Everything Else
How To: Solder for electronics and other repairs
Learn how to solder. Whether you like to tinker with electronics or do your own plumbing repairs, soldering metal is an essential skill. Plus, it's kinda fun.
How To: Build a Leyden jar and use a capacitor
Simple yet effective, capacitors come in a dizzying array of forms and materials, vital to so many circuits for storage, timing, and filtration - the mighty capacitor!
How To: Build a hovercraft
Check out this Mad Science Experiment with Jason Young and Sean McMains on how to build a hovercraft and send unsuspecting children hurtling down the street on it. To make this cheap and amazing hovercraft, you'll need some wood, plastic sheeting and a leaf blower. This makes a great weekend project for the whole family to enjoy.
How To: Remotely Bug Hacked Bluetooth Headsets
Tinkernut presents the Bluetooth headset hack! This video shows one of the vulnerabilities of some bluetooth headsets. To prevent this vulnerability, it's best to invest a little more money into a more secure headset and making sure your headset is turned off when not in use. You can find all of the links and scripts used in this video, as well as find answers to questions you may have at the link below:
How To: Make a parabolic WiFi booster with aluminum foil
Paper rolls in a circle to close modem will help to increase the interference WiFi up a lot. This helps to increase your WiFI range and signal strength is low. This is a parabolic antenna to reflect the signal in the direction of your laptop.
How To: Hack together a Star Wars light saber
Systm presents this detailed tutorial on how to make a custom Star Wars style light saber. Luke, Darth and Obi-Wan's Lightsabers were pieced out of junk piles. David shows you how to build exact replicas and an original design from The Custom Saber Shop. Then he picks a fight with Patrick.
How To: Build USB power chargers
From Systm learn how to build a USB battery supply that can charge your cell phone.
How To: Solder together a headphone amp with an Altoids can
Turn an Altoids can into an outstanding headphones amp. Learn to solder by building yourself the most excellent Chu Moy headphone amp. It sounds great but cheap enough to give away as holiday stocking stuffers.
How To: Install Super Mario on your TI-84 calculator
Does your calculator just crunch numbers? Boring no longer. Mod your calculator into a fun video game console by installing Super Mario.
How To: Hack a UPS with a car battery
Find the ins and outs to UPS hacking in this video from Systm! And were not talking about the parcel service here—we're talking about your UPS system—your uninterruptible power supply, which can be pretty weak. That's why you should hack the tiny battery out of it and replace it with a giant car battery! Your UPS will last a lot longer, which is important when it comes to power outages. Though Systm doesn't recommend swapping out batteries, they do walk you through the process so you get it d...
How To: Remove DVD protection to rip to your computer
The free version of DVD Fab allows you not only to rip DVD's to your computer, but it also removes any regional or right protection from the DVD as it's ripping. Then you can use VLC to play back the DVD's.
How To: Make a USB motion detector
See how to make a USB motion detector with KipKay and MAKE Magazine! Find out how to turn your PC into an ambush multimedia presenter! Kipkay loves his gadgets! This is combination of a motion detector, a USB interface cable, and a laptop computer.
How To: Make a cosmic nightlight with LEDs and resin
See how to make a cosmic nightlight with LEDs and resin with KipKay and MAKE Magazine! Find out how to make a glittering LED constellation jammed in resin!! Kipkay loves his gadgets! This is perfect for moody, cosmic, night light for the nightstand. This is a two-part video tutorial.
How To: Make a bytelight from memory chips and a lamp
See how to make a bytelight from memory chips and a lamp with KipKay and MAKE Magazine! Find out how to make a high-tech mood light from a fluorescent lamp and a bunch of old memory chips! Kipkay loves his gadgets! This is perfect for mood lighting.
How To: Make a portable spy scope cellphone camera
See how to make a portable spy scope cell phone camera with KipKay and MAKE Magazine! Find out how to use a cellphone camera for espionage that captures long-distance secret activities! Kipkay loves his spy gadgets! This portable cell phone camera spy scope is the perfect way to spy on your neighbors!
How To: Make a simple laser communicator
See how to make a simple laser communicator with KipKay and MAKE Magazine! Find out how to secretly shoot your voice across the room in stealth mode on the beam of a laser! Kipkay loves his lasers! A simple laser communication device is the perfect way to talk across the room.
How To: Make a talking booby trap
Having trouble with people snatching your stuff? Did someone take your lunch from the company fridge? Here is an inexpensive, sneaky gizmo you can make to keep those sticky fingers away. This is a junk drawer hack from Make Magazine's Kipkay. It's activated when an item is moved from it, triggering a clothes pin to close and activate the voice command. See how to make a talking booby track in this video tutorial with KipKay!
How To: Build a pole-mounted aerial photography and video rig
Get a bird's-eye-view of the world with this Pole Mounted Aerial Rig for photography and video. This is a Make Magazine Weekend Project with Kipkay. This rig lets you see the world from above, and take beautiful photos and videos for any project. See how to build a pole-mounted aerial photography and video rig with Kip Kay!
How To: Make a DTV antenna & a steadicam
Learn how to make a DTV antenna & a steadicam. Digital converter box? Check! Great reception? Not so much. John Park shows how to take a fistful of wire coat hangers and make a TV antenna that gives great digital reception. While he’s at it, he also makes a video camera stabilizer using metal piping and counterbalance weight; great for at-home moviemaking.
