Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve seen iPod hacks run the gamut, from the useful to the just plain absurd, but no matter how rough around the edges such a project may seem, we always get a kick out of the ingenuity and hard work involved. Today’s DIY wonder comes from a cat named Benjamin Kokes, who’s using his engineering chops to put together a GPS peripheral for the iPod nano. As the project stands right now, he’s taken a reference board sporting a Nemerix GPS and written a screen driver for it, allowing it to do its thing on the handheld. Apparently, all this bad boy is capable of doing right now is finding a satellite and displaying your latitude and longitude — but we’d like to see your old nano do that! Hit the read link for the whole, sordid tale in geek-tastic detail, or to speak with the developer if you’d like to give this a shot your own self. Tell him Engadget sent you.

[Via Technabob]

Filed under: GPS, Portable Audio

iPod nano GPS hack ensures that you and your MP3s make it home safely originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Drawdio is a mashup of drawing plus audio. First, watch the quite jaw-dropping video.

Done? Good. The original Drawdio, from MIT hipster Jay Silver, was a ripped-apart electronic toy bought in Bangalore, India. The “harmonium” was then modded to play when a circuit was completed.

The latest Drawdio works in the same way — a circuit is completed by touch. You can hook it up to a faucet and then touch the water, or even complete the circuit with the graphite in a pencil, literally drawing the music. This is where the name came from.

The best part? (there’s always a best part)? You can make your own. Schematics are available for download and you can go the super lo-fi breadboard route or use the diagrams to print your own circuit. Pencils not included.

Product page [Drawdio via the Twitter]
Schematics, kits [Drawdio]

A crafty Guitar Hero DIY-er has built a little project with possibly startling implications. The includes ambient light sensors in front of the television which are triggered by the light of the notes on screen during Guitar Hero gameplay. The sensors trigger an Arduino to turn on LEDS on a nearby setup. In the video (which is after the break) you can see the entire thing in action — which maker Joe says can eventually lead to a rig which plays the game for you. The horror!

[Via Make]

Continue reading Guitar Hero arduino note visualizer lights our fire

Filed under: Gaming

Guitar Hero arduino note visualizer lights our fire originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Not that we’ve never had the pleasure of seeing an NES phone mod before, but there’s just something especially elegant about this one. The not-at-all-ancient Samsung a867 Eternity was chosen by one Taylor Merrill to be shoved inside of a now-defunct Nintendo Entertainment System controller. The result, naturally, is what you see above — er, half of it, anyway. For a look at the whole thing in its entirety, hop on past the break and mash play. Per usual, we take no responsibility for damage dealt to your retro game consoles, existing handsets or pride should you attempt to replicate.

[Thanks, stagueve]

Continue reading Samsung Eternity retrofitted within NES controller, has never looked better

Filed under: Cellphones

Samsung Eternity retrofitted within NES controller, has never looked better originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Apr 2009 08:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

If you guessed that I love this cardboard DIY pinhole camera, you guessed right. In fact, I loved it all the way to the price tag, a quite horrific $22. It does come in a big box, but $22 for a printed sheet of cardboard? No thanks.

I figured that, instead, there must be a free, downloadable version that those of us who haven’t tossed out our printers could grab, free. I was right. Three words later and Google had the answer — a real 1970s version and a range of modern, design-tastic cams.

Here’s the Dirkon — even the name sounds so 1970s, although apparently it is a play on words, a cross between Nikon and dírka, which is Czech for pinhole. It’s our gift to you. Actually, it’s David Balihar’s gift to you, from his splendid site Pinhole.cz. Go, download and play. I will be making one, as soon as I find a friend whose printer I can borrow. Post you results in the Gadget Lab Flickr pool.

Product page [Fredflare via]

The Dirkon [Pinhole]

Readymech cameras [Corbis]