HACK & D.I.Y You Computer Hardware

Laser shutter using a hard disk drive voice-coil actuator

2007-10-05T09:18:00.000+01:00

From School of Physics OPTICS GROUP , The University of Melourne Link...
We have developed a high-speed laser shutter based on voice-coil actuators found in generic hard disk drives: Maguire LP, Szilagyi S and Scholten RE, High performance laser shutter using a hard disk drive voice-coil actuator, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 75 (9) 3077–3079 (2004). Detail...

Hackedgadgets.com Link...
A solenoid-based laser safety shutter.

Hard Disk Generator

2007-09-20T07:36:00.000+01:00

This one of the smaller piles of Hard Disks that I receive a couple of times per year.
My 2 main sources are a local computer recycler that has saved me upwards of 200 drives in a single load, and a pair of chums that work in the I.T. Sector and save me what ever goes bad on their network.
This load represents about 2 weeks of evenings stripping down the drives and sorting the scrap into various piles. The Aluminum frames are recovered for the foundry and are an excellent stock as they flow nicely and are easy to machine. The yellow bucket of "Platter Hub Motors" needs to be melted twice, once to reduce the Alum from the internal metallic parts, and the second time for what ever project is underway. More.. , 2, 3, 4, 5

Link...

DIY ~20U server rack

2007-09-11T13:39:00.000+01:00

From: Deadly Computer Blog

This is something mike has been looking to make for the past few days, ever since he got his new computer case for his awesome new computer. He originally wanted to buy a server rack, so he can mount his case in it, and mount the NAS he has with it, but those cost lots of lots of money. So, our solution, after thinking up at night, was to make one ourselves. I suggested iron gas piping, and mike suggested angle iron. Mike won because in the end, it would be easier to build with angle iron. Detail...

Computer Art

2007-09-09T02:55:00.000+01:00

From: cmuseum.timacad.ru

Personal Computer Museum by the Board of University Technology ship began formal rovatsya world in February 2004 from non prav- foot traffic rudo--tion. It represented computer skills, accepted money, mouse, media information and hand out details. And am all began in 1995 with a collection of computer components mice. Detail...

hackedgadgets.com Link...
englishrussia.com Link...
TechEBlog Link...

How To Add More 3½ Bays

2007-09-08T03:56:00.000+01:00

From: overclockers.com

First, kudos to my older brother Mike for showing me this cool add-on. Next, supplies you will need: Scissors , Plumber's Wrap (Can be found at Home Depot or Lowes) , Screws , Screwdriver
Now, start by cutting four short strips and two long strips of the Plumber's Wrap. Cut desired length depending on how many drives you want to add. In this article, we added two drives, so five holes on the two short strips and seven holes on the long strip. Add two more holes to the length to accommodate another drive, and so on. Detail...

How To Make A Fan Guard

2007-09-07T08:22:00.000+01:00

From: overclockers.com
I will be showing you how to make a "Fan Guard" for protect your fingers by using only plastic and a super LED.
First, to begin you must prepare instrument and materials as show in table below. Then cut the plastic as your design and should fit with a fan. Next, super LED is added in side of the plastic. Detail...

Constructable CD Sculpture

2007-09-06T08:28:00.000+01:00

At the invitation of Prof. Susan Gerofsky, I visited The University of British Columbia (UBC) as artist-in-residence for a week during January 2007. The agreed-upon project was for me to develop a mathematical sculpture that can be replicated in classrooms. I worked with Susan, student teachers in UBC's education program, and visiting students from Vancouver-area schools to test the ideas and write up a lesson plan. In addition I left one example on display, as a reference model Detail...

Link...

VGA over Cat-5 ethernet cable

2007-09-05T12:51:00.000+01:00

It's possible to send a VGA "video" signal down an ordinary Cat-5 ethernet cable. This is possible for two reasons: firstly, although VGA connectors have 15 (or 13) pins, only about 8 wires are actually necessary to send the VGA signal; and secondly, ethernet cable is twisted pair, and we can use the magic of twisted pair to push the analog VGA signal further than spec. The diagram above shows conversion from HD15 (VGA) to RJ45 (an ethernet socket). A similar adapter is used to convert back again. Connectors are shown from the solder side. This diagram assumes your Cat-5 cable is crimped in the standard way (not as a cross-over cable). Detail...

