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Build your own iPod Hi-Fi
The iPod Hi-Fi could be considered a tad profligate (or at least a bit superfluous), but that doesn't suggest it's not desired by the iPod faithful. For those of you who've lusted after Apple's big white boombox but just couldn't produce the coin required to own your own, we've got a solution for you. A clever DIY'er has taken a pair of old school Mac Classic cases and constructed his own version of an iPod sound system; the self-proclaimed Hi-Fi mini performs similar duties, but has a few choice extras omitted from the original: external speaker hook-ups, "real" stereo separation, and the not-quite-RIAA-approved "Dr Mesh," installed in the unit's former floppy drive slot to prevent others from symbolically stealing songs 400k at a time. We have no idea the sound quality of these things, but and one-upping Apple at their own game with a dash each of irony and retro has to be worth something, right?
Nike+iPod works with any shoe: The 99-cent DIY shoe mod
Okay, so it should have been pretty obvious that not everyone interested in indulging in the Nike+iPod Sport Kit would be shelling out for a brand new pair of (Nike) kicks. If you're are one of those folks perfectly satisfied with the shoes you've already invested in, you've probably been chewing on ideas to get your kit to work effectively. Well, we've got good news, the answer is here and the solution is cheap and so easy it's almost unimaginative. If you have even the smallest hint of the "handyman" gene in you, this project should have you up and running in no time: by securing a small piece of Velcro on your shoes of choice, you can affix the wireless bug to your shoe without emptying your wallet at Niketown. Although this solution may not seem exactly ingenious, it looks to work fairly well, and hey, it can't hurt to give it a run-through.
DIY camera for the Nintendo DS
We're all aware that a digital camera/webcam for the Sony PSP is right around the corner, but how many of you knew that you could also snap photos with your Nintendo DS? Don't feel bad; we didn't know it was possible either until we spotted modder Kako's handiwork on YouTube -- apparently he's taken a Treva CMOS chipset, done a bit of rewiring, and written software that allows the unit to output images directly to his DS Lite. We can't vouch for the picture quality, and the frame rates are positively sluggish, but at least this mod gives Nintendo fanboys one less missing feature to defend when the PSP crowd goes into one of those regular, tiresome diatribes listing the many reasons why their product totally "pwns" the little dual screen console -- in fact, you'll probably catch a few examples of said diatribes right here in the comments section of this very post.[Via DS Fanboy]
MoMoLight: DIY Ambilight for your PC
Some of the best do-it-yourself projects are ones that give you the functionality of an expensive commercial product on the cheap, and such is the case with RafkeP's MoMoLight "Movie Mood Light" mod, which lets you endow your laptop or PC monitor with the same type of peripheral lighting found in Philips' Ambilight displays. Unfortunately, also like many of the best DIY projects, this one requires no small amount of electronics knowledge and programming skills, as you have to modify your own micro-controller, procure and install your own cold-cathodes or LED strips, and then tweak the necessary software to get the effects synced with the on-screen action. Luckily RafkeP has taken at least some of the hard work upon himself and posted the directshow filter he wrote for real-time analysis of on-screen colors, making the build a lot easier once you've assembled all of the hardware components. It's still not gonna be a cakewalk to get everything functioning properly, but when you consider that a real Ambilight set costs several thousand dollars, being able to get similar results for under $90 is probably enough incentive to give this project a shot.[Via Hack-A-Day]
All-tube digital clock, seven years in the making
Nixie clocks, which use little vacuum tubes to display the numbers, have been around for a while. Geeks build them, hipsters put them in their lofts, and they range from very cool to not so cool. Now Friedhelm Bruegmann, a member of the German Tube Collectors Association, has spent seven years of his life putting together an all-tube digital clock. Instead of a little quartz module, he uses 103 tubes to calculate and display the time. Yes, it looks like a small army of pointy silver-headed robots. No, it's not for sale, but Friedhelm's site is so detailed, you can probably hack one together yourself in a decade or so.[Via Music Thing]
iPod Shuffle wins battle with knife-wielding owner
Not that we should really have to remind you of such things, but trying to fix your own gadgets by bludgeoning them with a knife is not only ineffective, it can also result in you swearing and screaming in pain after the capacitor you impaled blows up in your face.[Thanks, Dave Z.]
