You can build the tiny XFM2 synth for under $100

Miniature electronics kits like the Raspberry Pi have ushered in a new generation of DIY tinkerers. And while most of these builds emulate classic gaming systems, there are plenty of other possibilities. Futur3soundz, for example, designed a synthesi...

You can make your own rotary cellphone

As convenient as modern cellphones are, there's a certain charm to spinning an old-fashioned rotary dial to make a call -- and now, there's a cellphone that caters to that nostalgia. Brookhaven National Lab engineer Justine Haupt has developed a rot...

Adapter turns power wheelchairs into Xbox controllers

The Xbox Adaptive Controller already makes gaming more accessible if you're in a wheelchair, but wouldn't it be better if you could use the wheelchair itself as a controller? You can now. AbleGamers Charity has unveiled a Freedom Wing Adapter that...

DIY Light-up Neon (LED) Mickey Mouse Ears

If you’re a fan of Disney and Mickey Mouse, your mouse house isn’t complete without a pair of ears. Of course, you could go for the standard-issue black ears, but if you’re a little more of a tech geek, then you should consider making a pair like these.

The guys at Adafruit shared this cool idea for a set of Mickey ears made using their super bright NeoPixel LED strips, controlled by a GEMMA M0 board.

By setting the lights inside of a thick silicone coating, they diffuse into smooth, neon-like tubes. They also offer up an alternative LED strip without the silicone that provides more of a classic marquee look. Since both LED strips are designed to emit light only in one direction, the light will only be visible from the front, which I think is a slicker and more put together look than conventional LED strips. The lights can also change colors, and they included motion sensors in the build, so it can change light patterns with a shake of their wearer’s head.

Check out the video below for the full explanation of the build:

You can grab everything you need to make your own light-up Mickey Mouse ears over at Adafruit – other than the hat itself. You can grab one of those from Amazon.

Apps and gadgets for the ‘Blade Runner’ future we didn’t ask for

Punks, monks and Harrison Ford running scared through a poisonous cityscape were just a few of the details that made the original Blade Runner feel like its environment was a standalone character in the film. It felt as alien and familiar as the way...

These Steampunk Clockwork Goggles Mesmerize with Light

If there’s one bit of kit that’s essential to a proper steampunk outfit, it’s a pair of goggles. Sure, you could just go down to the army surplus shop and buy some old industrial goggles, or you could do what John Park did, and make the kind of goggles that Daft Punk would have had if they were a victorian era act.

John actually made these sweet goggles for his daughter who plans on going with a steampunk look this Halloween, and they look awesome. What makes them so cool is the light up LED rings which animate in a glowing pattern around the lens areas.

He built them using some inexpensive costume goggles, a pair of Adafruit’s NeoPixel LED rings, and controlled them with a Gemma M0, their wearable electronics platform, running a special flavor of Python called CircuitPython – a lightweight programming language which allows for quick and easy programming of inexpensive microcontrollers.

They look pretty awesome in the video and images, but it doesn’t look like you can see out of them. I think if I built a pair, I’d drill some small pinholes in the centers to allow for some vision so they could actually be used.

If you’re interested in building a pair of clockwork goggles for yourself, head over to the project page on the Adafruit website.

Add IR Thermal Vision to Your Homebrew Projects

Thermal cameras are pretty nifty devices. They let you see the heat signature of objects by capturing infrared light. There are off-the shelf thermal camera devices like the ones from FLIR, but they’re kind of pricey, and not particularly friendly to hacking into your own projects. Now, you can incorporate a thermal camera into just about any device you can imagine, thanks to this breakout board from Adafruit Industries.

The Adafruit AMG8833 IR Thermal Camera Breakout provides you with a heat-vision camera that can measure temperatures from 0°C to 80°C (32°F to 176°F), with an accuracy of +- 2.5°C (4.5°F). Its 8×8 array of IR sensors isn’t exactly high resolution, but it’s enough to give you a reasonable approximation of the temperature of objects in front of its lens.

The breakout board is ready to use with any 3-volt or 5-volt microcontroller or computer, and comes with ready to use code and instructtions for use with with Arduino and other 12C compatible controllers, as well as Raspberry Pi systems running Python. The board is available now from Adafruit for just $39.95 (USD).

I so want to build a set of heat-vision goggles with a pair of these things.

The enduring myth of the hacker boy-band

Last week, Wired magazine published a sprawling feature on a group of young hackers the magazine claimed would "make us or break us" with their "exceptional talent." The article fawningly profiled each member of a group of Northeastern University col...

Building a Tiny Commodore PET

The Commodore PET 2001 was one of the very first personal computers I remember ever seeing. The green-screened 8-bit system wasn’t very powerful, but I always loved its iconic all-in-one design. I always wanted to own one if just to put it on display, but I don’t really have the space to spare. Then I saw The Ruiz Brothers and Phillip Burgess’ awesome build – a tiny PET that I could finally own.

tiny_commodore_pet_1

This miniature replica of the PET was made using a custom 3D-printed case, along with a green CharliePlex LED Matrix, which allows it to display tiny messages or images on the screen.

tiny_commodore_pet_2

The tiny screen has 144 LEDs, and is controlled using the Adafruit Feather, a teensy and lightweight prototyping board. I wonder if it would be possible to get a PET emulator running on this thing. After all, it runs at 48 MHz and has 256kB of flash RAM. The original PET 2001 had a 6502 that ran at 1MHz and had a maximum of 32kB of RAM.

If you want to build a tiny PET for yourself, head on over to Adafruit’s website to see all the parts you need, along with detailed instructions.

Six gifts for your paranoid friends and family

It pays to be paranoid in a time of rampant breaches, social media account extortion, identity theft, fake security products, ransomware, and hack attacks on all. That's why we've put together a gift guide for those among us who don't want to find ou...