Due to historical engineering decisions made many decades ago, a great many irrigation systems rely on solenoid valves that operate on 24 volts AC. This can be inconvenient if you’re trying to integrate those valves with a modern smart home control system. [Johan] had read that there were ways to convert these valves to more […]
Pinball machines have something for everyone. They’re engaging, fast-paced games available in a variety of sizes and difficulties, and legend has it that they can be played even while deaf and blind. Wizardry aside, pinball machines have a lot to offer those of us around here as well, as they’re a complex mix of analog […]
Famously, Nikola Tesla won the War of the Currents in the early days of electrification because his AC system could use transformers to minimize losses for long distance circuits. That was well before the invention of the transistor, though, and there are a lot of systems that still use AC now as a result of […]
Today in the it’s-surprising-that-it-works department we have a ding dong doorbell extension from [Ajoy Raman]. What [Ajoy] wanted to do was to extend the range of his existing doorbell so that he could hear it in his workshop. His plan of attack was to buy a new wireless doorbell and then interface its transmitter with […]
An electric typewriter is a rare and wonderful thrift store find, and even better if it still works. Unfortunately, there’s not as much use for these electromechanical beauties, so if you find one, why not follow [Konstantin Schauwecker]’s lead and turn it into a printer? The portable typewriter [Konstantin] found, a Silver Reed 2200 CR, looks […]
[Paul] likes his piano, but he doesn’t know how to play it. The obvious answer: program an Arduino to do it. Some aluminum extrusion and solenoids later, and it was working. Well, perhaps not quite that easy — making music on a piano is more than just pushing the keys. You have to push multiple […]
Occasionally, we get a tip for a project that is so compelling that we just have to write it up despite lacking details on how and why it was built. Alternatively, there are other projects where the finished product is cool, but the tooling or methods used to get there are the real treat. “Homeokinesis,” […]
Fresh from AliExpress, [Big Clive] got another fascinating item to tear down: a crane claw, as used in those all too familiar carnival games. These games feature a claw the player moves into position above a pile of toys or other items. Lower the claw gently down in the hopes that it grabs the target […]
Automated musical instruments aren’t a new idea. From water chimes to player pianos, they’ve been around for a while. But we can’t remember the last time we saw a player ukulele. [Zeroshot] shows us one, though, and it uses an Arduino. You can see and hear it in the video below. Honestly, with all the […]
Few consumer-grade PCs are what you’d categorize as built to last. Most office-grade machines are as likely as not to give up the ghost after ingesting a few too many dust bunnies, and the average laptop can barely handle a few drops of latte and some muffin crumbs before croaking. Sticking a machine like that […]