Every week I seem to be writing about how someone has used an Arduino to fashion an interesting gadget, and today’s – while not as obviously useful as, say a Pong-playing wristwatch - is still impressive. Using an Arduino, a Hall effect sensor and an electromagnet, the microprocessor board can keep a floating magnet perfectly positioned.
Video demos after the cut
As vast remote controls go, this one will take some beating. Cobbled together from an already pretty large Brookstone universal remote and two Dance Dance Revolution play mats, the end result is one of the biggest Windows Media Center controllers we’ve seen.
Video demo after the cut
This casemod probably won’t be mistaken for official Apple hardware, but then it cost a whole lot less than it would to boil a Mac Pro tower down to 5.5-inches high. The handiwork of modder Widefault, it’s a compact low-power Hackintosh running OS X on salvaged components.
One of the reasons the Arduino is so successful is because of its flexibility – there’s plenty of very complex ways you can implement the microprocessor board into a project – but that doesn’t mean it can’t do simple tasks just as well. Psycholinguist Franklin Chang used his Arduino to make a fetchingly homespun wristwatch.
Video overview of the Arduino watch after the cut
iFixIt disassembled the new 17-inch MacBook Pro and found out that the battery is actually removable. While it requires bottom chassis access, the battery was not difficult to replace or remove. Apple secured the battery with three tri-wing battery inside the case. Users can definitely replace the battery by themselves but it might break Apple’s warranty. iFixIt plans to sell replacement battery for the 17-inch Unibody MacBook Pro, which usually is cheaper than Apple’s $180 battery replacement program.
I’m more used to Twitter trying to steal my time and concentration, but this latest Arduino project turns it into a protector of law and order instead. The Arduino is used to monitor a home burglar alarm and send out status messages should anything unexpected happen; that could include when the alarm was activated or shut off, error messages regarding dodgy sensors, or just when the alarm actually sounds.
Last year, Albert Hwang debuted the Wiremap, an array of tightly-strung cables that, with a projector, could be used to create visual 3D models. Boiled down, the process relies on some carefully-spaced vertical strings that each align with a single column of projected pixels. At the time, Hwang made the whole thing available under the Creative Commons licence; now he’s back with an Instructable, just in case you’d like to make your own Wiremap.
Video demo of the Wiremap in action after the cut
In the right hands, a ring-flash can produce some great shots with a DSLR; problem is, that “right hand” also likely needs to have a deep pocket to dip into, as DSLR accessories don’t tend to be cheap. So how about a DIY ring flash, made from fiber-optic toys, a tube of toothpaste and a load of zip ties?
Sadly not a sign of ASUS’ upcoming Eee PC UMPC plans, but a very impressive DIY effort, this UMPC is based on an ASUS Eee PC 701 to which a touchscreen and new casing has been applied. That gets you a super-portable Atom based device that, at 922g, is almost half the weight of the donor Eee PC, but a whole lot more usable when on the move.
Some of our most popular netbook pages here on SlashGear are those describing DIY touchscreen projects, where a touch-sensitive layer is added to the budget ultraportable’s display. There are already kits available on eBay and elsewhere offering straightforward 7- and 8.9-inch panels, but what we’ve lacked to date is a really simple tutorial – something that takes you from stock Eee PC to touchscreen marvel. Happily, courtesy of argentum, such a guide is now available.
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