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DIY HACK - How to make your own open source motor controller!

Posted in Cool, DoItYourself!, Educational, Energy, Gadgets, Hack, Projects, Travel by max on the March 24th, 2008 at 8:59 am

DIY HACK - How to make your own open source motor controller!

DIY HACK - How to make your own open source motor controller!2

Check out this cool little hack, it’s an open-source motor controller for an electric bike. There’s no pictures of a finished version but can’t wait to see this circuit in action!

n brief the PicOx is a PicAxe 08M based digital Controller that performs an ADC of a Hall-effect throttle and an ADC of a Hall-based current sensor. These two parameters determine the “Mark” value of a 15Khz PWM signal that does the switching to the Output stage. At the end of the project the Controller can sustain 48V @ 75 Amps repeatedly for approx 5 second bursts and is really only limited by the In-Line breaker that cuts the supply voltage, though the entire system’s overall design objective is met reliably at 48V 50Amp operation…

via HackedGadgets

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DIY HACK - How to make a cheap Lie Detector!

Posted in Circuits, Computer, Consumer, Cool, DoItYourself!, Educational, Entertainment, Funny, Gadgets, Hack, Video by max on the March 24th, 2008 at 8:51 am
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DIY HACK - How to make your own UPS for your computer and other peripherals during power outage!

Posted in Business, Business Ideas, Computer, Consumer, Cool, DoItYourself!, Educational, Energy, Gadgets, Hack by max on the March 22nd, 2008 at 8:39 pm

DIY HACK - How to make your own UPS for your computer and other peripherals during power outage!

DIY HACK - How to make your own UPS for your computer and other peripherals during power outage!12

The other day, my home had power-outage for like 6 hours. I could go buy a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply), or I can make my own UPS using a car battery.

Well, I am just hoping this DIY UPS lasts 6 hours so I can keep using my spare laptop, which shouldn’t need that much power anyways to run off the UPS. But if I tried to run my desktop PC, it’d probably last only 2-3 hours at most, maybe even less.

This DIY is for 220 Volts so you will have to make some calculations to make sure you are providing the correct number of invertors and etc…etc… Btw, if you do use it for powering up your laptop, you don’t need an invertor as most laptops are around 12VDC anyways, which is what car batteries are at. (But you will need to hack an adaptor to the laptop for sure)

In this article we look at how you can cobble together a 220 Volt power supply using components you can buy at your local automotive store. But first it is important to understand a few basics about batteries, and how to convert 12 Volt DC battery supplied electricity into 220 Volt AC current that your household appliances can use.

A twelve Volt battery is a storage device that, when charged, stores electricity in chemical structures that can reverse and release electricity if required. Batteries are typically rated in Amp Hours (AH) - ie how many Amps for how many hours the battery will perform. An inverter is a device which can take the DC current from a battery and convert it into 220V AC current for your appliances.

To calculate how many batteries you need, and how big an inverter is quite simple. Investigate the specification plates on the back of each appliance. In the case of my laptop, the power supply is a 90W unit.

For an inverter one can work on a rule of thumb that to produce 100W will require approximately 10 Amps, hence in reality the lap top requires about 10 AH of battery life per hour. With a 90 AH battery one can therefore expect about 9 hours of power before the battery provides too little current to keep the inverter going. But it is not this simple.

[via] scienceinafrica

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DIY HACK - How to make your own Laptop Stands and let your Laptop last longer!

Posted in Computer, Consumer, Cool, DoItYourself!, Hack, Laptop by max on the March 22nd, 2008 at 10:29 am

DIY HACK - How to make your own Laptop Stands!DIY HACK - How to make your own Laptop Stands!2

Check out some of these really cool ways you can make your own Laptop stands. My favorite is as seen above, the wine corks and PVC pipe stand.

Btw, these are really great ways to make your laptop live longer. Without any space between the desk and the laptop, you are practically killing and overheating your laptop. Most people don’t realize this until they overheat their laptops and it’s too late. I actually use a Laptop Chiller from Target, which is basically a Laptop Stand with a built-in USB fan that also drives out hot air through the back.

[via] Lifehacker

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DIY Guitar Hack - How to make Plastic Guitar Picks Out Of Discarded Credit Cards!

