In this GSR-Monkey (Skin Conductance Measurement System) Martin Sona uses the principle of galvanic skin response to plot some data onto a grid. Two people can be connected and monitored at the same time. I can imagine using this system as a two way lie detector, how often do you get to turn the tables when performing a lie detector test?

Via: Hacked Gadgets Comments

“The hardware (besides the PC itself) consists of four parts: the electrodes, two little amplifiers, a delphi/C++/etc programmable USB-Interface and last but not least a black and more or less evil looking monkey. After experimenting a bit with other materials I decided to make my own silver/silverchloride (Ag/AgCl) electrodes. Nonchlorided electrodes on the skin can polarize after a while which means that they themselves work a bit like a battery and emit current.”

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Thanks to Invisible Skinz for sponsoring the contest this week. They will be providing a lucky contest winner their choice of 3 invisible shields. For example you could get an invisible shield for your iPod, camera and laptop.  Have a look at the demonstration video below for more information.  If you can’t wait to win one you can get 15% off with the coupon code hackedgadgets42761.

“At only 0.2 milligrams, the invisible SHIELD won’t add any bulk or weight to your electronics. Although the cell phone cover is razor-thin, there’s nothing flimsy about this patented film. The product is built to withstand even the toughest conditions, and was even once used to protect the blades of military helicopters from dirt and debris. In other words, almost nothing will break through the invisible SHIELD’s protective barrier.”

This contest will run for one week (April 10, 2010 – April 16, 2010) . 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 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 Apr 29, 2010

The item to guess was the huge transistor.

The winners are Justin K. (there were 181 entries)

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Below is a picture and video of the prize.

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If you want to see what you are worth per hour this Minimum Wage Machine would be a great exercise. If you were making minimum wage in New York you would crank the handle and get a penny about every 5 seconds.

Via: Zedomax

“The minimum wage machine allows anybody to work for minimum wage. Turning the crank will yield one penny every 5.04 seconds, for $7.15 an hour (NY state minimum wage). If the participant stops turning the crank, they stop receiving money. The machine’s mechanism and electronics are powered by the hand crank, and pennies are stored in a plexiglas box.”

I made a PWM Fan Controller to cool my external hard drive that got quite warm when it was running for an extended period of time. There are 4 videos documenting the build below. Have a look at the project page for the schematic, code and additional information.

The heart of the PWM Fan Controller is a PIC 12F675 microcontroller. This microcontroller is reading the analog output of a LM35 temperature sensor using a ADC (analog to digital converter) . The resulting digital value is converted to a temperature and a fan is powered proportionally to how hot the sensor is. The sensor is mounted against the hard drive chassis so it is measuring the actual drive temperature and not just the air temperature inside the housing.

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Strobes are an effective way of creating atmosphere. Wizz Engineering designed a huge Strobe Array which used 24 small strobe lights that were controlled using custom DMX stage lighting equipment.

“The Strobe Array is a matrix of 8 x 3 small 10W stroboscopes. Each strobe has a relay soldered into it which forces it to flash, and the relays are controlled independently by a MPLI DMX512 interface. Patterns where selected using a single DMX channel. The Strobe Array needs 2 DMX channels to be controlled: one to select the pattern (a value of 0 is a null pattern) and another channel to set the speed at which the pattern is to be displayed.”

Strobe Array Pattern Demo from Charles Gervais on Vimeo.

Our friend Frank from theworkshop.ca has just completed the Dune Buggy Electric Conversion Part 4. We have been following this project right to the stage it is now, as in part 3 of the Dune Bug E build there was lots of fabrication. The machine is really taking shape now! The re-use of existing mechanical parts is great, it demonstrates that there is no need to always run out and purchase new parts for every build.

“The shocks have approx 3″ of absolute travel when they bottom-out. If they were placed perpendicular to the swing-arm at the midway point between the axel and the swing-arm pivot the wheels would enjoy almost 6″ of travel, though the shocks would be loaded at twice the equivalent weight than at the actual axel. While these are placed past the axel by just less than 1/4 of the pivot to axel length and as such should provide roughly 75% of the available travel, but 125% of the same load capacity if placed at the axel. “

I have been getting such  kick out of some of the creative items that are available in the Makers Market that I opened my own store! The store is not so creatively called the Hacked Gadgets Market. There are only two items in the store, one is a set of  Electronic Component Coasters which are sure a conversation starter. The other item is a Computer Motherboard Clock which was fun to design and cut out, there is something cool about seeing a chip sliced into by the CNC machine.

I would be interested to hear what you think of the Electronic Component Coasters and what else you would like to see in the store.