Hasta La Gadget!

I was going to talk about a pixel art LED display that’s currently raising funds on Kickstarter when I remembered that I already saw something much better: Al Linke’s PIXEL. It turns out he’s also raising funds on Kickstarter for PIXEL V2, an improved version of his display.

Like the original display, PIXEL V2 has 1024 LEDs arranged in a 32×32 matrix. After all, it’s designed to display low-res images and animations so increasing the displays resolution wasn’t necessary. What makes PIXEL V2 much better than its predecessor is that it’s more versatile and customizable, both in terms of software and hardware. For starters, you can now control it with an OS X computer and a Raspberry Pi via USB, in addition to the Android and Windows USB and Bluetooth connectivity that was also present in the original. Unfortunately, it still has no support for iOS though.

Aside from directly sending images to the display via a PC or an Android device, you can also store images on PIXEL V2′s onboard SD card in stand alone mode, after which it will keep displaying images and even animated gifs even if it’s not connected to any computer or mobile device. Another neat feature of PIXEL V2  are its mixed media overlays. As shown in the image below, the overlays allow you to display a drawing on top of the LED display.

PIXEL V2 comes with over 150 samples of pixel art, but as always you can send other images to the display. As shown in the video below, you can even make apps for PIXEL V2. Turn it into a message board, make it display the weather and more. It also has five sensor inputs and optional alcohol and proximity sensors for even more creative applications, although these sensors require an Android device to work.

Pledge at least $260 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a fully assembled PIXEL V2 display. Unassembled kits and partial parts are also available at lower pledges.

If you missed out on Olly Moss’ limited edition 8-bit willow plates, Don Moyer’s Calamityware might be the next best thing. Don creates humorous dinner plates by using the ancient willow pattern to depict modern subjects. His first plate features the flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz. Now he’s raising funds on Kickstarter to make plates with a giant robot on it.

To give you an idea of what the finished product will look like, here’s a sample of the flying monkey plate:

You can pre-order both plates from the Calamityware shop, but you can also pledge just $25 (USD) on Kickstarter to get the giant robot plate as a reward. You can also check out Don’s Flickr page to see more images of Calamityware, including his future designs.

By 2010, the mirrorless camera had become a model on the rise, with Sony, Olympus, and Panasonic each pushing their new compact interchangeable-lens systems on the world. But the very first mirrorless camera came years before, made by a company known mostly for printers.

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If there’s one thing that today’s flat-screen TVs have led to is a lack of the sort of unique designs that CRTs used to offer. I suppose this is a good thing, as HDTVs are designed to focus our attention on the image itself. That said, if you’re looking for a TV that looks different than all the others, check out this retro-style set from Seiki.

The bright red Seiki Digital SE22FR01 set is a full 1080p, 22-inch display, but it looks like an old TV from the late 1960s or early 1970s. The set offers all the modern conveniences, including inputs for HDMI, component, composite and VGA devices, and a remote control. And since the display has a chubby case, it’s got room inside for a better speaker than typical small HDTVs, with a built in 20-watt Yamaha subwoofer. Naturally, it’s got an old-school power switch and a volume dial.

You can get your hands on the Seiki retro-style HDTV from Amazon for $199.98(USD).

I’m sure you’ve seen videos of floppy disk drives rigged to play music. Simon Schoar took the hack to the next level with RumbleRail, a modular floppy jukebox that plays MIDI files loaded to its SD card slot. It’s run by an ATMega microcontroller, has a 128 x 64 LCD display and two RGB LEDs for each drive that light up in sync with the music. All of its parts are neatly arranged on a machined aluminum rail.

According to Simon, depending on the file extension of the selected MIDI files, RumbleRail will either map MIDI tracks to the drives, map MIDI channels to the drives or just play as many notes as possible at once. Here’s the RumbleRail playing the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song:

And here it is playing the Ghostbusters theme song in the dark, because it ain’t afraid of no ghost:

They sound like highly organized mosquitoes. Fire up Lynx and head to Simon’s website to find out how you can build your own RumbleRail.

[via DamnGeeky]