Hot Hacks, Mods & Circuitry Posts
How To: Hack together LED candles
Ah, the alluring glow of the LED light. Whether you're looking to create a bit of romantic (albeit extremely geeky) ambiance, or you just want to have some extra emergency lighting around the house, a set of mini LED candles is a great thing to have. They also happen to be quick, easy, and cheap to make yourself. In this video, executive editor Mike Haney demonstrates how to do it.
How To: Power an LED with a lemon battery
See how to power an LED with a lemon battery.
How To: Hack a call center telephone system
Tired of touch-tone hell? Get human with our cool phone hacks and cheats with the tips from this how-to video. Become a life hacker - we'll show you how to find phone numbers, cheat the computer and hack the call center system with our hacking tools. Watch this video tutorial and learn how to hack a call center telephone system. Hack a call center telephone system.
How To: Clean the lens of a green laser pointer
A tutorial demonstrating how to clean a green laser pointer lens and the equipment you should use.
How To: Make a homopolar spiral motor
The homopolar spiral motor is one of the simplest and most easy to make motors in the world. This video shows you how.
How To: Build your own circuit boards for guitar effects
This video tutorial will tell you how to make your own circuit boards for guitar effects. There are hundreds of great gadgets out there and a lot of the good ones don't come in a ready-to-build kit, so this video teaches you how to make your own circuit board. This method uses acids that etch copper so follow the safety instructions.
How To: Build a Bedini motor
This two part video shows you how to build a Bedini motor. If you get bored of the endless ranting about the motor in part one, jump to Part 2 where they start building the bedini circuit.
How To: Set up a breadboard and play around with electronics
In this video, Bre Pettis shows you how to set up a breadboard for power and then play around with electronics on it.
How To: Hack a camera
If you are a photographer and are handy with a screwdriver and electrical tape, this is a really cool project to do. Basically, you "Frankenstein" a camera, taking a camera apart and rebuilding it with different lenses and the like, which makes for really cool photo effects.
How To: Make a trip wire alarm
Want a heads up next time that annoyingly chirpy coworker is heading over for some annoyingly chirpy chitchat? Rig up this little system and you’ll never be caught off-guard again.
How To: Make a water gun alarm clock
Having a little trouble waking up in the morning? There’s nothing like a good soaking to get you going.
How To: Make a water alarm clock
You will never be late to school again once you begin using this small yet super powerful water alarm clock. Rather than just ringing like most alarm clocks do, this little baby will not turn off until all its buttons are pressed, a process which requires diving your head underwater. Fun, right?
How To: Build a Morse code telegraph
Keeping secrets out of the wrong hands warrants desperate measures—or maybe just sensical. If you have a secret, the best way to protect it is with a code—and the best way to transfer that secret message is via an electronic telegraph system. This video will show you how to make your own homemade electronic telegraph machine, so that you can send those encrypted Morse code messages to your friends without fear of prosecution.
How To: Make a homemade AA battery connector
Make a battery connector for electronics and science projects with items laying around the house.
How To: Make a homopolar motor
Turn yourself into an electromagnetism maestro with one of the simplest motors known to man—the homopolar motor. It's the "simplest motor" because of its absent polarity change. The magnetic field does not change the direction or strength. It consists of only three parts; copper wire, round magnet and battery. It produces really low voltages, which means there's no real practical application for this motor, but it sure is fun to make! Try your hands at the homopolar motor—watch the video and ...
How To: Make a foxhole radio
During World War II, GIs in the field built really amazing simple radios to listen to. These were made with materials that they could get their hands on and were small enough to carry around in a big pocket. You can modify this design if you want to set it up so that it's tuneable too! To see all the plans, go to makezine.com/podcast!
How To: Crank charge batteries
A cordless drill/screwdriver can easily be used as a hand-crank charger for batteries... even alkalines! See for yourself! Recharging alkaline batteries is done at your own risk. Crank charge batteries.
How To: Make an electrical lighter
Make a lighter with one or two AA batteries and simple tiny wire!!! This is a fantastic homemade electrical lighter for any situation. You'll need two AA batteries, a push switch, a battery holder, wire, solder, soldering iron, electrical tape, crimper, and scissors for this cool electrical lighter, for your cigarettes, and such.
