Venture 
Although this is cool and creative but I must say not so innovative, Anyway, Technick29 got inspired from a cool looking phone toy and then converted it into Skype. You won’t find any sort of difficulty to find an old phone looking toy, computer headset, hot glue gun, soldering iron, and hacksaw, the items which are needed to make this old timey Skype phone. Click here to read the step by step instructions to make one on your own.
Fuel prices are increasing everyday as oil reserves are getting finished.
Finally a day has to come when there will not be even a single drop of underground oil.
Researchers all over the globe are trying to cater to the problem and are finding new ways to power our vehicles once the reserves get over.
Some such technologies include use of hybrid cars or cars that run on fuel cells.
But there technologies are something of the future. If you want to cut your fuel expenditure today itself then the use of Biodiesel is the best alternative.
What more, you can also make it yourself in your kitchen from vegetable cooking oil and the car engine also needs no modifications.
For more details on how to make Biodiesel in your kitchen, Click Here.
Via: makezine
USB charging is a good option that is included in many gadgets. You can also charge your device with a Laptop while on the move.
But still when you are out on a campaign then you cannot charge these devices.
Alan Parekh at Hacked Gadgets has posted an interesting article on how to make a USB charging flashlight.
This may sound weird, but believe this hack is of great use.
You will be able to charge your iPod and your cell phone via a flashlight and that too with minimum expenditure.
All you will need for the DIY is:
• Flashlight
• Female USB connector
• Small barrel connector
• Heat shrink (optional, could use electrical tape)
• Lighter or heat gun (if heat shrink is used)
• Solder
• Soldering iron
• Wire strippers
• Multi-meter
That’s obviously not an expensive deal...!
When you are ready with the above devices then click here to check the entire DIY procedure.
Thanks: Alan Parekh
Via: Hackedgadgets
Small-scale industry owners can certainly have a breather now. This turbocharger based mini turbine can burn/combust wood for your convenience. No hazards what so ever and thus burning chunks of wood can be just a cakewalk now. It does not incorporate the usual hydrocarbon based fuel, which in turn reduces a great amount of risk involved with it. Factory owners can never miss to grab this opportunity!
For further info click here.
Via: Makezine
If you are looking ahead to build some remote controlled spy plane with autopilot feature, we can lead your way to accomplish your task. Now, you can also make your own Predator, made of some Legos and spare parts that you can send on your neighbors terrace to invade its privacy, because boys need better toys to play.
Well, to build this semi-conductor plane firstly you have to get $80 Nitro Models kit with a AXI 2208 brushless motor and some proper landing device with an airscoop to cool the motor that you can plant at the back of the aircraft. You can get two model of Predators that BTW,Nitro offers whose second version has smaller wingspan, now the ball is in your court to decide which version suits you better.
Moreover, you can also get a Pentax W30 camera that is also one of the smallest cameras to ensure proper programmable time-lapse photography setting. Now, the question arises why you have to mount camera at the bottom of the plane, the answer is that it is not just a simple R/C plane it is a UAV plane and it can facilitate you with both the features.
As it is, also known as UAV plane now the time has come to learn how to install UNAV Pico pilot GPS-guided autopilot under the covering that makes this Predator soar automatically. To programme it you can enter 20 GPS waypoints, to make this Predator reach its target and then to make it return home afterwards.
Its smart time-lapse camera snaps a 7-megapixel picture every ten seconds in UAV mode and in its programmed course via which you can get a super high-quality aerial view of a area you targeted to spy. You can also update the aerial view according to your needs.
There is also a space for all the standard R/C stuff beneath the autopilot layer that bundles a Futaba 2.4 GHz receiver, a 1,500 mAh Li-Po battery and an electronic speed control. It is worth mentioning that when the transmitter’s gear switch is down, the lower layer controls the plane manually and when the gear lever is up, the control goes to Picopilot and the plane fly in autonomous mode just like diamond-shaped shuriken spy plane.
Catch more details at DIY drones to know how this plane lands and much more.
Via: Blog.wired
The Digital Dawg Pound quite some time back covered a full and enhanced review of the RFID project, if somebody remembers it to be there. Nick proudly boasts of inventing an enhanced and fully functional successor or rather I would say the heir of RFID Door Entry System.
According to Nick-’I decided to try and improve the reliability and responsiveness of my previous RFID front door project (based around a client / server design), by re-implementing it using the Parallax BASIC Stamp 2e, and the 13.5MHz APSX RW-210 RFID reader as a standalone device. I was also looking to gain some practical experience with BASIC Stamp programming’.
He also added that the designing is very simple with easy maneuvers and it’s quite unproblematic to handle while assembling the same. It consists of a circuit board which in fact joins the BASIC stamp with the RFID reader which is inturn driven by a constant dc voltage source of 12v. When a user or rather the owner of the house enters the valid card into the slot provided, the system recognizes the card and enables the owner of the house or any dwelling to get access of the premises. It also rings a buzzer so as to notify the user about the action being taken by the microcontroller, watch out thieves!
