Tag: Atmega

There are many programs that track the speed and health of your Internet connection; many routers even have this functionality integrated in their admin page. But Zak Kemble wanted a way to check those stats at a glance without logging on anywhere or opening an application, so he made a small network monitor.

Despite the increasing number of robotic musical acts, I’m still always tickled by the idea of a band that does away with the human element, and puts robots in their rightful place – to entertain their masters.

If you’ve ever wanted your own little humanoid robot to do your bidding, there’s a new kid in town you might want to check out. It’s called the HOVIS Eco, and it comes from Korea’s Dongbu Robot company.

Remember when everyone used to carry around those heavy boomboxes that were the size of dishwashers and took 2 million D batteries? Those days are gone, but if you still want a boombox today there is an eco-friendly alternative that you can make yourself.

Android fans that want to really get their geek on and develop their own accessories and physical devices to work with their smartphone might want to check this out. It’s from a company called SparkFun and the product is dubbed Electric Sheep.

Instant cameras should be instant, right? When you say instant camera I always think of the old Polaroids that would spit the picture out the front for you and you had to set it aside to let it finish developing.

Looking for a great way to get a little extra time during the day at work? Well don’t tell anyone we told you this, but this clever hack could extend your lunch hour every single day – at least until your boss catches on.

If you’re into making electronic sounds and like to really get under the hood of your electronics, the MeeBlip is a new synthesizer kit designed for ease of assembly and hacking.

This cool clock is the DOTKLOK and it’s an open source digital clock that can display the time with many different animations. The best part is that it’s totally hackable, not that I’d have the time to do this, but it’s nice to have that option.

If you’ve always wanted to build your own programmable robot, price or technical complexity might have gotten in your way. But this new robot from RobotShop brings the cost down to a pricepoint that mere mortals can afford, and is easy to assemble and get started with.

At first glance, this might just look like one of those organs you used to see in the shopping mall when you were a kid. But under the hood of this bit of musical nostalgia is the ultimate chiptune machine.

I’ve certainly seen our share of low-cost computers, but I can honestly say that this is the least expensive computer system I’ve seen yet. The Humane Reader is designed to provide computer technology to homes or schools without internet access or the budget for traditional PCs or Macs.

Sander Mulder made a Pong Clock way back in 2005, but Limor Fried of Adafruit Industries ups the ante with the Monochron, a Pong-themed clock for tinkerers. If you want to have one you better know how to solder, because the Monochron will be delivered to you unassembled, and by that I mean you’ll have to install all the resistors and capacitors yourself.

This badass looking weapon won’t hurt a fly – but it will kill any RFID tag you point it at. The Rfiddler gun can be aimed at unsuspecting RFID tags and destroy their data by simply overloading the tags with a very strong electromagnetic field.

This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen a clock fabricated from an old hard drive. But this is by far the most amazing, dramatic hard drive clock you’ll see today. Or any day for that matter.

Engineer Benjamin Kokes used to work for the now-defunct GPS company Nemerix. While he was there, he started working on a GPS peripheral for the iPod nano as a personal challenge. From the looks of it, he still has quite a ways to go, but at least he has shown that it’s feasible.