Hacks, Mods & Circuitry How-Tos
How To: Use a motor to create a fan or speaker
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.
How To: Make a cone record player
If you're record player doesn't work anymore, but it still turns, then this is the perfect solution for you. The video show you how to make a cone record player. It's also a neat trick for playing your records with out a record player, instead of a regular phonograph needle.
How To: Make a sneaky USB battery
This Weekend Project is the USBattery from MAKE Magazine Volume 16. Conceal a flash drive in a AA battery! This is a way cool USB battery mod or hack project. It makes a cool secret storage space for your spy projects. Wear gloves, safety goggles and a non alkaline battery.
How To: Send secret messages with a laser
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.
How To: Zap and revive old NiCad batteries with a mig welder
Nicad batteries often die in such a way that they won't take a charge and have zero voltage. This usually means they're shorted out by crystal dendrite growth. Here's a method of bringing them back to life by zapping those shorted crystal dendrites away with too much current and/or voltage. We'll use a welder as a power source. You could also use a car battery, a DC powersupply, or almost anything with some voltage. Charged-up capacitors are popular for this because you can get a very fast pu...
How To: Build a cereal box spectrometer
The Five Minute Project crew is back, and bringing you six fresh projects sponsored by Craftsman. Break out the tools and protective eyewear and brace yourself for the best how-to videos a DIY-er could ask for. Learn to make Geek-Chic Cuff Links, a Cereal Box Spectrometer and more, all in Five Minutes Time!
How To: Make integrated Arduino cuff links
Project 5 from Popular Science's 5 minute Projects with Craftsmen Tool is 'Integrated Circuit Cufflinks'.
How To: Hack a CCTV camera for your computer and television
See how to hack a wireless CCTV (closed circuit television) camera to show your Windows or Linux PC desktop on your 42-inch plasma television. This is a homemade hack that's easy with good quality picture. Doing this mod can save you money, unless you don't have a CCTV camera laying around.
How To: Build a burning blue/violet laser
There's probably a reason that laser pointers are banned from most schools: They're just to fun to put down! Whether you're using them as a pointer, to distract your classmates, or to very wickedly point them in people's eyes, they are toys that are quite addicting.
How To: Make a 200mw burning laser
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.
How To: Get 6 AAAA batteries from a 9V battery
Take apart a 9V battery and turn it in to Six AAA batteries. This way you save money. amazing science experiment trick. This is a simple battery deconstruction that results in a 9 volt battery's dissection into six AAAA batteries. They are not AA or AAA, but a kind you won't find at Radio Shack.
How To: Build a beer safe using RFID technology
Dave and Pat break down the basics of RFID technology and show you how to put it to use by building an RFID beer safe!
How To: Make an LED floatie balloon
Light up your world with these beautiful and easy-to-make illuminated LED balloons. You will need:
How To: Make simple homemade battery-driven motors
Learn how to build your very own motor, but not just one motor, three motors. These motors you will learn to make a very simple, and the materials needed are minimum. Just watch to see how to make simple homemade battery-driven motors.
How To: Make Arduino circuit boards for robotics
This week on Make Magazine is a project with parts from the Arduino Starter Kit. Skip over building the Proto Shield. Otherwise, it's a simple build that doesn't require any soldering. Arduino is a speaking control for robotics. It can be used in other Make kits or robotic projects. This is a circuit bending and circuit board project that involves basic circuitry and wiring.
How To: Make an LED or a light emitting diode
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.
How To: Solder wires like a professional
This is an instructional video featuring Doug Prime, founder of the Future Engineers Center at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Melt the solder to connect wires for switches and permanent circuits. Heat the surface before you put the solder on it. Don't drip the solder for it is too much and not necessary. Make sure you wash hands and have a ventilated room because solder sometimes has lead in it.
How To: Solder a wire onto a switch when building circuits
This is an instructional video featuring Doug Prime, founder of the Future Engineers Center at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Strip the wire and make sure the wire is tied on tightly before soldering. Don't drip balls of solder. Make sure the tip is clean. Then hold it on the joint to be soldered for 4 seconds. Then poke the solder on the surface and it will melt with the heat.
How To: Cut and strip wires safely
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.
How To: Solder to a metal strap
This is an instructional video featuring Doug Prime, founder of the Future Engineers Center at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. If you want to make a homemade switch watch this video on using solder to tie the wire. Use sandpaper to clean where you will solder.
How To: Make a laundry detergent lamp
A nifty step-by-step guide to making your very own laundry detergent lamp. Upcycle that recyclable detergent bottle and gain a swell lighting fixture for your home! This involves some basic circuitry and wiring of a cheap lamp fixture. You use the laundry detergent bottle as the base of the lamp. It's a bit arts & crafts project and a bit conservation! Help our mother nature with this nifty at-home craft decoration project!
How To: Build a Mini Hovercraft
Create a miniature hover craft from the fan, polystrene or Styrofoam plate, batteries and double-sided scotch tape. It really works. Powered by two 9 volt batteries you can use paper plates for the body of the hovercraft if need be. This is a cool cat toy or just a household hack.
