Ben Heckendorn is known for his crazy hacks like the XBox 360 Laptop. He is hosting a web show on Revision 3 called The Ben Heck Show. The show will be broken up into 2 types of builds, he will be taking suggestions from the audience and he will also be covering a large build that will be covered over many episodes. I wonder how he got the suggestions for episode 1?

Watch the video to see how a normal game controller is converted into a one handed controller that lets the player use his feet to control the other functions that the other hand normally would. The big build is the first stage of a XBox 360 Laptop build, it will be constructed using a XBox 360 Slim.

This DIY Soldering Iron was created using a Atmega8 microcontroller. Not only does it have a way to set and forget the temperature you want you can also set the three buttons to store the three most common temperatures you use.

If you have a CNC machine you can easily convert it into a high resolution scanner. All you need is a $20 web cam and a bit of software. In the video above Andy Grevstad from Tormach demonstrates how easy it is to slap a part onto the CNC bed and have the entire part scanned so that the part can be copied. Click on some of the images below for a look at what the scanned results look like.

Via: Buildlog.net

“CNC Scanner utilizes a Mach3 plugin to take a series of photographs where the camera is automatically positioned for each photograph with CNC motion. A dimensionally scaled photomosaic is then assembled by stitching photographs together to build a larger image.

After the photomosaic is assembled, it can be opened in Tormach CNC Scan CAD, a simple 2D CAD program with basic functionality for measuring distances and tracing shapes. This information can be exported as an industry standard .DXF file to other CAD/CAM programs for further work.

CNC Scanner uses a spindle mounted adjustable focus USB microscope camera that features our Tormach Tooling System® quick change mounting system. It is also compatible with any CNC mill that utilizes Mach 3 control software. Requires a spindle that is capable of holding ¾” shank, such as R8 or MT-3.”

Wellyb00t has built a cool Analog LED Clock based on a PIC 16f877 microcontroller. Given the complexity of the hand wiring the spiderweb of connections on the back of the board is beautiful. You can see more pictures including the schematic here.

“*12 Dimly lit leds on outer ring showing clock outline.
*LED test on powerup
*16F877 PIC Microcontroller @ 20MHz
*DS1307 Real Time Clock for timekeeping
*169 x 700mcd diffused white led matrix
*Size 610mm x 610mm”

The prize this week is a loupe magnifier, this will let you get a close look at whatever you are working on. This contest will run for one week (Sept 11 – 17, 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 October 9, 2010

The item to guess was a coax cable stripper

The winner is Shawn H. (there were 214 entries)

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Below is a picture of the prize.

The Geek Group shows us how to build a Bucket Capacitor. The process uses 12 beer bottles, I can think of a better way of emptying those bottles rather than dumping them in the bush. Looks like the crimp on connectors worked well here for Chris but I have never had much luck when crimping ring terminals onto solid wire, I normally solder them in place.

“The parts you will need are:
1 – 5 gallon bucket
12 – 12oz beer bottles
4 – canisters of table salt
2 – 1/4-20 brass bolts(can be regular steel, but brass holds up better to the saltwater influence) and nuts
1 – quart cheap motor oil(you want oil with no additives)
about 1′ of aluminum foil
a couple feet of 12AWG copper wire“

The guys over at iFixit have taken apart the tiny new iPod Nano 6th Generation iPod. Not sure I like the way the new 6th Generation iPod Nano has gone, the form factor has shrunk tremendously and because of this there are lots of features that are now missing, most notably is the camera. The coolest thing about the new Nano is that it has a touch screen though. I have yet to get my hands on one though so I will hold my comments on the tiny screen but I am thinking it will be too small to be useful.