DIY gaming chair for $80, BYO wheel/pedals
This'll be the second DIY gaming project requiring welding skillz this month! If you shied away from the DIY DDR dancepad due to lack of welding equipment, tool-blog Toolmonger has some suggestions. First, check out their awesome guide to inexpensive welders (they settled on the $380 Hobart's Handler 125 EZ), then head over to their guide on how to build a totally badass gaming chair with $80 worth of materials. That covers the chair, steel, and paint; it's bring-your-own-steering-wheel-pedal-set. The best part? Even though they've spelled it all out for you, you're still not going to do anything about it ... but you could enter their contest to win the thing! Just make a comment somewhere on Toolmonger before July 31, and your lazy ass might win an awesome chair to stick it in.[Via MAKE: Blog]
An injeanious DS Lite case (and a very bad pun)
Having decided that a mere pocket wasn't enough to protect his brand new DS Lite and games, inventive blogger John Spain decided to grab a pair of old jeans and thoroughly molest it with a rotary cutter, copious amounts of glue and intricate Origami-style folding techniques. The DS-friendly end result is nothing short of amazing, proving yet again that pants are far better off in the hands of a bored man than on the legs of a busy one.That sounded a little weird.[Thanks jps!]
NES controller cellphone and "Zack Morris" Bluetooth headset mods
While mobile companies are doing their best to make cellphones as sleek and futuristic as possible, retro junkies keep taking them apart and turning them into ironic, yet functional, pieces of art like these. The first mod, from Grooveking.com, makes an old Motorolla DynaTAC 8000X or "Zack Morris phone" into a Bluetooth headset, that'll get 8-times the juice of a normal battery. The second project, from DIYHappy.com, takes an old NES controller (which has already gotten the Bluetooth treatment in the past) and fills it with the guts of a Nokia 3200 – yes, the American Idol phone. You need a little technical know-how to make these for yourself, but after you get the hang of it, all of your gadgets might end up crammed into NES controllers. Sadly, the Nokia 3200 doesn't have Bluetooth so you won't be able to use these two devices together, but we look forward to the future when our Xbox 360 controllers and Treos are turned into seemlessly-integrated retro kitsch.[Thanks Zack and Sam]
DIY cable release and serial cable for Canon Digital Rebel
While DSLR prices are dropping, the prices for accessories are not, so the folks over at Make have come up with a way to make a cable release and serial-port cable out of electronics you might already have laying around. The cable release, which helps to prevent camera-shake during long-exposures, requires a 2.5-mm stereo phone plug, some flexible wire and a switch. The serial-port cable, which allows you to make "bulb" exposures with the Remote Capture software included with the camera, requires a few more parts and some coding knowledge, but the reward could be well worth the effort for astrophotographers or people who want more cred at the next Maker Faire.[Via Make: Blog]
HP "recalls" 679,000 cams, issues firmware update
So even though Hewlett-Packard is "recalling" some 679,000 Photosmart R707 digital cameras (224,000 of which are in the US), there's no real need to panic, because instead of having to send your model back, performing a simple DIY firmware update will keep your shooter from becoming a flame thrower. Like so many other recalls of the past, this one also involves batteries that can potentially overheat and start a fire, but the problem only occurs if you feed power to the camera when it contains non-rechargeable batteries. Therefore, if you always use rechargeables in your R707, it sounds like you have nothing to worry about, but you single-use AA users shouldn't plug in your cams until you've completed the update, 'kay?
The "Walliminate" light-up wallet
Who knows how long we'll still be carrying wallets around, what with commerce-enabled cellphones and implantable RFID chips, but if you're hanging out in dark places that only take cash (we're talking about a bar, of course) and you want to avoid tipping a hundred dollar bill, Nate True's "Walluminate" light-up wallet may be just what you need . It's not for sale, and he doesn't provide any detailed plans (thought you can peep its debut here), but any self-respecting DIY-er should be able to figure out how to whip one up, using just a couple of LEDs and some miscellaneous electronic components.
