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Archives

March 12, 2010

Photo Story - Classic Gadget Freak projects

gadget freak gallery.jpgPhoto stories have proved popular on Electronics Weekly since we launched them last year, and I thought Gadget freak deserved a place in the gallery sun...

Well, another Picture Gallery has now been added to our index - a roundup of some Classic Gadget freak projects that have featured on the blog.


Continue reading "Photo Story - Classic Gadget Freak projects" »

March 10, 2010

Step up to the circuit challenge #10

photoresistor timer needs few components 200.jpgFancy taking the latest Circuit Challenge?

Check out the tenth 'One of our components is missing' competition, which has just been uploaded to the site (it closes Friday 16 April). Only a fragment of the circuit is shown, left.

Oh yes, and there's a £25 Amazon voucher to be won.

You just have to reason which component has been blacked out from a particular (real world) circuit schematic. Have a go!

Clue: The circuit is about sensing darkness and then turning off.

Continue reading "Step up to the circuit challenge #10" »

March 6, 2010

The Soemtron Calculator from East Germany lives on

my-soemtron.JPGWe like to hear about retro-East German electronics on Gadget Freak - see Hans' Nixie clock takes a step back in time - and here is another, the Soemtron Calculator.

Thanks to reader Bernard Green for sharing this story about an electronic calculator without a single integrated circuit that was designed and built in East Germany in the 1960's.

Not only this, he emphasises, the designers achieved all the functions with few components - there are only 31 flip-flops in the machine and some very intricate logic in order to keep component count as low as possible. Compare this to modern designers for whom minimisation of design has become a lost art, he says.

Bernard's employer in 1967 imported this machine, he tells us, and he was a senior service engineer for it, which included being sent to the factory for a 10 week training course, where he greatly admired the design.
 
He highlights this retro-marvel but also has two requests: Does anyone...

* Have any knowledge about finding the connectors? (see picture below)
* Know of any trace of an ETR 221 (the two part printer version)? 

Continue reading "The Soemtron Calculator from East Germany lives on" »

March 5, 2010

From Dawn to Dusk Sensor to Timer Charger

timer charger 1.jpgThanks to reader Tim Asquith for sharing this project to enable correct charging of batteries: he has modified a Timeguard TG85 Dawn to Dusk Sensor to a 1 to 24 hour NiCad battery charger timer adaptor.
"I have grown up using NiCad batteries and with proper use they least a long time," writes Tim. "Fully charge to total discharge, no over charge, no half charging. Most household handheld equipment, like small vacuum clearers, have NiCad's but have no real control over charging times."

Continue reading "From Dawn to Dusk Sensor to Timer Charger" »

Let the latest Gadget Freak posts come to you, with RSS

rss%20feeds%20shot.jpg The best way to get the very latest Gadget Freak posts as soon as they are published? RSS!

And it's not just Gadget Freak. Check out all the RSS feeds that are available for Electronics Weekly content. The feed for Latest News, for example, can be found here.


There are 12 Electronics Weekly feeds you can tap into:
News
Jobs
Products

Continue reading "Let the latest Gadget Freak posts come to you, with RSS" »

March 2, 2010

Most read Gadget Freak posts in February

pyramid mod small.jpgTime for the monthly roundup, looking at the most popular posts on Gadget Freak, to see what your peers have been reading in February.

A competition-dominated month sees lightsabers and phasers and text control feature in the top ten...

In reverse order:

10.
Cruising: Gadget Freaks for your car

9. Ultra-bright and ultra-durable LED bicycle lights

8. Build your own wand based barcode scanner

Continue reading "Most read Gadget Freak posts in February" »

iPod nano Altec Lansing Speaker Docs competition

Altec Lansing speakers.jpg
Yes, it's already time for the March/April Gadget Freak compo! It's now kindly sponsored by DigiKey.

Up for grabs is another device that caught my eye recently, while wishfully browsing for iPod-related accessories...

The "impossibly thin" Altec Lansing InMotion iM500 v4 Speaker Docs are for the iPod nano, and are AC or battery operated, and feature the company's MaxxBass Technology.

The prize question

Continue reading "iPod nano Altec Lansing Speaker Docs competition" »

Which one is Pink?

Petman 2.jpgAhead of the imminent March / April competition, here is another themed collection of posts. A bit recondite, this one, but regular readers have probably noticed a few musical references creeping into Gadget Freak posts over the years.

Well, here is a roundup of posts with a Pink Floyd reference!


They range from bicycles and robots to clocks and power:

Continue reading "Which one is Pink?" »

February 23, 2010

Gadget of the Week: USB 3.0 SATA Dual HDD Dock

sharkoon hdd dock.jpgTime once again for a choice pick of gadgets from the latest CE crop...

We'll drive past a Smart Drive kit for the iPhone - featuring big buttons and big letters and points-of-interest sourced from Bing - which will only be of interest if you drive a Daimler, and momentarily pause by new touchscreen cameras and camcorders from HP...

Continue reading "Gadget of the Week: USB 3.0 SATA Dual HDD Dock" »

February 22, 2010

Portatouch multitouch performance

Thanks to Electronics Weekly's Technology Editor, Steve Bush, for flagging this one - the portable, self-built "porta~touch" multitouch display system.



As you can see from the intro screen, elements of the system include:

Continue reading "Portatouch multitouch performance" »

And the winner is...

GPS Backtracker.jpg
Yes, we have a winner for the Jan / Feb Gadget Freak compo, featuring a GPS Backtracker as a prize...

We had over six hundred entries, so thank you to everyone who took part, but there can only be one winner...

