Silicon is the most important material for electronic chips and processors. Yet it has a big drawback: being a so-called indirect semiconductor, it hardly emits any light.
Published: November 18th, 2009
[Pcmofo] has shared a well-built, well-explained example of how to implement an RFID key system for a door. We call this the right way because it is well thought out and functional.
Published: November 18th, 2009
[Taufeeq] sent in his Circle of Light bulbdial clock. You may remember when we showed you Evil Mad Scientists version a while back, and [Taufeeq] did use it as a base but hes added some of his own little touches.
Published: November 18th, 2009
Music selection is usually a boring process. It usually involves some common interface such as scrolling through titles on a portable player, using a remote for your stereo or a mouse on your computer.
Published: November 17th, 2009
[Blacklight99] made this cool tool. It is a tester for those radar detectors that people keep in their cars. Though this seems like it would rarely be a tool we would need, its an interesting project.
Published: November 17th, 2009
In College I remember rifling through my now tattered yellow Texas Instruments TTL Reference Book. Texas Instruments has been constantly developing interesting products and is holding an event called eTech Days where they will hold a number of online technical training sessions.
Published: November 17th, 2009
[Harms] tumbling robot from a few years back is an excellent study in simple motion. Foregoing wheels or legs, he uses four flippers to roll the robot around the room.
Published: November 17th, 2009
This video shows how the common pole transformer is made. Overall it is a simple process. If you can get one of these you could also have some dangerous high voltage fun.
Published: November 17th, 2009
[Jani] built his own photography ring light based on automotive LED rings. The rings he used are meant to encircle headlights on a car and are available at a low cost.
Published: November 17th, 2009
[Spikenzie] is at it again. This time hes posted a nice USB to serial converter. He points out that you can buy a USB to serial adapter pretty cheaply, but sometimes you want this functionality built into your project enough to justify the greater cost.
Published: November 17th, 2009