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Sponsored by Digi-Key Gadget Master features cool, homemade electronic gadgets proudly brought to us--by you!
Complete with build instructions for the design engineer who likes the silly side of inventing things and enjoys building stuff in his and her spare time, these gadgets range from highly silly and impractical to extraordinarily inspirational for your own engineering design work.
The night light saver can be attached to a lamp in your very own home. It uses a 2051 chip and a small triac. The night light saver is a very easy-to-install, inexpensive device that will help you save energy in the home, and in these climate change-aware times, that's a good thing.
This 3A charger was originally designed to work with small batteries such as those commonly used in motorcycles. It is possible to charge a car battery using this device but it will take a lot longer.
Check out the Electro-ramblings blog for a circuit design for Li-ion charging.
Specifically, it is a post from 'Alice' in the 'Engineer in Wonderland' series, covering use of the Linear LM317 variable output voltage regulator to charge a 12V battery.
The post begins:
There are an awful lot of Li-ion charging chips out there, and you would have thought there was one for every eventuality.
But it turns out there isn't.
For example, there is a sort of no-designer's-land between 6.5V where linear Li-ion chargers top out - although Linear's LTC1734 works up to 8V - and around 12V where switching chargers start.
It's still in beta - the Web equivalent of caveat emptor - but check out the emerging new Circuits section on the site. (Click to expand the image on the left)
With the black cloud of global warming threatening the planet, people are finally starting to seriously go green. But where is the global interest in green projects? It isn't like they can't be exciting, as new methods of harnessing energy are at the forefront of modern technology. What I am going to share with you here is not hopelessly high tech, but a very manageable project for anyone with the interest and patience.
Solar powered trikes have become very popular across the pond, and a wide variety can be purchased as kits and also as readily made vehicles. This one is designed to be built by hand, by anyone, in any suitable garage or garden shed!
The construction plan, provided at www.instructables.com, details the use of three Q-cell brand mono-crystalline solar panels pushing 21.8 volts peak at around 1.2 amps.
A good one for a Friday afternoon - using induction to charge an iPhone, courtesy of a yo-yo. The "iYo", to be precise. Very stylish it looks, too.
Created by Swedish designer Peter Thuvande, he was looking for ways to charge his new iPhone. "And since solar chargers don´t work at night or in Sweden half the year, this should be a smash hit," he writes.
"And of course there is a small onboard LI cell to store the electricity generated. So no need to charge as you yoyo. Yoyo and then charge."
An AVR Light Controller for LiPo/LiIon-Powered Halogen Bike Lights
Bike lights seem to be popular topics at the moment, and we are returning to the theme. Our Technology Editor, Steve Bush, has flagged this project, which is based on powering halogen lighting rather than LEDs.
Essentially, battery voltage levels are measured by a microcontroller that calculates the duty cycle to achieve a desired output power.
The designer describes the problem thus:
Lithium-Polymer batteries provide enough power, but cannot be used directly with halogen lights. A two-cell LiPo battery (nominal 7.4V) provides about 8.5V when fully charged, and it is not allowed to be discharged below 5V. Halogen lights are commonly designed for 6V or 12V and their light power is controlled by the provided voltage level. While an 8.5V voltage level can overheat and destroy a 6V halogen light, the emitted light at 5V is very low. Therefore, a power controller is required that keeps the voltage supply constant for the halogen light.
Continuing the biking theme, check out the ErockIT, the invention of Stefan Gulas. Half push bike, half motorbike, all electric. It can go at speeds of up to 50 miles per hour (80km/h).
He describes it as "a new kind of highly emotional electric motorcycle".
Italian designer Alberto is a good friend of Gadget Master - he was the inventor behind the Surveillance Camera System and the PC Thermometer. He has now completed a new proof of concept - the greenbox.
One of my bug-bears is power prodigality with the whole plug-your-phone-into-the-wall charging process. I genuinely don't want to waste power but I also genuinely forget to unplug the charger. This is where the greenbox could come in.
It's a device that magically disconnects the charger from the mains when not in use.
The design cues of the box and its lid are centrally important. Alberto writes:
Ahead of the imminent July/August competition, and inspired by the recent greenbox post, here is a roundup of some power conservation-related Gadget Master blogs.
Not quite so spoiled for choice this time, but the posts range from night light savers, through energy harvesting to broken solar panels.
Thanks to Steve Bush, our Technology Editor, for flagging this one - a self-built passive infra-red detector, to help protect electronic equipment from the effects of static in violent storms of thunder and lightning.
The inventor, Jeff, lived in Majorca and felt the vulnerability of devices that had to be attached to mains electricity supply or the telephone lines.
The problems of static-intensive storms were compounded, he writes, by overhead electricity and telephone networks coursing with the very high voltages. He looked to build his own solution - a P.I.R. (passive infra-red) Detector....
Hats off to Tom Miceli, a 22-year-old student who built his own cool electric motorcycle during his final year at Appalachian State University.
Wired has the full story of how he stripped a '96 Kawasaki ZX6 Ninja to the frame and applied some DIY to build an electric motorcycle capable of reaching 70 mph and travelling over a range of 60 miles.
A challenge for all inventive Gadget Masters out there - harness the newly found power of a Google power management widget.
The uber search giant has just announced a UK angle for the Google PowerMeter, a free software tool that provides information on how much electricity your home is using.
Thanks 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."
Here is a great site for Gadget Masters - check out Dave Jones' Electronics Engineering Video Blog. There's a wealth of video content that Dave is sharing. As well as tutorials there are also product reviews, teardowns, and general investigations.
For example, in this video Dave cracks open the Varta 15 minute NiMH battery charger...
Here's a story that caught Gadget Master's ever-roving eye - Potato Power - "Potato Batteries for Use in the Developing World"
A company is investigating using boiled potatoes to provide a green and inexpensive answer to the low power energy needs in third-world areas, lacking access to electrical infrastructure.
This is not aimed at the younger reader, like before, but is a weightier tome covering "basic electronics for undergraduate students in science and engineering".
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Italian designer Alberto is a good friend of Gadget Master - he was the inventor behind the Surveillance Camera System and the PC Thermometer. He has now completed a new proof of concept - the greenbox. 
That's the question asked on YouTube, by its creator, one shawnlg79.
Hats off to Tom Miceli, a 22-year-old student who built his own cool electric motorcycle during his final year at Appalachian State University.
Thanks 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.
Here's a story that caught Gadget Master's ever-roving eye - Potato Power - "Potato Batteries for Use in the Developing World"
Like London buses, you wait a long time for one good book and another shows up straight after. Following on from "62 Projects to Make with a Dead Computer by Randy Sarafan", another worthwhile book has crossed my desk, Basic Electronics for Scientists and Engineers. 
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