How often have you been sitting at a bus stop or stuck in line at the DMV wishing you could play some Pac-Man? Sure, if you’ve got an iPhone you could just use that to play. However, if you’re not too bad with a soldering iron, then you could just make your own handheld Atari console.
Someone has done exactly that, and provided some good documentation on how to create one yourself. You’ll need a Namco TV Games controller, along with a 2.5-inch screen and a few other parts. Being handy with a soldering iron probably wouldn’t hurt either. It looks like a fun project, and with a bit of work, you could probably come up with a nicer looking case.
From the DIY department comes this novel safety vest designed by Brady Clark and engineered by Mykle Hansen which shows the rider’s current speed in MPH on the back using electroluminescent wiring.
The system consists of a wheel speed sensor, a wearable numeric display and a small computer that does the thinking. The computer is an Arduino: an open-source embedded computing platform powered by an Amtel microcontroller. It runs for 6 hours on a 9 volt battery…
The numeric display is made from electro-luminescent wire, supplied to us by CooLight.com. El-wire glows brightly when supplied with a very small amount of high voltage, high-frequency current. It’s cheap, flexible and fairly durable. One AA battery can power the SpeedVest display for up to 6 hours.
While I can understand the obvious safety benefits of wearing a reflective vest while riding a bike, I’m not so sure that displaying your current MPH on the back with cool light-up wiring is as good an idea. As I understand it the biggest threat to bikers on the road is cars, and it seems this vest provides yet another dangerous distraction for drivers. (”Hey! Did you see that? I think that guy’s vest lights up! Let me slow down to take a closer look.” etc.)
As far as calculators go, the HP 20b Business Consultant Financial Calculator isn’t worth a second glance for someone working outside of the finance industy, but it could peak the curiosity of those who like to tinker with their gadgets. The calculator features an Atmel 30MHz, low-power AT91SAM7L128 ARM7 System on chip processor and according to Slashdot “it has a bootloader and JTAG interface to allow user applications to be written and downloaded…” HP has even released an official devkit for the HP 20b which according to the site is “designed for developers who want to re-purpose the HP 20b and reuse the platform for other purposes.”
I haven’t really come across any examples of how the HP 20b has already been re-purposed in an interesting way, but there’s an ‘HP-20b Repurposing Project‘ wiki already setup that includes guides on the calculator’s hardware specifications, what hardware you’ll need to tinker with it and even instructions on how to open the case. There’s also a handful of downloadable software demos that don’t look that exciting (SRAM resident battery level display demo) but I’m sure will come in handy for developers writing their own code.
You’re probably going to see this story and these photos pop-up all over the internet today, but as far as I’m concerned, this guy totally deserves his 15+ minutes of fame. Bob Dullam did what most Batman Begins & The Dark Knight fans can only dream of, he built his own working replica of the Tumbler batmobile in his two-car garage using nothing more than photos and extra features from the DVD as reference. He’s been posting pictures of his progress on the SuperHeroHype Forums and apparently intends to build his own Batpod replica next. (Even though it was apparently next to impossible to actually drive.) In the end Bob estimates his Tumbler replica will have cost him between $50,000 to $70,000, but even if all of his neighbors have Veyrons parked in their driveways, I guarantee this thing will turn more heads.
As a kid I spent many a summer afternoon mowing lawns. Since I lived in the country, my neighbors had acres of land that needed mowing, unlike the small backyards that some kids clip for cash. I remember always wanting a riding mower, however, had my parents gotten me this Mowercycle to use, I think I’d have given up the mowing biz.
I actually think this is kind of a cool idea. I’m not sure how practical it is, but if it works well, it would be an interesting alternative for those with small yards. Then again it might just take more effort than it’s worth. Unfortunately there’s no info about it, but I don’t imagine it would be too difficult to craft one for yourself if you really wanted to.
Not to be outdone by the handheld NES in an NES cartridge that popped up a few weeks ago, another modder on the BenHeck.com forums with the alias of ‘G-force’ has crammed a famiclone (a Super Joy III) into an NES controller. While the famiclone already came with about 70 built-in pirated games, this NES controller NES goes one step further with an actual cartridge slot on the bottom allowing you to play any old NES title you can get your hands on. Here’s some more info on the mod:
-Came with built-in pirate games, including the 2 player version of tetris, and a level select hacked Contra, among 70 or so more games. Nearly endless supply of old-school-nes there. I didn’t even get to play every one before I gave it away, lol.
-Ca(r)tridge connector on back for playing those NES games that aren’t built in. Just switch the power switch over to the left and it disables built in games, and the ca(r)tridge is playing. I wasn’t going to add this at first, but thought about how she had a weird pirate game with a guy who threw rocks, and it wouldn’t work on her blinking NES. I really wanted to play it, so thats why I added it. A bit selfish maybe, but I don’t think anyone will complain.
-Nintendo logo is backlit! Looks insanely cool in real life. I’m going to do this to all my NES controllers when I can get around to it! It’s that cool. Only thing that bugs me is that one LED is too close to the logo and unblablances the light. Something only a perfectionist would notice.
Something tells me if G-force found a way to produce a limited run of these Mini NES’s, he’d make himself a small fortune.
If you’re a fan of classic portable gaming then check out this handheld NES that’s been built into an actual NES cartridge. The NESp was created by the BenHeck.com forum member ‘darkeru’ and features all of the standard NES controller buttons (including start and select hidden on the sides) as well as a decent sized color LCD screen. It’s powered by 3 n-cell batteries which are located on the bottom of the cartridge where the game pins originally were, and since having an NES cartridge slot for loading games would reduce its portability, the NESp uses a 99-games-in-1 NES ROM instead.
I unfortunately missed Daft Punk’s Alive tour last year, so the first time I saw them wearing their awesome electroluminescent suits was at the Grammy Awards where they performed with Kanye West. And probably like a lot of other people, I realized my own wardrobe could definitely benefit from the electroluminescent treatment, but since I have no experience with glowing clothing I abandoned the idea. But it turns out that the person responsible for Daft Punk’s getup has actually put together a fairly in-depth tutorial on Instructables so anyone can make their own.
Finding the EL wire is not that difficult, nor is it particularly expensive, but the tutorial has some useful tips when it comes to designing an EL garment so that it lasts for more than just one night out on the town. And don’t expect this to be as easy as using your Bedazzler either, making your own EL clothing involves wiring, soldering and other areas where things can go terribly wrong. But if you pull it off I think the results definitely speak for themselves.
Personally, I can’t imagine that anybody would be interested enough in the minutiae of my day-to-day existence to justify a Twitter account. But if I did use one, I’d somehow mandate that it could only be accessed via teddy bear. All you really need is a sacrificial animatronic teddy bear, some basic electronic know-how, and the desire to create a soulless daemon. Using a Bluetooth connection and text to speech software, the bear will automatically recite whatever Twitter feeds you ask it to in a vaguely creepy sort of way. The hack is fairly simple, although you will have to sort of know your way around a circuit board.
Somebody should totally figure out how to get a Pleo to do this…
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By Andrew Liszewski
