[10DotMatrix] has a budding interest in seismology, so she decided to make her own seismometer out of some easy-to-find materials. Seismometers are prohibitively expensive for hobbyists, but thankfully it’s really easy to build a usable siesmometer out of simple parts. [10DotMatrix]’s seismometer is built around a modified subwoofer, which acts as a transducer for the earth’s vibrations.
The subwoofer is mounted to the bottom of a tripod, which forms the structure of the seismometer. A slinky is stretched between the top of the tripod and a weight that rests on the coil of the subwoofer. Whenever the ground shakes, the …read more
Cruising around town on your electric bike is surely a good time…. unless your bike runs out of juice and you end up pedaling a heavy bike, battery, and motor back to your house. This unfortunate event happened to Troy just one too many times. The solution: to extend the range of his electric bike without making permanent modifications.
Troy admits his electric bike is on the lower side of the quality scale. On a good day he could get about 15 miles out of the bike before it required a recharge. He looked into getting more stock battery packs …read more
[Ryan] designed a PCB that lets you easily take readings from a commercial electrical conductivity probe over I2C. Conductivity measurements are great for measuring the salinity of a solution, which is useful for applications like hydroponics. While the probes themselves are a bit pricey (on the order of $50 from eBay), they are very accurate and last a long time.
Commercial conductivity probes contain platinum electrodes to prevent corrosion. The electrodes are excited with an AC signal, which prevents polarization of the solution and avoids chemical reactions at the electrodes. The voltage across the two electrodes is measured while the … Read the rest
We’ve covered many thermoelectric beverage coolers in the past, but none come close to the insane power of the AbsolutZero. [Ilan Moyer] set out to design a beverage cooler that chills a drink from room temperature to 5 degrees Celsius as quickly as possible, and it looks like he succeeded. The AbsolutZero consumes around 2.5kW of power and runs 8 water-cooled thermoelectric modules to quickly chill a drink.
[Ilan] put his machinist skills to work and fabricated many custom parts for this build. He machined water blocks for each thermoelectric cooler out of solid copper which draw heat away … Read more
We love re-purposed consumer gear. [Tobias] sent us the link to his project to that uses a cheap, discontinued cellphone gadget to create a Raspberry Pi controlled FM radio transmitter.
The Sony-Ericsson MMR-70 radio transmitter apparently used to connect to a cell phone and broadcast music. But the Walkman cellphones in question are a little bit old in the tooth, so one can buy the transmitter units for cheap on the resale market. What makes the transmitters even more interesting is that you can activate and deactivate the radio, change frequency or output power, and even send RDS station … Read more
Flying RC aircraft with a first person view is the latest and greatest thing in the hobby. In a fact that I’m sure will be shocking to 90% of people, you don’t need to buy a Phantom quad fly FPV. The guys at Flite Test show how you can build a tiny 5.8GHz FPV transmitter for under $100.
The parts used for this build are pretty much jelly bean parts at this point, but [Peter] at Flite Test is going for extremely lightweight parts for this build. He found an NTSC board camera that only weighs 1g and added a … Read more
It is the unspoken law of cordless tools – eventually you will have extra batteries lying around from dead tools that are incompatible with your new ones. Some people let them sit in lonesome corners of the garage or basement; others recycle them. [Eggmont] was facing this dilemma with a Makita battery from a broken angle grinder and decided to make a USB charger out of it.
[Eggmont] took the simplistic approach, using an old cigarette lighter-to-USB adapter. First, [Eggmont] removed the battery connector from the bottom of the broken angle grinder. Next, the casing surrounding the cigarette lighter plug …read more
Whether you need to perform diagnostics on a program or if you need to see what a suspected malware program is doing, you can use Process Explorer to essentially put the program on pause while you look at what it is doing.
The current setup of my computers audio was a bit annoying, as I had to switch cables at the interface between the amplifier and headphones all the time. I thought I will make a simple switch for that and also make an instructable out of it. It is completely passive and needs cheap and minimal compo...
The camera [elad] is using is a Sony FCB-EX11D block camera with a standard SD resolution … Read the rest
We’ve seen audio ports being used to establish a communications channel between a computer and a microcontroller before, but nothing quite as slick as this. [Gordon] is using a webpage running on a tablet to send Javascript to a microcontroller where the entire program is interpreted.
[Gordon] is using the Espruino Pico, a board that’s on Kickstarter right now. This tiny board is built around a javascript interpreter, allowing code to be written and updated on the fly without mucking around with bootloaders.
This technique can be expanded to provide bidriectional communication between a microcontroller and a computer. … Read the rest
Phone docks are expensive and platform-specific. Charging cables are annoying and unsightly. Wireless chargers alleviate some of these inconveniences, but still leave a lot of polish to be desired. I set out to eliminate all of these complaints, and in building a wireless charger into a nightstand o...
How many times have you tried to use glue in a very precise application without making a mess and end up with your fingers glued together or to the stuff you are working on.This is a very short yet helpful instructable to show you how to make your own superglue nozzles to help you in your precise gl...
This Instructable will help you turn ordinary nuts and bolts into super useful self-locking wingnuts and wingbolts.I use these at the joints of my custom table-top camera arm. Normal wingnuts can be used by hand, but don't lock well when they are 1/4" or bigger and lock-nuts with nylon inserts are ...
