This one's dedicated to my buddy Greg. This is a fun project, especially if you're A) not married, B) married to someone who appreciates the finer points of Star Wars nerdery, or C) not married — the Boba Fett DIY Lamp Project! As long as you remember to clean the sweat and shame from your [...]
Read More Boba Fett, DIY, helmet, instructables, lamp, Star Wars
Doesn't that sound like a fusion jazz quartet starring some crazy bass player who has dreadlocks? His bass is all paint-erroded from all of the years he spent playing bass in smoky little jazz clubs in groups with names like Steven Tyler PJs and Neil McKarren's Big Fat Bootie. But in the case of the [...]
Read More Fixtures, instructables, John Allen, John Allen Lamp project, lamps
Back in my undergrad days, I used to front a band… Oh, it was glorious, we had a blast, and the guys are all pro musicians now. Another crazy picture of me with hair: We had so much fun!!! I used to wear those crazy shirts at gigs at the bars in town that were [...]
Read More Disco Ball Helmet, instructables, mirror ball, mirrors, Natalie Walsh, reflectionI was reaing Instructables this weekend, and I came across a project that someone had done that used audio speakers like galvanometers (galvos) to actually move a laser beam around! The project has full X-Y control of the laser beam, and with a wee little Arduino microcontroller, you have yourself a fully programmable laser show [...]
Read More DIY, galvanometer, galvo, instructables, Laser, laser showInstructables user UncleBone posted one of the coolest Instructables I've read on that site – making an LED ceiling fan display! He remade the blades, added some homemade circuit boards, and created the image mapping himself. Good sir, I commend you! Check out a very quick video of his final project – the frame rate's [...]
Read More ceiling fan, DIY, hack, instructables, LED, MakeCheck out these supercapacitors – 220 farads! Holy crap. Instructables user mrigsby posted instructions on how to build a battery-free LED flashlight that charges in about three minutes and lasts for 24 hours. Apparently it's about 2-3 hours of bright light, and then it drops to "night light" levels. Whatever, I guess – three minutes [...]
Read More batteries, DIY, flashlight, instructables, supercapacitorsInstructables user robomaniac wrote a project called the Desktop Energy Seed Lamp. It's a joule thief, but one that has multiple color LEDs and a switch that controls each one. The instructable is pretty well explained – check it out! Thanks, robomaniac!
Read More instructables, joule thief, LEDAs we all know, CFLs are difficult to recycle, even though they have their good qualities. According to Instructables user "unknownpocketnerd," we now know how to cannibalize a CFL for parts to make a Joule Thief and a small step down DC converter from CFL guts! Thanks, unknownpocketnerd! Check out the CFL cannibalization Instructable. Unknownpocketnerd [...]
Read More cfl, compact fluorescent lamp, instructables, joule thief, unknownpocketnerdInstructables user kc6qhp has posted AND WON FIRST PLACE FOR the instructable regarding his Kilo-Lumen bicycle headlamp. This thing is ridiculously bright! Check out the instructable! This thing is about 1200 lumens, and runs on an 18V Ryobi battery. Not for the timid!
Read More DIY, headlamp, instructablesFor you hackers out there, check out this instructable on making a 64 LED, individually programmable 3D cube. The Atmel Atmega16 microcontroller spec'ed in this instructable gives you the ability to program all kinds of great three-dimensional effects. Check it out, and thanks to instructables user "chr" for this one!
Read More instructables, LED, microcontroller