The $5 mouse that you just tossed in the garbage might have had some hackable life still in it. As Conor Peterson shows us most optical mice are actually quite simply in operation with most of the hard work being done by the low resolution camera sensor. With a bit of Arduino code he was able to […]
Category Archives: DIY
PWM generator and servo tester with ATtiny45
Jan Henrik wrote this Instructable detailing the build of his PWM generator and servo tester with ATtiny45: This PWM generator also works as servotester, it supports all kinds of servos, which dont need more then 5V Features: Operating voltage: 5V Max PWM current: 1 A PWM frequency (by now) : 500HZ , I am trying to make that changeable, […]
DIY pick and place machine
Pete has written an article detailing his DIY pick and place machine build: Above is the back side of the machine. Along the top is a piece of DIN Rail that extends from the left and right of the ShapeOko frame. This is where the majority of parts are installed. Below this, you see a grey vertical […]
Programmable VFD display & ticker
Coyt Barringer has been working on a programmable VFD display and ticker project: The goal was to make a small programmable display so I can quickly check the current Bitcoin or Dogecoin price, see the time, weather, etc as I walk into my room. The display also had to look cool – I tried to make […]
RC servo and PID – ‘Autotune’
Stanley Lio is working on a RC Servo and PID autotune project: The robotic arm built for the magnetic field measurement project leaves several things to be desired. After a new servo is installed, finding the mapping between PWM duration and DH angles is done manually with pen and protractor. I want to automated this. The arm trembles […]
DIY laser cutter project
Hans Peter of Embryonic.dk has been working on a Laser cutter project and wrote a detailed explanation on his blog describing the build: Having seen the crazy-fast development of the printers during the time I’ve had mine, I can clearly see that my printer is not the fastest or the most precise in the league anymore. Most of […]
Review: building publicLab’s DIY spectroscopy kit
Rohit writes, I made a Opensource Spectroscope using the publiclab’s kit. I was surprised to see the kind of accuracy you can get from these easy to make Spectroscopes. I probed around a lot of light sources like LEDs, Sunlight, Tubelights and Bulbs. With LEDs I was able to estimate the forward drop in a […]
DIY external serial monitor
ARPix wrote this Instructable detailing the build of his DIY external serial monitor: Sometimes I needed an external serial monitor like the Serial Monitor in the Arduino Editor, to see what is going on. So I made one. The first picture shows an example how could be it designed. For the ESM I used an Atmel Atmega328 […]
DIY linear actuator design
Rolandvanroy is working on a six degree of freedom motion platform for a flight simulator: Detailed description of a home-build balanced linear actuator for six degree of freedom (6DoF) motion platform for flight simulator. Video shows step by step construction and some basic actuator test runs under load. The platform needs 6 of these actuators, and the […]
PCBs made using a laser cutter
Joebell wrote this Instructable detailing the process of making a double-sided PCBs with a laser cutter: With a little practice, you can make excellent double-sided PCBs by combining a laser cutter with chemical etching. The basic idea is: the laser cutter blasts away spray painted etch resist, then chemicals eat away the exposed copper. Once the copper […]
Digitally controlled HIFI amp with 4 way mixer
Acidbourbon posted a step by step guide of his digitally controlled HIFI amp with 4 way mixer build: The amplifier section is trivial. You just buy a TDA1554Q, bolt it to the inside of an aluminum box, solder some resistors and capacities to the pins of the IC according to the application note in the datasheet and […]
DIY PCB manufacturing tips
Acidbourbon offers some tips on PCB manufacturing at home. I’ve been manufacturing my own PCBs in my basement now for more than two years. In this article I do not want to give yet another explanation of the toner transfer method, but give you an overview of the techniques that proved to be of value […]
Building a 4bit / 8bit computer in CPLD
Hackshed crew has been working on a homebrew CPU from scratch in CPLD: Building things on breadboards is fine but I often find that I either need to pinch something from the design, I knock wires out of place or there’s some other reason that it gets destroyed. In order to get round this, I’ve started […]
Nixie bargraph clock
Thereisonlyme wrote this Instructable detailing the build of his Nixie bargraph clock: This is a cool Nixie Bargraph Clock that has an hour and minute tube, the heights of the plasma in each tube indicates the time. There are some wires wrapped around the tubes so you can easily see what time it is without estimating. The […]
DIY Arduino bluetooth programming shield
Here’s a how-to on making a DIY Arduino Bluetooth programming shield by Joshua Newell: If you’ve ever wished you could program your Arduino without lugging a USB cable around, wanted to put an Arduino project somewhere out-of-reach but still be able to easily upload changes to it, thought about building a project that interfaces with an […]
Arduino based ‘Etch A Sketch’ laser cutter
Martin Raynsford writes about his latest Arduino based project: We switched out the standard controller with an Arduino (just in time for Arduino day) and connected two rotary dials to directly manipulate the X and Y axis. As long as the laser only cuts while the axis are moving then we should avoid fires. We’ll […]
Dr Brown’s capacitor ESR tester
Rupert Hirst writes: I finally got round to making my capacitor ESR tester this week after finding a nice simple 5 transistor version by EEVBlog member Jay_Diddy_B. Unfortunately, for me, the design was only SMD so, I decided to replicate his schematic in Eagle PCB using a through hole component design.
RGB lamp made from an old scanner
Here’s an RGB LED Lamp made from old scanner parts and controlled via a web panel with a colour picker by Hack Shed: We have come up with LANp – This is an Arduino and Ethernet Shield that controls an RGB LED colour real-time with a Javascript colour picker. What’s in it? 1x Arduino 1x Arduino […]
Home produced 700VA isolation transformer
Dilshan Jayakody writes: This a quick post regarding homemade 300V – 2.3A isolation transformer. This transformer is a part of my ongoing 300V AC/DC variable power supply project and it’s boxed as a separate unit because of its heavy weight and size. All the parameters of this transformer are calculated using small Python script which […]
Piezoelectric crystal speaker build
This video by RimstarOrg demonstrates how to build a Piezoelectric crystal speaker: I make a loud speaker for a clock radio using a piezoelectric crystal. Actually I experiment with a variety of piezo crystals. That includes a piezoelectric igniter crystal from a BBQ lighter and a homemade/DIY rochelle salt piezoelectric crystal. I also try out a piezo buzzer from […]