Gadget Freak

This month sees the one year anniversary of Gadget Freak. During the past twelve months, this blog has seen everything from gadgets for your kitchen, to designs for your car, and we've even taken you to the outer reaches of the universe.

With such a variety of electronic designs nestled in these pages, we did what all lazy journalists do decided to take a walk down memory lane and find out what were the most popular Gadget Freaks since our launch - as chosen by you.

Buckle your seatbelts, everyone - you're in for a bumpy ride.

1. Neuroti-Kart: Home-made electric go-kart

This old chestnut is our most popular Gadget Freak and continues to perform well months after it made its debut on these pages. After extensive tinkering in his shed, this inventor created his very own go-kart. His design goals were to make something "electric powered, quiet, fast, capable of doing donuts in my street".

2. Pete decided to give his lamp a facelift

Making an ordinary lamp a work of art. Seeing great potential in a normal, off-the-shelf product, Pete Griffiths designed a circuit he popped into a lamp to give it a new lease of life. By driving the red, green and blue LEDs with varying pulse widths the controller can generate up to 16 million colours using fades, strobe and static effects. Who says you can't give the humble lamp a nip and tuck?

3. Hans knows the truth is out there

It just needs someone to find it. You never know what radio signals you might pick up if you just stop and listen. That's why Hans built a simple and tiny receiver capable of detecting QRSS (extreme slow speed continuous wave) transmissions on a fixed frequency, such as 10.14MHz. The device is powered by a computer's USB port and the audio output feeds into the PC's sound card and it can hook straight into a laptop for top secret missions.

4. Can you turn a Pringles can into a WiFi antenna?

Apparently so. The jury's still out as to whether these guys have way too much time on their hands, or if this is simply a case of viral marketing, but this duo seemed to have answered the age-old conundrum of what to do with that empty Pringles can lying around the house: just turn it into a WiFi antenna. As you do.

5. Chris knew the secret to a great martini

He liked his martinis whirred not stirred. It's in the blending. So he built a home-made blender made entirely out of junk. The heart of the system is an electronic circuit that drives a 10,000 RPM tachometer with shift light and a fully functioning light tree to practice your drag racing reaction times.

6. Top 10 tips for the PIC16C508

A common complaint shared by electronics engineers is that they run out of output lines when programming. Many projects needs lots of drive lines and if one needs more than around eight, it may be wise to jump to another microcontroller. To combat this problem, as well as another nine handy hints, Gadget Freak brings to you the top 10 tips for the PIC16C508.

7. Smart gadget sure to make drivers smile

This Electropages video featuring a very smart gadget recently landed in Gadget Freak's inbox. We're sure the gadget is a dream come true for anyone who's received a surprise visit from the parking inspector.

8. Build a 7x7 monochrome LED display

Here is the circuit schematic as well as build instructions and parts list or an easy to build 7x7 LED matrix. The 7x7 monochrome display comes into its own when showing animations. The link shows the circuit schematic is quite simple. All you need is an AVR, a few transistors, com resistors and some logic to convert RS232 to TTL.

9. Build your own electronic distance meter

From the Build Your Own Microcontroller site - a very handy and comprehensive collection of electronic DIY projects - comes the electronic distance meter.

10. Guido knew the secret to a perfect cuppa

It's all in the timing. So he designed a battery-operated teat timer with a built-in LED display that will brew a perfect cup of tea every time. It's simple: just fix a tea-bag on the tea-timer's extension arm, place a mug of hot water underneath it and push a button according to how strong you like your tea. Now the only thing you have to worry about is Tetley's or Earl Grey.