BuffaloFeeds » Hack A Day » February 26, 2010

Hack A Day (5 unread)

Yet another pong-clock

Posted: February 26th, 2010, 4:33pm MST by Mike Szczys

[PT] let us know that Adafruit Industries has just release a pong clock kit. The $80 price tag might seem a bit steep but it does come with a custom-ordered KS0108 display in order to get white on black like the classic video game, as seen after the break. Also included is the laser-cut case, [...]
Lower productivity by using a rotary num pad

Posted: February 26th, 2010, 3:33pm MST by Mike Szczys

[Maximilian Ernestus] sent us a quick little demo that shows him using a rotary phone dial as a num pad. We’re often frustrated when notebooks and netbooks prohibit us from using our mad 10-key skills (alternate key mapping doesn’t count). This makes coding and using GnuCash undesirable on small form factor portables. Instead of fixing the [...]
10×10 LED matrix

Posted: February 26th, 2010, 12:00pm MST by Mike Szczys

[KopfKopfKopfAffe] just finished a 3-year labor of love resulting in this 10 by 10 LED Matrix. This trumps the Shiftbrite table from earlier today by bringing an actual 100 LEDs to the display. These LEDs cost much less than the Shiftbrites, but since they don’t have their own on-board controller this project requires much more [...]
Drilling perfectly centered holes

Posted: February 26th, 2010, 11:00am MST by Jakob Griffith

If you’ve ever been caught in the situation of needing to drill a clean straight hole down the center of a bolt or rod, you’ve probably tried and ended up with a broken bit or tilted hole, and a ton of cursing to boot. [Vik] let us know about this nifty trick for drilling ‘down the [...]
Cooling LEDs by heating the water saves on electricity

Posted: February 26th, 2010, 9:37am MST by Mike Szczys

[Matthias] swapped out his twin-tube florescent aquarium lights for LEDs. By running tank water through the aluminum LED mounts he’s transferring excess heat into the water in the tank, in turn saving some of the electricity that would have been used to heat the tank. Couple this with roughly 35 Watts saved by moving away [...]