Hot Hacks, Mods & Circuitry Posts
How To: Hack a laser pointer into a burning laser
It's not just for annoying cats, anymore. You can upgrade your laser pointers and turn them into an actual burning laser! This tutorial by Kip Kay shows you how to mod a basic laser pointer into a higher powered laser.
How To: The history and technology of batteries
Learn about the history and technology of batteries in this informative video, and learn how to make your own voltaic cells at home, along with other scientific experiments. Jeri Ellsworth demonstrates how and provides several informative facts about the history and technology about the battery.
HowTo: Boost Your WiFi Signal With a Tin Can
Budget Hack's cheap Wifi range extender works off of the age old concept of adding tin foil to your TV's rabbit ears. The materials are cheap, and the project is relatively easy (if you're willing to pick up some soldering skills).
HowTo: Make a Trippy 3D Animated LED Cube
chrof Instructables boasts: "This is the most comprehensive step-by-step guide to build an 8x8x8 Led Cube ever published on the intertubes. It will teach you everything from theory of operation, how to build the cube, to the inner workings of the software."
How To: Prank your friends by scaring them in the middle of the night
This is a very easy tutorial - all you need is a chosen sound effect file (like a creepy growling animal or a person screaming) and a sneaky sound system. Play it during the middle of the night and freak out your friends.
News: Hack Your Slash: Musical Knife Gives New Meaning to "Synth Stab"
What do you get when you take a run-of-the-mill kitchen knife and add a simple synthesizer circuit? Behold, the Syntheslicer! Creator Jonathan M. Guberman writes:
How To: Make a battery with a nickel, penny and vinegar
Generate electricity using only a nickel, a penny and a mild household acid like lemon juice or vinegar. Make a battery using an alternating stack of these coins and create enough electricity to power a desktop Christmas tree. Follow along in this instructional video and learn how.
How To: Wire your home mailbox to send push alerts to your iPhone
You can get push alerts to your iPhone from lots of things online like Facebook and Foursquare, but now here's a way to get push alerts sent to your phone from everyday household objects like the mailbox or the refrigerator. In this Arduino project, a mailbox is wired so that a push alert is sent to the iPod when mail is delivered.
How To: Back up important computer files online and on external storage devices
Back up your computer data and save your time, money and valuable information using these helpful tips. There are several options to backing up and storing your important data, ranging from tiny keychain USB drives to backing up your files online. This informative and lighthearted video from Kipkay shows you how.
How To: Untether a tethered jailbroken iPhone 4, iPod Touch or iPad
If your iPad, iPhone 4 or iPod Touch is already on a tethered jailbreak, this is the tutorial on the new Redsn0w release for all you experienced users. An untethered jailbreak is a type of jailbreak where the device does not require rebooting with a connection to an external jailbreak tool to power up the iDevice. Jailbreaking allows users to get root access to the command line of the operating system, to download otherwise unaccessible extensions and themes, or install non-Apple operating sy...
How To: Make a flexible aluminum electroluminescent display
Make a flexible aluminum electroluminescent display using aluminum foil, EL phosphors and a simple electrolytic etching bath. This video shows the chemical process behind etching foil in an electrolytic bath, and develops it into a practical application for it by creating an electroluminescent caution display.
How To: Make an IR detection device and measure temperature w/ quenched phosphors
Phosphors are great for lighting up areas where fire will not burn, and also for keeping humans alive in very small quantities. Quenching phosphors allows you to use them for all sorts of cool projects, and this video will show you how to make an IR detection device with quenched phosphors and also how to measure temperature with thermally quenched phosphors.
How To: Use various methods to detect greenhouse gasses
In this informative video series, Jeri Ellsworth explores several methods that can be used to detect greenhouse gases, including building a homemade mass spectrometer and mid-Infrared absorption. Jeri provides a comprehensive overview of the science behind IR absorption, the mass spectrum and ion filtration.
How To: Make your own EMF detector for under ten dollars
An EMF detector will help you find invisible electromagnetic fields, and you can make an inexpensive one for under ten dollars. This will only detect the presence of a field, you will need other tools to be able to measure its strength.
