Technology

DIY Powerbook 65W AC Adapter Repair

DIY Powerbook 65W AC Adapter Repair

Repair4 This week my 2nd adapter shorted out completely. And since my battery only lasts about 7 minutes I was dead in the water. I really didn’t want to fork out more bucks on another new supply so I decided to crack it open. I was able to fix the problem and put it back together, just like new….sort of. First I had to crack open the casing. The supply was obviously designed to be disposable and the casing had no latches or screws holding it together. I had to hammer a thin screwdriver around the edges and eventually cracked the egg open. [via] Link.

The Grower bot…

The Grower bot…

Front Sm Grower is a small ‘rover’ vehicle which navigates around the periphery of a room. It hugs the room’s walls and responds to the carbon dioxide levels in the air by actually drawing varying heights of ‘grass’ on the walls in green ink. The Grower robot senses the carbon dioxide (CO2) level in the air via a small digital CO2 sensor. This sensor is mounted high on a wall of the exhibition space and sends data wirelessly to the robot. The number of people in an exhibit space breathing in oxygen and exhaling CO2 has an immediate effect on the sensor. My robot takes a reading of the CO2 level every few seconds and in response it draws a vertical line in green ink on the wall. Thanks Doug! Link.

Homemade Intercom System

Homemade Intercom System

0909-095344 Markus The main unit has four buttons. In order these are on/off, remote call disable, push to talk, and remote station select. The remote unit has two buttons. In order these are the call button and the privacy button (which disables the audio and the indicator lamp). Only one of these fancy remotes is supported; the other is just a plain loudspeaker with no call button or indicator lamp feature. Link.

Build Your Own Mac for 9

Build Your Own Mac for $199

X86 While it was always possible (although costly and time consuming) to cobble together a PowerPC Mac from old and new parts, hardly anyone did it. Now that Apple has introduced OS X for Intel processors, however, it’s conceivable that you could soon be building your own Mac from scratch. One user, CEpeep, shopped around and found everything you’d need to build your own Intel Mac for under $200 – no rebates, no refurbs. Obviously, there are still many reasons why you’ll want to buy a true Mac – Apple quality and support (and innovation), the current lack of a legal x86 OS X, etc. But it’s interesting to think that the days of the do-it-yourself Mac may be just around the corner. Link.

Circuit to use old phones as intercoms

Images-11 Here’s a good post from 1993 on making a circuit to use old phones as inter-comms- Talking over the phones is easy. You put DC current through the phone and it transmits and receives audio. So two phones and a current source (about 25mA) all in series will give you a talking circuit. A suitable current source can be as simple as a 9V battery and a series resistor whose value is adjusted (with both phones offhook) till about 25mA flows. Link.