Posts by Category: diy

Do it yourself, dude!

diy December 6, 2005 posted by

The DIY Laptop.

The DIY Laptop. Is it really worth building your own notebook computer? With prices as they are? Wow! Anyway this is an interesting review/guide to crafting your own portable computer which doesn’t skimp on detail. Worth a look if you’re getting fed up with the increasingly fragile build quality of today’s laptop.  It’s up to you to decide whether pre-built or barebones is the way to go for you. If you want a better sense of control in terms of…


Continue Reading »The DIY Laptop.
diy December 5, 2005 posted by

Pedal power.

The Pedgen I. David Butcher has built himself an electricity maker (here he is on a prototype not watching television). He hopes to release the plans shortly. Possibly only masochists need apply?   Every morning, I pedal to generate electricity. The pedal generator charges batteries, that run an inverter, that produces 110v AC, that powers the monitor on my computer, and many other small battery-powered things. It is the most inspiring workout you can imagine.


Continue Reading »Pedal power.
diy November 22, 2005 posted by

The Tux Phone.

There’s these geeks, see, and they’re fed up with the current mobile phone scene. So they’re going to make a Linux mobile phone. A Tux Phone, if you will. Open source ringtones? Who knows.  For a programmer, this is a dream come true. Here’s the entire telephone presented to me as a data object. I literally write to and read from a file to run the entire phone if I’m programming in linux. The GM862’s the core of the phone, the…


Continue Reading »The Tux Phone.
diy November 18, 2005 posted by

Cell phone mashup.

This is quite simply the ugliest DIY handsfree cellphone mashup we’ve ever seen. In fact it’s so ugly it’s almost beautiful. Almost.


Continue Reading »Cell phone mashup.
diy November 11, 2005 posted by

Roll yer own camera.

The Plamodel DIY Camera Kit [Babel]. OK, so it’s a 35mm and not digital, but cool or what? I think that we should be offered all sorts of consumer electronics in kit form at a cheaper price, kind of like an IKEA for gadgets. Snap, assemble, play. Right on! About $9.00.  As for the adhesive being unnecessary, using the clock driver which belongs lastly combining the part of the plastic which consists of 33 points, just sets the screw, the camera…


Continue Reading »Roll yer own camera.
Bizarre November 8, 2005 posted by

Psionic psorcery?

Build your own Radionics psychic energy amplifier. Yummy, yummy, yummy. $29.95 special offer, then maybe you’ll be able to use your special magick powers to get a full refund. Try why doncha?  Radionics is a method of manipulating subtle energies using specialized instruments. A radionics practitioner can work on any target such as humans, animals, plants, the soil, buildings, the environment etc… Radionics uses special machines with internal Psionic patterns and the patterns can be adjusted and tuned by an operator to…


Continue Reading »Psionic psorcery?
diy November 8, 2005 posted by

The AOL CD Boomerang.

The AOL CD Boomerang. Got lots of CDs lying around? Well why not make use of them with this fun and lethal little toy? Hey, the plans are free, you want more?   Throw it high and with little forward power, but big spin. Just a few too many ergs of power would make this rang fly more like a 9 than a circle, but it’s effective range was only about 4 meters, so that meant about four steps to make the…


Continue Reading »The AOL CD Boomerang.
diy November 7, 2005 posted by

The �1 lie detector.

The £1 Lie Detector Project. Fun for all the family, but just remember kids, a lie is for life not just for Xmas.  Perhaps my simplest but strangest build project yet comes in the shape of what is traditionally called a ‘bread board’ project. Bread board construction is a simple way of testing an electronic circuit. You attach your bits together using drawing pins and a bit of solder, before wasting time on the permanent circuit board. So why am…


Continue Reading »The �1 lie detector.
diy November 3, 2005 posted by

Laser Ray Gun.

The Laser Ray Gun. Er…should we be encouraging our youth to trifle with hazardous equipment affidavits? $20.00 for the plans, $1749.95 for the whole kit and kaboodle assembled and ready to burn. ‘Do you expect me to talk, Goldfinger?’ ‘No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die.’   Output is 1 to 3 joules at a 500 usec pulse width equating out to a 6000 watt pulse! This is sufficient to blast small holes in the hardest of metals once…


Continue Reading »Laser Ray Gun.
Bizarre November 2, 2005 posted by

Mini Jet Bike.

The Mini Jet Bike. There’s these guys see, and they want to hook up a jet engine to a small motorbike. Not a full size bike mind, a small one. Just for fun. With an afterburner. For a laugh. See that exhaust, that’s a jet engine exhaust that will eventually spout stuff, really hot stuff, from its end. ‘Nuff said?  For many years now, I have tinkered with all kinds of interesting projects, and have found a lot of fun…


Continue Reading »Mini Jet Bike.
diy November 1, 2005 posted by

DIY Hummer.

Build your own Hummer clone. Got a manky old Chevy pickup? Fancy making like Arnie? Then cough up the $5000 plus, roll up yer sleeves and get cracking. Last one to the gas pump’s a sissy!  Urban Gorilla off-road body kits turn your pickup or Suburban into the vehicle of your dreams. Body packages are designed to require only basic auto shop skills and equipment. Your completed vehicle will turn heads and go just about anywhere. Get started on your dream…


Continue Reading »DIY Hummer.
diy October 24, 2005 posted by

DIY Silent Mouse.

The DIY Silent Mouse. When you absolutely must have silence in your workspace, a silent mouse is…well a must. Isn’t it?  Having used my silenced rodent for nearly 1/2 year at home, I finally decided to get rid of the clicking noise at work too and here’s the how-to. I’m not going repeat reasons for silencing mice, if you want to do it, you probably know why. If you don’t know why, then just assume there are people who hate…


Continue Reading »DIY Silent Mouse.
diy October 12, 2005 posted by

Recharger.

The Afroman very geek guide to recharging alkaline batteries. The very usual caveats about blowing yourself up apply of course.  You can fully recharge a depleted alkaline AA battery all day without problems. I recharged both types of batteries twice, and I would expect them to easily take many more charges. If you care about safety more than I do, attach a multimeter to the batteries and monitor them so they never reach more than 110% of their rated voltage.


Continue Reading »Recharger.
diy September 15, 2005 posted by

Tasty tech.

The NetBSD Toaster. Not only will it burn CDs, but it also actually toasts bread. Awesome convergence guys! More info here.  This toaster features a 4 line LCD, USB keyboard, 10/100 ethernet port and a RS232 serial port for the external console. The toaster’s internal circuit boards have been bypassed and routed through the CPU board allowing NetBSD complete control over the toaster’s features. A keyboard connects through a USB port on the side of the toaster and the 4×40 LCD displays a…


Continue Reading »Tasty tech.
diy September 5, 2005 posted by

The Accordion Music Server.

The Accordion Server. Dude, if you’re going to have a music server hanging around, why not make it…like…musical? Waaay too Greek wedding and Retsina for this Ferret though. Arf!  My friend Jim Wiggins and I have been working on a special case mod for a music server. Here are some photos of the completed computer showing the steps I took during the process of converting an Enrico Bertini accordion into a SUSE Linux RAID5 server to play our library of…


Continue Reading »The Accordion Music Server.