raspberry Pi by Norbert Heinz: The battery powered WLAN plotter shown here is composed of parts from two old optical drives, four H bridges, a servo and a Raspberry Pi. Project info at HomoFaciens site. Via Make. Check out the video after the break.
Nixie tube clock
Pete Mills has written an article detailing the build of his Nixie tube clock: Fortunately, not all nixie tube clocks are implemented the same. In fact, look around at all the schematics for nixie clocks, and you will realize there are more permutations in methodology than there are models of nixie tubes. This is how […]
Soldering station to drive HAKKO 907 handles
Dilshan Jayakody published a new build: To keep it simple we choose LM358 dual operational amplifier IC to monitor the 907’s thermocouple and drive the TRIAC. The entire control circuit of this soldering station is powered by single rail 5V DC power supply. To drive both handle and station we use 12V-0-12V 8A step down […]
Using a PS3 eye toy with OpenCV
Henry writes, “I was looking for a USB webcam that I could use for doing some openCV/digital control systems projects. The PS3 Eye seems like a great product for this!” Project details at Henry’s blog.
DIY digital soldering station
Mike over at PCBSmoke has written an article detailing the build of his digital temperature controlled soldering station: The unit uses a PID temperature controller, an SSR (Solid State Relay) and a transformer plus a metal enclosure case, a soldering stand and a few other parts. It is relatively inexpensive to build, plus it makes […]
DIY pocket laser engraver
Photon printer, a 3D printable laser engraver build using DVD drives by Isolt: This is an entry for the Light It Up contest on the grounds that a laser diode is a specialised form on light emitting diode. The Photon Printer started out as a quick weekend project then quickly escalated when I saw that there […]
Vintage metal detector
Gary over at TOG-Dublin Hackerspace published a new build, the vintage metal detector project: ETI Electronics, February 1978, IB Metal detector Mk2. This is the first in a series of ‘vintage’ electronics projects that we hope to build at TOG. We have the original magazine, so why not get building. There are some amazing projects […]
DIY 6EM7 Single-Ended Triode (SET) amplifier
A DIY 6EM7 Single-Ended Triode (SET) amplifier from diyAudioProjects: This unique looking hi-fi amplifier was put together by Matt in a vertical wooden chassis that has been styled after early vacuum tube equipment of the 1920s. The amplifier uses a single 6EM7 tube per channel. The 6EM7 tube has two dissimilar triodes in one envelope. […]
LiTiny- A Tiny LiIon charger for most things battery
Rohit Gupta made this LiTiny project, a tiny LiIon charger: In the end I had a LiIon charger capable of charging batteries @700mA restricted due to thermal dissipation limits of home made PCBs. Project details at Rohit’s blog.
DIY soldering station
MatthiasW over at DebuggingLab posted his DIY Weller station clone project, that is available at Github: At the fpv-community.de Forum I read about a DIY Weller station. Basically an Arduino shield to drive a Weller soldering tip. As there is not much to it, the board simply contains an precision OpAmp, a power MOSFET, 2 buttons […]
DIY laser diode driver | Constant current source
GreatScottLab’s instructable on how to make your own constant current source and how to get a ‘burning’ laser diode: In this project I will show you how I extracted a laser diode from a DVD Burner which should have the power to ignite a match. In order to power the diode correctly I will also […]
DIY double sided 60W LED UV radiation unit with vacuum pump
Kurt Skauen has been working on a DIY 1188 LED dual sided UV radiation unit: The UV exposure unit is controlled by an ATmega328P microcontroller and have the following features: Single and double sided exposure. Each side radiated by a 594LEDs / 30W UV LED panel (The unit has a total of 1188 LEDs providing […]
DIY resistor decade
Sjaak posted his resistor decade project, inspired by DigitalUnderpants‘ DIY resistor substitution decade box: Got some 1% resistors, thumbwheels and 2mm headers from ebay and a shiny pcb from dirtypcb and got myself a decade resistorbank (0-999999 ohm) Even enought parts to built another one :) Via the forum.
Soldering iron pulse timer for temperature control
Here’s Mike’s completed project DIY soldering iron pulse timer controller. He wrote a post on his blog detailing its assembly: This is a follow up to a previous post on a way to get temperature control for a plug-in soldering iron without a temperature sensor. Instead of using a sensor to control the temperature, this […]
An almost reliable, high precision, 3D printer: Son of MegaMax (SoM)
Mark Rehorst wrote this instructable detailing the build of his 3D printer – Son of MegaMax (SoM): I built my first 3D printer, MegaMax, using surplus machine parts over a period of about 2 years. I built it myself because when I started the project, the biggest build envelope you could get in a reasonably priced machine was […]
Double RC servo tester with OLED display
Dan blogged about his Servo tester with OLED display project: The problem is simple: I need to have a reliable and easy to use servo tester, that I can use to test/play with a standard RC servo or ESC or anything else that uses the same control protocol. This necessity has arisen again quite recently, while […]
A signal amplifier module for HF
Marcus Jenkins blogged about his radio frequency amplifier project he made using DirtyBoard PCB’s In building QRP HF radios, having an RF signal level amplifier building block is handy. You want 50 Ohm output impedance, some reasonable gain, supply voltage of the usual 10-14V and ease of building using standard parts from your parts bin. Some […]
FM430 – A MSP430 and TEA5767 project that lets you listen to clear digital FM
From the comments on our earlier FM radio receiver post. Rohit Gupta shows off his digital FM Receiver on MSP430 using TEA5767: I completed one yesterday using the MSP430 and TEA5767 Chip. Gave it a minimalist switch to toggle the channels stored in an array. Gives realtime channel strength and transmission quality values too over serial. […]