Zak Kemble wrote a post on his blog detailing his digital wristwatch with a 1.3″ 128×64 OLED display, AVR ATmega328P microcontroller: The main incentive behind this project was to see how much I could cram, in terms of both hardware and software, into a wristwatch-like device that is no larger than the display itself. An OLED […]
Category Archives: DIY
A homebrew Tayloe SWR indicator
TJ Campie wrote a post on his blog detailing his DIY SWR indicator/bridge build: Dan Tayloe, N7VE, developed a really neat resistive SWR bridge that uses a simple LED to identify the dip in SWR on an antenna. QRPkits.com sells a nice kit of the bridge for just $15 and I recommend that if you don’t already have […]
400VA AC light dimmer
Mike over at Electronics-Lab shared his simple light dimmer project: This is a simple TRIAC AC load dimmer used to control the power of a resistive load such as incandescent lamp or heater element. The max load it can handle is 400VA. Such a circuit is often found on cheap commercial light dimmers and is proven to […]
A simple noise generator
F4GRX blogged about his simple noise generator project: After some talks on the Electrolab hackerspace Mailing list, I had the idea to try random number generators. I came across this idea after realizing that good “really random” numbers are of extreme importance for online security, as they are used in SSL, GPG, and lots of other […]
DIY HP/Agilent 53131A 010 high stability timebase option
Gerry Sweeney wrote a post on his blog detailing his DIY HP/Agilent 53131A 010 high stability timebase option: I decided to make a clone 010 option board for my counter using a second-hand OCXO bought from e-bay. I designed a PCB to get a professional finish as well as a reliable upgrade for my counter. The main […]
555 timer chip scroll music player
Here’s a music player project based on 555 timer chip by RimstarOrg: This is a music player I made for my entry for the 2013 Ottawa Mini-Maker Faire. It’s based on the popular 555 timer chip. My main design criteria was that it had to be far more robust than my previous music player that used […]
Homebrew lab agitator from salvaged CD-ROM parts
Rohit Gupta cannibalized parts from an old PC and made a lab agitator from a salvaged CD-ROM drive. “It is a homebrew replacement for a chemistry lab shaker that prevents sedimentation. It has variable shaking rates and also an end stop detection to enhance the stability of the machine overall. It is quite useful when […]
A mini microphone preamplifier
Boris Landoni from Open Electronics has written an article about the design of a microphone preamplifier: This Mini Microphone Preamplifier could be used as the first stage to amplify any audio signal. The device is equipped with a microphone plus clips to be connected to a 9V battery. Amplification is achieved by using an operational LM741 amplifier. […]
Bipolar stepper motor driver circuit with LMD18245
Viktor blogged about his bipolar stepper motor driver based on Texas Instuments’ LMD18245 build: After extensive research on the internet I decided to make a bipolar stepper motor driver based on Texas Instuments’ LMD18245, which is a 3A, 55V DMOS Full-Bridge Motor Driver. It incorporates all the circuit blocks required to drive and control current in a […]
DIY laser cut cable carrier chain
Here’s a DIY laser cut cable carrier chain project by Martin Raynsford: I’ve been looking at cheap laser cutters quite a bit recently. Most of them are missing air assist and red dot positioning, these features require wires to be run up to the laser head which means running cables around the moving parts. These drag chains […]
DIMBODY 3d desktop scanner
We previously covered Alessandro Grossi’s DIY 3d scanner. Now this project is becoming a start-up known as the DIMBODY. He describes, “DIMBODY is a 3d scanner, a digitalizer that allows you to take a physical object, and turn it into a digital 3D model on your computer. DIMBODY is based of triangulation between laser plane […]
Audio clip player
Here’s a simple audio clip player by Paul of Dorkbotpdx: The hardware is pretty simple. It’s just a Teensy 3.0 that “plays” the audio using a PWM pin. The PWM is amplified to a 9V signal using a NPN transistor, then a pair of transistors buffer the signal to the current required to drive an 8 ohm […]
PIC based wristwatch project
exapod shared his PIC based wirst watch project in the forum: i’m building a PIC based wrist watch with a sharp memory lcd as the screen. it has an accelerometer, 4 push button,rgb led for the backlight, a micro usb connector for charging the lipo and a an 18 bit adc for fuel gauge.The pic is […]
MC HCK hacker’s DIY $5 MCU board
The MC HCK is an entirely open source dev board based on the Freescale MK20DX32VLF5 which supports USB for easy programming. It features 8KB RAM, 32KB program flash + 32KB data flash. ““MC” is short for microcontroller, and “HCK” stands for “hacking”, “hackers”, “hackspaces”, but shorter, smaller. Like the MC HCK board itself.” Its developers […]
Open source DIY cellphone
Here is a DIY cellphone based on the Arduino platform and the GSM shield. It features basic functionality of a cellphone including making calls, sending SMS, storing phone numbers and displaying the current time. The DIY Cellphone is a working (albeit basic) cellphone that you can make yourself. It can make and receive phone calls […]
Digital/Analog clock – Arduino + PaperCraft
alstroemeria wrote this Instructable detailing the build of his Digital/Analog clock: In this instructable we will be recreating a clock inspired by Alvin Aronson’s original design. When I first saw this clock I was very impressed by how clean an elegant the design was I immediately wanted to recreate this effect. I hope some of you […]
Hard Disk Drive Midi scratch controller
DoktorAndy built this scratch controller made from parts of an old harddisk and an optical mouse: Check out this cool Hard Disk Drive Midi Scratch Table. It uses the sensor from an optical mouse to look at the movement of a hard drive platter. There are a number of buttons that can change the midi output […]
DIY adapter for flashing ATtiny84/85 with the Bus Pirate
@indigoid tweeted this picture of his DIY adapter for flashing ATtiny84/85 with the Bus Pirate: Very dodgy DIY adapter for flashing ATtiny84/85 via Bus Pirate. Shown w/ ATtiny85. No more jumpers! Get an assembled Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available from our friendly distributors.
LineBot project
A followup to the line-follower robot post, the LineBot project by bithead942: LineBot leverages an Arduino Uno which helps to decrease the complexity. I also used an Ardumoto shield for motor control (I’ll pre-solder the headers and screw terms). Using these will help accelerate the build since it means fewer parts on the breadboard and […]
BeagleBone GamingCape
Max Thrun has written a detailed article on his hand-held gaming console based around the beaglebone black. It covers everything from custom PCBs, to a 3D printed prototype enclosure, to a final enclosure laser cut from delrin: Older brother of the LaunchPad GamingPack, the BeagleBone GamingCape transforms your BeagleBone into a full fledged hand-held gaming console capable […]