Tired of watching your flat panel LCD and miss the days when you were trouble shooting your circuits with a CRT scope? You can have the best of both worlds with this circuit. CameramanLink designed the circuit below to make it happen. If you have a few hours to kill have a look at the ton of projects that CameramanLink has done!

“Homemade television video monitor built from scratch. It uses a 5″ 5UP1 CRT to display a video image in black and green. This is the fourth of five video display projects I’ve built. After building the 2AP1 T-Vision, I decided to build another similar circuit but with further improved features. This circuit uses 2 multivibrator oscillators with improved linearity to produce the sawtooth waves for the horizontal and vertical scanning. It uses many of the same improvements made to the previous 2AP1 T-Vision: 1) It uses a wide band video amplifier to increase frequency response, allowing for better horizontal resolution, 2) It uses vertical retrace blanking applied to the cathode of the CRT to remove the flyback lines, 3) It uses balanced deflection amplifiers for even focus across the screen.”

It is sometimes fun to think of a cool problem and come up with an electronic solution. Have a look at this project that Matt Meerian from Home Brew Electronics put together, it is a way to Shoot a Bullet through a Spinning Propeller Blade. This was a common problem years ago when planes needed to have a forward mounted gun shoot through a center propeller. Matt thought it would be a cool challenge to complete with a microcontroller and a handful of electronics. If you are wanting to give this project a try Matt has the project code in his writeup.

“The software isn’t too complicated. When the user presses a button, the analog comparator interrupt counts the time (using Timer 1) between the propeller blades passing the infrared sensor mounted under the gun. Once we know how fast the propeller is going, the software then looks for analog comparator interrupt and counts 1.5 times the time between the blades, minus the time it takes the pellet to come out of the gun.“

Saying this project is a Lightning Simulator is a bit of an understatement since it is also a breathalyzer, a music light show and much more. It’s setup on an outdoor patio and looks like it is tons of fun! Check out the build log for lots more information on this complex build.

Via: Make

“The project also needed sound for the Breathalyzer feature as well as some of the other effects, the Adafruit WaveShield fit the bill for this. Line level audio comes out of the WaveShield and goes into an existing whole house audio sound system (the Nuvo Grand Concerto). It was a 70ft run to the Grand Concerto audio system and unfortunately line level audio picks up noise very quickly on long runs so audio baluns over CAT5 were used to eliminate the noise.

For the Graphic Equalizer (VU Meter) feature, line level audio goes out from the Grand Concerto audio system into an analog input pin on the Arduino Mega.”

You probably remember PCB Heaven for the PC Failure Alarm from earlier this year. Giorgos Lazaridis of PCB Heaven has just completed his next project, it is a Custom Men of War Game Console! I am not much of a gamer but I can see how this custom controller would make game play a piece of cake. All of the controls that you need for rapid game play are right there for easy access. The case looks very nice, Giorgos designed a 3D model of the case and cut it on a CNC machine. The back of the case is a piece of acrylic which is lit with a few high brightness LEDs, this allows the outer bottom edge of the controller to have a nice glow. If that wasn’t enough there is a circuit which changes the glow brightness when a button is pressed. In the video you can see that the brightness slowly fades back to a dim level once the key is released, I assumed that this was being done using PWM directly from the microcontroller but there is actually an analog circuit that is providing this effect. Interesting in making one yourself? You can get the microcontroller code here.

Thanks for sharing your project Giorgo!

Have a look at the cool project that the guys over at Pumping Station: One made, it’s a Tron Bike! You can see the look they were going for below the video below.

Via: Make

“By far the coolest part of the project was making UV reactant ice cream. The secret ingredient in this is Fluoroscine, whose only side effect is turning your urine neon yellow. “

I’m not much of a gamer but I think this Racing Simulator by Motion Sim could cure me! Have a look at the first video below to get an idea of what this system can do. The company that makes it is actually in the industrial automation business so they clearly have a good handle on what is needed to fling around the 300KG that the system is rated to handle.

“The full motion platform was created on the bases of the development for the 737NG project www.737ng.cz Its development took almost 2 years to reach the pre-serial production stage. A series of problems had to be solved throughout the development. The particular realization of the projects itself is quite a unique solution with regard to the components used and their connections. This would justify a separate article alone. Nonetheless, a big problem was to find a solution that would facilitate clean and quiet operation and also provide adequate load carrying capability and motion dynamics. After a line of experiments, a concept using non-synchronous motors and cogged belt gearing was used. It was necessary to work out a way to use these electromotors as servo drivers, especially at low RPM settings. In the end, a solution was found using intelligent converters and a specially designed control system. The result is an almost noiseless, compact platform which is able to operate without any special requirements.”

The guys over at Nerd Kits have made a cool Human Theremin project that uses Infrared Light. IR light from an infrared LED is bounced off someones hand and some of the light is reflected back onto an infrared transistor. The closer the hands are the more IR light is reflected back onto the IR transistor. The output of the IR circuit is fed into a Nerd Kit microcontroller and sounds are created based on the analog values. As Humberto demonstrates this makes for a cool wearable project that allows for cool interactions. The same IR technique was used in the Nerf Gun Hack when an IR LED and IR transistor were used to make an invisible beam which fired the gun when crossed.

“This project recreates the properties of a musical instrument called the theremin. A theremin is played without the performer having physical contact with the instrument. A “normal” theremin uses two antennas and changing electric fields to sense the position of the players hands (not unlike our previous Capacitive Proximity Sensor from last Halloween); one hand controls the pitch of the note, and the other hand controls the volume or amplitude of the note.”