Hot Hacks, Mods & Circuitry Posts
How To: Turn a Game Boy Advance into an Old-School Miniature Arcade Cabinet
No matter how advanced technology gets, there will always be room for classic video games in the hearts of nerds everywhere. Mini arcades became very popular, as they allowed users to take arcade games on the go. As Game Boys and other mobile gaming devices appeared, the mini arcade slowly disappeared. Well, believe it or not you can combine the best of both worlds! Metku user Japala wanted to make his old Game Boy Advance SP "look cool again," so he turned it into a mini arcade cabinet.
News: This Simple LEGO and Popsicle Stick Robot Can Solve a Rubik's Cube in 100 Moves or Less
Robotic Rubik's Cube solvers are nothing new. We've seen ones that are run on Android, made of LEGO Mindstorms, and faster than the world record holder. The most recent Rubik's Cube robot making the news was made by high school student James Watson as a school project, but it's ended up getting a lot more attention than that.
How To: How Much Time Do You Spend Indoors and Outdoors? Find Out with This DIY Arduino Tracking Device!
How much time do you spend outside, as opposed to inside? Whether it's because you're working, studying or just have a bunch of errands to run, it may seem like the majority of your day is spent indoors. Ever wondered exactly how much time you spend indoors and outdoors? Now you can, thanks to this DIY Arduino-powered tracking device by Instructables user Gramsky.
News: This Adorable DIY 'Magpi Radio" Twitter Bird Reads Your Tweets Out Loud for You
You can use Twitter to print Instagram photos, track news and weather events, or even remotely shut down your computer, and if you're familiar with IFTTT, there's no shortage of ways your account can help automate your life.
How To: Turn Your Head into Narcissistic Cardboard Speakers
Do you know anyone that's infatuated with themselves and is currently in need for some good speakers? No? Well, just in case you do, here's a neat Christmas present idea for your narcissistic speaker-less friend. But, let's be realistic—why would you make these for anybody but yourself?
How To: Hide an Inductive Charging Station Inside Your Furniture
Inductive charging has been around since the days of Nikola Tesla, but it has yet to be integrated into a lot of popular devices. This is partially because it's slower and more expensive than methods that involve direct contact.
How To: Make a Totally Geeky LED Pocket Watch That Tells Time in Colors
The cell phone may have replaced the pocket watch, but thanks to some clever mods and hacks, "old-fashioned" time telling is making a comeback. Smart watches that connect to your mobile device cannot only tell you what time it is, but also change the song you're listening to and let you know how many Facebook notifications are waiting for you. Frank Zhao, an electrical engineering student at the University of Waterloo, decided to do something a little different with his LED pocket watch. It h...
How To: Turn Any Wall Portrait into Your Own Personal Scooby Dooish "Eye" Spy Surveillance System
Remember how the bad guys in Scooby Doo would always use cut-out portraits to spy on people through walls? Well, unless your landlord is super cool, you probably shouldn't start cutting holes in your wall just yet, but you can make a higher tech version, thanks to NASA employee Mark Rober. Mark used a cheap picture frame and a portrait with the eyes cut out to make the "Scoob Cam," which also doubles as a surveillance device. He used an iPhone and an iPad to start a FaceTime chat, then taped ...
How To: Make Trippy EL Wire Headphones That Dance to the Beat of Your Music
At one time or another, we've all enjoyed the visualizations that came stock in Windows Media Player. I remember spending hours listening to my favorite album, putting the graphic equalizer on full screen, and getting lost in the flurry of colors that would dance across the screen. Well, now thanks to the imaginative mind of Instructables user yardleydobon, you can now recreate this rainbow-colored music visualizer right on top of your freaking head—with these trippy EL wire headphones, which...
How To: Customize Your Wireless Doorbell to Play Any Sounds You Want
Doorbells are useful and all, but most of them are boring as hell. They use the same old generic sounds to let you know when guests have arrived, as demonstrated below.
How To: Mod a Calculator into a Custom Name Badge for Your Desk
There isn't as much use for old-school four-function calculators anymore since we all have them on our cell phones now. If you've still got one lying around, you can hack it to play recorded sounds, use it to make a metal detector, or turn it into a custom name plate that says anything you want...
How To: Use Bluetooth to Control Your DSLR (Or Any Device with an Infrared Receiver)
You can add Bluetooth capability to an old stereo, a retro mouse, or even your car's cassette deck. If you can think of a device, someone has probably found a way to control it with Bluetooth.
How To: This Arduino Hack Lets You Control a Table Lamp Using Your Voice
The Jetsons may not have gotten everything right about the future, but even though we may not have flying cars or live in the sky (yet), one thing they imagined correctly was our electronics eventually being able to understand us.
News: This Mini Indoor Weather Station Can Reproduce the Conditions Anywhere in the World
If you've spent most of your life in one geographic location, you're probably pretty familiar with the weather there (unless you're a hermit). If you live in a tropical climate (and haven't done much traveling), maybe you've never even seen snow.
