What do you give a six-year-old who loves going fast but doesn’t like loud noises? Convert a gas go-kart to electric of course! (Video, embedded below.) That goal started [Robert Dunn] of Aging Wheels down a long path toward a go-kart that almost, but doesn’t quite… work. If you’ve watched any of [Robert’s] videos, you know […]
FAIL OF THE WEEK: ALTERNATOR POWERED ELECTRIC GO-KART DOESN’T GO Continue Reading
It’s a distressing moment for some of us, when a formerly prized piece of electronic equipment reaches a point of obsolescence that we consider jettisoning it. [Jon Robinson] ran into this dilemma by finding the Kenwood Hi-Fi amplifier his 17-year-old self had spent his savings on. It was a very good amp back in the
BRING THAT OLD HI-FI INTO THE 2020S Continue Reading
Halloween is right around the corner and just about every Halloween project needs some kind of motion sensor. Historically, we’ve used IR and ultrasonic sensors but [Makers Mashup] decided to use an ESP32-Cam as a motion sensor in his latest animatronic creation. You can see a video of the device and how it works below. The
ESP32-CAM MAKES A DANDY MOTION DETECTOR Continue Reading
What’s round, has what looks like a vacuum tube in the center, and was made in the 1950s by HP? We don’t know either, but [The Signal Path] restored one and shows us this mystery instrument in a recent video that you can see below. We aren’t going to spoil the surprise over what the device is,
MYSTERY HP GEAR TEARDOWN Continue Reading
To measure wind speed and direction, most people turn the traditional cup anemometer and wind vane. Another less-known method is to use an array of ultrasonic transducers, which doesn’t need any moving parts. [Andy] demonstrates building an ultrasonic anemometer using a cheap after-market parking distance sensor kit and an Arduino. Demo video after the break. Aside from
TURN A PARKING SENSOR INTO AN ANEMOMETER Continue Reading
In the early 1980s cassette tapes were the standard storage medium for home computer users; readers of a certain age will remember fiddling with audio jacks, tape counters and signal levels, then waiting for several minutes while a program (hopefully) loaded correctly. While most people happily upgraded to much more reliable floppy disks, [Zack Nelson]
AUDIO TAPE INTERFACE REVIVES MICROCASSETTES AS STORAGE MEDIUM Continue Reading
The Quadrivium EnsembleBot project is a mashup between old school musical instruments and the modern MIDI controlled world. Built by a small team over several years, these hand crafted instruments look and sound really nice. The electronics side of things is taken care of with a pile of Arduinos and off-the-shelf modules, but that doesn’t mean the
THE QUADRIVIUM ENSEMBLEBOT IS A LABOUR OF LOVE Continue Reading
Video games are great and all, but sometimes you just want the thrill of manipulating actual objects in addition to watching action on a screen. This must have been the reason why Nintendo’s Duck Hunt became so popular despite the simplicity of its gameplay. Prolific hacker [mircemk] similarly made a computer-plus-physical game called “Laser Shooter“,
LASER POINTER AND ARDUINO MAKE A MINIMALISTIC SHOOTING GAME Continue Reading
No matter where you live in the world or what beverage you enjoy, it’s too easy to spill it on the keyboard. Obviously, the solution is to combine the two. That’s exactly what Google Japan did this past April Fool’s Day when they released the Gboard — a cylindrical keyboard wrapped around a removable cup. But
CAN’T SPILL COFFEE ON YOUR KEYBOARD IF IT’S ALREADY INSIDE Continue Reading
A radio receiver is always a fun project. [Jayakody2000lk] decided that his new superheterodyne design would use an Arduino and it looks like it came out very nicely. The system has four boards. An off-the-shelf Arduino, a Si5351 clock generator board (also off-the-shelf), and two custom boards that contain the IF amplifier and mixer. The receiver started
ARDUINO BECOMES SUPERHET WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM FRIENDS Continue Reading
