Are you D.I.Y Type, Post Your Do-It-YourSelf type Hacks and mods you did

[ghpk]

Broadbandforum certainly is a addiction I am having, so I was thinking what One thing I am missing here is the D.I.Y. stuff.
To start with me, I've a big bad itch of modding things, and my little obsessed by Electronics and L.E.D. lights are my weak point.
I am irritatingly crazy about L.E.D. be it my work table, be it my bedroom, stairs, my car, my 18 yrs old scooter, my Laptop Chillpad, even my Kids Tri-Cycle has L.E.D. in it.
While I know this may not be of interest for everybody, but I am sure my fellow peers here must be having some kind of D.I.Y. skills in them.
So please participate and post what you made in past or currently doing.

My Most Recent & Current D.I.Y stuff Includes
1). A L.E.D. Strobe Light made from PIC 12f629, flashes same way like we see in aircraft. (pics + video soon)
2). Made a PIC Programmer which works using Serial Port of desktop to burn Hex Code to the PIC (Programmable Integrated Circuit.)
3). Last night Made a USB Powered Very Bright Light consists of 2 x 1 watt White L.E.D. Runs off USB Port or mobile charger and is Blinding Bright.
4). Just finished a Serial Interface to RESET my konked Seagate Barracuda HDD which has firmware bug and will be trying it tomorrow night. (video soon).
5). Moded my kids' toy as it was Battery Hungry, no matter what I put into that Poh Engine, it exhausted battery within 30 mins, Now it has a 4V, 0.5Ah rechargable sunca
easy to charge and runs far more than any damn re-chargeable battery out there.
6). Moded Netgear USB Wi-Fi Adapter to work with external Antenna. (yet to go to rooftop)
and around few hundred old mods thrown somewhere in house.
Pics from this Crazy Man
Toy Modified




The PIC Programmer with 6V modification

The Serial Interface for connecting to HDD via hyper terminal, basically its just a interface to mod 12v based serial interface to 5v which is needed for HDD recovery.


The Awesome L.E.D. Light Good when you just need a few seconds on keyboard and regret that your laptop doesn't has a backlit keyboard.


Thought of lighting up keyboard, it lights up the enter desk and part of room.

(Imgur doesn't works without problems, so I've stopped using it.)

More to come soon.....

 

[coming soon]

btw is that toy safe ?

 

[rvisharma]

What was the resistor value you used for 1 Watt LED ?
I had one 1 watt LED laying around and that thing is blinding bright when fully powered. I guess they take 300mA, right?
Used old phone charger which had 500mA output, had to put resistor but now i can't remember the value, i think it was 5 ohms. dimmed down the light well enough to use as a night light and been using it for over 6 months.
Seeing this bought couple more 1 watt and 1/2 watt LED.

My other mod was when my 2.1 Cheapo but well Tricom speakers broke down. Sub-woofer IC was burned out. Tried replacing IC, but the result was same.
SO, bought a USB MP3 board for Rs.150 and a Stereo amplifier board for Rs. 50, made the connection and then it was live again, plus i got FM and USB MP3 player feature! Sound is not as good as it was before, but still works for mom while skyping.
USB MP3 board looks like this -

 

[ghpk]

Ampli: yeah toy is safe and till date, all parts which were prone to come off have been already taken out or glued.
Battery is dangling, but my kids know they are not allowed to mess with it.
rvisharma:
http://ledcalc.com/ should be best way to check required resistor, 5 ohm would not dim the light,
I've used most 1w LED in multiples, currently I've a 5W one, which is directly connected to 12V converter however using 1 or 2.2 ohm resistor on it hardly makes difference.
Its very bright and entire room glows.however heats my FIN based heatsink like its been glow torched.
Costs Rs.75/- each in bulk without heat sinks.

 

[rvisharma]

Ah, now i remember. 5ohms is was for reducing 500mA current to 350mA to get the full rated LED current. I've been to that site before and by playing values of desired LED current, i now remember that my resistor was around 30-40ohms, reducing the LED current to ~60mA
I bought 1W LEDs with heatsink at Rs 8 each from Lajpat Rai market. and 1/2 Watt at 5 Rs each.
Planning to use 4 X 1 Watt LEDs to cover 4 corners of my room and light them at full power with optional Dimmer.

 

[ghpk]

Rs.8/- is expensive for 1Watt L.E.D.
I've sold a pack of 100 pcs, 1 watt with heatsink @ Rs.499/- online earlier. which included shipping and selling fee etc.

 

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[uumeshh]

May be retail is expensive. It's just a matter of 3 or 4 rupees.

 

[rvisharma]

that would be the case

 

[ghpk]

So the D.I.Y. itch never slept, and this time I am going to do a complex DIY task.

I've bought a Manifold gauge for R134a Gas which can be used for Charging gas in Car A.C. and can be also hooked to
home air conditioner.

Bought one dual meter manifold, one can of R134a Freon Gas, one can tap, two couplers to hook this system to car A.C. lines
and Bingo, day after or next sunday, I'll refill the car AC gas, as its certainly low on it, and I hate that hefty amount charged by most AC guys.

Stay tuned for the update :nerd:

 

[Sushubh]

:nerd: