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How to make your own OLED (organic LED) in a home laboratory? [image source]
An Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) is any Light Emitting Diode (LED) whose emissive electroluminescent layer is composed of a film of organic compounds. The layer usually contains a polymer substance that allows suitable organic compounds to be deposited. They are deposited in rows and columns onto a flat carrier by a simple “printing” process. The resulting matrix of pixels can emit light of different colors.
Your own homebrewed OLED – [Link]
For around $30 in parts and a good amount of patience, you can have a completely open source and hackable mp3 player ready to go. It can be modified to accept serial commands, be embedded in an art project, used as the voice of your next smart talking robo-sidekick, or filled with music and used as is. Put in whatever size card you want, up to the theoretical limit of the MMC format! All the source and schematics are here for free as part of the Creative Commons. I have kits available if you don’t feel like scavenging for the parts yourself.
This player features a shuffle mode, basic track navigation, volume control, FAT32 support, fragmented file support, an unlimited number of files on the root directory, and high quality playback. Files at 256Kbps can be played without a hitch. Variable bitrate files are supported with peaks up to 320Kbps.
The World’s Simplest Open Source DIY MP3 player - [Link]
Summer is almost over and your chances of capturing mother nature are slipping away. Don’t get too distraught, however, because fall and winter are coming, meaning months ahead to construct your own solar panel.
- You can pick up all the solar panels you’ll ever need in the HacknMod Store (along with any other DIY project supplies you need).
- Learn how to construct a professional, durable 60 watt solar panel.
- Don’t miss our on HacknMod’s vast collection of DIY Free Energy projects.
Construct your own 60 Watt Solar Panel - [Link]
So what does a bored Optics Engineer do in his free time? Build a handheld flashlight so bright it can toast a cat, of course. [via]
The 45-year-old Dutch optics engineer has been building his own lights since he was eight, but his recent 38-million-candlepower creation, the Maxablaster, is more like a miniature star. To start, Ottow stripped out the innards of a powerful commercial flashlight and switched in a mercury arc bulb, which generates light by creating an ultra-hot plasma between two closely spaced electrodes inside the gas-filled central chamber of the lamp. That results in a brighter, more focused beam but also kicks out more ultraviolet light (hence the sunburn, a product of early testing). So he added a specially coated reflector and designed, ground, and coated a new glass window that would trap UV rays while still pumping out light.
Homemade 38 Million Candlepower Flashlight - [Link]
Another contest, another batch of cool projects! Once again, the Trossen Robotics Community (TRC) came through with some amazing ideas. We’re very excited to announce the winners of this round’s Trossen Robotics contest!
In case you’re new to the TRC, here’s a quick refresher on how this contest works: A wide range of talented and dedicated people come to our Project Showcase forum to show off a project they’ve been working on. After so many months, we (the Trossen Robotics team) evaluate each project, and score them in the following categories: “Wow” factor, Ingenuity, Creativity, and Presentation. We run this contest to help promote and encourage innovation and ingenuity. People are allowed to submit a wide range of projects ranging from robotics, automation, art, RFID, DIY, mods, inventions, and anything else demonstrating some form of technological creativity. We invite all bloggers to help promote the innovation that these unique individuals have demonstrated!
Enough talk, here are the winners from this round of the TRC Contest that we felt deserved recognition for their creations.
Trossen Robotics Community Contest - [Link]
Mos writes:I’ve made a DIY USB Controller. Well i needed some extra buttons on my G25 wheel. Maybe someone will find it useful.You need a hardware programmer to write the bootloader to the Chip once. A simple programmer layout I’ve made is attached, but note that it only works with LPT ports with >= 4Volt levels. But many modern PC LPT’S have lower voltage, check your LPT port first. All cables should be as short as possible. Connect 12V & 5V to appropriate PC power supply pins or other stable powersupply with 5V & 12V. My programmer doesn’t has a socket, it programs the chip “In Circuit”. [via]
Do it yourself USB Controller / Display - [Link]
The uWatch is an open source RPN and Algebraic scientific calculator watch that you can build yourself. Jones writes: [via]
It only had an 18 key keypad, but I figured that was OK as my old CFX-400 only had 16 + 4 side keys. All the extra functions were performed with a MENU key and two rows of 4 soft function buttons that mapped to the 8 keys directly below the LCD.
uWatch : World’s First DIY Scientific Calculator Watch - [Link]
This PCB drill is made of wood and looks really cool. Wouldn’t mind to have one on my table. Design is very unique – it uses various custom made parts, motors from old printers and VCR’s. Author even simulated all design code on a Labcenter’s Proteus VSM.
“Made from Dremel drill and drill press. I removed the bottom plate & mounted the column to the back with U-bolts. Acrylic is so easy to work with. It can be cut, drilled milled & glued and it’s very strong, doesn’t warp or break easily. The design is the same as the big PCB drills, the table moves, not the drill head. With the exception the real machine tables I’ve worked around ride on air. Like the old air hockey tables Important note: These NEMA teen motors don’t have enough torque to drive the table (no bearings).” [via]
DIY unique PCB Drill - [Link]
Flickr member Aaron_f constructed this pro-looking etch tank from an acrylic magazine holder It’s quite full-featured – complete with heater, agitator and thermometer. Nice job, happy chemical milling to you! [via]
DIY etching tank - [Link]
Chris sent in his homemade controller for an old APC power distribution unit. This is a great way to recycle some old electronics.
I found some ‘flaky’ APC AP9217 PDUs in the trash and grabbed a few to play with. These have 8 power plugs that can be individually toggled which is infinitely useful for cycling the power on anything. As well as documenting how I modified this device this page is meant to serve as a general hardware hacking HOW-TO since it is a pretty easy to follow example. [via]
DIY Power distribution - [Link]
