Hacks Mods & Circuitry: Page 15

In this video, we explain some techniques for getting electronic circuits to do things they weren't designed for. As an example, use a speaker phone as a speaker. Hacking items into better or different devices is way cool DIY circuitry. These are ideas of electronics that are cool to splice, rip apart and use recycled electronics for new projects.

This shows you how to modify an old camera so it flashes at the push of a button. Annoy your friends. It's a perfect practical joke by modifying an old camera flash to create a strobe effect. This will make it so you don't have to wind it, just push the button

Here is the Weekend Project: The Bytelight, a mood light from Kipkay and Make Magazine. Build a cool mood light out of obsolete sim memory chips from recycled old computers.Make a high-tech mood light from a flourescent lamp, household goop, lexan, and a bunch of old RAM chips. Glue the chips, chips side down. This is a super cool looking light that changes over time.

Use a motor to make a fan and a speaker. People often take for granted the common items and devices they use in everyday life. Looks can be deceiving. It's not what things appear to be, it's what they can become.

Secretly shoot your voice across the room in stealth mode on a laser beam in this fun and easy project! Make Magazine and Kipkay present this cool spy trick. Build a simple laser communicator that transmits your voice across a room. You need an amplifier, radio, laser pointer, battery pack and a solar cell.

Project 5 from Popular Science's 5 minute Projects with Craftsmen Tool is 'Integrated Circuit Cufflinks'.

Don't use a perfectly good DVD burner to get your laser that will pop balloons, light matches, and burn stuff. Just buy a laser diode at mfgcn.com and also a laser housing, and you won't be tearing a computer DVD player apart. This is the easy way to make a 200mW burning DVD laser. Use a Mini Maglite and some rechargeable batteries so you don't burn out the laser.

Light up your world with these beautiful and easy-to-make illuminated LED balloons.

Take a tour through the world of the light-emitting diode. Learn - who invented it, how to use it, and how to make your own.

This is an instructional video featuring Doug Prime, founder of the Future Engineers Center at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Use wire strippers where they are like scissors. To cut off the wire's insulation and strip it you need to know the wire's gauge. Check the gauge on both the wire and the stripper.

Did you know you can stimulate yourself to have a lucid dream? Well, it may take a little bit of practice first, but this sleep mask can certainly help you have the most interesting and realistic dreams of your life (yes, kinda like "Inception.") Just check out this video to learn how to make a super cheap lucid dream mask out of two LED lights and a pair of goggles.

Watch as Kipkay from MAKE Magazine shows you how to make something really cool for a shake microphone, with parts from RadioShack. You'll be transforming a simple shake flashlight into a so-called shake microphone. The fun won't stop when you hear your shaky voice out loud.

Check out this video tutorial to see how to bluesnarf a Nokia 6310i handset (cell phone). What is Bluesnarfing exactly?

Learn how to use a piezoelectric element as a speaker, and how to generate musical notes with a microcontroller with this home electronics how-to. For more on programming microcontrollers to make sweet, sweet music, watch this helpful video guide.

Watch as Novastar and Gundamaniac demonstrate detailed wiring for a crystal focus board for Star Wars Lightsabers! Making your very own Jedi Light Saber may be a daunting task if you don't know what you're doing, but this four-part video tutorial will save the day from evil forces. To start off wiring the CF board, make sure you have your SanDisk on it already.

Learn how to build an environmentally friendly directional WiFi antenna with this simple video guide. To follow along at home, you'll need the following things: a copper wedge, an N-type connector, some screws, a clamp-on N plug, a pigtail, and a wireless card. You'll also need a drill, screwdriver, and soldering iron. For comprehensive, step-by-step instructions on hacking your own directional WiFi antenna from a tin can, watch this video tutorial.

Want AAA batteries for cheap? Learn how to hack a 9-volt battery with this money-saving video tutorial from Make Magazine's Kip Kay. All you'll need to replicate this hack at home is a pair of needle-nosed pliers and one or more Energizer 9-volt batteries. For instructions on how to extract quadruple A batteries from an Energizer 9-volt, watch this how-to video.

Want to light the skies with your own flying saucer? Here's a quick way to add lights to an ordinary fribee using a cheap light-up yo-yo. It's so easy, anyone can do it.

New to soldering? This how-to video answers the questions for these common beginner soldering questions: what is flux? what tip should be used? do solder fumes contain dangerous amounts of lead? why regularly clean and tin the iron tip? Watch this video computer-circuitry tutorial and learn how to solder correctly.

Take your old electronics and make them scream with glitchy goodness. This an extremely easy project and makes a great project for first-time solderers. Circuit bending involves taking electronic devices that make multiple sounds and wiring in switches to set off glitches or loops. Using an out-of-tune toy, the first part of this video series demonstrates how to apply a basic pitch bend using a potentiometer. In the second part, you'll learn how to bend the same toy by applying body contact. In...