How To: Feed your cat while you are away with a VCR cat feeder
John Park poses a kitty conundrum: Who's going to feed the cat while you're on vacation? Using a motor from an old VCR, he creates an automated feline feeder. While building this Make: magazine project, John learned that newer VCRs have safeguard technology, limiting access to the motor. Watch John as he demonstrates his solutions to this challenge.
How To: Circuit bend a toy piano
How to circuit bend a 80's Radio Shack toy synthesizer. Open up any device and play around with the internal audio devices. Circuit bending is done on mostly old cheap toys. This is a circuit bend demonstration on a toy piano. Get out your soldering iron and rip open toys. This takes some circuit board fiddling.
How To: Make a potato powered clock MacGyver style
In this video we manage to power a clock with nothing but two potatoes. In order to make this you will need two potatoes, a triple A battery powered clock, bare wire, galvanized nails, and leads, which you can find at radio shack. The clock is powered by the potato battery.
How To: Hack a PlayStation monitor into a digital television
Hack a PlayStation monitor into a digital television! Get that old PS1 out of the closet and dust it off, because the switch to digital television is coming soon, and you need a DTV, so why not put that PlayStation One to use? You can build a digital television from a new set top digital converter box and that PSone video monitor, plain and simple. It's easy! Don't forget that forty dollar coupon though from the government for the purchase of the digital converter box.
How To: Prep a thermocouple for a printed circuit board
How to prepare a thermocouple for attachment to a printed circuit board (PCB) for profiling a reflow or wave soldering system. This is advanced PCB circuitry and you need to watch all videos in the series to understand all the steps of wiring a printed circuit board entails.
How To: Wire an LED Police light bar system
This is my homemade led light system. The main unit has a total of 228 LED's, the corners are using super wide angle LED's to maximize visibility. There are also 48 LED mini lightbar, 5x 16 LED mini modules.
How To: Repair cooling fans in power supplies, video cards etc
Here's a quick and simple way to repair small cooling fans and extend their life. It's a video made with a how-to article from http://beecherbowers.com This is a delicate mr. fixit tutorial. Clean the fan so that it runs smooth and quiet. You need oil to do this repair.
How To: Convert a high power supply with an adapter supply
Hate those cheap multi-adapter power supplies that only provide up to 500ma of power? Here's how to use one high-output power supply (up to 3.5A in this case) to run all of your power hungry gadgets, like laptops, LCD monitors, etc...
How To: Make cheap WiFi antenna booster
Patrick Norton Shows you how to make a simple WiFi antenna booster. This booster is a parabolic reflector made to focus a signal so it is stronger and can project farther. This is perfect if your wireless router is awkward and cannot broadcast a wifi signal to the far reaches of your home. This is called the windsurfer.
How To: Light a light bulb with a potato battery
Following on from Edison's first lightblub moment back in 1879, the OU's Stephen Serjeant experiments with an alternative power source - the humble potato. Create a potato batter with a couple of screws and a light bulb.
How To: DIY a portable handheld Nintendo 64
Nintendo 64. It's the classic video game console and probably houses a bunch of your fond childhood memories. Well, now you can relive those tender moments AND play Super Mario Brothers on the go by hacking your Nintendo 64 just a wee bit.
How To: Repair a cracked or broken circuit board
Step by step guide to repairing circuit boards Yes, I know, my hands are shaky.
How To: Circuit hack and mod
In this video, we explain some techniques for getting electronic circuits to do things they weren't designed for. As an example, use a speaker phone as a speaker. Hacking items into better or different devices is way cool DIY circuitry. These are ideas of electronics that are cool to splice, rip apart and use recycled electronics for new projects.
How To: Open a power supply without destroying a transformer
First of all, please DO NOT attempt to open any power supply and tweak what's inside unless you know what you're doing and/or are a professional. With that said, this circuitry video will teach you how to crack open a wall transformer power supply without destroying the transformer.
How To: Cut a circuit board
Sometimes there is a part of a circuit that you need but it's on a huge circuit board. This is one technique to cut it out. Take out the PCB part that is necessary. This is a great DIY electronics technique.
How To: Make an annoying strobe flash from an old camera
This shows you how to modify an old camera so it flashes at the push of a button. Annoy your friends. It's a perfect practical joke by modifying an old camera flash to create a strobe effect. This will make it so you don't have to wind it, just push the button
How To: Make a camera spotlight for cheap with a head lamp
This is a cheap little hack from a $5 discount store headlamp. Check it out. Quick and easy. You need a bolt to secure to your camera. This is great if you are shooting long shots and need different brightnesses. Otherwise kind of ghetto.
How To: Remove scratches from any DVD
In this Household Hacker experiment, we'll demonstrate how to completely remove scratches from your CD or DVD media.
How To: Make a mood light decorative lamp
Here is the Weekend Project: The Bytelight, a mood light from Kipkay and Make Magazine. Build a cool mood light out of obsolete sim memory chips from recycled old computers.
How To: Hack together a pink eraser casing for your USB drive
Use erasers to make a crafty casing that'll hide and protect your thumb drive. You will need two beveled pink erasers, a cutting board, a large chef's knife, a 1 gig USB flash drive, a pencil, a rotary tool, and a utility knife. This pink eraser USB drive is cute & useful.
How To: Build a fume extractor for soldering in an Altoids tin
Using the instructions on the MAKE blog (04/2008) We made this portable fume extractor for soldering. Works great at close proximity (2 inches). Note: We didn't screw down the voltage regulator, just stuffed it in the side. This will keep the fumes from seeping into your lungs by trapping them with an Altoids tin.