Recent Comments:
Microwave plasma {Hack a Day}
Jul 12th 2007 1:23AM You must keep in mind that our atmosphere isn't pure O2, and that not all reactions run like you would expect them to. The main thing you would be worried about in this experiment would be the oxides of nitrogen (and associated byproducts)that are produced wen you heat air to to a few thousand degrees... Those are quite certainly toxic, although unless you let the experiment run for a while and then go take a good sniff of the brown/red gas in the jar you should be fine.
In any case, this has been around since before myspace was born...
Automatic cable modem power cycling {Hack a Day}
Jun 23rd 2007 11:30PM @neil, either you do not know what you are talking about or you are lying to us. smps supplies (as are included with most electronic equipment these days) could care less what the voltage looks like coming in, so long as the p-p voltage is between about 150-250v (varies from supply to supply), and that there is a pulse at least 50 times a second (otherwise the internal filter caps are too small). Likewise, a lamp module would work fine--just don't expect the supply to work correctly if you set it for 10% brightness.
Furthermore, plugging an x-10 module into the batter lines of an UPS will work most of the time, as the the majority of all ups just have a relay that connects your computer to the wall when you are not on battery. When you switch to battery power obviously the modules not on the battery powered output of the ups won't respond (since they don't have power), but everything on the battery line of the ups will work fine. There will be a little more noise from the inverter circuitry, but since the modules are right next to each other they still work fine. There is no chance of damaging the x10 module.
In any case, I prefer the insteon implementation of the x10 standard (I have found it to be much more reliable, and often times much faster), but then again the 'original' x10 stuff is usually much cheaper.
And now that your computer is on the x10 network it is time to start having it control everything else in your house!
Heat pipe wine chiller PC cooling {Hack a Day}
Jun 20th 2007 5:29AM why are people obsessed with using pennies as a source of copper! As stated earlier, most of them are mostly zinc, and the pure copper ones don't cost $.01 any more...
Also, what he built is by no means a heat pipe, as the term 'heat pipe' implies that the cooling is mostly dependent on the 'working fluid' in the pipe, which transfers energy by evaporating on the hot side and condensing on the cold side.
I suppose that just with the sheer copper mas can can cool a p3 (putting out like 30w?), but don't expect to be able to pull a stunt like that with any modern processor.
I will give it to Will, it was 'odd'
Adding internal bluetooth to your tablet/laptop {Hack a Day}
Jun 19th 2007 2:57AM I would have to say that I don't agree with the 'use solvents to take the warranty sticker off, mess with it, and then send it back in when it breaks' mentality. Maybe it is because I was raised by people that had an education, maybe it is because I am a tool, but pulling stuff like that is what makes it impossible for the rest of us to get coverage.
In any case, I have a similar problem, with my dell inspiron 600m the enable line for the internal bluetooth module is taped off the status light from the wifi card(only a dell...), so when I run fedora (and the light is used to indicate the status of the link, not just that the card is powered) the bluetooth card is constantly enabled/disabled. But I hate to dig into the new mobo I just put in (since the graphics card on the old one blew out, and it won't boot anymore).
Soldering iron indicator mod {Hack a Day}
May 17th 2007 7:56PM Neat hack, I can vouch for those old magnetic switches being unreliabe as heck... My old station would kick out every once in an while; I decided to get a new one when it stoped turning the heater off, and pumping the full 50w into the element all of the time, giving the tip a healthy orange glow...
I picked up EC2002 off ebay for about $30 shipped (it had a loose contact in the connector, the last job for the old station was resoldering the connector).
Electric (motor)cycle extra {Hack a Day}
May 8th 2007 7:41PM The noise in the thermometer comes from not using enough bits on the A/D, not the clock.
The clock only serves to tell the a/d to update its value at 10khz, you could double the frequency and it would not affect the output.
The noise he has is normal for 8bit a/d, the chips are generally speced at +/-2 counts or so, so when you only have 250 counts that is a +/- 1% drift.
If he wanted to clean it up he could use more bits in his a/d (although then you run into the problem that a serial port only has 8 lines, so you have to start finding unique ways to get more data through) or had his program average every 10 samples or so before making a point (but then you are using 10x as many resources...).
that is why most people just use microprocessors ;)
Electric (motor)cycle extra {Hack a Day}
May 8th 2007 4:02AM this one is pretty cheap
http://cgi.ebay.com/RC-Li-po-Lithium-Polymer-3500mAh-7-4v-lipo-Battery-UP_W0QQitemZ270117482843QQihZ017QQcategoryZ34056QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
admititadly it will bid up to about $20ish, but when you condiser $/w/hr that is only about $1/w/hr...
My motors finally came extra {Hack a Day}
Apr 25th 2007 6:27PM please, I beg of you, don't abuse the sample process like that. It is because of you little turds that most companies don't sample any more, or charge for samples. If you need to sample a single part, even 2, ok but if you need more than that man up and buy them.
In any case, I like the wiimote bluetooth adapter! Does anyone know if it is possible to send data back out from the computer to a peripheral?
Make your coffee with a laser {Hack a Day}
Mar 25th 2007 4:28PM The beam appears blue under the camera because cameras don't know how to respond to IR light. They try to filter as much as they can out, but what does get through usually ends up in the red or blue detectors in the camera.
Nd:YAG only lases at ir wavelengths, the strongest line is 1064nm (that is what this one operates at, it is shown clearly at the beginning). To get the blue/green/red lines you use one or more nonlinear optics, q-switches, opo's, etc.
DIY colorimeter {Hack a Day}
Mar 20th 2007 12:03AM I say we lean how to use google for translating instead of making us copy into into altavista.
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.homecinema-fr.com/colorimetre/sonde.php&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.homecinema-fr.com/colorimetre/sonde.php%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1B3GGGL_en__212__212
In any case, those sensors look quite cool!
Although, I would worry about using them for anything where you are really worried about color. This is because of how tv's work. This sensor tells you the ratio of red/blue/green, so if you stick it in front of a TV the outputs will be almost exactly proportional to the r/g/b ratio that the TV is set for. So far so good, but in this day and age the colors used be a TV are no longer the same. There is a very noticable difference between a pure blue screen with my projector and with a LCD display, red and green are not as noticeable. So you would set the r/g/b ratios the same for all of your gear, but the actual color seen by our eyes will vary slightly depending on the color pallet used by the TV.
But in general, a sensor like that would be a very fun toy! And you get the super bonus points for using USB...
