If you like to ride your bike at night you know that visibility to motorists is extremely important. For around $US50 of materials and a little electronics experience you can add turn signal LEDs to any jacket or sweatshirt.
A lot of electronics use up power even when they’re turned off. The easy fix for this is to simply turn off your power board, but if you want to root out and identify the source, Popular Mechanics shows you how to build your own Electromagnetic Interface (EMI) detector.
You can make a lot of cool DIY electronics with an Arduino board, but you can actually make your own Arduino for a fraction of the cost — with a bit of room for customizability, too.
Ever wonder who rings your doorbell when you’re not home? Or do you crank music up too loud most of the day to hear it anyway? Make Projects user Clement Storck built a simple Arduino-powered notification system that sends him a text message and an email with a photo every time someone rings the doorbell, and you can do it too.
Getting started with open-source electronics hacking is a daunting task, but the parts supplier SparkFun hopes to make things a bit easier with a simple curriculum to help you learn the basics of Arduino, LilyPad, XBee and more.
While you’re away you can let your cats have the run of the place, but if you put out too much food at once, hilarity may not ensue. You can make a pretty easy automatic feeder using a glue stick, cardboard, a continuous-rotation servo and an Arduino.
There’s no foolproof way to prove that your sister actually stole your sunglasses, but polygraphs can sometimes do a pretty good job. Here’s how to throw together a DIY polygraph machine with nothing but an Arduino, some wire and some tin foil.
If you’re looking for a way to spice up your boring staircase, DIYer Geert shows off a simple way to safely light up your stairwell with programmable, colour-changing LED strips mounted directly to the stairs.
Ever wished your house would greet you when you opened the front door, which unlocked automatically when you approached? Or your kitchen kept an inventory of everything inside it? The Jetsons may seem like they’ve got it all, but with a little patience and the right DIYs, the Jetson’ll have nothing on you.