MakeZine.com Link...

Baybus

2007-09-04T09:20:00.000+01:00

The idea here is to produce a small box which should alter the voltage of the fans with some switches. The fans are those that cause most of the noise in a computer, so decreasing their voltage causes a decrease in revolutions per minute, and therefore a reduction of noise. The efficiency is also decreased, but this is taken in consideration by allowing the user to switch between levels of voltage Detail...

LogoMouse

2007-09-03T06:16:00.000+01:00

From metku.net
You all have seen these optical mouses with leds and stuff but there is still room for some improvement. Why not mod a mouse and add your own logo/image to it. Let see how you can do that
A standard Microsoft ps2 rodent was more trickier to open than I first thought. Two plastic "hooks" that hold the case together are marked with number 1. This hidden screw you have to remove first is marked with number 2. I removed it but didn't notice those hooks in time so I broke them. Sad. Well, the case still holds together with that screw so no harm done. Detail...

RS-232 Laser Transceiver

2007-09-02T06:04:00.000+01:00

From: electronics-lab.com
Laser based projects used to be expensive, until the development of solid state lasers. This project is designed for the entry level laser experimenter. The circuit allows any two computers with serial (RS-232) communication capability to communicate over 200 meters using a laser beam. A low cost transmitter only circuit is also presented here for use in one way communication and other laser based projects. Link...

HDRack

2007-09-01T18:24:00.000+01:00

The designers of my computer case, the bright men of design had gathered their brainpower together and the result was a very poorly functioning HD/floppy drive stand, so I had to help myself with this one. Not that much of a mod, but a handy trick. So, this is the story of how I got a functioning, cheap and easy-to-make attachment for several HDs
I happened to have some of those AT-aged backpanels which had places of 9 and 25 pinned serial ports. I just clipped the connectors off the plates and, lookie lookie, the HD frame starts to be finished. Detail...

Old CRT Computer Moniter Into A Fish Tank

2007-08-31T17:30:00.000+01:00

by mcanderson76on from instructables.com
introTurn Your Old CRT Computer Moniter Into A Fish Tank ! ! !
Talk about a great screen saver! I've been wanting to do this build for a while now. Just about every time I see and old CRT computer monitor by the side of the road on trash day I think to myself ...that would sure make a cool looking fish tank. So here is my first attempt at turning and old computer monitor into a fish tank. Detail...

How to Convert an Old TV Into a Fish Tank Link...

MouseFan

2007-08-30T17:56:00.000+01:00

From metku.net
So, your hand is getting a little warm while playing or surfing the net? This little mod could help you. The basic function is somewhat similar to the device in bowling alleys where you can dry you hands and the bowling ball. Lets try out if this idea works :) Detail...

MouseFan at Elephantstaircase.comLink...

Disk Combobulation

2007-08-29T05:16:00.000+01:00

copyright 1999, George W. Hart
This is Disk Combobulation I, an assemblage of thirty 3.5 inch floppy diskettes, slotted and slid into each other gluelessly, embodying a precise five-color pattern. Each diskette is penetrated by diskettes of the other four colors. Twelve five-sided openings are each bordered by the five different colors in a different cyclic order. The six of any one color are arranged in the form of an exploded cube. For any choice of three different colors, there is one point where all three touch in a clockwise order; at the opposite point, they touch in a counterclockwise order. There are exactly two possible arrangements of the 30 disks with all the above properties, giving rise to Disk Combobulation I and Disk Combobulation II. They are not mirror images of each other. Above is the first one, currently on display at the Goudreau Museum in New Hyde Park, NY. The second one of the set was sent to someone as a house-warming present. Link...