Posted in Audio, Consumer, Cool, DoItYourself!, Hack, Music by max on the March 22nd, 2008 at 3:20 am

DIY Guitar Hack - How to make Plastic Guitar Picks Out Of Discarded Credit Cards!

DIY Guitar Hack - How to make Plastic Guitar Picks Out Of Discarded Credit Cards!3

 

Well, this one is no-brainer really, but if you didn’t think of it before, now you know how to make guitar picks out of credit cards.

Definitely a great way to save you some extra bucks while re-using your credit cards or fake credits you receive in the mail.

via gearfuse

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Google Hacks - Google Cheat Sheets!

Posted in Consumer, Cool, Google, Hack, Web by max on the March 21st, 2008 at 6:12 pm

Google Hacks - Google Cheat Sheets!Google Hacks - Google Cheat Sheets!2

Did you ever wanted a cheat sheet so you fully utilize the power of Google? Well, Joe over at HackNMod sent this one in. Thanks Joe!

The Google cheat sheets cover the following info:

  • A list of all Google domains
  • Company information
    • Founded Date
    • Key People
    • Revenue
    • Employees
    • Contact Address
    • Contact Phone & Fax
  • PageRank
    • Googlebot 2.1 Addresses
    • List of sites with PageRank 10
    • PageRank formula
  • Google Form Elements
  • Google Services
  • Query structure to access directory listings of:-
    • Music files
    • Movie files
  • List of basic Google Calculator operators
  • List of advanced Google Search operators
  • List of Google Investments
  • List of fun Google services and tools
  • List of 15 official Google Blogs
  • Google Calculator examples
  • Search by number examples

Download Google Cheat Sheets in PDF

[via] adelaider

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How Harmonicas are made!

Posted in Audio, Consumer, Gadgets, HOWTO by max on the March 21st, 2008 at 12:07 pm

How Harmonicas are made!

How Harmonicas are made!2

I, myself, used to play a lot with Harmonicas. Well, remember our post about HarmoNESca couple days ago?

Well, here’s some cool explanation on how Harmonicas are actually made and the workings.

The harmonica, or mouth organ, is a hand-held rectangular musical instrument. As the musician inhales and exhales into evenly spaced air channels, the metal reeds within produce musical tones. The length and thickness of the reed determines the note that is heard. Descended from the Jew’s harp and Chinese sheng of ancient times, the harmonica has engendered various nicknames, including blues harp, pocket piano and Mississippi saxophone. Since its beginnings in the early 1800s, the harmonica has been used in variety of musical forms, from classical to folk to country to rock to blues to jazz.

via DailyTechnologyImpressions

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Giant USB Duplicator!

Posted in Computer, Consumer, Cool, Gadgets, Industrial, USB by max on the March 20th, 2008 at 10:08 am

Giant USB Duplicator!

Wow, check out this gizmo that duplicated up to 20 USB Flash drives at one time! These days, with so many people carrying their 4GB flash drives on their neck, keychain, etc…etc…, these Giant USB Duplicators can be useful for companies trying to promote their businesses.

(For example, you could put a 4 Gigabytes of company presentations, videos, documents, etc…etc… so your clients can carry it in their pocket instead of giving them a CD, which are just way too outdated these days. Plus, you put your logo on the flash drive, it can be great viral marketing even if your client decides to erase everything and use it for personal use.)

Great Features

» Copy 20 USB flash drive automatically
» High Speed USB 2.0
» User friendly software interface
» Erase feature for USB flash memory
» Volume naming option for flash drive ID
» Format feature for those pesky unformatted drives
» Embedded verification function to insure accuracy
» Contemporary design with heavy duty case for 24/7 operation
» Copy to any size flash drive combination and from any manufacturer
» 30MBs to 20 devices is about 40 seconds.
» 250MBs to 20 devices is about 4 minutes.

You can check out their product page or press release.

FYI, this device also runs on Windows XP, meaning it’s not a standalone device. That is not a good sign. But, they ARE working on a standalone device already! (These guys are good!)

The cost for this machine is $1299, a lot cheaper than many other USB duplicators out there. Go buy one and try it. If it works well, tell us about it.

via getusbinfo

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Mr. Pitiful’s first music video!

Posted in Consumer, Music, Video by max on the March 19th, 2008 at 2:49 pm