Hacks Mods & Circuitry: Page 6

Love old-school games like Pac-Man and Space Invaders, but don't have the extra space for an arcade machine? Get the best of both worlds (and save some cash) with this DIY Arcade Coffee Table built by Sam Wang.

Racing games are always better when you have a steering wheel instead of just a handheld controller. And those old-school arcade racing cockpits? Even better. Matthew Boyer decided to bring the feel of a racetrack into his living room with this insanely awesome DIY arcade racing cockpit.

Who needs to go to bartending school when you've got the Inebriator to mix your favorite drinks for you? Want a cosmopolitan? No problem. Press a button. Want a tequila sunrise? Sure thing. Press a button. As long as you've got a good supply of liquor and mixers, the Inebriator is at your command.

If you've ever wished you could keep tabs on the fish in your aquarium, Justin of Antipasto Hardware Blog has just the mod for you! He created this DIY "shark detector" that sends out a tweet whenever Bruce the shark breaches a perimeter that he set up in the tank.

If you've ever been on your way to a party and felt that your outfit just wasn't flashy enough, engineering student 'Rambo' has got just the thing for you.

Whether you're job searching, networking, or just giving your information out to someone you just met at a bar, this circuit board business card made by Brian Carrigan will make sure no one ever forgets meeting you! Sure, you could buy a customized USB business card on some online shop, but if you're trying to emphasize your geek cred, why wouldn't you make your own PCB card from scratch?

Hate answering the door, but don't trust your friends with a set of keys? This RFID front door lock made by Steve Pomeroy will solve all your party-hosting problems. It reads the RFID tags in his friends' public transit cards and decides who's allowed in based on "groups" that Steve defines. And I have to say, it's also rather stylish.

You can do a lot more with playing cards than you'd think, like turn them into gift boxes, fling them like throwing stars, and make them levitate or disappear. You can even make them recharge your batteries.

Since most devices these days are mobile and wireless, a lot of people have a bunch of old hardware from a decade or two ago sitting around unused, just wasting away in dusty boxes.

Night vision goggles are awesome, but the price? Not so much. Luckily, you can make your own pair that will have you sneaking up on your friends in just a few simple steps.

Back in 2008, media artist Kyle McDonald created a 3D interface that could track movement, which he turned into a virtual Tic-tac-toe game.

LED throwies are cheery glow-dots you can make in seconds from simple components and stick to any ferro-magnetic surface. But that's just the beginning — here's how to hack and modify them.

RFID chips are everywhere. They're in passports, credit cards, and tons of items you've bought in the last 5 years or so. Big retailers like Walmart started using tracking products with RFID as early as 2004, and today, they're used in everything from mobile payments to hospital record systems. Chances are, unless you're a hermit (in which case you wouldn't be reading this anyway), there's an RFID tag within a few feet of you.

I've never really liked to type on a flat or low keyboard. Even the small flip-up stands underneath most keyboards were not good enough for me, as those little legs aren't usually more than 2 or 3 centimeters high. I'd like a minimum of 5 cm, so I decided to make this keyboard base for myself.

Considering how often many of us fly on commercial airlines, the idea that a hacker could somehow interfere with the plane is a very scary thought. It doesn't help to learn that at Defcon, a researcher found that the Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B), transmissions that planes use to communicate with airport towers are both unencrypted and unauthenticated.

Even in the MP3 world, vinyl is still king among music lovers. Unfortunately, making your own record is nowhere near as simple as burning a compact disc or throwing some files onto an MP3 player. One clever inventor isn't letting that stop him though, putting together his own homemade vinyl cutter out of old parts. The end result—CD records!

You must have seen in movies, a person calls to another person and when the he picks up the phone, Boom! There is a bomb blast.

With this video tutorial from Household Hacker, you will learn how to make a functional circuit on paper. Really—on paper! See how to make an LED light up with a lead-based paper circuit and how to make a resistor on that circuit. It also shows how to make a flashlight out of one of these paper circuits, an LED, and a battery.

With this video tutorial, you will learn how to make a circuit on paper, Really on paper! In this video it is shown how to make a led light up with a paper circuit and how to make a resistor on that circuit . It is also show how to make a flash light out of a paper circuit a led and a battery

It's what every astronomy-loving geek has always wanted... a beautiful, twinkling home galaxy. As Instructables user MrTrick rightly warns, this project is no small feat. Be prepared to get schooled in:

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Power the clocks at your home with the sun! With a solar cell that costs around $5, you can convert a clock to solar power and avoid buying batteries or running up the electric bill. Instead, connect a rechargable battery to the solar panel with a few wires and some adhesive and soon you'll have enough energy to power your clock for as long as it lasts.