DIY hardware keylogger

2007-08-28T17:46:00.000+01:00

From KeeLog.com
KeeLog has decided to release an early version of it's hardware keylogger family to the public domain, including full firmware & software source code, keylogger hardware electrical schematics, and documentation. This PS/2 key logger is a 100% operational and tested device, assembled and used by hundreds of people around the world. Operation of this hardware key logger is similar to the KeeLoggerTM Classic. We provide the application KeyGrab for retrieve and analysis of recorded keystroke data. However, please note that this DIY hardware keylogger project is provided as is, with all faults, and with no warranty whatsoever.
More...

Solar Thermal Panel Link...
Solar Thermal Panel Hawaii Edition Link...

CD Lamp

2007-08-27T04:25:00.000+01:00

From: gizmodo.com Soure: Jim Watters
At a previous job, the head of QA had several stacks of several hundred CDs, on the floor, in front of floor to ceiling windows. The sunlight shining through the window would glow through these CDs in a very appealing manner that made the green light seem warm. From that point forward I always thought that a stack of CDs with a tubular light inside would make a very cool lamp. Detail...

CD Lamp I and CD Lamp II by Jim Watters
AOL Lamp Link...

CD Sculpture

2007-08-26T14:52:00.000+01:00

From George Radebaugh CD Sculpture
George Radebaugh creates art by joining together recycled materials: hundreds of discarded CDs, pipes, and other miscellaneous stuff. His artwork is simply wonderful. He uses materials in ways that are innovative and unusual, and the results are fun and fascinating to see Detail..

HDD Clock

2007-08-25T17:37:00.000+01:00

From Harry Andreou | 88bytes
After watching an interesting article DIY of a Hard Disk Clock, i decided to make my own, HDD plate clock More...

GlowPad

2007-08-24T08:05:00.000+01:00

From: MetkuMods Link
You gotta love LED lights!! They are so useful. Use the search feature at the
top of everypage of HacknMod.com to find more LED tutorials. Anyways, use LED
lights to light up your mousepad and make it look downright wicked at LANS and
nighttime gaming
this is the project that I started to do something about these old and outdated mouse pads, maybe to add some more "glow" to them More...

Related...

Mouse FireWheel from MetkuMods Link...

Cheap Power Supply for Experimenters

2007-08-24T05:22:00.001+01:00

From: Hotsolder - Electronics & Other Geeky Pursuits - Link.
How'd you like a high-quality regulated 5V and 12V bench supply for $8 or less? You have to build it yourself, but you won't even need a soldering iron. Sound interesting? Well, there is one small catch, but read on and you might find you have everything you need already on hand.

Many hams and electronics experimenters have PCs today. An increasing number of these are finding use on the workbench. Many hams program microcontrollers, use a PC-based oscilloscope, or just use the PC to control equipment around the shack. This is becoming even more practical as the resale value of computers keeps dropping. More and more, you'll find it hard to get rid of a PC when you upgrade. You might as well find a use it around the shack. Detail...
Related:

ModLab PCs laboratory power source from MetkuMods Link...
Convert an ATX Power Supply Into a Regular DC Power Supply! instructables.com Link...

Custom Spraypainted Keyboard

2007-08-23T17:29:00.000+01:00

Lets see the facts. Most people dont care how their keyboard looks like. They dont even think about how it looks. But when you have a modded case, it just doenst fit to have a plain grey-black keyboard. That was the case for me…Not anymore…

Detail...

Range Booster - Wireless Keyboard/Mouse

2007-08-22T14:03:00.000+01:00

From Volunteer Lab Rat
I bought a really cool wireless media center keyboard with an onboard trackball mouse, so I diden't need to sit at a table with a mouse, mousepad and a keyboard while enjoying my media center. The plan was that i would be able to relax in my sofa while surfing the internet by using this clever unit.

But oh no! On the cardboard box there was written that the range of the keyboard should be up to 5 meters, but it was at best 2 meters. Not long enough to be used as I intended.

Then I noticed something on the cardboard box. On a sticker there was written that the keyboard used the radiofrequency of 2.4 ghz. That's the same as wireless LAN!!! Detail...

