Here is a guide on how to make your own Ferric Chloride etchant. It’s a relatively simple process that only requires some iron, hydrochloric acid, and air. As the process uses acids please be careful, and do this only if you feel comfortable with it. Get 20g of iron. This can be in the form […]
Tag Archives: DIY
Rubidium frequency standard enclosure
Kenneth builds an enclosure and power supply for a “cheap” rubidium frequency standard. Rubidium standards are used for high precision clocks, and time keeping with a drift of only 6ms a year. Normally, rubidium standards are very expensive, but it is possible to find these modules on eBay for $50-$100 as they come out of decommissioned equipment […]
DIY manual pick ‘n’ place machine
Bored with having to pick up every component with tweezers, and having them always fall off at unfortunate moments. Build a manual pick ‘n’ place machine. Basically it’s a suction cup on X and Y movable axis, with a USB camera attached for higher precision. If you are dealing with tiny SMD parts (e.g. 0402 […]
DIY electroplating and CNC milling PCBs
Here’s a video made by Cpirius of DIY electroplating and CNC milling of PCBs. The electroplating process he uses is good for down to 26mil vias. It looks like cpirius has made a video of his entire PCB prototyping process: Drilling holes, electroplating, mechanically etching and cutting out the board. Read more about the electroplating […]
Use any pocket recorder as an EMG
Eric posted an update to his Simple DIY EMG we covered previously: Using a cheap opamp to make a buffer, you can use any WAV-capable pocket recorder to make an electromyogram. You don’t need the expensive one I originally specified. Via the contact form.
Water LED Art: Making LEDs light up with water
Christopher Woodall from HappyRobotLabs shared this Water LED Art: Making LEDs Light Up With Water: I wrote up a little explanation because the BUILDS hackerspace at BU wants to recreate the wall for an exhibit and maybe make a water based input system. Mostly we just found it cool an inspiring. Via the contact form.
Dead-bugging a fine pitch BGA chip
Chris shared his experience dead-bugging BGA sized chips on our Who says BGA packages are hard to solder post. Here is my attempt at dead-bugging a finer pitch BGA, though thankfully with fewer pins. It works, but I wouldn’t trust it to keep working in a rough environment Via the comments.
DIY hand-wound resistors
Need higher power resistors, or heaters, as we like to call them? Build them yourself. Matseng hand-wound 6 meters of 38AWG wire to build 12 ohm resistors. He used a pencil and some kapton tape as the base for the resistor. I needed two power (just ~1 watt) 12 ohm resistors for a project and […]
555 based PWM generator free-form wire style
Another cool free-from wire circuit. Jeff designed this 555 based PWM generator in Eagle. He printed the trace layer and used it as a template for bending the wires. I built this 3D, freeform circuit as a test project. I’ve seen a few lately and love the way they look, and after making this circuit, […]
DIY De-panelizing PCB’s
Want to get more out of the cheap PCB services? This is just what Systemstech did when he ordered Bus Pirate LCD adapter v4 to be made. He was able to fit 3 boards on a single 10cmx10xm PCB. All that was left was for him to cut out the board with a scroll saw. […]
Hak8or’s scavenge of electronic parts from old computer hardware
Got an old computer collecting dust? Break out the hot air, and start scavenging for electronics gold. This is just what Hak8or did over the weekend. He took components form an old motherboard, and a SCSI PCI card. For a detailed component by component breakdown of his score check out his blog. I wanted to […]
Who says BGA packages are hard to solder
Here is proof that soldering BGA’s is not that hard. Check out this Mandelbrot zoom fractal engine with a PSP display project (machine translation). The FPGA in a ball grid array package is soldered dead bug style. Now that’s skill. Via the forum, and Hack a Day.
Organizing your surface mount component hoard
Keeping track of all the strips of surface mount components you’ve amassed can be a pain. Some people stick them in large compartmentalized boxes, others get the expensive metal storage drawers. Here is a simple and cheap DIY method to keep your SMD components organized. All you need is a soldering iron, a metal ruler, […]
Another toner transfer circuit board making guide
Sometimes prototyping your boards needs to be done quickly. Etching boards at home is the quickest way to knock up simple designs. There’s tons of ways to do it, one of the most popular is the toner transfer method. A circuit design is laser-printed on glossy paper, then transferred to a clean copper board with […]
Solar power supply
Dolabra put together this 5 volt solar power supply. The solar panel recharges a single alkaline battery which is then boosted to 5volts via an NCP1402 breakout board. Maximum output is 200 mA. I broke all the rules — I soldered directly to the battery and I’m recharging an alkaline. I’m surely going to be […]
Little Wire dead bug art
Matseng was bored over the weekend and decided to make some art. He soldered up a Little Wire in dead bug style using a fine tipped soldering iron, stereo microscope, and 2 hours of his time. Check out below how this project ended up when encased in not so clear resin. My level of boredom […]
Bearmos’s workshop and DIY tools
Forum regular Bearmos gave us a tour of his workshop and shows off several DIY tools. Check out the pictures below the fold. A thrown together workbench (in use for ~ 6 years now. originally built using an upturned recycling bin as a saw horse). I need to cut a hole in the back of […]
Soldering iron tip holder
Alex designed this soldering iron tip holder. It’s an aluminum bar bended into shape, with holes for the tips drilled into it. As basic as it is, it’s both functional, and good looking. After everything was said and done, it took about an hour to get it made and on my desk. Not bad for […]
Blast from past: Automatic shutdown timer for TVs
Back in the 80s when very few TVs had remotes, let alone automatic shutdown timer, Victor decided to build exactly that for his grandfathers TV. After a set interval an LED turns on indicating that the timer has expired, if a button isn’t pressed within a few seconds the TV is turned off. My grandfather […]
PID controlled electric smoker
Tom built a PID controlled electric smoker. A closed clay pot with a PID controlled hot plate inside heats to a constant temperature. Bits of wood tossed on the hot plate make the smoke. Via the forum.