The aims of the project were to: a) Reduce the noise level b) See if I could do it I was not looking to lower the temperature to improve the stability. Ive heard reports in forums of the 360 overheating but I have not noticed this myself. read more | digg story

(more…)

Can your Commodore 64 play DVDs? I didn’t think so… If you want it to check this out!

“The nice compact layout, the onboard features, the impulse-buyer-friendly price and the power (enough for the usual stuff while I have to feed my P4 with SETI or Folding@home just to keep it from becoming bored), had not passed unnoticed. I didn’t care too much about the power consumption, you need an power outlet anyway if you want to do some serious work or want to see the end of the DVD for that matter. Didn”t care about reviews talking nonsense about gaming performance and other trivia. Didn”t care at all. The Geek inside talked in its authoritive voice: “Buy one, buy one! You must! Must!” The Geek inside usually wins, especially around payday. This time it won without a struggle. Payday was yesterday…”

See page 2 for more pictures

David Murray took the $20 Hummer Off Road Racing game and converted it into a working Commodore 64. Included on his site are instructions on how to hack the audio, video circuits to work better.

“Inside, it contains the Commodore 64 DTV chip, designed by Jeri Ellsworth. It is the same chip being sold inside the Commodore 64 DTV Joystick currently being sold in Europe. (DTV = Direct to TV) This chip is, in essence, and entire Commodore 64 reduced down to a single chip. However, it has many new features that make it more powerful than a 24 year old Commodore 64. It has new graphics modes, new sound features, a lot more RAM, and a Flash-ROM.”

Alternate Link

See page 2 for more pictures

Thomas Grocutt has built a PC based oscilloscope. He has full plans and build information on his site so you can build your own!

“The initial purpose of this project was to create a cheap, easy to use digital storage oscilloscope (DSO). However we have gone a bit further since the original idea. One of the biggest problems with most DSO’s is there small storage depth, we decided to solve this problem once and for all by creating a DSO with a huge storage depth (hence the name). Along the way we found we could add other useful features like a built in logic analyser at minimal extra cost. The result is the DSO in the picture above. It’s PC based so is cheap and easy to build. Have a look at the specs page for more info or download the docs. Over the next few years the DSO will continue to be developed, so if you have any ideas for additional features let me know.”

Steve Kosmerchock built a small light weight rocket timer for a friend of his. He is selling them for $40 on the XAVIEN web site. If you want to build your own Steve provides the schematic and firmware for free on his site. Have a look at some of his other PIC projects.

Steve explains how the project started, “A co-worker of mine wanted a small timer that ranged from 1s to 15s depending on what the user selected. They wanted to use a set of 4 dip switches to select the time. Needed to be as small as possible (weight being very critical) and run off of a 9V battery. Needed 2 failsafes to prevent accidental ignition of the second stage of the rocket. The following information is the end product of those requirements. You can buy IMPROVED single and dual stage rocket timers from XAVIEN .”

Source: PIC Guide

Check out David Worden’s computer controlled Disco Bar with 128 LEDs! He used control boards from Dropout Design. “Yes, I would sell my bar. A minimum of $5,000. Yes, its a rediculously high price that no one would ever pay, but it would have to be worthwhile for me to sell it with all the work I put into it. The bar is very safe actually. I have epoxy pretty much everywhere on the top, so its totally liquid proof. As for inside the cabinet, I’ll be putting some type of protection over the controller boards so in case someone reaches inside, they dont have to worry about bumping anything. They are already out of reach, but better safe than sorry.”

See page 2 for more pictures