Cheap laptop shade
This laptop shade isn't going to win any beauty contests (though I bet it will garner so comments), but it is cheap and easy. So if you're worried about the MacBook's glossy screen worry not, as long as you have access to a cardboard box that is.[via Make]
The lego flash drive
If you've got some spare Lego bricks, a rather tiny USB flash drive (might we recommend a Lexar USB FlashCard?), a bit o' spare time, and no discernible fears for the safety and well being of your digits and extremities when applying tools to rather small, hard plastics, then we'd like to point you to Stickman's Lego flash drive how-to. Novelty, yes; but why is that a bad thing?[Via MAKE: Blog]
Vstone goes affordable with Robovie-i
Our favorite consumer robotics firm has just announced a new addition to their lineup, but unlike their other multi-thousand dollar offerings, Vstone's new build-it-yourself Robovie-i will retail for a very affordable $270 when the pre-order period begins in July. You may remember the Japanese company as manufacturing such humanoid bots as the soccer-playing Manus-I and Robovie-V, or the Gigantor-like Tetsu-jin 28, although at less than 10% of the cost of its comrades, you can't expect the 2-foot tall Robovie-i to display the skills or freedom of movement found in other members of its family. In fact, a video of the new model-- which will come in your choice of red, white, blue, or gold -- shows that it does little more than wobble drunkenly back and forth in an amusing attempt at forward motion, although dumping two of them in a sumo ring together elicits a good 15 seconds worth of dizzying action (not exciting ROBO-ONE-type action, mind you, but more like ho-hum Rock'em Sock'em Robot-esque action).[Via ployer]
How-To: Design your own iPod super dock (Part 3)
We're back again with our continuing iPod super dock how-to series (see parts one and two, if you need to catch up). Last week we layed out the schematic for the board, and today we'll do a check up on the schematic, and design the PC board that we'll make for our super dock. We're getting close now, can you smell it? It's solder.
Part 2 in creating your own universal iPod dock
If you are interested in getting the most out of your iPod and you enjoy the DIY culture, Will O'Brien has posted How-To: Design your own iPod super dock (Part 2). In this part of his ongoing series, he takes you step by step through designing a schematic for the "Super Dock" in EAGLE. You can grab EAGLE Light Edition for OS X here (note: requires command line installation). I also posted about Part 1 of the series on TUAW.The upside of this series by Will is that you can freely expand upon what he has started. Use your imagination! Do you need to have an iPod dock that is integrated into your home brewed robotic kitchen? Will your car benefit from custom iPod controls on the steering wheel? Can your pet have its own playlist control functions at home with interactive carpeting? Will lays the groundwork for you and lets you be your own Griffin or Belkin engineer.
How-To: Design your own iPod super dock (Part 2)
In part 1 of our iPod super dock how-to, we created a new mount for the iPod dock connector on a printed circuit board using EAGLE. Now that we have the connector layout in EAGLE, we'll design the schematic for our custom iPod accessory. Read on for part 2 of Design your own super dock! If you're an iPod owner you'll be glad you did, this thing does it all, and we're almost there!
Maker Faire (Part 2)
We've got more odd creations and far out gadgets from our leisurely Saturday and Sunday at the Maker Faire. If you liked round one, check out round two to see more from the Faire and find out about this robot made from scrounged and garage sale parts. See you next year, Maker Faire!
Create your own universal iPod dock
Will O'Brien from our sister blog Engadget has posted up How-To: Design your own iPod super dock (Part 1). This thorough, in-depth tutorial will enumerate the steps required in building your own iPod dock (or cable), whether for your car, your futuristic molded bedside table, or simply to take advantage of all those dock pins you never knew you had. If you are a do-it-yourselfer with an iPod, you will surely enjoy this series from Will. Check it out and we'll let you know when Part 2 arrives.