DIY USB 5.25″ front panel

2007-08-21T07:00:00.000+01:00

From Silent Q Blog
She wanted to reuse her old chassis, rather than buy a new one. It was a “legacy” chassis, one which doesn’t have any external expansion ports accessible from the front. If you look at some of the new cases available, they have all sorts of front-accessible ports. At this point, she had already spent a small fortune on the required components, why drop another Bennie (or more) on something that will add no performance, and little to no functionality?
In any event, the new motherboard has 10 USB ports - four directly on back panel of the motherboard, and six are just supplied as headers on the board. The manufacturer gave us one 2-port real panel connector, but she still wanted to utilize the extra USB ports, without using a hub. Her MP3 player, PDA, cameras, and a bunch of other stuff are all USB devices, and it would be really nice to have easy access to the cables. Detail...

Old scanner becomes light table

2007-08-20T01:54:00.000+01:00

From intheworkshop.info

Our old flatbed scanner for the computer recently died and we replaced it with a new multi-function printer. Of course, I saved the old scanner in the basement for some reason.

Well, my wife recently asked me to build her a small light table for her to use to copy the paper patterns that she uses for quilting. I started to design one in my head, and then decided that if I just pull all of the guts out of the old scanner and replace them with a fluorescent light bulb (so as to not generate too much heat), I'd have light table. I also put a translucent piece of plastic under the glass top of the scanner bed to diffuse the light from the light bulb a bit. More...

Desktop Power Supply from a PC

2007-08-19T07:17:00.000+01:00

By Andy.Batts@MurrayState.Edu
This ATX PS board has leads for +5 (RED), -5 (WHITE), +12 (YELLOW), -12 (BLUE) volts, Ground (BLACK) and switch (GREEN). Dell power supplies manufactured between 1996 and 2000 do not follow the industry standard pinout and color codes. The fan has also been unplugged for better viewing. Since this PS was converted for use in the logic and robotics labs, the selected voltages were tapped. Other users may want combinations of +3.3 V (ORANGE), +5 V and/or +12 V if they are converting one of the newer supplies. For R/C applications, the 5 volt output can also serve as a desktop source to drive receivers and servos. If used as a power source for the micro and sub-micro servos, you must be careful not to drive the servo to either endpoint to avoid stripping the smaller gears in these units. Most standard servos have sufficiently robust gear trains and will simply stall if pushed to the mechanical stops. More...

See Also...

How PC Power Supplies Work at Howstuffworks - Link.
PC power supply conversion and Power supply From Silent Q - Link.
About ATX Power Supply From My Electronics Hobby - Link.
ATX and ATX P4 Power Supplies @ bluemax.net - Link

Wind Generator with Hard Drive Magnets

2007-08-18T06:56:00.000+01:00

By mrkooo From Otherpower.com Discussion Borad
I decided to build my first wind generator. No problems with the blades, they are 1m each (2m diameter rotor), I try them without load and work fine, very happy when I saw running so fast. But with the alternator, is anoother story, is very hard to get the magnets here in Peru, so I used HD magnets, I broke them in 2 pieces in order to have one pole. The problem is that nopw I have very little magntes. My winds are #21 wire and 160 turns, I expect to obtain al least 12V to charge a battery. Detail...

See Also...

Hard Drive Generator From Hacker Gadgets

Hacked LED Mouse Light

2007-08-17T17:44:00.000+01:00

by Alan Parekh From hackedgadgets.com
Most of us have a bunch of these old mice laying around collecting dust. If you didn’t make some cool art with your mice last week here is another idea to recycle it into a cool project. This article will show you how to turn an ordinary mouse into a flashlight, perfect for looking into computer cases that always seem to be in the darkest corner of the room. More...

See Also...

Optical mouse cam From spritesmods.com

Mousebot Revisited

2007-08-16T16:42:00.000+01:00

By jacob@makezine.com From instructables.com
Mousebot is a simple bot that uses two "eyes" to sense light and then turns towards the light. A single large "whisker" is mounted on the front of the mouse to detect collisions. A collision with a wall will cause the mouse to reverse and turn then take off in another direction. This project is pretty cheap, if you have a mouse to use the other parts can be obtained for less than ten dollars. Detail...