How To: Convert HD-DVD To Blu-ray
This step by step guide shows you how to convert an HD-DVD to Blu-ray that you can either put on a blu-ray disc or multiple DVDs. This can then be played back on your... More? Blu-ray player including the PS3. No loss of quality, no reencoding. No more HD-DVD exclusives because they can be put on blu-ray.
How To: install a PC/XBOX 360 wire controller for MUgen
This tutorial shows you how to install XBOX 360/PC controller for your Mugen. It's very simple and easy to understand just follow the steps and you will be ready to play with a controller in no time.
How To: Build a hover craft
This is a Wired Magazine Geek Dad production. Make your own UFO at home with this hover craft. You need a leaf blower and some ingenuity. Build a hover craft.
How To: Hack a video camcorder
This video shows us how to hack a video camcorder. He shows VideoJug users how to take a one time use video camcorder, and learn to hack it so you can use it again and again, saving you money! Hack a video camcorder.
How To: Hand solder BGA components using SchmartBoard
Hand soldering a BGA....IMPOSSIBLE!...not with SchmartBoard|ez. This video shows you step-by-step how to do it.
How To: Make a Rock Band drum pedal
Learn how to build your own pedal for the video game Rock Band for the Playstation 2 (PS2) and XBox 360.
How To: Make an LED throwie
Learn how to make a magnetic LED throwie. This cool light will stick to anything magnetic.
How To: Make confetti guns, sky guy & foam party with a blower
Mod your leaf blower by attaching a vacuum hose and use it as a party prop creator. Make a foam party or a confetti cannon to excite your guests. You can also make a sky guy, the creature that gets your attention at every intersection with its crazy blowing arms!
How To: Build a motion detector to fire a paintball gun
Team Cynergy presents step by step instructions on how to program an electronics kit to use a laser as motion detector and fire a paintball gun with the sensor is triggered.
How To: Make a Christmas lights controller
Why settle for static lighting when you can bring on the big guns? Learn how to make a Christmas lights controller so your lights blink. Happy holidays!
How To: Measure RF in circuits in Bluetooth
Intersil's Don LaFontaine shows a quick tip on how to measure your circuits susceptibility to RF signals. This design idea is another in Intersil's Whiteboard Wizard series focusing on analog semiconductors.
How To: Make a paper turntable
Okay, this is one of the coolest eco-friendly projects we've ever seen. If weaving plastic bags into a reusable tote bag is not your thing, then maybe this is. Check out the video to learn how to build a paper turntable made entirely out of reused materials.
How To: Trouble shoot your copier-scanner
Learn how to take care of business when your copier or scanner breaks down.
How To: Make your own PDA stylus pen
How to make your own Palm, or other PDA stylus pen.
How To: Make a wi-fi booster
How to make a wi-fi booster.
How To: Make a Hovercraft Powered by an Electric Leaf Blower
Stan Taylor and his physics class at Miles Community College built a hovercraft powered by an average electric leaf blower! Watch it in action below.
How To: Make an electric toothbrush for $6
Kevin Rose in a segment from "The Screen Savers" showing how to overclock a 6$ toothbrush to work like a 100$ toothbrush. very cool!
How To: Build a simple vibrating robot
A Simple Vibrobot. Build a simple vibrating robot. A hobby robot, well almost.
How To: Get free electricity from a phone jack
Learn how to get free electricity from your home telephone line just by watching this video. Save money on your power bill, and hack into the electricity coming out of the phone jack. The phone company doesn't monitor electricity usage, so you can probably get away with this con. Check out this video tutorial and learn how to tap into the electrical energy source in your phone line.
How To: Save electricity
This video is a lego man who talks about how to save electricity.
How To: Make dancing condom party decorations
Watch how you can inflate condoms and make them into dancing decorations that blink to the beat of your party music. Pretty clever if you can figure out what supplies he's using.
How To: Hack phone voicemail to block telemarketers
Hack your voicemail or answering machine with special information tones. Check this out. Hack phone voicemail to block telemarketers.