Turn a 'toy' radar gun into the real thing! Cops don't even have one like this! While this is a completely new and different design, the inspiration for this video is from an article by Ken Delahoussaye in MAKE Magazine. Just watch this video tutorial on how to hack a toy radar gun into a real one.

Make a bionic hearing spy device by hacking a megaphone! Kipkay brings you this hack video on how to use a megaphone to spy on people. You can pull in conversations up to 100 feet away! Check out Kipkay hiding in a tree, spying on people. It also works through walls. That's how to make a bionic hearing spy device!

Kipkay demonstrates how to extract the laser from a DVD burner and mount it in a small flashlight to create a handheld laser burner that can light matches and burst balloons, all in this how-to video. All you need is a 16x DVD burner, a laser housing, and a flashlight. Watch this video tutorial and learn how to modify a flashlight into a relatively strong laser.

Build your very own Trek-style Blu-Ray laser phaser with this hacker's how-to video from Kip Kay of Make Magazine. To replicate this hack at home, you'll need the following materials: (1) a PS3 Blu-Ray laser assembly (which can be had on eBay for roughly $45), (2) an original series-style Star Trek phaser gun (a good quality replica of which can be found for roughly $30), (3) a 9-volt battery, (4) a 9-volt battery snap, (5) a 150 Ohm resistor, and (5) a new switch to replace the phaser trigger....

Kip "Kipkay" Kedersha is known for his intriguing and clever how-to and prank videos, even when he teams up with MAKE Magazine. He will show you how to tweak, hack, mod, and bend any technology to your hacking needs. No electronic device, gadget, or household item can stand the test of Kipkay's hacks and mods.

Make a cool confetti cannon that's great for concerts, parties and special events! Kipkay demonstrates how to hack together this high powered cannon. Confetti bombs are super fun, pay attention to learn how to make your own confetti cannon.

Kip "Kipkay" Kedersha is known for his intriguing and clever how-to and prank videos, even when he teams up with MAKE Magazine. He will show you how to tweak, hack, mod, and bend any technology to your hacking needs. No electronic device, gadget, or household item can stand the test of Kipkay's hacks and mods.

If you're tired of replacing the batteries on your remote control and you would rather have the TV remote charge by itself, grab a few solar cells, rechargable batteries, and a few extra odds and ends. With this mod to your remote, you can let light charge your remote and never buy another battery for it again!

You've seen the felt mouse, which made computer clicking comfortable and chic, now brace yourself for something a little more interactive—DataBot.

Sometimes an "analog" result is highly satisfying when the means for producing it is just the opposite. Enter Niklas Roy's "Electronic Instant Camera" project. The endeavor combines an analog black and white videocamera with a thermal receipt printer. The outcome is something in between a Polaroid camera and a digital camera. Like the olden days, the subject must sit still for a quite a while—3 full minutes—as their image is recorded and printed directly on a roll of receipt paper.

If you're lucky, your digital camera has a built-in intervalometer that lets you operate the shutter regularly at set intervals over a period of time. Why would you be lucky? Because you can create some very awesome time-lapse videos, like the horribly beautiful eruption of a volcano or vivid star trails in the night sky. You can capture the stunning display of the northern lights or even document the rotting of your favorite fruit.

A few months ago, we showed you a pretty awesome light painting project that visually captured invisible Wi-Fi signals around town using a Wi-Fi detecting rod filled with 80 LEDs. With some long exposure photography, the results were pretty amazing. This project was inspired by those crazy Norwegians, but this build lets you do something even more amazing—capture pictures of colorful written text and drawn images, frozen in midair.

Looking to be the world's best violinist or fastest banjo player? If you didn't start practicing when you were a kid, learning a new stringed instrument is extremely challenging. But an upcoming device may change all of that, if you don't mind being shocked by 28 different electrodes.

You're sitting in your favorite café enjoying a hot cup of joe, then you open up your laptop or turn on your tablet computer to get to work, but as always you get sidetracked and head straight for Facebook. Someone just tagged you in a photo, so you check it out, then you see it out of the corner of your eye—your Facebook picture digitally displayed on the wall in a nice, neat digital photo frame.

Nobody could predict the success of Microsoft's Kinect, not even Microsoft themselves. So, it was quite a surprise when it ended up earning a Guinness World Record for fastest-selling consumer electronics device, and an even bigger surprise to see people buying one that didn't even own an Xbox 360.

Got a knack for speeding? Like running red lights? Believe or not, the police have better things to be doing than pulling you over, like catching real criminals. That's why more and more cameras are popping up at known speeding zones and on street corners—so the cops can clean up the streets, compared to just ticketing them.