David from uC Hobby had a wireless doorbell but the remote was lost, instead of tossing it in the garbage he re-purposed it. By adding a few components to allow a small signal to activate the chime coil this can now be used by almost anything electronic as a cool indication. … Read More

Originally posted 2010-10-04 08:40:24.

It looks like the Wii Motion Plus has been hacked so you can read the data via an Arduino. The build only requires about $4 in parts. Now that’s cheap! Check out the website for the schematics, code, and more information. … Read More

Originally posted 2009-08-11 08:20:24.

We’ve seen every manner of touchpad — multitouch, gesture recognition, no touch, LCD trackpads — if you can think of it, somebody has probably done a version of it. Take this particular one for example, which just might rank below even the touchscreen GBA in terms of practical usefulness — though, it’s not as if utility is a prerequisite of joviality, right? If you’ve been neglecting that DIY muscle of late, you owe it to yourself to check out the video beyond the break, which shows that a humble touchpad can learn new tricks. Oh, and if you feel extra inspired, the read link contains another video plus the necessary code for making the light show happen. Don’t say we never gave you anything. … Read More

Originally posted 2009-08-09 05:46:17.

MAKE Magazine’s sous vide hack. Photo used under Creative Commons License.

A couple weeks ago I described my experiment with the “poor man’s sous vide” technique using a cooler and a probe thermometer. It turned out great, but I had to heat water a few times on the stove to hold the temperature above 140°, my desired cooking temperature for the steaks. During the GeekDad podcast (Episode #88), we were talking about this and our fearless leader Ken suggested that we should challenge our readers to come up with a cheap, easy, do-it-yourself sous vide oven that actually controlled the temperature accurately. We were discussing whether it would be possible to hack an aquarium heater to go a bit hotter. … Read More

Originally posted 2011-04-14 13:13:15.