iFixit has cracked open a Microsoft Kinect and wow is there a ton of technology packed in there. This sensor bar is the total opposite of the Wii Sensor Bar which has virtually no tech in it. After seeing what makes the Kinect tick I totally understand why Adafruit Industries has offered a $2000 bounty for the first person to write some open source drivers for the Kinect. I have a feeling that it will drive a ton of crazy applications just like when Glove Pie was released for the Wiimote.

The prize this week is a pair of wire strippers, this will this will help you prep your cables to be attached to your next great creation. This contest will run for one week (November 6 – November 12, 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 November 27, 2010

The item to guess was a Switching Power Supply for an Audio Amplifier

The winner is Gwen L. (there were 28 entries). Based on the numbers I am thinking this was one of the hardest ones yet!

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Below is a picture of the prize.

Doug Smith demonstrates how to use Pulse Injection to find problems with printed circuit boards. He built a small probe that allows him to poke around all areas of the board to see if there is any areas which are sensitive. This method is probably not economical for a hobbyist to use unless you can find the Fisher PG EFT that Doug used in the Apex Electronics bone yard for cheap but I think s simple version of the device could be built in the DIY spirit for $20 or $30. It wouldn’t have all the fancy controls but would get the job done.

If you like the work that Doug is doing have a look at the ESD creating device that you could make for a few dollars. The oscilloscope probe demonstration at the end is quite impressive.

Dave Jones walked through Apex Electronics in Sun Valley California. The video he took really shows off how much stuff the place really has! I wish I had a store like this in my city. They have aisles of related items such as reels of wire but as you will see in the video the shelves are stacked about 20 feet tall so there is no way you would ever know what goodies were hiding on the top shelf. There are also a few end aisles that have literally spilled over and are 5 or 6 feet deep with stuff. It is a bit of a shame to see what used to be 100′s of thousands of dollars of gear exposed to the elements outside but I am assuming they probably purchased the items for their scrap metal worth.

It is nice to see that they have also adopted the internet as a way to connect with customers who may never be in Sun Valley but would like to purchase some of their treasures. I have my eye on these power meters that are only $25, problem is shipping to Canada would probably make it not such a great deal.

Zombies are our friends right? The guys over at The Transistor has put together tons of junk and made a cool game.

Remember ZORK? Take a look at this typewriter which has been automated by hooking up tons of electro-mechanical goodness to an old typewriter!

Thanks for the tip Jack.

“Each key is attached by fishing line to a solenoid, an electromechanical device that pulls down when electric current is passed through it. The solenoids sit behind and underneath the typewriter in a multi-layer structure. The solenoids are connected to a MOSFET, which allows the lower-power parts of the circuit to control the high-power solenoids.”

Our friend Carlos made the Flexible Robot Gripper shown above. It’s based on the one made by a team at Cornell University, the University of Chicago and iRobot demonstrated in the video below. I wonder if this is the future of robot grippers? I worked in a company where the robot we were working with had the typical grippers and when programming them there was no room for error since a mm of error meant that the object was dropped. You can see the materials that Carlos used below, I am thinking that most of the build cost is tied up in the balloon.

“Materials

• A party balloon (silver in my case)
• A piece of plastic tubing (I used a hose fitting I had lying around)
• A piece of cloth
• Ground coffee (I use some very old coffee I found in my freezer)
• A rubber band.
• Functional lungs (unfortunately, my vacuum pump is dead)”