The afternoon projects thread

[Mario]

Hopefully some of you remember my weed whacker-powered bicycle I built almost a year ago. (viewtopic.php?f=3&t=656)

It's still going strong! I added an extra heatsink to help keep it cool and a temperature gauge.

The gauge has ten LEDs that go up based on how hot the engine is. The LEDs are driven by a LM3914 that takes an analog voltage from an op-amp to drive the LEDs. The op-amp takes the resistance from the thermister attached to the engine and converts it to an analog voltage for the LM3914. I added a 555 that turns on when the top LED lights up and makes a buzzer turn on and off.
I forgot to take a picture of the underside of the board, but it's a rat's nest of wire porn. It took about 2 hours to wire up.

 

[ShockSlayer]

That -> Sex.

 

[Mako321]

That -> Sex.

That > Sex.

 

[eurddrue]

So at what LED is "OH flax I'M GETTING THE *Can'tSayThisOnTV* OFF THIS THING!" ?

 

[bentomo]

Mario should do something EXTREME with that bike.

 

[samjc3]

Mario should do something EXTREME with that bike.

oooh!
and then we could analyze it with SCIENCE!

 

[XCVG]

Can you pedal it still? Because it looks like the engine blocks one of the pedals.

Awesome, though, and nice job on the temp gauge- very clean and professional. Also, holy flax that camera takes nice pictures.

 

[Mario]

Drue: That would be when it starts beeping at you.

XCVG: It doesn't block it, and I used to be able to pedal it. But, the tire wore down so much that I had to move it closer to the engine. That made the chain too loose and it kept coming off. So, I broke the chain off. Actually, just today I took the pedals off and replaced them with bike pegs.

 

[bentomo]

Now put a usb port on it so you can charge stuff on the go.

 

[Sonyportableizer]

I modded a Gameboy Pocket to have a backlight so I can play in the dark (Duh )
The video quality sucks, but its better then nothing (But no sound), and in person you cant see the leds shine through
I would have posted this earlier but since my phone sent it I needed to have service to send the big video file
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-kOSce3Fc4

What do ya think, I only ruined one gameboy in the process!

 

[Sonyportableizer]

my third backlight gameboy, second DMG one
Has another White backlight, a new on/off button I found thanks to J.D. and crappy phone pics make the screen look crappier then it is. In person it looks awesome, and not negative like in the photo. I took the best pic I had to post with
I have others feel free to ask for them, but they suck.

 

[Twilight Wolf]

Finally got the motivation to degunkify my PC case's fan filters. PAIN IN THE ASS. After removing both sides of the case, 15 screws to remove two hard drive cages (only 15 because one disappeared when I was first assembling it), then twelve more screws to remove each of the cages' three grilles, I FINALLY got to remove the mesh filters and wash the five months' worth of dust out of them. I washed the grilles, too, and I took a wet paper towel to each of the two fans' blades and got rid of all the dust that had accumulated on them. Decided to wipe off the blades for the fan in the back and the ones on the big 200mm fan on top, too. While I had the case open, I decided to make a quick inspection of my parts -- not a bit of dust on any of them. The filters were obviously doing their job, and I think there's enough air moving through the case itself that any dust that enters gets blown out before it can settle on anything. Before I closed it up , I turned the 200mm fan on the top up from low speed to medium to suck out even more hot air -- especially effective since my CPU's heatsink points right at it, so the hot air that gets blown through the heatsink gets sucked straight out of the top of the case. Then I spent an hour reassembling everything and putting my tools away, and then I gave the whole case a wipedown. It now looks just like new, the blue LEDs in the fans at the front of the case shine through clearly and beautifully once again, and the case cools like new, too.

 

[J.D]

my third backlight gameboy, second DMG one
Has another White backlight, a new on/off button I found thanks to J.D. and crappy phone pics make the screen look crappier then it is. In person it looks awesome, and not negative like in the photo. I took the best pic I had to post with
I have others feel free to ask for them, but they suck.

Waitwaitwaitwait

I helped you find that on/off button?

 

[ShockSlayer]

This mod was actually completed a loooong time ago.

SS

 

[XCVG]

Finally got the motivation to degunkify my PC case's fan filters. PAIN IN THE ASS. After removing both sides of the case, 15 screws to remove two hard drive cages (only 15 because one disappeared when I was first assembling it), then twelve more screws to remove each of the cages' three grilles, I FINALLY got to remove the mesh filters and wash the five months' worth of dust out of them. I washed the grilles, too, and I took a wet paper towel to each of the two fans' blades and got rid of all the dust that had accumulated on them. Decided to wipe off the blades for the fan in the back and the ones on the big 200mm fan on top, too. While I had the case open, I decided to make a quick inspection of my parts -- not a bit of dust on any of them. The filters were obviously doing their job, and I think there's enough air moving through the case itself that any dust that enters gets blown out before it can settle on anything. Before I closed it up , I turned the 200mm fan on the top up from low speed to medium to suck out even more hot air -- especially effective since my CPU's heatsink points right at it, so the hot air that gets blown through the heatsink gets sucked straight out of the top of the case. Then I spent an hour reassembling everything and putting my tools away, and then I gave the whole case a wipedown. It now looks just like new, the blue LEDs in the fans at the front of the case shine through clearly and beautifully once again, and the case cools like new, too.

What case is it? I should probably clean my computer too, and do a backup while I'm at it.

 

[Twilight Wolf]

It's an Antec Nine Hundred.

I love this case -- since I can't just run an open-air setup like Palmer did since my room gets so very dusty very quickly, this is the next best thing. Matter of fact, I actually ran my desktop with the sides off for a little while when I was doing some finishing work on it and I discovered that it ran cooler with the sides on. I assume it's probably because the cool air is routed through the case and allowed to do its job instead of being sucked in through the front and escaping out the side before it can cool anything. There's always a lot of air moving through it, which keeps things cool, and like I said, there's enough moving through that any dust that enters has no chance to settle on anything.

Still would have been nice if Antec had thought that maybe people might want to use dust filters in this thing. Having to remove ~30 screws to install/clean dust filters in a case that has the potential for sucking in tons of dust = fail.

 

[J.D]

Looks like an awesome case.

 

[Twilight Wolf]

It is a BADASS case.

That's now how it looks stock, though, unfortunately. ;_;

I'll take a picture for you all.

 

[Mako321]

I wanted that case.

 

[Twilight Wolf]

Here it is.

Kinda blurry, but you get the idea. Looks even better when the room is darker.

What's especially cool is that my motherboard has matching blue LEDs on it, and my monitor's power LED is blue, as well. Didn't plan any of that, either, that's just how it happened. <3