Here’s a really cool DIY showing you how to build a hard disk laser scanner made from bunch of old hard disks.

My latest tinkery hardware and embedded systems project is a homebrew laser scanner. You know, the kind you see at planetariums- sweep a laser beam around on the wall really fast, and draw vector graphics. Commercial laser scanners have been around for decades now, but buying a complete system is still really pricy, even on eBay. Besides, where’s the fun in that?

There are plenty of examples of homebrew laser scanners on the internet. Many people have wired up a pair of loudspeakers, hard disk actuators, or other readily available mechanisms to an amplifier and used them for simple laser graphics. This will make some pretty wiggly patterns on the wall, but it isn’t a real vector graphics display. The best example I know of for a totally built-from-scratch laser projector (not using commercial galvo actuators) actually uses custom hand-wound galvanometers. Very nice.

via make

Bring a touch of the eighties to your hi tech home.

“Sealed Enclosure: 3 Cu. Feet
Driver Diameter: 15″, Aluminium Cone
Outer Enclosure: 3/4″ MDF Shell with 3/4″ MDF ’tiles’ overlaying it, forming the Rubik’s Squares
Reinforcement: 1 Y/Z-Axis piece of 3/4″ MDF, cut to allow driver. 1 X/Y-Axis piece of 3/4″ MDF, cut to allow driver and Plate Amp. 1 Z-Axis piece of 3/4″ MDF, cut to allow Driver. 1 full piece of 1/2″ MDF at top. 1 Cut piece of 3/4″ MDF on bottom.
Total Box measurements: 20.75″ Wide, 20.75″ Tall, 20.75″ Long
Tile size: Face: 7.5″ X 7.5″, Cube: 7.5″ X 7.5″ X 7.5″
Total Measurements: 22.5″ Wide, 25.5″ Tall (w/ 3″ feet), 22.5″ Long
Total Weight w/o Speaker, wiring, Poly-fil, Amplifier: ~98 lbs.
Total Weight: ~144 lbs.

This is a pretty cool idea that looks really stylish.

Source [Project Cube]

Wow, check out this cool Rubiks cube Subwoofer!  I wish I had one…  It seems like this guy has all the plans and everything so next time you need to hide your new sound system from your lover or somethin’…there’s ya go.

If you are wanting to add some bass to your home theater why build a Huge Rubik’s Cube Subwoofer! It isn’t as big as this gigantic subwoofer but it looks a lot more fun.

“Sealed Enclosure: 3 Cu. Feet
Driver Diameter: 15″, Aluminum Cone
Outer Enclosure: 3/4″ MDF Shell with 3/4″ MDF ’tiles’ overlaying it, forming the Rubik’s Squares
Reinforcement: 1 Y/Z-Axis piece of 3/4″ MDF, cut to allow driver. 1 X/Y-Axis piece of 3/4″ MDF, cut to allow driver and Plate Amp. 1 Z-Axis piece of 3/4″ MDF, cut to allow Driver. 1 full piece of 1/2″ MDF at top. 1 Cut piece of 3/4″ MDF on bottom.
Total Box measurements: 20.75″ Wide, 20.75″ Tall, 20.75″ Long
Tile size: Face: 7.5″ X 7.5″, Cube: 7.5″ X 7.5″ X 7.5″
Total Measurements: 22.5″ Wide, 25.5″ Tall (w/ 3″ feet), 22.5″ Long
Total Weight w/o Speaker, wiring, Poly-fil, Amplifier: ~98 lbs.
Total Weight: ~144 lbs.

It’s a beast, I must say, but before we begin how about some background information? My current system utilizes 2 Paradigm v3.0 Studio 100s (fronts), 1 CC-590 center, and 2 Studio 20s for 5.1 surrounds. Driving all that is an NAD T773, biamped with 2 NAD C272s for the fronts and discrete 7.1 inputs biamping the 20s - Long live the Canadian sound! Likewise, when I finally moved into my new apartment with space for a television (that’s a luxury in Boston) I wanted the extra kick for DVDs - what HT is complete without a sub? I’ll admit I’m a bit of a purest and can’t stomach the thought of attaching an external sub to my stereo so my search began for something that could rock the 60hz range in movies but neither force me to rewire every time I want to play a CD…

Being a huge fan of my Paradigms, I naturally went to the accompanying model for my Studio 100s - the Direct Servo 15. Despite making a great sub, I also played around with the option I eventually went with - making one. Reasons for this were two-fold - I hadn’t taken on any art pieces in a while and just having dropped first, last, security, etc for the new place I didn’t want to make a large purchase (insert your Alanis Joke here). Long story short, I chose to go with a Rythmik Audio Servo-15. One visit to Rythmik Audio’s website and you can see that these guys aren’t messing around.

via HackedGadgets

Here’s a cool DIY on making your own piezo gyro for sensing movement among other things…

Here’s a site that has a huge numbers of DIY amplifier designs, power supply, circuits, and more!