The afternoon projects thread

[Tibia]

The grand idiot who lived here before me bought his light fixtures from Wal-Mart. Cheap-ass Chinese crap can lights. I ragged on him when he did it, and I gave him more crap when the very first time the bulbs burned out, they baked inside the fixtures. So when I moved in two years ago, I had a switch that did nothing with two dead fixtures. Well, this week, I got sick of it. So here's during/before. The can on the right is what both fixtures looked like. The gaping hole is the fixture I took off, discovered there was six feet of absolutely redundant wire crammed in the box, and swore.

So two minutes of chopping and wiring, twenty minutes of adjusting the tie rod to secure the new fixture to the ceiling, and forty-five minutes looking for the bulbs, I had light. Since I was installing a two-can set, I just put a blank cover over the other box. End result:

And because I know some wise-ass is going to say "But you said the old ones overheated because they were cans. Why did you put new cans in?" I have an answer. These cans are wider. There's more room around the bulb for air flow. The heat isn't going to be trapped inside. And, unlike the cans the grand idiot used, these ones are drilled for ventilation in the back, letting ALL the hot air escape without baking bulbs.

P.S.: Do not mess with chicks who do their own house wiring. We can electrocute your D!CK! P.S.S.: Achewood RULES!

 

[samjc3]

P.S.: Do not mess with chicks who do their own house wiring. We can electrocute your D!CK! [/quote]
i'll remember that one! thanks for the advice!

good job! :thumb:

 

[Taiben]

@ Tib- but you took cans out..... oh wait nevermind.

and mis-quoting achewood doesnt make you cool.

 

[themadhacker]

well, earlier today I broke and within the same half hour fixed my snes.

I had my snes phat bare and lying on a sheet of plastic on my floor. I turned it on using the original switch, and when I let go, it fell on the mobo. The metal casing of the switch bridges two components for a second and then the whole thing turned off. I turned it back on and off several times, with nothing happening. "crap!", I thought. I had assumed it had fried. Then I remembered the big black fuse at the end of the board. So I went off to my dresser full of junk boards and pulled out a screwed up snes mobo that I bought on ebay awhile back. I desoldered the fuse from that, and stuck it on my snes. Turned it on, and it worked like a charm.

Not really an afternoon project, but I felt that it was worth mentioning.

 

[samjc3]

Samjc3 - screen looks nice, what make and model is it BTW; and any chance, if you haven't already, you can post about the screen and your views on it in the Screens forum section as I am sure others will also find it interesting!

hmm. i'll see what i can dig up :thumb:

 

[DK]

Did the rubber band fix to my Guitar Hero SG controller, now my whammy bar works

 

[PalmerTech]

Nice lights Tibia, neat job.

Samjc3 - screen looks nice, what make and model is it BTW; and any chance, if you haven't already, you can post about the screen and your views on it in the Screens forum section as I am sure others will also find it interesting!

I sold him that screen, I have a few more. I am working on a buy of a flaxload of them for the modretro store.

Basically, there are these in-car DVD players with two screens. One of them plays the DVD, and the other just has video inputs. Those video input ones are neat for us, obviously.

There are several players that use that same LCD+driver, I am looking for more, here is one of them:
http://www.target.com/Trutech-Dual-7-PD ... LMD-5702RT

 

[eurddrue]

Did the rubber band fix to my Guitar Hero SG controller, now my whammy bar works

Fixed my friends guitar hero controller so he doesn't have to move his hand to hit the orange fret

 

[Basement_Modder]

Did the rubber band fix to my Guitar Hero SG controller, now my whammy bar works

Fixed my friends guitar hero controller so he doesn't have to move his hand to hit the orange fret

What, did you put it on the head of the guitar by the strum bar, or just tape the green fret down?

 

[schmellyfart]

 

[ShockSlayer]

I did this with a gamecube controller, for the cstick!

Great portablizers think alike.

SS

 

[XCVG]

I remember Bac tried it with something a while back. It was concluded that the thing didn't vary resistance enough and was imprecise. I guess the conclusion was wrong.

 

[zeturi]

I bought a coldless soldering iron at radioshack a while back, thought it'd be useful. It was awesome for the first five minutes. It got hot within ten seconds, and worked about as well as my corded one.
Then the pain came.
You see, the way it was made it that you have to slide the switch to the on position, and also have to hold down a red button to solder. After a while of holding down said evil button, my middle finger wanted to die. I tried different postions with it, no luck. I even hot-glued the slider to stay on, and squeezed the button down. Still no dice. After a while, the button would get weak and make bad contact. So I thought, screw it, stole a SPST switch from my alarm radio, and soldered it.
Evil friggin stock picture:

Stupid stupid stupid slider-button stupid picture:

And my fixed iron:

I likes my new iron.

 

[jleemero]

I make corncob pipes.
I was never taught how, and I don't do it often.
And today, just happened to be one of those days, where I got bored, and made one.

Pretty simple, clean up the cob, bore your hole, get a proper stem for it, dry it, etc.

Well, I made a fairly large one today.
And, by complete chance, something fun came in the mail.

My new E-Cigarette!

If you haven't heard of these, they're "Electronic Cigarettes".
They contain no tobacco.
It's Nicotine and Flavoring mixed in with IDON'TREMEMBERWHAT.
It gets atomized (Vaporized), as you inhale it.
The IDON'TREMEMBERWHAT looks like smoke for a moment, and disappears.
PRETTY COOL!

I don't smoke, however.
THANKFULLY! You can get no-nicotine cartridges.
Which is what I did.


So, I've got a corncop pipe and a new e-cigarette...
CAN'T IMAGINE WHAT TO DO FROM THERE!

It's USB Powered!
I could add a battery, if I wanted to.

In this pic, you can see the atomizer sticking out of the cob, and the cartridge that holds the liquid!



All in all, good fun, and the result is wonderful.

If you're curious, the cartridges I use not only have no nicotine, they're Vanilla flavored

Don't smoke kids, it's bad for you.
That's why I don't.

 

[eurddrue]

Sick! My sister is harvesting an acre of corn right now, I'm sure I could jack a cob or two, and make some of those.

 

[ShockSlayer]

I'm sure I could jack a cob or two

 

[Basement_Modder]

Sick! My sister is harvesting an acre of corn right now, I'm sure I could jack a cob or two, and make some of those.

Sometimes I forget that you live at the intersection of Middle street and Nowhere avenue. You seem like a city kid. XD

 

[schmellyfart]

Argh my other post didnt post. oh well

I used a psp phats joystick with no resistors. More info in the video, I dont want to re type it

 

[eurddrue]

I'm sure I could jack a cob or two

oops...

 

[Tibia]

Finally got around to finishing up a few small projects this weekend. One was a DS case mod. The original case got thrown and broke, but she wanted something unique. Here it is:



Click the thumbnails for larger. I used the pink buttons, and some other odds and ends from the old one to add some contrast. The sticker under the d-pad is covering up a defect in the new case. It wasn't worth waiting for a new case. I also got my decal on my laptop, finally.

Before:

After: