Upgrading a digital multimeter to tell the temperature

May 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

[Rajendra] tipped us off to this really slick hack he’s done to allow his multimeter to tell the ambient temperature. He’s basically measuring the output of an LM35 temp sensor that he has mounted in the case. The circuit is extremely simple and only requires the sensor, a couple resistors, and a switch so that you can return to normal function. When finished, you’ll have a multimeter that will display the ambient temperature when set to to the correct range (0-200 mV in his case). The switch is there so that you can return your multimeter to normal function afterwards.  While [Rajendra] chose to display ambient temperature, you could just as easily create an external probe for measuring other things.

Filed Under: tool hacks Tagged With: ,

The Gas Cap senses your flatulence and displays it on your forehead

May 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If you’ve ever found yourself wondering if there’s any possible way to let those with deficient olfactory senses know just how flatulent you are, wonder no more. The Gas Cap is here to fulfill that very need. A bar graph of sorts, located on the front of a hat that will light up to reflect the amount of methane sensed near your, uh, exhaust port. This project cost around $100, though a good portion of that went to the Xbee modules so that the detector could be separated from the hat, allowing for remote fart notifications.

This seems to be a project that is not as uncommon as one might assume. We’ve seen fart intensity detectors as well as tweeting chairs that alert the world when you pass gas.

[via Adafruit]

Filed Under: home hacks Tagged With: , ,

Fairly simple hack makes Samsung TVs reboot forever

May 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

[Luigi Auriemma] almost rendered his brother’s TV useless attempting to play a simple practical joke. In the process, he uncovered a bug that could potentially upset a lot of people. His idea was to connect a computer to the system via WiFi, masquerading as a remote control.  [Luigi] found that by altering the packet being sent to the TV by adding a line feed and some other characters to the name, it would begin an endless reboot loop.

He also discovered that he could easily crash the devices by setting the MAC address string too long. We’re not sure if he’s modifying the remote, or the television on this one though.

These bugs affect the Samsung TVs and Blu Ray players that utilize the same chip. The crazy part is that despite his attempts, he has been unable to contact anyone at Samsung to let them know!

[via BoingBoing]

Filed Under: security hacks Tagged With: , ,

An ATTiny13 makes May 13th brighter

May 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

When the time comes to go to the store and pick up those chocolates you always get your mother for valentines mother’s day, why not spice them up a little with some LEDs? [Dmitry] shows how you can easily add some flashing lights to the packaging without really modifying it. He’s using an ATtiny13 which only has 5 I/O pins, so he had to charlieplex the LEDs to get all 10 functional. The result is fairly quick and might just show Mom that you really do care.

[via HackedGadgets]

Filed Under: Holiday Hacks Tagged With: ,

Hackerspace intros: Null Space Labs in Los Angeles California

May 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

[Charlie] from Null Space Labs in Los Angeles, California sent in this fun little video as an introduction to their hackerspace. Going a bit  askew from the traditional “walk through” method of a tour, they decide to first attempt semi-successfully to fly a quadcopter, film some police commotion, then show off some projects in progress. Don’t worry, you do get to see a fair bit of the space and the copious piles of parts as well.

You may recall seeing some of the previous projects coming from this hackerspace  such as the time red bull sent them a mystery object and how they salvaged a pick and place machine.

Remember, we want to promote all the hackerspaces we can! We don’t care if you’re just 3 hackers in a basement with a single project, a multimillion dollar facility, or anything in between. Send us those video tours!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Hackerspaces Tagged With: , ,

Using an NES controller with an Atari 2600

May 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Instructibles user [Danjovic] managed to get his hands on an Atari 2600, but all the joysticks were damaged beyond repair. Instead of building an atari joystick from scratch, he looked to a slightly newer generation of gaming and decided to us an NES controller instead. This was done fairly easily with the aide of an Arduino.

This seems like a nice easy mod that could breathe a little new life into some old games, but we just can’t imagine playing without that original joystick!

Filed Under: arduino hacks, tool hacks Tagged With: ,
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