ineedcaffeine.com | brian r stuckey

The author of the linked blog made a 144×144 led matrix and then connected it to a Game Boy color.  Just watch the YouTube video in awe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n-iORmV3Qk

kevtris.org via Hack A Day

Here is a shor tutorual I wrote a while back to document cleaning the older white and clear keyboard.  This does not apply to the newer think keyboards Apple released in 2007.

dish detergent (anti-grease & anti-bacterial)
a large sink or bathtub
paper towel
salad spinner (preferable)
or a colander
a flat screwdriver
THIS PAGE PRINTED OUT

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Begin by using your screwdriver to pry the keys off.  Be careful - the board is resilient but you can still scratch it.

Continue reading…

I got quite a bit of interest from the Kickass Clocks post so I thought I would do a follow up. Now, for the neatest watches in the world.

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The Nixie Tube Digital Wristwatch!

By Jeff Thomas / Resonant Instruments LLC

http://www.amug.org/~jthomas/watch.html

This is the really little brother of the NixiChron clock.  The fact that he managed to fit all of the components in to such a small packagaing - and fit four vacuum tubes in it is amazing.  They require about 180vdc to power…your average AA battery puts out just 1.5 for comparison.

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The Nixie Watch

By Cathode Corner - $395

http://www.cathodecorner.com/nixiewatch/index.html

This watch was inspired by the one above.  It uses an entirely different design - tubes and power supply.  It looks a little more like a watch than the above one but uses only two display tubes.

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Negative

by Tokyo Flash - ¥16,900 / $170

http://www.tokyoflash.com/en/watches/tokyoflash/negative/

If you want to show your geeky side with pride, this is the watch for you!  This is the first of the mass produced watches on this list.  Tokyo Flash makes some amazing watches.  They focus on innovative ways of displaying the time to make reading it unintuitive.  If this watch isn’t for you, check out some of the other ones they offer.

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Bling binary LED watch

By Todd Bailey - $?

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2006/05/concept_bling_binary_led.html

This watch is for the DIY crowd and would probably appeal to the BOFH-type personality.  You know, the guy who wants you to know that he is better at technology, computers, and anything else that uses electricity than you do.  This watch isn’t for the casual enthusiast - no only do you have to build it, but it tells the time in bianary.  Reading it takes a bit of practice but can become second nature to the true aplha-nerds

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Synchronar 2100

By Roger Riehl - $?

http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?p=1366081

This was an amazing device.  It was the first mass produced LED wristwatch and was designed never to need adjustment.

From http://www.soluhr.com/sync.htm

Independent inventor Roger Riehl designed the most advanced wrist timepiece devised up to that time. His goal was to built an extremely accurate timepiece that required no service, could withstand great variation of temperature, was shockproof, was waterproof to great depths, was visible in any lighting conditions, and had multiple functions. In short, his goal seemed to be to build the ultimate wristwatch that would simultaneously overcome all of the traditional challenges to the wristwatch.

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Look for part two in the near future. Suggestions on what to include? Post them in the comments!

If you have five free minutes, you have to check out this post about the $5 cell phone oscilloscope.  The display (including non-existent divisions!) is from an old Nokia phone and the CPU is a PicAxe 08M.

It is things like this that make me want to go back and get my EE degree.  (Not that I don’t like my B.A. in Journalism - but EE is just a little more nerdy)

From the page:

Vertical fixed at 5V full screen (or 0.5V per division, if it had divisions.)

Horizontal Sweep fixed at (approximately) 43mS full screen when over-clocked at 8MHz (or 4.3mS per imaginary division.)

Trigger fixed at 1/2 the peak-to-peak signal (with a time-out when there is no signal.)

Non-portable (unless you want to carry my entire workbench some place.)

Very Affordable (about $4.50; $3.50 for the PicAxe, $1.00 for the phone, everything else I had on hand.)

Visible in Day Light (the LCD Backlight is not connected.)

All Solid-State (using ultra-reliable E-Z Clip Technology.

Source:

http://www.geocities.com/Minimalist_Oscilloscope_08M_Proj/Minimalist_Oscilloscope_08M_Project.html

What happens when you feed a laser scanner pseudo random data?  I did not really intend to find out but I did on accident.   The results are kind of neat.

http://www.ineedcaffeine.com/videos/random.flv