How To: This DIY Umbrella Stand Alerts You of Rainy Weather Before You Walk Out the Door
Whether it's forgetting your driver's license or misplacing your cell phone, forgetting things at home can be a pain in the butt. Car keys, wallet, purse, papers, sunglasses—the list can go on. Sometimes I even surprise myself at the important things I forget... Oops.
How To: Unlock Your Front Door Without Keys Using This DIY Keyfob Entry System
Keys are on the way out. They're clunky, take up precious space, and slow you down when you have tons of identical-looking gold ones on your keyring. Everything we can open with keys can now also be opened with wireless technology in just a click—so why use keys anymore? Sure, you can pay hundreds of dollars for an automated lock system on your house—but why do that when you can build it yourself!
How To: Buid a Mic Stand Camera Mount/Steadycam/Crane Shot Camera Boom
I took a telescope mount from a tripod and converted it so it could be mounted on a microphone stand. For a step-by-step guide please visit my project at Make: http://makeprojects.com/Project/Mic+Stand+Camera+Mount+-+Steadycam+-+Camera+Boom/2770/1
How To: Turn Your Old NES into an All-In-One Retro Gaming Console
While the PlayStation and Xbox models may rule the current world of gaming, there are still those who love to keep it old school. The grittiness, toughness and nostalgia that is laced throughout old gaming consoles appeals to many people. Every time I play Donkey Kong 64 (with the expansion pack of course!), I revert back to the days of Sunday morning cartoons and only worrying about homework.
How To: Hack Your Old Printer to Automatically Print Hashtag-Based Instagram Photos
It's hard to believe that a photo-sharing service could become as big as Instagram has. So big, in fact, that there are tons of websites, software, and products aimed at integrating it into our lives even more. Hell, you can even be Instagram for Halloween.
How To: It's Raining Sweets and Treats! How to Make Your Own Pneumatic Candy Cannon
In this project, you'll learn how to re-purpose low-cost sprinkler parts into a high-powered CANDY CANNON. Be the coolest person on the block by building a pneumatic device that will launch candy 100 feet in the air—you can make it rain down all kinds of sugary treats!!!
How To: Light Up Your iPhone's Apple Logo in Old School Rainbow Colors
As far as logos go, few are as iconic and instantly recognizable as Apple's old-school rainbow emblem. No matter how sleek their products get, people are still nostalgic for the old, colorful logo, and this mod from Adafruit basically proves it. If you have some pretty decent soldering skills, you can make the Apple on the back of your iPhone light up like the old rainbow logo. In the video below, Becky Stern from Adafruit uses a kit with a replacement glass back, tweezers, screwdrivers, and ...
How To: Hack Your Mini-Fridge into a Vending Machine to Take Care of Freeloading Friends at Your Next Party
It always sounds like a good idea to throw a party... until the party gets there. Next thing you know, you're running around hiding anything breakable, and once everyone leaves, you're stuck cleaning up the mess. But the worst part is footing the bill for everything, and if you don't charge at the door, your chances of getting anyone to chip in are slim to none once the party starts.
How To: Build a Programmable Robot with Snap Circuits
Want to learn how to build a robot out of Snap Circuits? I'll show you how to combine Snap Circuits parts from three different sets (the Snap Circuits rover, Snap Circuits Micro, and the Snap Circuits motion detector) to make a simple programmable motion activated robot. For a complete step-by-step build of the robot, visit my project at Instructables: http://www.instructables.com/id/Hack-the-Snap-Circuits-Rover/
How To: Turn a Super Cheap Mousetrap into a Powerful BB-Shooting Handgun
Here's a way you can turn a mousetrap into a fun little handgun that shoots up to 40 feet! This is a great project because it can be made with simple materials, very basic tools, and in just a few minutes!
How To: Light Up Your Whole House with This DIY 'Nuclear Explosion' Chandelier
If you're the kind of person who misses the bright, sunny days of summer during the colder months, Michail has the perfect addition to your home. He built this "Nuclear Explosion" Chandelier that's as bright as daylight, so you can recreate the feeling of summer, no matter what time of year it is. It puts out 99,400 lumen (a typical 60W light bulb only produces 800 lm), so it takes quite a bit of electricity to run. Michail used 7 metal-halide lamps, which are much brighter and more energy ef...
How To: Add an Extra USB Port to Your Wired Computer Mouse
Ever try plugging in two flash drives into your MacBook Pro before? The USB ports on MacBooks are not only directly side by side, they're insanely close to each other, so it can be extremely difficult to plug in a large USB device with another smaller USB device. Sometimes it can fit, but it's a strain on the USB port and the device itself. If one of the items in question is a USB mouse, then your worries are over...
How To: Make Your Own Halloween Masks by Modding Your Shop Vac into a Vacuum Forming Machine
You may have never heard of vacuum forming, but you use products made with the technique all the time. The lid on your coffee cup, the plastic bowls you used at last week's barbeque, and the blister packs your prescriptions come in are all made with a vacuum forming machine.
