There are lots of ways to charge USB devices on the go using disposable or rechargeable batteries, but none of them are as small or as cheap as this DIY one. It’s basically just a female USB connector stuck to the top of a 9v battery, with a voltage regulator in the middle to make sure that there’s only 5 volts coming out. Total cost? If you have a soldering iron and a scrap female USB cable, the voltage regulator will run you about $1.59 plus tax at RadioShack (which I refuse on principle to call “The Shack” like they want me to). The real beauty of this thing is that you don’t have to use a 9v battery. You could use a whole series of D batteries, for example, and go on vacation for a month with your iPod.
Now, yes, you do have to know how to solder if you want to make one of these yourself. But seriously, soldering is easy. And it’s fun! You get to MELT METAL! You can pick up a basic soldering set at The Shack for all of eight bucks, and there are a bazillion beginner guides online (try Instructables or even YouTube). So, have a fun afternoon and learn a useful skill while making a handy little gadget at the same time. Or, you can always just do it with glue, you wimp.
Have you ever lost your TV remote? Unless you’ve never owned such a contraption, I can almost bet you’ve answered “yes.” Finally, through our great technological advances, there is a way to prevent ever losing your clicker. All you need to do is get a very large, heavy object (this person used what appears to be a section of a railroad track, but get creative and use your imagination here) attach a length of chain. Next you’re going to need to build a small enclosure for the remote. Attach the enclosure to the chain and voilà!
Of course you could just be one of those people that places the remote on top of the TV every time you’re done. But seriously, doesn’t walking up to the TV defeat the purpose of having a remote in the first place? I think this solution is far more practical.
You can spend hours carving a horrific face in your pumpkin in a vain attempt to scare the neighborhood kids, but no matter what you come up with, I guarantee you won’t get results like Todd Harrison did last year. Inspired by a Make post from last Hallowe’en, Todd’s jack o’lantern looks innocent enough, until you push its small red nose. At first the eyes will start to glow, giving the button pusher a false sense of security, but a second later a set of 105 decibel car horns will blare, scaring the candy corn out of any trick-or-treaters who happened to be anywhere near his front porch.
Todd’s posted a couple videos of the pumpkin ‘in action’ on his website, as well as a materials list and a brief rundown on how it all went together, in case you were hoping to create your own by the 31st.
Now the idea of using a spinning drill bit to create a square hole is kind of counter-intuitive, but the animation on the right, while not exactly what a Watts drill looks like, helps you wrap your head around the concept.
And if you find yourself amazed at this new innovation in machining, you might also be surprised to learn that the idea isn’t a new one, and Harry J. Watts, for whom the drill is named after, actually received a patent(#1,241,176) for it on September 25, 1917.
Anyone who’s ever taken a picture can probably understand how much of an effect movement can have on your camera. Of course the longer your exposure time, the less movement it takes to create a blur. Tripods are good, but even they are still not perfect. Sure, there are several forms of built-in image stabilization in modern cameras, but what if you’re taking pictures from something a little more bumpy? That’s where it gets especially tricky. There are advanced camera stabilizers out there, but they can be rather expensive. However, if you have a couple of old hard drives and some ingenuity, you can build one yourself.
One Instructables user discovered that a pair of spinning hard drives can create the same gyroscopic effect that professionals use to keep a camera steady. The parts list isn’t too exotic, with most of the parts being easily found in your house or garage.
I used to have issues with my alarm clocks. I wouldn’t sleep through them per se, rather I would wake up just enough to turn it off and go back to sleep. I eventually outgrew it, as I haven’t done that since my high school days. Plenty of other people have that problem, including the guy who made the above video. He essentially took his old alarm clock and hooked up a pair of 140-decibel electric horns to it. If you’re curious how to do this, and have no regard for your own hearing or the sleeping habits of everyone on your block, then the video will tell you how to do it.
It’s not Halloween just yet, but I’m pretty sure I know what Jonathan Gleich will be wearing this year. His truly impressive Zoltar fortune teller costume relies on a mostly hidden Segway to make it appear as if the booth is rolling around on its own. Now it won’t make anyone Big, but it did manage to take 1st place in the motorized division of the 2009 Coney Island Mermaid Parade, and will probably continue its reign of contest winning terror as October 31 gets closer.
And for the record it’s no where near as impressive as my Big-themed costume, a 12-year old boy living inside a 30-year old guy’s body, which I never actually take off.
Ping pong balls are pretty worthless for any sort of physical confrontation. Sure, they’re decent enough for playing a game, but they’re not going to do much damage as a weapon, right? Wrong. If you build the proper equipment.
There’s a definite charm to the glowing display on an old-school vacuum tube clock, and if you’ve ever been curious how they work, or how they go together, this Ice Tube Clock Kit let’s you build your own. It comes with everything you’ll need, including a glowing blue tube with 8 digits plus an alarm status indicator, and when assembled you’ll have all the functions you’d find in a traditional model like a snooze button, date functions and even a 2-week battery backup. The kit will set you back $70 from the Adafruit Industries website, but it appears they’re currently out of stock until September 22 at the earliest.
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