Thermistors are pretty cool little items. They convert heat into resistance. By having the temperature available as resistance, you can use the value to control other things like circuits and programs. Photo cells do the same thing with light, and they are in lots of common devices from night lights to dimmers on clock radios. […]
This morning, Ed Baafi, Amon Milner, Jacob William, and a number of the youth leaders at Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn developed an idea of how to teach electricity to youth with a new kit idea. What we are looking to do is reinvent the Alternative Energy module in the summer program. The kit […]
Certainly there are lots of electronics and kits that have entered Makers’ lives lately. Some people already know how to solder, but many people are just getting started. Amy posted a comment voicing her frustration at learning the seemingly guild like skill of soldering. Below are my notes to Amy, which seemed like it would […]
Brad sends this about his son’s gift project: For Christmas this year, Lucas made his grandmom a battery powered amp for her guitar. This was a big project – first time with a soldering iron. Worked out well with only one minor burn. He did 80% of the soldering and drilled all the holes for […]
How is your holiday hacking going? If you have been good, Santa has stocked you up with lots of clever goodies to keep you and yours entertained. Below are a few things that I found in my stocking and am looking forward to fussing with: Disposable battery/charger for cellphones. At two dollars (frugal Santa), if […]
Hopefully you have some free time over the Holidays. If you do, and you’re like me, you might want to check out the new version of Fritzing. We covered it before, twice in fact, and here is the latest release. It has come a long way in just the past few months. Fritzing is an […]
In our house, we haven’t had cable tv for about 6 years. When we moved in, there was an antenna on the roof and coax cable to a bunch of locations where tvs could go. In the basement is a signal amplifier that seems to help all the equipment find the signal. It took some […]
