Spot Welder; Don’t Buy It, Build It

Spot welders are super handy for making sheet metal enclosures for your projects. The problem is, commercial ones are rather expensive… The good news is, they’re actually really easy to make! This is [Caio Paulucci's] first submission to Hack a Day, and it was a weekend project him and his father just finished.

A spot welder works by dissipating large amounts of heat in between two electrodes in the material you are bonding. It makes use of a transformer that converts mains voltage to a very low voltage, but high current energy source. The cool thing with this type of … Read the rest

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Homemade Solar Panels Diy tutorial

kurtscottage @ youtube.com writes: In this video I’m showing you how I built some solar panels from start to finish I tried to make it as detailed as possible. These panels cost me very little to build and are fun projects for everyone. This is just one way of doing this there are lot’s of […]



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A DIY laser engraver build using DVD and CD-ROM/writer

Here’s a DIY 38mm x 38mm laser engraver build using CD-ROM/writer on ATmega328p by Davide Gironi: A laser engraving machine, is a tool that uses lasers to engrave an object. To build this tool I’ve used two old CD-ROM writer that lays around in my garage. The X/Y positioning system it is build using the […]



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A simple current-sense technique eliminating a sense resistor

An old but interesting app note (PDF) from Microsemi on resistorless current-sensing technique. [via] This application note introduces a simple current-sense technique that eliminates that sense resistor, resulting in system-cost reduction, PCB space saving, and power efficiency improvement. Furthermore, the new current sensing mechanism allows higher dynamic tripping current than the static one (built-in low-pass […]



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Metastable transistor circuit

by Henrik’s Blog @ hforsten.com: In my previous post I wrote about a circuit that would change it’s output depending on what was the spice simulations DC sweep range. Today I investigated the circuit a little and I was able to remove lots of components that didn’t affect the bug and this is the resulting […]



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The Ultimate FM Transmitter (Long Range Spybug)

by ASCAS @ instructables.com: Have you ever wanted to broadcast your own radio station within the neighborhood? Ever get curious on where people get those “Surveillance Bugs” from spy and action movies? This small and simple FM transmitter is the toy that geeks have always wanted. FM transmitters can be complicated to build, that’s why […]



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$400 DIY CNC Machine is Surprisingly Simple!

Once you go CNC you never go back — they’re just too darn convenient! [Drez20001] shows us how he made one for around $400. Who needs expensive roller bearings when you can use drawer slides?

That’s right — the majority of the cost of this CNC machine are the things you can’t really get any cheaper — the servos (or steppers), the belts (or leadscrews), and of course the motor controller plus computer interface. Everything else? Plywood, drawer slides, and a bunch of fasteners can be had for next to nothing!

He had wanted to build a CNC for years … Read the rest

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Embedding Wireless Charging into Your Laptop

Looking for a project to do [Jason Clark] thought it might be fun to integrate a spare wireless Qi charger into his HP Chromebook 14.

He started by cracking open the Qi charger — it’s held together by adhesive and four phillips screws hiding under the feet pads — all in all, not that difficult to do. Once the plastic is off, the circuit and coil are actually quite small making it an ideal choice for hacking into various things. We’ve seen them stuffed into Nook’s, a heart, salvaged for a phone hack…

Anyway, the next step was … Read the rest

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Overwriting a Protected AVR Bootloader

A bootloader is typically used to update application code on a microcontroller. It receives the new program from a host, writes it to flash, verifies the program is valid, and resets the microcontroller. Perhaps the most ubiquitous example is the Arduino bootloader which allows you to load code without an AVR programmer.

The bootloader resides in a special part of memory, which is protected. On the AVR, it isn’t possible to write to the bootloader memory from the application code. This is to prevent you from accidentally breaking the bootloader and bricking the device.

However, it can be useful to … Read the rest

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Two new little tools for your tinkering time with Arduino

Two new Arduino products are available starting today from the Arduino Store. Read below for details! Arduino USB Host Shield This shield allows you to connect devices to your Arduino using a USB port, for example game controllers, digital cameras, phones, keyboards, etc: - it is based on the MAX3421E, which is a USB peripheral/host […]



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