$1 Lithium Coin Cell Charger

Got a buck? Make a charger for LiR2032 coin cells. It could hardly be cheaper or easier.

Magic Mote Thermostat and Wireless Temperature Sensor

A homemade thermostat up in the basement rafters controls the heating in my home. The smart bit is the radio frequency communication that connects it to a remote temperature sensor.

Home Grown Bhut Jolokia Peppers

Hannah and I made chili sauce from the devilishly hot Bhut Jolokia peppers that I grew this year.

Stirplate Hot Fix

A digital stirring hotplate in decent used condition will set you back about $250. I paid a fraction of that for one with a broken heating function. The problem turned out to be nothing more than a duff switch.

Homemade MSP430 Launchpads

When I ordered some NRF24L01+ boosterpacks from the 43oh store, I asked for a couple of MSP430 Launchpad v1.4 PCBs. These are legacy boards kindly provided by TI (thanks LariSan!) It was fiddly soldering to the tiny 0402 pads since my components were all 0805. The LEDs were especially tricky. But they both turned out OK as you can see. Here they are (alongside a genuine Launchpad on the left) running the breathing LED demo from the OSX Launchpad toolchain.

Pedal Powered Menorah

Exercise bike + magnets + LEDs = festival of light. Devised by T.J.Hunt with specialist engineering expertise from Rabbi Shena Potter Jaffee. Come along 3rd December to the Mayerson Jewish Center of Cincinnati. Pop a beer, grab a latke, and take a spin. Happy Hannukah! 

Bike Handlebar Hack

Now here is a real hack. As in, something that can be accomplished by hacking, with a hacksaw. Although in fact it was an angle grinder that I used to streamline my handlebars, lopping off 13 cm (5" or so).

Bike Rack From Scrap Fence

Something had to be done with the heap of bikes in the garage. Fence panels welded along the edges made for a quick and cheap solution.

Stripboard PID Arduino Shield, Part 1: Hardware

This easy-to-make shield converts your Arduino into a full-featured PID controller.

Bike Trailer Welded From Trash

A cargo trailer is a great bike accessory, especially if you can weld one together for next to nothing. This artifact bears a slight resemblance to a bed frame on wheels. There's maybe a reason for that.

PID Controlled Egg Incubator

While on vacation I impulsively bought fertile chicken eggs from a farm stall. Needing to incubate them immediately, I cobbled together a rudimentary incubator from a styrofoam cooler and a few bits and pieces. A PID controller was the perfect device to govern the temperature.

Folding Brew Stand

I wanted a low table on which to set up my brewing gear. It would need to support a couple of hundred kilos and fold flat to the garage wall. Failure could send 100 litres of hot liquid and a variety of electrical power equipment crashing to the floor. Neanderthal design principles seemed appropriate to my levels of sophistication and skill, so I hacked together this clunky hinged table top.

Welder Rehab & Foot Switch

In which I buy an old school welder off the friendly neighbourhood chopper freak, fix it up, make an illuminated foot switch for it (which works although I have no idea how), and start gluing things together with hot metal, badly. Like warty Oscar here.

Lightweight Chicken Tractor

To shelter my chickens I needed a cage that was easy to build, light enough to be moved around the lawn, and that provided a cosy roost and nest box.

Cool and Curly Counterflow Chiller

The Magic Smoke Brewhouse is a fine place to chill. Especially since we put together this heat exchange coil for cooling wort.

Converted Cooler Mash Lauter Tun

It's long past time to start making beer again at the Magic Smoke Brewhouse and Grill. The best place to start is at the heart of the brewery: the mash lauter tun, or MLT.

£1 Lithium Ion Battery Charger

One cheap PCB from an auction site. 1 scrap bit of copper pipe. 2 bronze pennies. Put them together and charge up a 18650 Li ion cell.

3x Battery Teardown

So if you open up a 9 V battery, you find 6 thin 1.5 V cells inside. But what was inside that lantern battery, the rechargeable PP3, or the funny shaped lump on the back of my laptop? Confronted with dead metal in the recycling drawer, I tried to find uses for the contents.

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Magic Mouth v0.1

Build a Magic Mouth shield from scratch using the materials in the Github repository. Hear it in action speaking in response to commands typed into the Arduino serial monitor.

Home Made Arduinos

Making Arduinos was pretty laborious. The toner transfer went well, but drilling was a dental experience.