How To: Make a cheap lucid dream mask
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.
How To: Hack Smart Cards for satellite TVs
Notorious hacker Chris Tarnovsky opens his underground laboratory to WIRED, providing a peek into the world of satellite television smart-card hacking. This complicated process involves nail polish, a pin head and various acids -- so don't try this at home (unless you're Chris Tarnovsky)! Chances are you won't even know what's going on here, but that's not going to stop you from watching this video tutorial on how to reverse-engineer a satellite TV smart card, is it?
How To: Solder electroluminescent EL wire
Looking to find out how to solder EL or electro luminescent wire? This is a great tutorial on cutting the jacket and soldering the 40 gauge corona wires. They're very fine wires and you don't want to nick them while stripping them. You also need copper tape to help join the wires.
How To: Make a shake microphone out of a flashlight
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.
How To: Make noise canceling headphones
Kipkay explains how to make noise canceling headphones. You can make them without spending much money. You need Howard Leight earmuffs and a small pair of headphones, but you start by disassembling the headphones.
How To: Make noise canceling headphones and an LED light
Let Forbes help you make a few do-it-yourself projects in record breaking time. This video tutorial contains information on how to make three various projects. Learn how to make your very own noise canceling earphones out of junk old headphones, make an LED light, and make a simple marshmallow shooter. This projects are not only easy and quick to make, but fun. Make noise canceling headphones and an LED light.
How To: Bluesnarf a Nokia 6310i handset (cell phone)
Check out this video tutorial to see how to bluesnarf a Nokia 6310i handset (cell phone). What is Bluesnarfing exactly?
How To: Do some basic soldering for electronic equipment
Need a little help soldering? If you can't quite figure out how to solder for your electronics and wires, maybe it's time you took a soldering 101 class. Well, no need to pay any expensive tuition, just watch this video tutorial to see how to do some basic soldering for electronic equipment or whatever you need it for. It's as simple as getting some solder and a soldering gun. The rest comes naturally, believe me. This explanation is more that enough to get your started in the world of solder.
How To: Illuminate a regular computer keyboard
Light up your keyboard with this illuminating tutorial from Make Magazine's Kipkay. To get started on this hack, which should take roughly a half an hour and cost no more than $5, you'll need the following: (1) a regular computer keyboard (most any model will do), (2) a screwdriver, (3) a drill, (4) telephone wire, (5) heat shrink tubing, and (6) two 5 mm high-brightness, white LEDs. For comprehensive, step-by-step instructions on building your own light-up keyboard, simply watch this hacker'...
How To: Make music with a microcontroller
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.
How To: Strip insulated copper wire for electronics
This video tutorial explains how to strip insulated wire the right way. You'll learn how to adjust your wire strippers to make the process easier. Some people don't even use wire strippers, they use a knife or maybe even their teeth, but this causes nicks in the copper. To get the insulation off with ease and without gouges in the copper wire, use the proper sized wire strippers and adjust them right to fit the gauge of your wire. It's as simple as that. You don't need to go to vocational sch...
How To: Make LED and basic sink tube lightsabers
Have you become a Jedi in your Star Wars delusional mind? If so, break out of the the asylum with a Jedi lightsaber. Oh, but you don't have a lightsaber yet, okay. Well, this video tutorial will show you how to make a very inexpensive LED light saber with the most basic parts you could find. Novastar will shares his Jedi wisdom on LED light sabers, so pay attention, or you could never get out of that loony bin.
How To: Wire up crystal focus boards for Jedi lightsabers
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.
How To: Solder a pair of headphones
Find yourself faced with a dead channel on your headphones? Before them out, you might take the opportunity to see what you can learn from trying to fix them yourself with a soldering iron. The repair can often be straightforward. For detailed step-by-step instructions on resoldering a broken connection on your own cans, watch this headphone repair tutorial. Take a look.
How To: Turn a flatbed scanner into a camera
Want to take an ordinary flatbed scanner and turn it into a camera (that takes some pretty wild photos)? You can and, with the help of this video tutorial from MAKE, you will. For detailed, but simple, step-by-step instructions on assembling your own flatbed scanner camera, take a look at this how-to video!
How To: Build an eco-friendly directional WiFi antenna
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.
How To: Make a cheap multi-touch pad like in the MacBook Air
Check out this video tutorial on how to make a cheap multi-touch pad like in the MacBook Air. Yes, that's right... you can make your very own multitouch, finger-sensitive touch pad for your computer. This is definitely the cheap way to go to make a Multitouch Mini (MTmini), with a maximum of fifty bucks down the drain. This multitouch touchpad (or trackpad) is easy!
How To: Build a simple MIDI controller
Do you need just a few more controls? Perhaps your wondering how hard it is to make your own controller? Then follow the steps in this 2 part series and build your first MIDI controller in about an hour for very little cash. Using only 8 electronics parts, a pre-made case and a DIY midi interface that is USB powered- you can build a controller and it wont require a degree in electrical engineering. For detailed, step-by-step instructions, on building your own DIY MIDI controller watch this vi...