BuffaloFeeds » Hack A Day » February 5, 2010

Hack A Day (6 unread)

Pre-spun hard drives

Posted: February 5th, 2010, 1:07pm MST by Mike Szczys

This device is lovingly called the SPINmaster. [Linux-works] built it to spin up multiple hard drives before the motherboard starts up. It detects the power-up from the PSU and uses a relay to hold the motherboard in reset, indicated by the red LED. Each of four relays then spins up a hard drive and illuminates [...]
Pipe heating with an ATMega8

Posted: February 5th, 2010, 12:00pm MST by Caleb Kraft

[Viktor] wanted a system to keep his pipes from freezing. The common method of using heat tape works pretty well, but can be wasteful. Many people just turn it on for the entire winter. [Viktor] wanted to automate the heat tape’s power so that it only activated during times that the pipes could actually freeze. [...]
Repurposing a click wheel

Posted: February 5th, 2010, 10:46am MST by Mike Szczys

We think the click wheel is the biggest contributor to the success of the original iPods. The devices were a brick with a monochrome screen but the user interface was slick and easy to use. [Jason] decided he wanted to add a click wheel to his own project. After using a logic analyzer he discovered [...]
Arduino to Nintendo DS interface

Posted: February 5th, 2010, 9:33am MST by Mike Szczys

[Hounjini] was poking around at the Game Boy Advanced bus of his Nintendo DS lite and figured out how to use it to connect an Arduino to the DS. For testing he’s soldered an IDC plug to the cartridge cover pin interface but this only requires four connections. The Arduino can both send and receive [...]
Antique Jukebox Audio Streamer

Posted: February 5th, 2010, 8:18am MST by James Munns

Reader [Jimmy] sent us some info about his recently completed antique radio to audio streamer conversion. The electronics from the original radio were too far gone to repair, but he took the time to pull apart modern components to provide a polished looking finished project without losing the antique feel. We like it, but we [...]
Ask a winner updates day 5: Answers

Posted: February 5th, 2010, 7:14am MST by Jakob Griffith

Not too long ago we asked our readers what they would like to hear about from the PUSH N900 winners and their hacks. We got some silly questions, and some serious, we asked both and now the PUSH teams have answered. The day has passed, the party is gone, and all that’s left is the final [...]