All Entries Tagged With: "DIY"

DIY Book Lamp: Nice Project For Your Old, Dusty Volumes

We all have old books doing nothing but gathering dust somewhere in our homes.  I have a couple I’ve chopped up for use as laptop stands, with about a boxful more rotting from years of utter apathy.   If you’re the same way, you might want to look at the Book Lamp, a DIY project that lets you turn an old, unloved book into a decorative shelf lighting fixture.
Created by Ed Lewis (nee fungus amungus in Instructables), it’s quite a simple build.  So simple, in fact, that it looks ridiculously ghetto when you check the open book.  Once shut and set on a shelf, however, it looks just as  stylish as any piece of lighting implement you can imagine showing off at home.
The first time you see the DIY Book Lamp closed, you’d think there was some fancy lighting installed on there.  In truth, though, making your own is actually sixth-grade [...]

Pixel Qi’s Hybrid 3Qi Display Now Available For Netbooks

Looking for more ways to extend your 10.1-inch netbook’s battery life?  Swap your portable computer’s display with the 3Qi, a DIY screen replacement that can switch from full-color LCD to a grayscale e-ink with one push of a button.
Yes, it’s the first production version of Pixel Qi’s revolutionary dual-mode screen and it’s here.  As promised, it offers alternate display features that both extend your computer’s battery life and improves its readability under bright sunlight.

The Pixel Qi 3Qi will theoretically work with all 10.1-inch netbooks, although it’s only been tested on two machines so far – the Samsung N130 and the Lenovo S10-2.  In LCD mode, it works much like your netbook’s existing display, showing images in full color and being practically illegible under sunlight.  That’s only until you trigger the clever hybrid feature, though, which turns off the backlight, then reflects the sun off the back of the display, allowing [...]

iPad What? Build Your Own Tablet With The Beagle Embedded Starter Kit

Got some ideas you want to done on your next tablet computer?  Forget waiting for PC makers to make it happen – build one yourself with the Beagle Embedded Starter Kit, an open-source modular tablet that you can customize to your heart’s content.
Available from Liquidware, the kit is designed for embedded developers who want to code their own tablet-based systems from scratch.  Whether you want a tablet to interface with your collection of RC racers or to act as monitor for your amateur spy gear, it lets you set one up without the restrictions built into commercial, off-the-shelf tablets.   Assuming, of course, you’ve got the technical chops to get it done.

The Beagle Embedded Starter Kit consists of three main parts, consisting of the BeagleBoard Rev C4 (a 1GHz single-board computer from Texas Instruments), BeagleTouch 4.3-inch OLED touchscreen module and BeagleJuice battery module.  All three are are designed to snap or [...]

Grow Your Own Beer Kit Gives Your Beer Empire A Headstart

Wife wants you to garden with her? Umm…sure. As if that’s gonna happen. Well, it just might with Grow Your Own Beer Garden, a dude-friendly gardening kit that lets you plant and harvest all the ingredients you need to brew your own beer.
Of course, you’ll still have to invest in a homebrewing kit to go along with the garden setup, but the prospect of growing your own beer-making plants should be enough to get any red-blooded male excited. You’re growing beer in your own backyard that you and your friends can be drinking tomorrow.  How can that not leave you enthused?

Grow Your Own Beer Garden include everything you need to get started on your beer empire. You get a sprouting and growing dome for holding all those seedlings in, soil (a mixture labeled as Growing Medium), three colored stakes, natural gravel, decals (for [...]

Chinese Man Counterfeits Lamborghini…Kind Of

Want a Lambo, but can’t afford one? I can relate. So can Chen Jenmiao, a 25-year old Chinese mechanic, who decided he’ll just build his own homemade Lamborghini knockoff.
The result is a car that looks as much a Raging Bull as it is a box-type with gullwing doors. It’s an absolute “Meh” moment, but is quite fascinating all the same. After all, when was the last time you built an entire vehicle, let alone a supercar replica, all by yourself?

Chen’s Lamborghini started out as $3,000 in car parts and materials, most of which were likely salvaged from second-hand shops and back-alley transactions (“Hey dude, I’m selling a Lamborgini side mirror right here”). After a year of hard work, the car was finished, becoming the toy-like, low-profile automobile with lots of boxy lines you see below.

Sure, anyone who has even seen a picture of a stud [...]

Rock Paper Scissors Glove Pawns You At RPS Over And Over

Who needs playmates when you can play with yourself? No, not like that silly, pull your pants up! We’re talking about rolling out a competitive round of RPS with the Rock Paper Scissors Glove.
Simply start shaking your fist to start a round and throw your best move. The glove will do the same, showing a graphical image of its play (either Rock, Paper or Scissors) at the same time you pose your hand. It will determine who wins too. Don’t worry,  It plays fair.
Created by Steve Hofer, the Rock Paper Scissors Glove is a simple hand glove with a slew of electronics attached to enable the hand-to-electronic-hand showdown. Motion is detected by a triple-axis accelerometer, while two flex sensors help determine what kind of hand you threw up. It uses a layered edge lighting display with a polyester surface to show its [...]

