Here’s a good step by step on making your own Power over Ethernet (POE) cable to supply power to your router/access Point/wireless gateway using only your RJ-45 connection. Power over Ethernet allows you to run only a single RJ-45 cable (Ethernet) to your access point, and run the power over the unused pairs of wires within the RJ-45 cable. Link.
AizeMashu via the MAKE Flickr blog made the coolest OS switch (literally). “I bought a generic electrical switch from Radio Shack and wired it to switch my computer OS between Linux (left,) Windows (right) and boot disc (the off setting.) To get an idea of how macro this image is, the switch is mounted on a 3.5″ external drive plastic knockout”. Link.
Another homebrew MP3 project from awhile back…Procyon MP3 is a hardware MPEG 1 Layer 3 (MP3) audio player which supports user-controlled playback of MP3 files stored on a typical IDE hard disk connected to the device. With the emergence of MP3 as a popular standard for storing, playing, and exchanging music, droves of electronics and computer companies have introduced both portable and desktop MP3 player devices into the consumer market. The rise of MP3 has also produced dozens of personal engineering projects like this one. Link.
Tonepad is dedicated to providing ready-to-use layouts for effects and amplifier projects to the do-it-yourself music community. All layouts are provided free of charge and are subject to the limitations set forth on our legal page. Parts are available from Small Bear Electronics, and ready-made PCBs for many projects are now available directly through tonepad. Link.
Qucs is an integrated circuit simulator which means you are able to setup a circuit with a graphical user interface (GUI) and simulate the large-signal, small-signal and noise behaviour of the circuit. After that simulation has finished you can view the simulation results on a presentation page or window. The software aims to support all kinds of circuit simulation types, e.g. DC, AC, S-parameter, Harmonic Balance analysis, noise analysis, etc. Link.
Good for a ton of projects that use video. This simple adapter can be used to convert Y/C video (S-video) to a composite video. This adapter is useful in cases where your video output device has only S-video output but your signal source accepts only composite video input. This circuit works with both PAL and NTSC video standards. Link.
Do you like the idea of tesla coils and other high-voltage sparking stuff, but don’t have the time, money or patience to build something that elaborate? Here’s a fun little project that can make big, fat, noisy sparks at least 2 inches long, and can be built very quickly and cheaply. The Marx generator consists of an array of resistors, capacitors and spark gaps. Link.
