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Circuit bending can be lots of fun. This Circuit Bent Boot project takes it one step further by placing the circuit in a fun object. The Circuit Bent Boot sure looks like tons more fun than an Altoids tin! “The project consists of the following materials:
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Google Chrome is the new browser from the giant Google. Being Google they have decided to implement certain features in the browser that are a bit different than their competitors. Watch the above video to see what is really happening behind the scenes. Via: Geeks are Sexy |
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Have a look at the My 2uF blog for some interesting developments of an 8 RGB LED Ring project. There is lots of blog entries covering everything from board design to a working demo of project. He is using an interesting RGB surface mount LED, they seem to be very susceptible to heat which sounds like they would be hard to work with. “The board contains an ATmega168 chip, a few resistors, capacitors and headers and of course 8 RGB LEDs. - These LEDS die like flies. Touch’em twice with the iron and they’re dead as a doornail.
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Phil Torrone has put together a guide of open source hardware that was produced over the past year. This is sure to be a growing category in the next few years. "Each year we do a guide to all open source hardware and this year there are over 125 unique projects/kits in 19 categories, up from about 60 in 2008, more than doubling the projects out there! – it’s incredible! Many are familiar with Arduino (shipping over 100,000 units, estimated) but there are many other projects just as exciting and filled with amazing communities – we think we’ve captured nearly all of them in this list. Some of these projects and kits are available from MAKE others from the makers themselves or other hardware manufacturers – but since it’s open source hardware you can make any of these yourself, start a business, everything is available, that’s the point." |
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Warnlaser sent in a few of their laser pointers for Hacked Gadgets to review. They sent in a 20mw Razor series and a 5mw tiger. The Razor is royal violet and the Tiger green. 20mW Razor
The shiny black case is very nice, I have purchased many laser pointers and most of them don’t have this outer protective sleeve. The actual case of both lasers is very sturdy, much like a quality glasses case. I had a look at the Razor laser first, upon opening the case I was puzzled to see a dirty accessory in one of the AAA battery slots. I don’t think the shipping department knew this unit was going out for a review. It looks like some type of yellow glue somehow got onto the silver accessory. The label on the laser was also not adhered very well, both edges were peeling. The case design doesn’t help though since as it is placed in the case both edges of the stick on label get rubbed. With a current price of $99.99 for the Razor I would have expected a better cosmetic appearance. The accessory turns the beam into a ton of tiny dots in a grid pattern, it looks neat but I am not sure what the use of this would be. Someone will fill me in on the practical application that I overlooked. Another gripe is that the black and gold laser has a large silver tip when the attachment is installed, too bad it wasn’t a matching color. It also doesn’t fit into the case when installed. The actual beam color is very appealing because it is different than the typical red and green that everyone else uses. Even though it is 20mW the visual intensity to the human eye is much less than a typical 5mW green laser. The beam doesn’t stay tight over a long distance, so at about 20 feet you are left with a dot that is about 1 inch in diameter. I am not sure if the quality of this unit is representative of all lasers coming out of Warnlasers but I would not personally purchase one of these lasers at this price. 5mW Tiger
The other laser we looked at was the Tiger 5mW green laser pointer. This one didn’t have any cosmetic issues like the Razor did. I did notice that both laser pointers were slightly different though. The Razor had a mat black finish with a gold button and the Tiger has a gloss black finish and a grey rubber button. Not that the actual finish matters, it was just an observation. The position of the clip is also in a different location on both pointers. The $28.99 Tiger was what I would have expected for a good green laser pointer. The dot was bright and tight even when shot a long distance. The button was responsive and when the batteries were installed the weight in hand was pleasing. This would make for a good presentation laser choice. See the gallery of images after the jump. 
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If your project needs to store lots of data you need a datalogger, this Open Source Hardware SD Datalogger allows you to store tons of data onto an SD card. Via: Elektronika.ba "This project provides a general purpose library which implements read and write support for MMC, SD and SDHC memory cards. It includes
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Thanks to 4D Systems for sponsoring the contest this week. They will be providing a DK-160G1 (OLED development kit) and a SOMO-14D Embedded Audio-Sound Module to the winner. This is about $175 dollars worth of gear which will let you play with the latest and greatest in OLED technology. 4D Systems is an Australian based company, which is a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of intelligent graphic display modules. “The DK-160G1(SGC) kit includes the following products:
This contest will run for one week (December 12 – December 18, 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 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 winner will be chosen at random from all of the correct entries. ———————————–———- Added December 21, 2009 The item to guess was a CT X-ray Tube Based on the response this was the hardest contest we have run to date! Congrats to everyone who got it right! The winner is Csaba B. (There were 32 entries, 18 were correct) ————————————–———- Below are some pictures of the prize.
Video of the display in action is after the jump. |
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