BuffaloFeeds » Hack A Day » February 23, 2011

Hack A Day (11 unread)

Self-regulating water heater

Posted: February 23rd, 2011, 4:02pm MST by Mike Nathan

Most everyone is looking to live a little greener these days, with motivating factors typically being the preservation of the environment or financial considerations. [Fabien] fit into the latter category after realizing that about 25% of his monthly gas bill went to heating the water he and his family use each day. After a few [...]
Repair stuck iPod Nano buttons

Posted: February 23rd, 2011, 3:03pm MST by Mike Szczys

A system is only as strong as its weakest link and [Roberto Barrios] found that on the sixth generation iPod nano the buttons are the problem. It makes sense that the buttons would be exposed to wear since they’re movable parts. The issue isn’t one of contacts or springs wearing out, but how the buttons [...]
Force feedback rig

Posted: February 23rd, 2011, 2:01pm MST by Mike Szczys

Strap yourself in, it’s going to be a bumpy ride. No really, if you don’t believe us, check out the video after the break of this bouncing and rolling game system. [Shawn McGrath] built it to compliment the gaming experience for Dyad, an indie game for which he is a developer. His wife was kind [...]
Gauss Weapons

Posted: February 23rd, 2011, 1:02pm MST by Mike Szczys

This collection of gauss weapons use rare earth magnets to accelerate projectiles to damaging speeds. They work using the same concepts as a coil gun, but instead of just one projectile travelling along a length of guide track, there are many projectiles that work in a chain reaction. A series of magnets are placed at [...]
Breaking the iClass security

Posted: February 23rd, 2011, 12:11pm MST by Mike Szczys

iClass is a popular format of RFID enabled access cards. These are issued to company employees to grant them access to parts of a building via a card reader at each security door. We’ve known for a long time that these access systems are rather weak when it comes to security. But now you can [...]
Kindle 3.1 Jailbreak

Posted: February 23rd, 2011, 10:08am MST by Mike Nathan

In the constant battle of manufacturers vs. jailbreakers, the turnaround time between a new software release and a new jailbreak seems to be getting shorter and shorter. [Yifan] noticed that a recent Kindle update broke a previous method of running unsigned code and started the search for a new workaround. He eventually found a way [...]
Building a dead mouse’s switch

Posted: February 23rd, 2011, 9:00am MST by Mike Nathan

[Ned] had a mouse problem in a very uncomfortable place. No, not like the back of a Volkswagen, in his ceiling. He wanted to put a mouse trap up there to take care of the critter, but knowing how nasty a tripped trap can be after a few days, he was hesitant. He recalled a [...]
Easy DIY stroboscope

Posted: February 23rd, 2011, 8:10am MST by Mike Nathan

Looking for something to do in his downtime, [Mista Sparkle] decided that building a simple stroboscope was in order. He already had a set of six LEDs connected to his Arduino from a previous project, so he added a potentiometer to control the rate at which the LEDs flashed, and dug into the IDE. During [...]
Xteardown

Posted: February 23rd, 2011, 7:09am MST by Kevin Dady

A hot topic in the gadget world right now is the Sony Ericsson XperiaPlay phone, and while that is not our usual cup of tea, when we see the newest toy stripped down to its bits n pieces it piques our interest. This 8 page teardown of the XperiaPlay (google translated to english) takes you [...]
Mystery Box out of Lego

Posted: February 23rd, 2011, 6:05am MST by Kevin Dady

[Todd] recently completed completed his biggest LEGO project, and its pretty wild. The Mystery Box is an 8 compartment LEGO brick puzzle box, covered in a psychedelic pattern of interconnecting question marks. The question mark pattern was inspired by a few things, the book called “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime” contained [...]
MIDI controller fit for an arcade

Posted: February 23rd, 2011, 5:05am MST by Mike Nathan

MIDI controllers can be relatively expensive depending on feature sets and requirements, so Instructables user [fraganator] went about building one on his own for just under $100. He originally wanted to replicate a commercially available MIDI controller, which used arcade buttons in lieu of the more common rubberized buttons, since they are large and have [...]