This is one huge LED Music Tower. We have see lots of cool LED/Music creations lately, I say keep em coming! JC Omega Projects is in French so hopefully we get a good English translation but a picture is worth a thousand words. It looks like there was two sizes of this cool project built, the mini table top version and the huge in your face taller than you are version. I personally would take the version that would force me to re-arrange my living room furniture…

“Materials: wood and acrylic and electronics .

Circuit: Microchip microcontroller, 16 leds, 6 IC buffers, 3 amplifiers, Micro, Power supply: 12v.
Modes: 9 dynamic modes, 1 demo mode, 2 color modes, 2 sounds meter modes.
This lamp have 3 button for: On/OFF, change speed, change mode.”

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Tic tac toe is a classic game that everyone knows. As you get older it looses its appeal since the result will always be a tie unless someone makes an obvious mistake. This water based version of the game could make it fun again just because of the neat visuals. Meiravor demonstrates how the game works in the first video, the second video shows how the circuit functions.

Rich Harley from Suspicion Industries sent in some pictures of a vehicle that they just completed. This is what I call a office away from home! I know where to go if I ever start a career as a super secret spy! Instead of a limo could I rent this van for an evening?

“Here is a rather large home project we have completed – a surveillance
vehicle or mobile office. The project took around 9 months to finish
and we have pictures and build information to document progress. The
van has:

* onboard power system/batteries (10 hour runtime), plug sockets etc
* lighting
* onboard computers x 2 + TFT wall mounted monitors
* wireless router
* desk + chair setup
* furnished walls and floor
* climate control

We’ve also added a Pan-Tilt-Zoom Camera connected to the computers
for surveillance or recording use. Our aim is to hire the van to
individuals/small business, or perhaps to sell the vehicle outright.”

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Here is a great use of some old telegraph insulators to make some very nice looking DIY Landscaping Lights. The lights were found at a garage sale so it is nice to see the units getting a second life. Thanks H.P. "For each lamp, I began with piece of single-sided copper-clad fiberglass board, measuring roughly 3 and 3/8 inches long by 7/8 inches wide. Using a small ball rasp and my Dremel ™ tool, I divided the copper on the board into little squares or pads to which I soldered the various components. Some parts were installed on the side of the board with the pads. Others parts were installed on the opposite side of the board, making it necessary to drill tiny holes through which component leads could be threaded."

Thanks to Protostack. for sponsoring the contest this week. They will be providing a $30 gift certificate to the winner. They have lots of cool products, $30 would go a long way with their prices. Have a look at this ATMEGA8 Development Kit that they have recently created, if you are into AVR development this may be the ticket for you. This contest will run for one week (June 6 – 11, 2009) . Ending time is based on central standard time. To enter, identify the item pictured above and give an example of what can be done with it, please note that you don’t need to provide the actual make or mode..

Please do not give the answer in the comments. 

Send an email to contest @ hackedgadgets.com with "Name the Thing Contest" as the subject, and the message body consisting of:

• The name of the item in the above picture
• An example of what the item pictured above can be used for

The winner will be chosen at random from all of the correct entries.

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Added June 24, 2009

The item to guess was a camera circuit board.

The winner is Lloyd S. (There were 135 entries)

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Below is a picture of the the prize product.

Edo from Germany built a real cool LED table that is controlled by Arduino microcontrollers. As soon as we get some more details we will add it to this article. Edo sent in some pictures and some text about the design and himself. Thanks Edo.

Via: Top 5 Cool Tables Comments

"My name is Edo, I am a 23 years old from Hamburg Germany and I’m studying computer science at the Hamburg university of applied science. I used one Arduino Duemilinove to control 12 TLC5940 Chips. There is is one 5mm RGB LED in each of the 64 sections. The dimensions of the Table are 50x50x12 centimeters The cladding is made of self brushed aluminum. In the future I’d like to take an Arduino BT to program the table wirelessly."

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Thanks to Sky Lasers for sending in one of their 125mW Green Laser Pointers for review. I have had normal 5mW green laser pointers in the past but there is no comparison between a normal laser and one of these high power 125mW units. The laser uses 2 AAA batteries, high power mode will work fine using rechargeable nickle metal hydride batteries but low power mode will not operate with rechargeable batteries. I am told this is due to the lower voltage of the rechargeable cells compared to alkaline cells. I originally thought that I had a defective unit but after I popped in some alkaline batteries the unit worked just fine. See the pictures below of the laser pointer at night. It is hard to capture the nice bright beam on camera but you are able to easily point out stars on a fairly bright evening with city lights around.

The construction of the unit feels solid. It has a 3 position switch at the rear of the unit which is switched using the included barrel key. In the red position the unit is off, in the green position the unit is in high power mode and in the yellow position the unit is in low power mode. It is nice to be able to change the unit to low power so that it can be used as a normal laser pointer for presentations. The laser activation button action is precise and it is nice to have the LED confirmation of a active laser. The only thing that Sky Lasers needs to work on is the case. When the laser pointer has the rear switch assembly screwed on it is to long to fit into the case.

It is important to use some protective glasses when using a laser of this power, you would not want the beam to reflect back into your eyes by accident.

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