In this video Rick Crammond demonstrates his Hauksbee Generator: The idea is that a triboelectric (electrostatic) effect occurs from sliding hands on glass. The voltage generated ionizes the gases in the globe, creating a blue plasma glow inside. Our rotating globe is a pyrex lab flask containing air under a partial vacuum, is mounted on a bicycle […]
Category Archives: DIY
DIY CNC machine called the Ripper
Maximilian Malihas built this cool CNC machine called the Ripper: The 3-Axis CNC was not designed for a specific application – ripper fusions the needs required for fast shape-cutting in wood/PVC and the strength and stiffness required for milling in aluminum and copper. It brings the precision down to fractions of the human hair – […]
DIY Arduino SVG plotter
Here’s a DIY Arduino SVG plotter by Junk+Arduino: Junk (the hardware): Olde Epson printer: frame, two stepper motors, motor driver circuitry CD player: The laser head moving mechanism Desktop compy PSU as a 5V power supply One H-bridge – SN754410NE Some resistors Bits of wire and a small breadboard Arduino uno, computer and pen Via Hacked […]
Open Bitcoin ATM
Check out the world’s first open-source Bitcoin ATM: Open Bitcoin ATM is the worlds first open-source automated teller machine for education and experimentation. Want to make one? Here’s a step by step tutorial. It takes about 7 – 10 hours to build with simple tools. Cost of components are less than $500 new but used […]
Digitally controlled HiFi Amp with 4 way mixer
Michael shares his project files for a digital HiFi amp featuring a 20 W stereo power amplifier, 4 way audio in and digital volume control interface. Though I am a musician I don’t care for calling an expensive hi watt stereo my own. For years I have used a homebuilt stereo amplifier built around the […]
RetroWatch, an open source smart watch project using Arduino and Android
Here is a very nice build of a DIY smart watch based on Arduino and Android by godstale. Check it out. But here is a simple way to evaluate smart watch’s future on your own. Make it! With Arduino micro-processor and Android, I made a simple smart watch and named it “Retro Watch“. You can […]
Its here and its manual override controller
Mohamed Afzal writes: Its been a while that i am working on an autonomous vehicle and some major parts are tested and still going on with the project. For this project its better to have a manual override control via RC remote controller. After researching the RC controller and receiver i have found out the […]
Strobe guitar tuner r2
Neil has been working on a strobe guitar tuner project: I’ve learned a bunch about making circuit boards at work recently, so I decided to re-do the ol’ strobe guitar tuner project from 3 or 4 years ago. The original still works… sort of. I have to power it from a 3x AA battery holder that’s clipped […]
DiyouPCB low-cost PCB printer for photoresist
Charlie and Victor from Diyouware write, About a year ago my brother and I engaged on a quixotic project to build from scratch a low-cost PCB printer for photoresist. Finally we did it using a Blue Ray optical pickup (PHR-803T) and his UV laser/electronics to sensitize Dry-film. The optical pickup is used through his own […]
The Drinkmotizer – a Raspberry Pi drink mixing robot
Cabe Atwell wanted a way to have a robot serve up a mixed drink efficiently and economically. He developed the Drinkmotizer, which uses a Raspberry Pi in combination with an Arduino to construct the dream project of many a maker. What makes this drink mixing robot different from other designs? Cabe says this machine builds […]
DIY Pick and Place USB controller board
Brian Dorey build this DIY Pick and Place USB controller board: Every time the Mach3 software sent a command there would be a short delay of around 100-200 milliseconds and with each component placed using around seven commands it was adding a few seconds to the placement time for each part. On some of our boards which […]
LittleBits sample rotator
Kra5h writes: In my Instructable I demonstrate how to build a sample rotator, a common laboratory device used to continuously mix lab samples, using Erector set parts and littleBits. In the littleBits Base Kit, the motor module comes with an adapter for a Lego cross-axle so you can add motion to a Lego project. There does […]
Valentine LED chaser
As Valentines day is fast approaching, many are thinking of a wonderful present to their love ones. Tom built this heart-shaped LED chaser and wrote a post on his blog detailing it’s assembly: The object of your desire will not be able to resist a heart-shaped LED chaser, lovingly hand-crafted on perfboard with a CD4017B decade counter […]
DIY programmable bike light – Arduino or ATTiny and RGB LED
Oscar built a DIY bike rear light to keep him safe and wrote a post on his blog detailing it’s assembly: In this project I will be using a microcontroller to allow for switching between the various functions I programmed. The entire system is built on the backbone of an ATtiny4313 chip with a few other parts totalling at about $35. […]
RumbleRail, a standalone and modular Floppy disk jukebox
Watch and enjoy this RumbleRail project a Floppy disk jukebox by Kiu: The overall setup is completly modular. Each floppy is connected to its own floppy driver (rrfdc), which in turn speaks I²C with the main board (rrcmd). On power-on the main board auto-discovers the connected floppies and adjusts the software to utilize the available drives. In theory […]
DIY in circuit capacitor ESR meter
Here’s a DIY in circuit capacitor ESR meter build by Lawrence: This project was conceived as a way to enhance the collection of test equipment on my test bench. I buy a lot of older HP test gear off ebay as well as older radios. Most of this gear is 25-60 years old and needless […]
SMD reflow hot air gun NC automatic machine
Giorgos from PCBheaven has been working on a DIY hot-air gun NC machine and wrote a detailed explanation on his blog describing the build: Four pieces is all it takes to make the frame of the NC. And BTW, an NC machine is the same as a CNC without the leading C. CNC stands for “Computer Numerical […]
DIY briefcase Arcade
Travis Reynolds documented his DIY briefcase arcade build: This project came about in an odd way. Where I work, we have an arcade club. Basically, a group of guys get together and play old school video games. The only problem is I am the only guy in the club that has an arcade we can use. So, […]
Homemade GPS receiver update
Andrew Holme posted an update on his DIY GPS receiver we covered previously: This is now a truly portable, battery-powered, 12-channel GPS receiver with turnkey software, which acquires and tracks satellites, and continuously recalculates its position, without user-intervention. The complete system (below, left) comprises: 16×2 LCD display, Raspberry Pi Model “A” computer, two custom printed-circuit boards, commercial […]
CNC Machine built using floppy drives
Richard Harris has produced a series of video tutorials on how to build a low cost micro CNC machine that uses old floppy drives for the movement. The video above is 10 in the series, if you would like to build you own you will need to start from video 1 which is here. It won’t do […]