Magnetic Coffee Cozy Lets You Hang Your Cup On A Street Lamp

Do you like  have  your coffee with a cigarette?  So what happens when your  phone rings while you’re on a coffee break? You only have two hands.  What are you supposed to do? Exactly.
The DIY Magnetic Coffee Cozy solves that dilemma. Instead of having to hold three things in your hands at the same time, you can simply attach the coffee onto any available steel surface, such as a streetlamp (as in the above photo) or a parked car.  Day saved.
Even if you don’t smoke, this thing is hella useful.  Need to fiddle with your bag while walking in the street?  Simply park at the nearest mailbox and do what you need to do.  No need to worry about the cup falling over (like when you simply put it on top of the mailbox), since the sleeve is designed to hold it securely.
According to creator AP, you can make your [...]

How To Squeeze Even More Mileage Out Of Your Car: The DIY Boat Tail

Darin Cosgrove is serious about MPG savings.  How else, after all, would you explain the decision to give his car a boat tail for even better fuel economy?  It’s not a discreet spoiler-like attachment either.  He slapped a huge-ass homemade boat tail that extends the rear in both a visually painful and uncomfortable-to-drive manner.
Cosgrove used a 1998 Pontiac Firefly as the canvas for his creation, adding what’s effectively a snout on the car’s rear end.  While that eyesore on the back guarantees no one’s going to get laid on that ride, it’s not like you’ll have girls lining up to take a spin on that econobox anyway.  Probably, even back when it was brand new.

The frame of the tail was built using cardboard, dressed up with a black-painted aluminum skin to match it with the rest of the car.  Looking to make the addition as minimally invasive to the vehicle [...]

Famicom Guitar Gives Your Six-String Some Gaming Cred

Done with console guitar games and ready for the real thing?  Good for you.   If you don’t wish to abandon your gaming roots completely, you should steer clear of the usual brands and wax your string-bending prowess with something like this: a Famicom Guitar.  Take that, Les Paul and Fender.
Why pay for a guitar that looks bad-ass when you can make yourself one that’s styled like it’s straight out of a kid’s wet dream back in 1985?  Sure, it’s not a real Famicom on the body (that will probably sound disastrous), but it definitely looks close, doesn’t it?
I’m not sure if it’s a kit of some sort available in Japan (I don’t think it is, though I can’t read Japanese, so I’m not sure), but it’s a very cleanly-built instrument.  The dimensions aren’t quite the same as an actual Famicom (the original size just won’t work as a guitar), but [...]

Breathe New Life On Your Dying Shoes With The JGoods Sneaker Restoration Kit

Your favorite sneakers nearing their inevitable end?  Hold your favorite kicks’ eventual demise just a short while longer with the JGoods Sneaker Restoration Kit, an all-in-one outfit that lets you breathe new life into your old and battered rubber footwear.
Got absolutely nothing going in the fix-it-up department?  Not a problem.  This kit lays out the process simply, putting together everything needed to get you started on the path of putting that 1989 Reebok Pump you picked up for a dollar at the Flea Market back to wearable form (despite the wife’s objections).

The JGoods Sneaker Restoration Kit comes with a complete guide to the process, starting with a comprehensive guide that takes you on a tour from start to finish.  Set includes a 12 x 12 inch towel, a stiff poly scrub brush, a melamine foam pad, a scourer sponge, a paint brush, cotton swabs, a can of finish remover and [...]

NES Bartop Arcade Cabinet Makes You Rethink What A Kitchen Computer Is Supposed To Do

It’s nice to get an arcade cabinet for your game room. Scoring one with a beer tap on the side (see Arkeg) is even better. Having it in your kitchen counter right next to the fridge where all the beer hides, however, is just sublime. This homemade counter-top Nintendo arcade cabinet just made me drool with envy, not to mention want to spend more time in the kitchen than I normally do.
The machine’s guts consist of an old spare PC (running Windows XP), with a 17-inch LCD used as the screen. A custom program listing all available games auto-loads during bootup, with a NES emulator and pre-installed ROMs providing the on-screen entertainment.
Measuring 24 x 18 x 24 inches, the cabinet was built using 0.25-inch thick MDF. One set of joysticks and arcade buttons have been soldered into the board, along with two USB and [...]

Customize Your Walls With The Frames Wallpaper

Looking for a customizable wallpaper to bring new life to a room?  Try the Frames Wallpaper, which outfits your walls with unevenly-drawn frames that you can fill with any sort of imagery to your liking.  The result is a wallpaper that is outfitted as uniquely as you can dream up.
Created by artists Taylor and Wood, Frames is a simple white wallpaper with varying sizes of rectangular black prints.  You can treat it like a coloring sheet, laying crayons (or any shading material you fancy) across its surface.  You can also draw illustrations or stick photos inside the frames, instantly creating encased (looks like it anyway) art without having to hang anything.

Each sheet measures 20.5 x 396 inches and are made from 50% recycled materials.  While it might not make the classiest living room decoration, it should work out great for children’s bedrooms and rec rooms, allowing you to exercise your [...]

Box Kit Guitar Amplifier: Smash It All You Want, It’s Only $30

A great-sounding guitar amp for $30?  Gotta be kidding, right?  Well, that’s what Critter and Guitari claims to deliver with their Box Amplifier Kit, a DIY package that lets you turn any throwaway box (cardboard or otherwise) into a functional amplifier that you can plug real instruments into.
As with any box kit, the set contains everything you will need to slap together a working amplifier.  Simply solder the parts as directed and find a container to pack them in (cutting holes for externally-accessible parts, of course).  You can stuff it just as easily in a shoe case as in a garbage can, allowing for a wide variety of cool enclosures.
It comes with a 1/4-inch jack for plugging in your instrument cables, along with a speaker and a small set of controls.  You will need a 9-volt power supply to crank it up, although it can be modified to work with [...]