How To: Repair or Replace Your Broken Headphone Jacks
If you haven't met a person that's broken a pair of headphones, you might need to get out more. No matter how expensive or cheap a pair of headphones are, the sound can get buggy, the wire can get cut, or the headphone jack itself can be broken or ripped off the cord. But instead of buying a new set of headphones or borrowing the ones from your cousin with the earwax problem, you can easily fix it yourself.
How To: Mod Your Old iPod 30-Pin Dock into a Bluetooth Speaker for Your iPhone 5
If you bought the new iPhone 5, you've probably been less than thrilled with the lack of cases and accessories that you can use it with. Docks are no exception—users were disappointed to learn that Apple has no plans to even make one for the newest addition to the Apple family.
News: Teens Pulled Over in Their Almost Street Legal (And Totally Cool) DIY Wooden Car
Getting pulled over sucks, even when you're in a normal car. Just imagine how these teenagers felt when they were pulled over for driving their wooden car without a license! They also got a citation for not having a speedometer or side indicator lights, but if that's all that's keeping their DIY vehicle from being street legal, I'm already impressed. Photo by WTF.nl/Zaanstreek-Waterland Police
How To: This DIY Job Search Light Lets You Know When a Worthy Job Opportunity Arises
The mighty Arduino microcontroller can be used to show children how robots work, it can be used to hack into hotel rooms, or it can be used to let you know when you've got a new job opportunity!
How To: This DIY Xbox LIVE Traffic Light Tells You When Your Friends Are Gaming
Games are always more fun when you have someone to play them with, but if you're not always logged in to your Xbox LIVE account, how do you know when your friends are online? You can always log in and check, but where's the fun in that when you can hack together a traffic light to do it for you? Andrew F hooked up an Arduino with an Ethernet shield to check every five minutes to see how many of his Xbox LIVE friends are online. For each friend, it records either a zero or a one, depending on ...
How To: Use Your "Dead" Car Battery to Power Emergency Fans, Lighting, and More!
A common misconception is that all car batteries die. This, in fact, isn't true—the majority of "dead" car batteries just don't contain enough juice to power a car, but they can still provide enough watts to keep emergency fans and lighting running, which is great when a power outage occurs. So, instead of lugging the battery to the nearest drop-off center or just letting it collect dust in the garage, you can put that car battery to good use.
How To: Mod Your NES Duck Hunt Zapper into a Real-Life Laser Gun
Who doesn't love Duck Hunt? It's arguably one of the most popular games ever created for the original NES system, even in spite of the mocking dog that everyone hates. I'm sure a lot of people still have their old controllers in the attic somewhere, so unless you're lucky enough to have an NES that still works, why not put that childhood nostalgia to good use?
How To: Forget Chimes—Make Your Doorbell Send You Text Alerts Whenever Someone Rings It
Want to know when you have a visitor, even if you're not home? You could always set up a security system and live-stream it with your iPhone. But if you don't have a spare iPhone, or just don't want to go to the trouble, this simple hack will add text message alerts to your doorbell so that it lets you know when someone's there.
How To: Make a Dynamic Mic and Sound Recorder Stand from an Old Hard Drive
There was a dynamic mic in my junk box, but without any stand or connection cable. I needed a high-quality microphone to narrate my project videos, so I had to think of a way to build a stand for the mic. This is what I came up with.
How To: | 3 DIY Electronic Geek Chic Pieces for Him
Stand out from the high street fashion clones with stuff you’ve fashioned yourself. It’s easy to take old pieces of electronic junk and transform them into all sorts of fun ‘n’ funky geeky accessories. Like a totally useful tote bag, a what-on-earth-is-that wallet and a bedazzling belt. It’s terribly geeky but chicy too. Here’s how…
How To: Scavenge High-Voltage Components from Your Neighbor's Trashed Microwave
For this project, I decided to rip apart a microwave I found in my neighbor's garbage can to see what was inside. With permission, of course! True story!
How To: Deter Data Thieves from Stealing Your Flash Drive by Disguising It as a Broken USB Cable
Having a flash drive is more or less a must, but the biggest downside is that they often get stolen, and it's not hard to figure out why. They're small, so they easily fit into pockets, and a lot of people store valuable information on them. Want to pretty much guarantee no one takes yours? Disguise it as a broken USB cable like Windell Oskay of Evil Mad Science Labs so it just looks like a piece of junk to would-be thieves. The materials are pretty simple: a flash drive (the smaller the bett...
How To: Measure Who's the Drunkest (+ Avoid DUIs) with a DIY Arduino Breathalyer
Whether you want to use it to keep your guests safe or just to see who's the most drunk, it's always fun to have your own breathalyzer at a party. We've seen DIY breathalyzers before, like this one by Craig Smith, but how about an Arduino breathalyzer?