See Also...

The Betall Bot - How to Build a Robot By robomaniac From instructables.com
Simple Robot How-To From uC Hobby
BEAM Robots From Simon Fraser’s
Wikipedia gives quite a good definition what BEAM robotics From BEAM Wiki

Electricity With Stepper Motors

2007-08-15T14:10:00.000+01:00

From reuk.co.uk or TheBackShed.com
small stepper motors can be perfect for the job. Found in old computer printers (dot matrix, daisy wheel, and some laser), stepper motors are cheaply (if not freely) available and generate AC power at low rates of rotation (far lower than similarly sized DC motors for example). Therefore small wind turbine blades can be mounted directly onto the motor shaft rather than through a noisy and complicated gearing mechanism. Small stepper motors (i.e. under 1 inch diameter) are only really useful for powering a couple of LEDs, larger motors can be used to recharge batteries and much more. Detail...
See Also..

PVC Wind Turbine Blades Form reuk.co.uk
Stepper Motor Basics. Form reuk.co.uk
Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States Link...
Wind Energy Resource Altas South East Asiaresource data on wind speed
Pringles Wind Turbine From instructables.com
Wind Turbine FAQ From rpc.com.au

CDROM to Building a USB Fan

2007-08-13T15:14:00.000+01:00

DIY: Building a USB Fancool USB Fan, so you can get cool all the summer while in front of your computer.
Detail..

Scanner Parts - Desk Lamp

2007-08-13T14:08:00.000+01:00

by jpitz31on from instructables.com
Transform your old scanner that is just collecting dust in the closet into a cool tech lamp.

“This instructable shows you how to make a desk lamp out of scrounged scanner parts and a few extras from Home Depot. I have set up a small solar array, controller and a storage battery. I wanted to make some low power lighting that I can use in my office that would not consume a lot of power. I had a bunch of scanner parts lying around and decided to put them to good use.”

See Also..

intro The return of the dead flatbed scanner from instructables.com , Makezine , hackedgadgets
How Scanners Work from howstuffworks.com
Using the scanner lamp inside your computer from ovelha.org

DIY Floppy Disk Craf

2007-08-12T12:33:00.000+01:00

By: Kathreen Ricketson, Canberra, Australia
Source: Treehugger.com

The floppy disk was the medium of choice during the 80's and 90's, they are now relegated to landfill, and cost dollars to dispose of correctly. People are great at finding ways to recycle and are making the floppy disk into something useful! Instructables has a great 'how-to' on how to make stuff out of floppy disks. Try your hand at making a bag or if that is too much for you get some crafty geekery for your home office with this floppy disk pen holder from Etsy. Others ideas for re-using these floppy disks include, notepads like this or this and there is a simple little 'how-to' at gear log for these and more fun floppy disk geekery, but for something slightly more stylish try this bag.

More Info:

Floopy disk at Wikipedia

Diskette Handbag, Diskette Notepad from Fractalspin.com

Floppy Disk Bag from instructables.com

Make a starship enterprise out of an old floppy disk

Floppy Drive Pan WebCam

2007-08-12T10:25:00.000+01:00

Making an web-controlled webcam panning unit out of an old 3,5" floppy drive, old CD-box, a paperclip, two nails, a rubber band and about 2 Euro worth of electrical components

Milan Gajic has made a cool Web controlled floppy drive powered pan cam. Some simple right and left commands on this page allow anyone on the net to have the floppy drive move the camera around to get look out of Milan’s window.

Wind turbine from Harddisk

2007-08-12T05:34:00.000+01:00

By Brian S. Julin Link...
Another fantastically easy wind turbine, made with a hard-drive motor with the right type of pressure plate and some identical paper clips about as long as the drive radius. Again, there is really nothing to explain that the pictures don't easily convey, except I had to be careful not to strip the tiny soft-metal plate nuts. The resulting product is actually very well balanced when spinning.
See Also...