[cue drum roll]


Continue reading "And the winner is..." »

February 9, 2010

Circuit Design Idea: Drive 12 LEDs with one I/O line

Drive 12 LEDs with one IO line.jpgFor those seeking circuit design inspiration, a new Design Idea has been uploaded to the site, on the topic of expanding the I/O of a pin-limited microcontroller.

The article begins:
The prototype display uses Kingbright's SC52-11EWA high-efficiency LEDs, which emit 2000 to 5600 µcd at a forward current of 10 mA. The driver is a 12-stage NXP 74HCT4040 binary counter or a 74HC4040 version for a lower power supply.

Continue reading "Circuit Design Idea: Drive 12 LEDs with one I/O line" »

Sign up for the Circuits-Gadget Freak newsletter

circuits nl logo.jpg Having one of those days? Work driving you mad? Just can't seem to find the time to visit Gadget Freak as much as you would like to?

Well, don't stress, help is at hand. If you can't come to us, we'll come to you!

You can now sign up for the Circuits newsletter to ensure you receive the latest and greatest Gadget Freak news, hot and fresh, straight into your inbox!

Signing up only takes a second and then you can sit back and relax as we do the rest.

Continue reading "Sign up for the Circuits-Gadget Freak newsletter" »

February 5, 2010

Sleep Remaining laser clock display

a laser alarm clock.jpgWe've all been there. You wake in the middle of the night, it's still dark, but you are not sure how many precious hours you have before work (or minutes, even, in the winter).  

For some (not me) a clock will be clearly visible, but Gadget Freak Nirav Patel needs glasses and the world can seem blurry without them....

Yes, he could stretch to put on his glasses and then clock the time (waking himself up in the process) or he could - as an ingenious inventor - create a device for displaying on the ceiling how much time remains for sleep, using a Lego-housed Arduino-based laser device.

(For more Arduino-based laser shows, see also - Build your own laser harp)

Continue reading "Sleep Remaining laser clock display" »

February 1, 2010

Most read Gadget Freak posts in January

Tricorder-Star-Trek-weapons-and-gadgets small.jpgTime for the monthly round-up looking at the most popular posts on Gadget Freak, to see what your peers have been reading in January. 

A Star Trek post makes it into the top three, along with the competition post, and the perennial LED favourite built by Peter Griffiths... 

In reverse order:

10. Star Trek gizmos, The Collection

9. Meet Andrew's blast from the past

8. Hacking your own Motorola DROID dock

Continue reading "Most read Gadget Freak posts in January" »

January 27, 2010

Steampunk iPod Nano and Nintendo Gameboy

eye-pod.jpgAh, Steampunk. We love the fuggy, Victorian-inspired retro-futuristic reworkings. Cast an eye, for example,  on this modified iPod Nano (1st Gen). A Mary Shelley's Frankenstein-inspired eye-pod, geddit?

Technabob quotes the designer, one Dr Grymm:
"The "eye-Pod" can be worn on the wrist via the leather cuff, or placed on it's custom Victrola base. All functionality of the iPod remain intact and a hidden USB cord retracts from the base to either a wall charger or your computer. There are hidden pressure plates that when touched send a strobing "static charge" into the quartz crystals on either side of the magnified viewing portal. Music can be heard either through the Victrola horn or though a portable personal hearing apparatus."
Apparently, it features in a Steampunk exhibition at the Museum of the History of Science, at Oxford University.

Continue reading "Steampunk iPod Nano and Nintendo Gameboy" »

January 21, 2010

Robot BigDog gets a BigBrother

Petman Concept jpg.jpg
What shall we use to fill the empty spaces?...Keep people as pets, race dogs, train rats, fill the attic with cash, bury treasure, store up leasure, but never relax, at all...
Empty Spaces, Pink Floyd (The Wall)

We like robotics on Gadget Freak, but what is it with these headless robotic beings they keep building at Boston Dynamics? The robot dog was rather disturbing, and the PETMAN prototype - a torso-less robot capable of walking - seems equally creepy.

Maybe BigBrotherish is the word I'm reaching for - the device is headlined 'BigDog gets a Big Brother' on the BostonDynamics website.

Continue reading "Robot BigDog gets a BigBrother" »

January 19, 2010

Taking texting control of your gadgets

control gadgets remotely.jpgWant to take control of your gadgets or household systems, via your mobile? Read on...

Alvaro Mautone was first motivated to take control of his gadgets, via an SMS Remote Controller, because he needed a remote way to control a water pump that was 500 meters from his home...

He writes:
Thanks to the GSM technology, inexpensive cellular telephones and the SMS (short message service) messages, it is now possible to build a gadget that fills these needs. Using the serial port incorporated in the mobile telephones. it is possible to design an SMS remote controller systems.

Continue reading "Taking texting control of your gadgets" »

January 13, 2010

Head-mounted video system runs on Linux

Linux augmented reality headware.jpg
This one caught my eye recently. Call it what you will - telepresence, augmented reality or head-mounted computing - this headset with connected video source is a home-brewed Linux-based system.

Thanks to Engadget (and Hack A Day) for flagging this one, and kudos to one Pascal Brisset for building the device.

Continue reading "Head-mounted video system runs on Linux" »

January 8, 2010

GPS Backtracker competition

GPS Backtracker.jpgIt's time for the January/February Gadget Freak compo! It's now kindly sponsored by DigiKey.

This device caught my eye recently - very good for people who get lost at festivals or town centres or car parks (though maybe not multi-storey car parks!)...

So, the prize up for grabs this time is a GPS Backtracker, described as a personal location finder. In other words, store a location (or three) and wherever you may wonder you can then be safely guided back to your original position...

The prize question

Continue reading "GPS Backtracker competition" »