In part 1 we showed you how to build your own prototype RGB keypad. Today we'll show off some new ideas we worked on to create the project and turn it from prototype to fully functional
How-To: Make a RGB combination door lock (Part 2)
In part 1 we showed you how to build your own prototype RGB keypad. Today we'll show off some new ideas we worked on to create the project and turn it from prototype to fully functional
Continue reading How-To: Make a RGB combination door lock (Part 2)
How-To: Make an RGB combination door lock (Part 1)
Putting a custom designed electronic lock on your space seems like a geek right of passage. For our latest workspace, we decided to skip the boring numbered keypad and build a custom RGB backlit keypad powered by an Arduino. Instead of typing in numbers, your password is a unique set of colors. In today's How-To, we'll show you how to build your own and give you the code to make it all work.
Continue reading How-To: Make an RGB combination door lock (Part 1)
IR controlled relays
If you're thinking of building some DIY home automation, this looks like an interesting idea. At the heart is a PIC16F84 that decodes IR signals and controls six outputs - in this case, relays to activate various appliances. The PIC is dirt cheap - if you get a deal on some relays you should be able to build a small local IR HA system for $30... This might be just the thing for my office. It's cheap enough that it probably wouldn't walk off.
3 liter homebrew beer keg
Beer kegs are several things. They are expensive, heavy, but most importantly delicious. We found a nice guide for creating your own 3 liter beer keg. This is an inexpensive solution for homebrewers looking to keg their own beer.
The guide goes into detail on assembly and parts needed to create the bottle adapter. Most of the parts can be picked up locally or through MoreBeer.com. CO2 cartridges are used to pressurize the bottle. To keep everything cool you can use a standard water cooler with a few simple modifications. The 3 liter bottle is too tall for some coolers so you'll need to cut a hole in the lid. Add a piece of aluminum covered styrofoam to the top and bottom, toss in some ice, and your brew should stay cold for about 3 hours.
The author does note that this is not recommended for long term storage. So drink up!
Parasitic power devices
Aside from having a very cool name, parasitic power is an innovate way to recapture already spent power. This power can come in the form of wasted heating or cooling of a building for example. Last week the Southern Methodist University activated the first commercial Green Machine from ElectraTherm. The unit recycles residual heat from the building into electricity. So far, the 50kW Green Machine has exceeded expectations. The company also says owners can recoup the units cost after about three years.
What it takes to go solar
ExtremeTech has posted an article detailing the process of adding solar power to a house. The author included some interesting detail about his personal power consumption, and details about the process of selecting his contractor too. The total cost of the installation came to about $36,000 after state and federal rebates for going solar.
It's not a homebrew setup, but it's good to see an article detailing all that is involved. We'll take you through the tech side of it after the break.
The integrated desk
Since it happens to be the day after a nice holiday break, many of us are finding ourselves back in front of our desk once again. Perhaps some of you never left it the entire weekend. In any case, it seems fitting to take a look at a few interesting integrated desks we've come across lately. Follow through after the break to see our favorites.
Smart car sensing with RF
In order to tell his home automation system that he's home, [Jim] mounted a RF transmitter in each of his cars. When the car is on, the transmitter is powered up. The house picks up the transmitter signal when the car arrives or departs. With that information, he was able to set up some stateful rules that can be activated when people arrive or depart. Some people prefer to use APRS and read vehicle location from the transmitted GPS coordinates, but this is a bit cheaper and doesn't transmit your position to the entire world all the time. The useful range is about 100 feet, so this can work even if you have to park in the street.
Plumb in your espresso machine (cheap)
A while back, I wrote up a how-to on some mods I made to my ECM Giotto espresso machine. After giving it some break-in time, I finally wrote up my cheap plumbed in espresso trick. Plumbing kits use a $50 solenoid that requires special plumbing. My version uses a $12 fridge solenoid, easily adds on to my previous mods, and only requires some tubing size adaptation.
DMX light control for home automation
Generally, the only time I've ever seen DMX in use is for stage productions. [Dan] sent in his home light control project - he used a RS-232 to DMX interface and a bunch of commercial DMX dimmers. His light switches were replaced with potentiometers connected to the system via CAT5 cabling. The POTs send 0-10v up the line to the dimmers, and the manual control can override the automated(DMX) settings. The system is simple, robust and responsive - avoiding the delay pitfalls usually incurred by systems like X10.
Arduino controlled Espresso Machine
The arduino is really starting to become prevalent for hardware hacking. [Nash] used one to take control of his Gaggia espresso machine. (They're really decent little machines) He popped in a LCD display, some solid state relays to control the pump and the heating element, and an AD595 to interface a K type thermocouple. It looks like an excellent hack, but for the love of god man - get a better grinder!
He describes the original mod here, and added a small gallery of internal shots here. From the latest comments, it looks like the guys are RepRap project are even interested in the thermocouple PID control that [Nash] implemented.
Silent X10 mod (cheap SSR)
I'm feeling a bit retro for the holidays, so here's another classic: If you've got a non-dimming X10 switch, you've experienced the incredibly loud, obnoxious sound that it makes when you switch it on or off. (Mine's in my stairwell) There's a simple mod to silence the thing: remove the
1-wire thermostat control
For some reason, computer controllable thermostats are pretty freakin' expensive. I found a reference to a 1-wire thermostat in this(mirror) sample senior project on home automation. It turns out that Dallas Semiconductor put one together a while back as an application for their TINI platform. (web-application server on a chip). The write-up has since vanished from their site, but I found it thatnks to archive.org. The thermostat used to run about $50, and a similar model still seems to be produced. The 1-wire interface is pretty simple - Maxim's TINI board to control it: not so much. Just using the 1-wire interface with an inexpensive thermostat and controlling from a PC seems pretty viable to me. Just in case, I mirrored the 1-wire interface schematics here.
Breathing Walls with Shape Memory Alloy Wire
When you need something quietly bending or moving, don't underestimate SMA's (or Shape Memory Alloys). The Living Glass project by architects [David Benjamin] and [Soo-in Yang] catalogs an experiment in building interactive, flexible, "breathing", walls out of SMA wire and microcontrollers. Although they use Basic Stamps, the project could easily be extended to more cost-effective microcontrollers for large surfaces. The project is well documented with videos (AVI) of each prototyping step and even includes the ideas that were ultimately scrapped. Even if you don't build a wall of interactive gills, this project should give you plenty of ideas for uses of SMA wire embedded in semi-flexible materials.
Remote control your blinds
I was dredging my brain for interesting topics to cover and this vertical blind hack popped into my head. The page isn't the prettiest, but it's the hack that counts. The mechanism is constructed from PC board. A motor fitted with a ball chain drive gear pulls the chain in either direction. When the end of travel is reached, a micro-switch is triggered by the stand off that's actuated by the chain. The motor is driven by a pair of relays that latch to form a simple direction control. When power is triggered on or off, the motor starts moving until the stop is triggered.
