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

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!

mSpot Make-A-Ringer offers a wide range of catalog of songs, so that users can browse or search songs by artist, genre and title. But users have to select the track from pre-defined list of songs, iPhone ringtone service. Then mSpot Make-A-Ringer will generate a graphical waveform corresponding to the selected songs. Then it will provide you simple editor to easily set the start, end and duration of their custom ringtone. Now, users can pre-view the ringtone before mSpot Make-A-Ringer start creating and downloading into the phone.

mSpot Make-A-Ringer would be available as a standalone service to mobile operators. Other mSpot mobile music services are mobile streaming radio and videos and the mSpot Remix over-the-air (OTA) music syncing service, which allows users to listen on their PCs from their mobile phones. The company has not disclosed a total catalog and ongoing content negotiations.

Image: KurthanSon

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