Via: Hackedgadgets
You might have heard of R/C toy cars and might have made on for yourself but a R/C steam turbine tank is certainly a must-have thing for all the DIY geeks. CrabFu at Instructables writes:
Need an excuse to play with fire? Then consider building this turbine tank. Guarantee to drive your neighbor crazy, and attract dogs for miles around. Turn down your speakers a bit, and watch the video to see what I mean :)
Now, you have watched the video and found that it really runs on steam and it’s none other than a turbine. Building a R/C machine, which carries flammable gas and creates high steam pressure, is not that easy and might prove hazardous. So, be cautious!
Mobile music backend provider, mSpot is now bringing ‘Do-It-Yourself’ ringtone service, and courting carrier and label partners service for its users. The concept, appropriately known as ‘Make-A-Ringer’ allows users to easily handcraft their tones from full-length tracks.
Now constructing a homopolar motor has just got simpler. You may be able to make such a motor with the help of a battery, some lengths of bendable wire and magnets. This is a fact and a group of high thinkers has proved it. All of the things that you need for its construction are listed below:
1. C or D cell battery, which is universally available everywhere.
2. 26-20 gauge of a solid wire, which is quite flexible.
3. Magnets - having very strong dipolar magnetic effect.
4. A Compass, which would tell the exact polarity of the magnets.
Construction:
Bend the flexible wire to form a square shape. Now place the magnets in such a manner that they are facing geometric ‘North’. Remember to place the bigger magnets at the bottom and place the smaller ones on them, maintaining the north direction all the time. We rest the wider magnets on the top to withhold the wires in place and for the excellent circuit connection.
Via: Dailydiy
If you are planning a long trip to the country side then carrying your music machine iPod will be a great option.
But still the main problem that you are expected to face is that the battery of the iPod will soon give way when you are still driving to the country side and once that happens your music machine is nothing but a sexy-looking brick.
You have an option of buying some external battery packs that are commercially available, but what to do if you don’t want to spend so much on it.
The answer is to develop an external battery on your own by spending next to nothing.
The process is also simple and you will need the following:
• 8 AA sized batteries
• A holder for the batteries
• A Firewire socket
• A diode
• A bic pen
• Some zip ties
When you are ready with all the above mentioned stuff then click here for the detailed procedure.
Via: Slashgear
Dutch design house Demakersvan proclaims:
We are plain but love the impossible.
We respect the old but want the new.
We want to challenge, confront the normal, the accepted, the expected.
And this is exactly what they have done by coming up with a wonderful way to light up our surroundings. Light Wind is a (believe it or not) wind-powered outdoor lamp.
It combines clever Dutch design and the clean energy technology of the Dutch windmills. Made of stainless steel, wood, and sail fabric, the 7.9 ft. tall freestanding structure converts wind power into light with a propeller having a wingspan of 6.5 ft. As the propeller spins in the breeze, the motion powers a soft light in its base. Not only is it a wonderful way to enjoy the summer evenings outside, but its futuristic design makes it ‘a self supporting light source that marks the landscape.’
So if you live in a windy place, get one of these and save on those hefty electricity bills. Contact the designers on the official website to know about the costs involved.
Via: makezine
The Mac Mini might be tiny and capable of hiding in lots of places however it does not have the video playback side of things and this is only what a tutorial will depict you to add to. You are enabled to increase the video playback backing of your Mac Mini and add to your on the whole FrontRow experience that has been made possible by a cool How To on howtogeek.com.
What they display you is a three part tutorial with part 1 covering building up your Mac Mini as the hub of your entertainment, part 2 gets into every other video codec’s as while the Apple Mac Mini is taken out of the box it is not integrated with much in this area and part 3 is just around the corner.
The backend for FrontRow’s movie playing abilities is QuickTime and it just gives support to a pair of formats and this is not integrated with WMV, Xvid or DivX. Thus rather than re-encoding all of these files H.264 utilizing a tool like FFmpegX, you can make use of a much easier alternative by simply playing them in FrontRow.
Here is a neat DIY process by PopSci guys at instructables on how to take 1.5V to 5V. The process explains the technique of producing 5V DC from a single 1.5V DC AA battery.
For the conversion, you need MAX1674 IC, which is a step-up converter capable of taking in voltages as low as 0.7V and give out digital circuit stirring 5V. Well, high current projects engaging motors won’t be able to real the benefits as MAX1674 offers a steady-state output current between 180-420 mA.
Check out the full details.
Now heres some cool innovation to speak of. Seriously telling you this now don’t ever try to throw away your discarded, old hard drives. They can be of great help to be used as a spring speaker as an attachment to your any music accessory, lets say your music system.
This new and a bit vague idea was propped from the hard-drive recycling ideas on hacked-gadgets, so why not give it a go.
Mr. Brian made some facts clear about this remake, he said -’One drive was bolted to a metal plate and the plate bolted to a heavy vice. The vice was bolted to a piece of wood. The other drive is just held in place with a smaller vice. As can be seen in the first picture at top, the circuit board was removed from the drive and 2 connectors on the back are connected via alligator-clips to the speaker output of a normal stereo amplifier.’
I certainly think that if you can get something more productive and that too out of your oldies and the discarded stuff, why not we should try it then, not a bad idea to pertain at all.
Via: Hackedgadgets
