Sylvain submitted his latest project: a geiger counter with a USB interface. Thanks for sharing your nice project!

USB Geiger Counter [link]

Arman Bohn sent me a couple of links to his projects - and I took forever to put them online. Sorry about that, been busy.

The first one, the Magical Toolbox, is a multi-effect generator built into a tool box. It has a stereo phase-cancelling reverb, fuzz box and ring modulator - All in stereo. It sounds really nice too.

Arman also built a Transmission Electron Microscope. It doesn’t quite work as intended, but it still looks cool, and the sountrack to the demo clip is pretty nice as well.

“The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed.”
- Lloyd Jones

Magical Toolbox [link]

Transmission Electron Microscope [link]

HGTV On-Air Handyman Casting [link]

Click on the big “Vote Now” button!

This organic pesticide won’t kill all the bugs in your garden, but may annoy them enough so that they move over to your neighbour’s.  I personally think that if you don’t want to use any chemicals in your garden, you need to arrange your plants carefully, to exploit the fact that certain plants naturally repel various insects.  This can help too, but from experience, you do need to spray often as this product isn’t deadly, but just mildly annoying.

Make an All-Purpose Organic Pesticide from Vegetables [link]

This is my first Instructable, and my entry for the Instructables pocket-sized contest. It’s a Pocket-Sized Watercolor Box in an Altoids tin. I’ve seen people make similar ones and I’ve decided to make my own, using what I had: Fimo clay.

For once, instead of just linking to an Instructable, I wrote one. About time!

Please vote for me!

Altoids Tin Pocket-Sized Watercolor Box [link]

« The size and durability of the Moleskine Pocket notebook is perfect for my sketching needs, but the paper is not ideal. Although both “sketchbook” and “watercolor” versions are available, neither is well-suited to my particular requirements. And so, I have developed a process for replacing the paper (aka Moleskine Reloaded) while retaining all the other wonderful attributes of the Moleskine. »

How to Rebind a Moleskine Notebook: Make a Custom DIY Sketchbook! [link]

I looked for some interesting stuff and didn’t find anything useful.

Blame the internet for being boring tonight. You can always submit a link if you find anything interesting…

While motivations will vary, I’m quite sure that many people will find this project interesting. You can make your own ECG (heart monitor) to monitor your own heartbeats for less than 10$ (not including your PC).

Disclaimer: This project involves strapping electrodes on your chest. Electrodes = electricity. Do it at your own risk.

Homemade Electrocardiograph (ECG) [link]

“ADACHI’s self-made instruments are consists of simple electronic circuit, almost case built in tupperware. They never can make precise pitch, but have good sound and noise, easy to operate and carry and worked by battery. Of course the funny and pretty looks are important aspects.”

Tupperware Synthesizers [link][via][via]

This is a project that will surely please guitarists, singers, or any other musicians that play on stage. Basically, you gut out a USB keyboard, keeping only the electronics and you build a pedal that you map to specific keys. This allows you to either scroll down a document (partitions, tablatures, lyrics, etc.) or even control a slide show or audio software.

USB page turner pedal for musicians [link][via]

This project is a bit different from those I normally put up. It’s a kit (actually, a board) for a headphone amp. The difference resides s that it’s not made with what you have lying around, and its more costly.

I made an exception because I have a decent pair of Grados, which I love, and a I drive them with low quality audio mixer, which is OK for the price I paid. The thing is, to properly drive my headphones, I’d need something better, like the M³ headphone amp. Seems interesting. Let me know if you’ve heard anything good or bad about it.

DIY HiFi Headphone Amplifier [link][via]

My white Intel iMac has been working great ever since I bought it. Then along came Leopard. After getting the upgrade and installing it, my iMac became instable. All of a suddain, it would hang. Or at least, the video card would freeze. I could still connect to my computer with ssh from my laptop, but all the unsaved work I had going was lost. That’s until I realized that Leopard changed something to the machine’s firmware to slow down the fans - either that or Leopard runs hotter.

Anyways, if you’re stuck in a similar situation, go ahead and download the excellent SMCFanControl application. It lets you speed up your fans individually (my computer has 3 different ones). Apple, in its constant quest for the thinnest and most silent device on the market, tend to design dangerously close to the edge of the cliff. The computer’s ventilation system’s efficiency drops below the acceptable threshold once it gets a bit dusty.

Go ahead and install this little gem of a program.

How to cool down your Mac by speeding up its fans [link]

I’ve never been a sys admin or a network technician, but I bet that when you need your punch down tool (a.k.a. Krone tool) the most is when it’s most likely gone missing. This clever hack is a useful one for anybody that does a lot of wire patching.

Don’t let the title fool you, I’m quite certain you can also do this with your Victorinox Cybertool or your trusty Wenger camping knife. Just make sure you measure carefully before cutting your tool.

Leatherman Punchdown Tool [link]

After playing reruns of Weekend Projects for two months, Make Magazine has announced that KipKay will be taking over Make’s videos.

I wonder what happened to Bre Pettis. I’m sure he’s OK, I saw him over at SXSW (in the Threadbanger podcast) so at least I’m sure he’s not sick or anything like that.

I’m not too enthusiastic about this because Bre Pettis had a unique intelligent approach. I made the very first weekend project: the workbench. I doubt we’ll be seeing stuff like the “build a fugly one-speed city bike from old parts” from Kip.

Anyways, let’s not judge too quickly, but I hope that KipKay will be able to demonstrate some true Maker creativity, what he hasn’t done over at Metacafe. Hope he does because the make crowd is more critical than the kicked-in-the-nuts Metacafe crowd (no.

Kick it up a notch and the community will respect you. Oh, you should also use your real name if you want any credibility.

KipKay to replace Bre Pettis on Make:’s Weekend Projects [link]

What’s the perfect remedy to winter? Tomato/cucumber salad, with basil and a homemade balsamic vinaigrette. It’s even better when you grow your own herbs. With this homemade greenhouse, you can have your own mini-garden year-round.

Homemade mini-greenhouse [link]

I don’t have any pictures as eloquent as this one; what my parents saw when they opened the door on the morning after the snowstorm! I was lucky enough to avoid this sort of thing because the wind was blowing the other way.

All in all, we got about 30cm, or 12 inches of snow. This was the second “thunder-snowstorm” this year. I never saw those before this year.

Tonight, I’m staying in because of the snowstorm that rages outside. We’re getting close to beating the 1970-1971 record of 381cm of snow for the winter. Before this storm, we were at ~320cm. I guess one more should do it. This is the 8th we’ve had this year, most boroughs in the city have already spent their 2008 snow removal budget (which also covers the beginning of next winter).

Hard to believe that in 4 short months it’ll be 30ºc outside!

Yeah, so instead of proposing you a DIY project tonight, I’m proposing you stay in and do nothing constructive.

See you on monday.

This project is a bit pointless: a volume limiter that plugs into your iPod or favorite portable audio device, and that you plug your headphones into. Now, given that any intelligent sensible person will lower the volume instead of using this device, its only potential use is forcing your children to use it. However, you know very well that they will unplug it as soon as you turn the back.

Nevertheless, I am featuring this project because of its neat packaging, which can be an inspiration for another more useful project.

Volume Limiter for Portable Audio [link][via]

Here’s a good idea: use an old SoundBlaster card and turn it into a cheesy-sounding General-MIDI box. If I were a porno film producer, I’d definitely need a couple of these for the soundtracks.

DIY general MIDI synth from an old Soundblaster [link & link][via]