For years, I've had a neodymium magnet on my drill press, to hold my chuck key. About 5-10% of the time, the magnet comes off with the chuck key, instead of staying on the drill press. It's a minor inconvenience for sure, but one I finally got around to resolving. And it only took 60 seconds!You'...
This is a magnetic grabber. Its magnet has lost most of its strength so that it will hardly pick up a screw without the screw shaking off of the magnet. This Instructable will show how to make the magnet stronger while maintaining the original magnetic polarity.MaterialsSmall gauge insulated wireEle...
![Maker [Tim] used OpenSCAD to design his parametric peristaltic pump printed in one piec](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sFZ0RHo9sIeVt4S7GJnkY-QOkDYTMRpk-eRADm1eOUhM9lPwhrNsde4JW73z3AxZDr_NoiW4-UzQ=s0-d)
The parametric peristaltic pump pushes fluid through tubing using a squeezing process making it perfect for IVs and bypass surgery without the threat of contamination. Its 3D printed already assembled, only the tubing needs to be inserted and it’s ready to roll.
Diesel Fish are gear ties for your truck. Anywhere you would use a knot, you can use Diesel Fish. It's designed for rope 1/2" diameter or smaller and also works with flat webbing. It's so simple you can even tie it wearing boxing gloves! Two years ago I posted Fish Bone Knotless Gear Tie. Since then...
Whenever I upgrade a computer, I always try to salvage and reuse as many of the old parts that I can. One part that I have collected a lot of over the years is the cooling fan. You find these in power supplies, on CPU's and in tower cooling systems. So what do you do with a bunch of small fans? You ...
I saw the Earth Battery and decided to make my own to try it as I like to make things and see stuff working. Here is my experience in making it with many intentions for improvements and updates soon. This is very basic and straight forward project.I consider it as a proof of concept for me. Note :Th...
PowerBank 2USB 2.200 mAh 26 watt,using in all nomad situations...... Materials 3 battery from laptop pack,switch,wire,jack,pvc tube,double adapter usb(type cigar car).... Preparing components...... I soldering two wires on positive and negative in to USB adapter(easy to identification)...and i...
A router table + router came on sale locally for $90, so I picked it up but hadn't anticipated just how much room it would take up on my workbench. However, my table saw has an extension that was not really doing anything other than allowing me to cut large stock. Luckily (because I didn't measure i...
This is how to use circutry boards and things.i am not old, so this is very, very, VERY basic.good for starters who want to learn robotics.lets get started! Step 1: servos and wireless connections You will need one of those wireless toys or somthing.dismantle it and get the circut board out if th...
Adding a power adapter to a digital camera will let you power your camera from a wall outlet.This is especially useful for those who want longer recording times from their cameras without having to recharge their batteries often. This can also be used to revive that old digital camera with a dead ba...
The List:Silica Gel with indicatorAquarium Air PumpOzone GeneratorFlexible Air TubingAir Tubing Ozone stableAir StoneSmall potExplanations ? I don't think so. Just let the air tubing from the air pump go all the way down in the pot. Then fill in silica gel and your done.With the "Air Dryer" you can ...
This is my experience about a complete management of anti theft system with arduino board. The aim of project is the study for the solution for the authentication, maintenance menu, anti theft armed (away mode) and other practice solutions for a realy utilization of this project. Block diagram and...
Sometimes you need a very thin metal shim. Quite often, these shims are very hard (impossible!) to find at your local hardware store. Here's a way to get some nice stainless steel shims for practically nothing.I use a double edged safety razor to shave. They're incredibly cheap, last me a few months...
second usage to Bluetooth module from a laptop designated to the bind..... What you needed a Bluetooth module from a old laptop(normally is in the up right or up center of the screen of the laptop,when you open the front part of the screen laptop)....a USB cable with male partnecessary to solder...
These plans detail how I built a wind turbine in my garage without any special tools for just over $200. Many of the do-it-yourself designs are either toy projects or unlikely to hold up in strong winds. This wind turbine will withstand 40+ mile per hour winds and produce electricity with as little ...
I was messing around with a power bank that I had when I noticed that it would be extremely easy to add a couple diodes to the end of this, and have it still be able to charge your electronics! Yes I know that they sell these, but I just wanted to experiment on what I could do with this. A little ba...
The article explains a simple mains failure backup circuit for providing Arduino boards an uninterruptible supply during such situations. The idea was requested by Mr. Fredrik. The Design The simplest way to implement the proposed application is by using two diodes as shown in the above diagram...
Motivation:I cycle a lot and I placed quite a few electronic accessories on my bicycle handle bar. My issue is that I use a bicycle pouch to hold my powerbank to power my devices and is quite troublesome to remove and mount back the pouch on my bike each time I leave my bike at the train station. So...
A quick Sugru hack to prevent tangled wires and protect the condition of your computer adaptor cables Materials: -One pack of Sugru -Round pencil -Computer Adaptor -Metal ruler or small screwdriver to help mold and cut the Sugru Clean Thoroughly clean up the surface of the adaptor you wish to use...
(First of all, I made some edits to the HTML code for this I'ble, which is optimized for the desktop site, so it may not be ideally viewed on a mobile device.)Transistors are arguably the most important electronic component in use today. They are nearly everywhere, in nearly every electronic device ...
