Hasta La Gadget!

On second thought, I guess it still might be possible to let this chunky remote control slip between the couch cushions, but it certainly wouldn’t be very comfortable if you sat on it. What you’re looking at here is a hacked together remote control that started its life as a cheap universal remote control.

Modder Bigape decided he had enough of cheap plastic remotes which wear out all of the time, and built this heavy-duty remote to replace his parents’ old broken Sony TV remote. He Frankensteined together the electronic components of the universal remote with the a sturdy industrial case designed to control construction equipment.

Since he wanted the remote to control channels, volume and power, he had to add a couple of additional buttons into the case as well. In true MacGyver fashion, he built the caps for the volume buttons from retractable ball-point pen parts. The large red power switch actually was made from the button from an a light bulb socket, a sweater button and an old spring switch. The giant orb that holds the large IR diode is actually the cap from an old bottle of perfume if you can believe it.

Want to build your own industrial-strength remote control? You can find a similar control box over on eBay, and then check out the full build log over on Instructables.

The crew of Skit-B Pinball made this wonderful homage to one of the most recognizable NES games, Duck Hunt. It may not be as complicated or have fancy lighting effects and ramps like other modern pinball machines, but the craftsmanship is so good that it looks like an official Nintendo product.

As if the wonderful art and parts weren’t awesome enough, the machine borrows gameplay and graphical elements from Duck Hunt. You have to hit the two orange and white circles in the middle of the playfield to fire at the ducks while some of the holes act as score multipliers. You get feedback by way of an LCD monitor installed in the backbox. And yes, if you lose your ball, that troll of a dog will appear to mock you.

The fact that they built the machine in their spare time makes me want to cry during my upcoming spare time.

[Gameroom Junkies via Arcade Heroes & Destructoid]

This strange looking box is capable of something no other device ever built is – it can play the original cartridges, ROMs and discs from 18 different retro gaming systems.

The beastly Project Unity system was built by modder Bacteria, and it took him over 3500 hours and three years to assemble. Inside, it contains original circuitry from 15 classic systems, but works with a single master controller, a single power supply, and a single (SCART) video output connector. All tolled, it cost Bacteria about £700 (~$1076 USD) in parts to build, but its really his time and labor that represents the majority of the cost.

Inside the system is approximately 100 feet of cabling, and the whole thing weighs in around 44 lbs. The system has physical hardware from an Atari 7800, Sega Master System, Sega MegaDrive (Genesis), Super Nintendo, Nintendo NES, Nintendo 64, NeoGeo MVS, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo Gamecube, NEC TurboGrafx X, Colecovision, Intellivision, Sony Playstation 2, and Amstrad GX1000 consoles. He says it can actually play games from 18 total systems, including PS1 games on the PS2, Atari 2600 games on the 7800 and GBA games on the GameCube.

In order for all of the games to work with a single controller, he built a series of special NES cartridges which plug into the controller, providing system specific interfaces for the single mega-controller.

Bacteria explains the build and how Project Unity came together and how it works in the extensive video below. The system and controller demo starts around 9:30.

You could play all of these consoles using MESS or other emulators, there’s something to be said about using the original hardware to play games without the quirks that most emulators exhibit.

If you’re wondering about the big nondescript square box it’s all set inside of, Bacteria says he built it that way so it would all fit neatly into the cabinet under his TV. While it may not be the prettiest looking console I’ve ever seen, you’ve got to hand it to Bacteria for his persistence and technical abilities.

Awesome job!

Do you want to play laser tag all the time? Please. Does a bear poop in the woods while dreaming of playing laser tag? Well now you can. A group of kids from the Young Tech Entrepreneur program of ThoughtSTEM have invented a small laser tag target. No need to wear the bulky body armor that doesn’t actually protect you from laser gunfire that isn’t really a laser but infrared!

The yet unnamed gadget is controlled by an ATmega328 chip and has six LEDs that serve as the wearer’s hit points. Each LED goes from green to red each time the gadget is hit and is bright enough to shine through clothing. The current prototypes look rough, but with your help ThoughtSTEM can make the targets look more stylish. But what about the blasters? Well, you may already own a bunch of them. According to ThoughtSTEM anything that emits infrared light at 38 kHz can be used as a laser tag “gun”. That includes many TV remote controls. As you’ll see in the video below, cunning tinkerers can even make hidden infrared weapons or traps.

Pledge at least $75 (USD) on Kickstarter to reserve a fully assembled laser tag target. But if you’re good with electronics, pledging just $25 gets you the schematics and instructions to build the device. They really should come up with a name for it.

Last year we heard about how Teague Labs was able to make a pair of headphones with 3D printed components. While that’s revolutionary in and of itself, that proof of concept still used store bought and manufactured parts. Industrial designer J.C. Karich set out to try and make a pair of headphones that anyone with access to a 3D printer and basic electronics raw materials can make.

Karich succeeded in his task. He was able to make a plug, a headband and bases for the speakers using 3D printed parts and a fabric ribbon for the cord. As for the “speakers” themselves, Karich used nothing but copper wire and magnets.

As you can imagine, the sound coming from the headphones is quite weak and of low quality, hence Karich’s clever name for his creation – Low-Fi, High-Tech. But hey, it works!

If you want to try making your own headphones from scratch, head to Karich’s Thingiverse page for the instructions as well as the 3D files.

[via Damn Geeky]