How To: Make an EMF detector out of an Arduino
An EMF detector lets you pick up on electromagnetic fields, a useful tool if you're into amateur ghosthunting. To make this, you will need some wire, a resistor, and an LED. You will also need an Arduino to use as a controller.
How To: Make a Ticklebox as a gag gift for holidays or birthdays
This gift will give the recipient a nice little zap when they open it! All you'll need is some basic electronics that you can find at any retailer like Radio Shack, and a soldering iron for a little bit of detail work.
How To: Make the ultimate LED glowsticks in any color you want
This is an easy and fun project that will add a little light to any night time celebration. Take a few LEDs in any color you want, some basic electronics gear and a hot glue gun. This will be more vibrant than any glowstick you can find in the store, and will last much longer
HowTo: See Yourself In the Third Person (No Drugs Necessary)
Ever wonder what you look like to someone else as you walk, talk? How it looks from above, behind, or to the side? Seeing yourself in a video flattens the experience into two dimensions, but this wireless camera rig experiment from Instructables member BigRedRocket brings it into the third dimension:
Play Me (re: Electrocute Me) Like a Human Drum Kit
All hail artist, programmer and human electrocution music-machine, Daito Manabe. He's back, and better than ever: Read more about his process.
How To: Make a 'Dizzy Robot' out of a battery, tin, and a pager motor
When you think of robots, you probably think of things that have more than three parts. Not this robot! If you want a robotics project to try that doesn't require an MIT degree, watch this video for instructions on how to build a 'Dizzy Robot' out of only some thin tin, a pager motor, a button cell battery, and this template.
How To: Work with diodes, capacitors, potentiometers, photo cells, and power supplies
For most people, learning how to work with electronics is far from intuitive. Getting the diodes in your hands and working with them is the best way to go about it, and this video will teach you a great lab for learning about diodes, potentiometers, capacitors, photo cells, and power supplies.
How To: Learn about capacitors, diodes, voltage states, and potentiometers
Even basic electronics are pretty damn complicated. This video is near the end of Scotty's amazing series of electronics tutorials, and will teach you about adding a diode and a capacitor to a circuit, choosing a power supply, voltage states, and polarity.
How To: Build a basic circuit with LED lights and resistors
If you want an electrical circuit to send power to an object, like a light, you're going to need resistors. This video, part of an excellent series on basic electronics by Scotty, will teach you how to make a circuit with resistors and an LED light, a real function piece of electronics.
How To: Test a breadboard using a multimeter
If you want to start making a basic electronics project by placing power sources and such on a breadboard, you should make sure that the breadboard will work first. You can do this by using a multimeter to perform a continuity test on your breadboard, which this video will teach you how to do.
How To: Learn about resistance and Ohm's Law and how they help you work on electronics
Math scares a lot of would-be electronics lovers away from the field, and if you really hate math this is probably the video in this series where you stop. It will teach you how to use Ohm's Law to calculate resistance and how that applies to a basic circuit.
How to Learn basic electronics: electricity, a basic circuit, and breadboard
Welcome to part 2 of robotics teacher Scotty's introduction to electronics! the first video taught about the basic tools and components we need to start working with electronics. This one will cover the basics of electronics, from a primer on electricity and how it works to making a basic circuit and working with breadboard, the canvas of circuitry.
How To: Learn about the tools and components used in basic electronics
Electronics are the most important new thing people have created in the last hundred years, and learning how to use them will make you much more able to function in modern society. If you want to learn about electronics without going to a class or anything so formal, this excellent video series will teach you everything you need to know to get started. This video, the first in the series, will teach you about the basic tools and components you'll need to work on electronics projects, includin...
How To: Hack Battery-powered Christmas Lights Into Laptop Holiday Decorations
Christmas is the time to splurge— not just with presents and food— we're talking decorations. It's that time of year when verdurous fir trees take up half of your living room, when waving elf figurines silhouette your front windows, when Rudolph flies from the rooftops, Santa in tow. But more than anything else, it's a time when those Christmas lights double tour elctrical bills, dancing to the "12 Days of Christmas" for the whole neighborhood to see.
