Geeks: DIY

Salvage Parts From a Computer Mouse

Kevin — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:54:37 +0000

Salvaging electronic parts is a must for any serious DIY’er. Not only to you save on costs to purchase parts new, but you are helping the environment and increasing your changes that when you want to start a project, you already have the parts that you need to complete it. No more waiting for the mail, or driving to the store!

Hack-a-day ripped apart an old school mouse to see what kind of useful stuff they could get out of it and found some great components. They found several buttons and sensors, including rotary encoders which can be used for measuring movements in robotics projects.

The guide details how to take apart the mouse, identify any potentially useful parts, and explains what they could be used for. It’s pretty interesting to see all of the good stuff you can pull out of there. Go take a look and hopefully it will inspire you not to throw that old ugly mouse out, and instead start working on a cool project with it.

Click here to see the guide.

How To Build Your First Robot - The BeetleBot v2

Kevin — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:26:35 +0000

The BeetleBot is a small simple robot that is a great project for getting started in robotics. It uses no electronics component to avoid obsticals, instead it uses two SPDT switches to avoid objects by reversing the opposite motor to free itself.

The parts list is pretty simple which will allow you to build this without spending too much money.

Take a look at instructibles.com for a very detailed guide.

Build Your Own iPod Boombox

Kevin — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:18:00 +0000

If you’re looking for an easy and portable way to listen to your ipod somewhere without headphones, we’ve found a solution for you. The materials for this are pretty cheap, and you can build it pretty quickly. All you need are some small computer speakers that either run on batteries, or dont require a wall outlet, some styrofoam and a cheap tupperwear container.

Cut out the holes for the speakers and ipod controls in the tupperwear and fit everything in there snug with the styrofoam and you’re all set! It may not be the most elegant thing, but it gets the job done without hurting your wallet. It’s also going to be a great conversation piece at a picnic or the beach!

For more details head over to Instructables website.

Build A Clock Using Analog Meters

Kevin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:31:01 +0000

I found an interesting blog post about how someone built a clock using three analog meters to show the time, one for hours, one for minutes, and one for seconds. He designs the circuit and uses a PIC microcontroller to control the clock. Although the code isn’t posted, it’s a great article and a really unique idea.

Head over to Chrass Landing to see what Chris was up to.

How To Build Retractable Headphones

Kevin — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:50:20 +0000

This is another one from the DIY site Instructables.com that shows how you can turn your favorite pair of headphones into a compact retractable pair. All you need is your choice pair of headphones and a retractable cable such as the USB cables that you can buy.

Yes you can go out and buy a pair of retractable headphones, but what if you have a favorite pair that is really comfortable? And besides, isn’t it usually more fun to do it yourself?! So if you’re if you’ve had enough of tangled headphone cables, you can find your guide to a pair of DIY Retractable Headphones here.

Build Your Own DIY Air Conditioner

Kevin — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:33:24 +0000

Summer is definitely here, and I dont see it geting any cooler until it gets a little warmer still. So if its money, logistics, or whatever might be keeping you from that comfortable air conditioned climate, this project might be a nice investment for you.

We have two levels of DIY Air Conditioners, depending on how big of a project you want to make this. The first one is ood for cooling your shed, garage or school dorm room, as it is pretty low tech. The $30 Air conditioner uses a tall bucket to circulate ice water through the back of a fan, which blows out the cold air. The upgrade to this one, uses a pump to keep recirculating the water, which allows you to use a smaller, less messy cold water source and integrates the fan and bucket quite nicely.

And if it’s just too hot out to work on building something, you can always just stick a nice bowl of ice water behind a fan to get a nice cool breeze!

How To Make an RGB Combination Door Lock

Kevin — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:36:39 +0000

Adding a custom built electronic lock somewhere in your living quarters can be viewed as a geek’s right of passage. The team over at Hack A Day decided to take this one step further and ditch the boring number keypad and replace it with a custom RGB backlit keypad.

Instead of typing numbers in to unlock the door, you use a unique set of colours as your combination. The guide includes step by step instructions with pictures for building the lock, as well as a full parts list and code to make it work.

You can find the Hack A Day guide here. Or part 2 of the guide where they go from prototype to fully functional dor lock.

How To Upgrade Your TiVo Hard Drive For More Space

Kevin — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:48:32 +0000

No matter what version of the TiVo you may have, if you’re a true TV lover, you are probably constantly being reminded of your storage limits for recorded shows. If this sounds familiar, you might want to think about upgrading the storage capacity for your TiVo. The full process may not be for someone looking for a quick solution as it requires a few special tools and some work with a Linux live CD environment, but if you’re really serious about increasing the space on your TiVO then this might just be for you. Unfortunately the guide doesn’t include any photos but it is very detailed and beginner-friendly.

You can find all the details at NewReleaseVideo’s site. If you upgrade using this guide, or have done so in the past, leave a comment and let us know how it went!

Add an MP3 Player Input to Your Car Stereo

Kevin — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:46:18 +0000

If you’re sick of the poor sound quality that you get from one of those FM transmitters for your car, and you no longer have a tape deck to hook up an adapter too, then what can you do to get good sound quality from your ipod or MP3 player? Student Donn Morrison, shows us how you can add an auxiliary input to your car stereo, so you can have a direct line in from your MP3 player. This means no more static from the FM transmitter! All you need is a pair of old headphones and a soldering iron (with maybe some soldering skills to go along with it) and you’re ready to take on this project.

These instructions are specific to a certain audio processor, but if you dont have the same part, he suggests that all you need to do is look up your part number on the internet and find the correct circuits to solder.

To see how Donn Morrison added a MP3 player input to his car stereo, click here. And if you need to brush up on your soldering skills, take a read through our beginners guide to soldering.

25 Skills Every Man Should Know

Kevin — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:24:54 +0000

Popular Mechanics has picked out the most important entries from the book of man-knowledge and compiled them into this great guide for us. Now this isn’t geek specific, but every now and then we might need to build a campfire or something manly like that, and armed with this information you will have no problem.

This guide will tell arm you with all the tools you need to be more then just ‘the computer guy’. When you’re done reading you’ll be able to Fillet a Fish, Paddle a Canoe, Paint a room and even get your car unstuck. Make sure to bookmark this one, your present / future son will thank you for it.

You can find the guide here: 25 Skills Every Man Should Know