"When on the go power for your gadgets is key, plug into the Solio® Hybrid 1000. This hybrid boasts a powerful solar panel and battery in an incredibly compact and slender case, conveniently geared with a built-in rugged carabiner and cable. The Hybrid 1000 is simple to use. Just clip on, plug in, and charge up!"

 For a while now I have been evaluating the Solio H1000 Hybid Solar Charger.  While not necessarily the product for everyone, it does have its pros and cons.  I decided to run the Solio H1000 through its paces and see what its made of… the good, the bad, and the hacker friendly.

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This is a pretty interesting walk though on how to process and read the microvoltage that an LED will put out when exposed to a light source . Who says you can’t teach an old component new tricks?

“Hook up a high-quality ultra-bright red LED by itself (no battery or other circuitry) to a multimeter in voltage measurement mode. Put the LED against a light source, such as a desk lamp. See the voltage? Now, hide the LED in a dark place. See a decrease in voltage?”

Via Make

Projector, Old stereo, laptop, and a few connecting cables: Its likely these are things you already have, or can borrow with a few phone calls to your friends. Have you ever thought of starting a Guerrilla Drive-in, aka MobMov?

“With hundreds of movie mobs across the world, the Mobile Movie is bringing back the forgotten joy of the great American drive-in. Powered by cars and low-cost film projectors, ‘mobmovs’ are easy and affordable to set up. Abandoned warehouse walls spring to life flash mob style with the sights and sounds of your favorite big screen movie”

It’s a great way to bring the community together, and easy for any techie to throw together with a little bit of creative planning and some ingenuitive setup. Theres even an instructable on how to get your own started.

So anyone in the Cleveland area interested?

Been reading for a while and not quite sure where to jump in? Maybe you would just like to learn more details? Hardware modding/hacking is lots of fun, and can have a very rewarding outcome.

For starters, here is a great article for beginners, covering pretty much all the bases. Also Wikipedia is an excellent source for some beginner knowledge, everything from capacitors, to resistors, to solder, and much much more.

As far as jumping in and getting your hands dirty, there are a number of stores online offering kits ranging from beginner to advanced. Adafruit Industries is a great place to jump in, The Maker Store, and who can forget good old Radio Shack.

Oh, and make sure to check our very own Hacked Gadgets forums
Happy hacking!

How to make your own scratchpad out of nothing but a pizza box and an optical mouse. I’m sure everyone has a spare optical mouse–and if you’re anything like me–an abundance of pizza boxes lying around. Check out a video of it in action.
I love to see these sorts of ultra low budget hacks. Keep up the good work out there.

For some more cool stuff, check out the dBond website

P.S Merry Christmas!

“Here are two experimental “extreme” business cards that are almost impossible for someone to throw away - one in the form of a key ring torch and one card that actually dials me up by itself! This one has a computer inside with more processing power than took the first astronauts to the moon (No, I’m not kidding!), yet the main part costs less than 50 cents. …Even if these ideas don’t grab you, maybe they’ll fire your imagination to think how you could make a truly unique card that uses your skills and tells people how creative you are.”

Not a beginners project, but this Instructables business card will definitely make an impression.

In the past year or so cellphone jamming has become an increasingly more popular subject. Everyone has been plagued by obnoxious cellphone users in malls, buses, school, work, movie theaters, and in spite of being highly illegal, cellphone jammers are popping up in more and more places.

Green Bay Professional Packet Radio has a great writeup on how it works and even a how-to for building your own

How Stuff Works has a great article explaining the technology behind jamming in simple, non-techie terms.

Lady Ada’s project the Wave Bubble takes it to the next step by making an open source, wide band, self tuning, portable version of the jammer.

For those of you looking to try it out a budget, Instructables has some good ideas too.