How To: Build a simple one-string electric guitar called a Diddley Bow
If you've ever seen It Might Get Loud, you probably remember the part where Jack White makes a one-string guitar out of household scraps. This type of guitar is called a Diddley Bow, after Bo Diddley, and is about the simplest and easiest electric guitar you can make. Watch this video to learn how.
How To: Build a blue laser ray gun that will burn things magnificently
If you've ever seen Goldfinger you've probably wondered when we're going to get access to lasers that could cut a man in half. This might be it. Watch on to learn how you can, with some electrical engineering skills, make a DIY blue death ray laser gun that will cut through all kinds of stuff. No word on whether it works on British secret agents.
How To: Make a high speed photography trigger with an Arduino
High speed photos are very artistic and look awesome, but taking them without special equipment is nearly impossible. Without this hack and an Arduino, that is. This video will teach you how to use an Arduino and other electronic components to make a DIY high speed photo trigger and take more awesome shots.
How To: Use an Arduino to make a proximity-sensing Jack-o'-Lantern with LED lights
The Arduino Ethernet Shield is a wonderful device for DIY electronics projects, and this project is really creative and awesome. In this video you will learn how to use an Arduino, a promixity sensor, and some LED lights to make a proximity-sensing, LED-lit, evil Jack-o'-Lantern that will terrorize your neighborhood and probably get stolen if you don't watch it like a hawk.
How To: Build an analog internet meter out of an Arduino Ethernet Shield
The internet has created amazing new standards for how closely information can be followed. If you want a portable analog unit that will monitor one important piece of online info continuously and have some DIY electrical knowhow, watch this video. It will show you how to use an Arduino Ethernet Shield to make an internet meter to monitor email, stocks, and other online info on a simple analog display. You will need to know some PHP to make this work.
HowTo: Cure Burnt Fingers With Your Earlobes & More Life Hacks
From Lifehacker's Tips Box, four short-cuts to life's small problems, urawaza-style: No Iron?
How To: Build a simple analog self-balancing robot with basic electronics
Analog robots might seem a little backwards conceptually, but they are still really fun to make if you're into robotics and electronics. This video will teach you how to make a simple self-balancing analog robot. It's basically a small, robotic, analog Segway.
How To: Build a DIY Segway-like self-balancing scooter
The Segway is one of the oddest inventions of the last decade, but they've captured the imaginations of many. If you don't have $5000 to spend on one, but have $4000 and some heavy robotics skills, watch this video. It will teach you how to build your own DIY self-balancing Segway-style scooter, in either steampunk wooden barstool form or a more modern bicycle-handled model.
How To: Build a perfect replica of a lightsaber for cheap or expensive
The lightsaber is one of the coolest weapons in the history of cinema, and the original props came from a junkyard. Funny how that works right? If you want a lightsaber for your own film, costume, or just because they're awesome, watch this video for a guide to making three types of lightsabers: a cheap one, a medium one, and very expensive professional-quality one.
How To: Hack a radio-controlled car into a secret computer hard drive
What if you could have a secret hard drive connected to your computer that only you could activate? You can! Samimy shows you how to hack a remote controlled toy car and make a super secret hard disk drive in your computer, accessed via a secret activation key. This hidden emergency HDD can only be controlled by your key, regardless of how many people use your computer.
How To: Use the liquid from a compressed air can as a solvent for cleaning
If you own a vintage pinball machine or other old cranky piece of electronics you know the pain of cleaning it's many hard-to-reach parts. Fortunately, there's a cheap solvent you can use to clean them that come from an unusual source: the compressed air can. This video will show you how it works.
How To: Build a handheld version of the TSA's microwave-based body scanner
With the TSA's full-body scanners occupying a great deal of airports nationwide, the debate remains as to whether air travelers should continue to be subject to immoral security techniques and possible health risks due to the x-ray scanning devices. The "advanced imaging technology" may help keep obvious weapons out of major airports, but scanning naked bodies seems more voyeuristic than crucial to national security. But while the argument continues, one woman is taking a stand… well, not rea...