Build Your Own Refillable Compressed Air Duster
Scott had a problem. He was sick and tired of spending perfectly good money on cans of compressed air to clean his computer equipment. Air is free, and once you have the can, it should be easy to refill, right? In this build log, with parts list and instructions, Scott details how he made his own refillable can using an old Oust can, an emergency tire inflator and a few zip ties. The compressor he used wasn’t powerful enough to get the internal pressure up over 50 PSI…but most cans are rated for around 200-250 PSI, and at least this way, Scott can be confident his project won’t unexpectedly “turn into a frag grenade.” Check out his plans here, or buy a ready-made refillable air can here or here.
Join the GiY Folding@Home Team!
Remember the SETI@HOME distributed computing project we were all running circa 2000? You know, the one that was supposedly using your PC’s spare clock cycles to search for intelligent life? This is the same thing, only real and with a purpose. Stanford’s Folding@Home project uses the computer processing time you’re not using to analyze “protein folding.” The thinking is, that when proteins don’t fold themselves correctly, the result is disease.
What kind of disease does Stanford hope to cure? Oh, just Alzheimer’s Disease, Cancer, and Parkinson’s Disease. No big whoop, really. Of course, you could always continue letting your computer look for little green men…but maybe we should think about getting things sorted down here first, hmm? We encourage our readers to download the Folding@Home tool, and while you’re at it, join the Geek It Yourself team. Just enter team number 51236 when you’re setting up your account.
Build Your Own Game Boy Advance Robot
Got an old Game Boy Advance kicking around? Meet the Xport Robot Controller. This system turns the Game Boy Advance and standard LEGO components into an advanced robot development system. With standards in place for LEGO robot development, budding robot enthusiasts have an easy way to bring their creations to life. The XRC supports 16 digital and eight analog inputs, and even has an optional Bluetooth component. Now for the question of the hour…have any development boards popped up yet?
AntWorks: Ant Farms Get Awesome
As a kid, you fell into one of two camps. Either you bought an ant farm, sent away for your ants, and were fascinated as they toiled, dug tunnels, and built colonies…or you were fascinated as the ants tried to get their bearings after you shook the whole thing up and destroyed weeks of their labor. Either way, ant farms always ended the same. All the ants would die, and all that would remain would be a very narrow glass box filled with sand and body fragments.
AntWorks has stepped things up and made the ant farm relevant again for a new generation of kids. With their “Space-Age Habitat for Antkind,” the sand has been replaced with a gel that is UV reactive, so you can get an even better view of the ants’ tunneling. And what’s better? You won’t be tempted to shake it up. $30 bucks is all it takes to bring the ants out of the yard and into your house.
Build Your Own Networked Cufflinks
When you’re wearing a suit, it’s sometimes tough to make the entire room know that you are officially More Tech Than They Are. However, Mark of Geek Technique found a way with these cufflinks. Pressed for time, and saddled with a French-cuffed shirt, Mark did just what you would expect a GiYer would do…he whipped together some cufflinks, using only some UTP plugs and a bit of twisted pair wire. And in true GiY fashion, he shared his photos and instructions for anyone who wants to replicate his geek chic. Bravo, Mark.
Build Your Own NES Controller Cell Phone
Ugh, we’ve all been seen with a godawful cell phone stuck to our ear in a public place. Well, Sam of DIYHappy wasn’t having it anymore. So he gutted an old NES controller, and crammed a Nokia 3200 (selected for its size and ease of disassembly) into it. The first prototype is alittle rough…for example, the earpiece sound is a little distant…but we’re counting on Sam to get it perfected for v2.0. Check out the build log and video.
Build Your Own PC Remote Control
Who wouldn’t want a killer PC remote control, to use with a Media Center PC or otherwise? Granted, you could buy one of the pricey Creative Labs models, but [Odin84gk] went a slightly different way. He built his own version out of an old XBOX DVD playback kit and some freely available, clever scripting, with a cost of nothing but his time. Check this one out, with full instructions, photos, and links to all required tools.
Build Your Own Flashlight iPod Boombox
Check out this monaural (but still plenty impressive) boombox built into the housing for a big Eveready flashlight. The speaker fits over the mouth, and it sits over a miniature amp scavenged from a set of desktop speakers and an iPod Nano with a wireless remote. Details are sketchy, as we only have links to the Flickr set, but check out the parts list and the finished product.
How to Open Your XBOX 360 Without Voiding Your Warranty
So, maybe you want to pull apart your brand spanking new XBOX 360 to, I dunno, experiment with larger hard drives, put in a wireless hack, or some kind of freaky modchip. But it would be a shame to scratch and chip up that beautiful white plastic, so what’s a GiYer to do? CleverMod.com has your answer, with their dead-simple solution for making your own XBOX 360 case-opening tool. Now, you too can gain access to your 360’s precious innards, without a soul knowing you were ever in there mucking about. Got an old empty spindle of blank CDs laying around? You’re halfway there.
Convert Your Nintendo Wii into a Free Tivo-Like DVR Box
The widespread availability of digital video recorder boxes through your local cable company means that paying for a service, such as Tivo, makes little to no sense. For as little as six bucks, most cable companies will now supply you with a DVR box, allowing you to record and “pause” live television. But what if your cable service hasn’t gotten with the times, or (gasp!) you get your television through another means? You’re in luck. Using an unholy hodgepodge of free software, you can turn your Nintendo Wii into your very own wireless digital video recorder, entirely for free. Because, really…weren’t you getting a little tired of Wii Tennis?
Turning your Wii into a media-recording powerhouse is pretty straightforward, but there are some steps involved and a lot of software to get acquainted with. Here’s the GiY guide to using your Wii as a Tivo, in a nutshell:
1. Get a BitTorrent client up and running on your home PC.Search for torrents using your favorite Bittorrent client. Chances are, you’ve already got this step covered. We use the original client for downloading, but there are several options available, including uTorrent, which has some nice additional features and is a little lighter-weight.
2. 
Use TED to schedule your BitTorrent downloads.TED is a super-slick downloading scheduler, that allows you to search for any episode of any show you would ever want to watch. TED uses RSS and multiple site searches to make sure that when new torrents of TV shows or movies are uploaded, they begin downloading immediately without any extra time or searching on your part. There is even a nice little interface (shown at right) with a few of the more popular shows pre-configured.
3. Stream your newly-acquired video files to your Wii using Orb.Okay, so Orb calls it, “MyCasting,” but that market-friendly term is uber-lame. Their software, on the other hand, is not. Orb provides 100% free streaming from your PC to any device in your home. Once the Orb software is installed on your PC, your computer acts like your personal broadcasting system. You now have the ability to stream content through any internet-connected device like a mobile phone, PDA, laptop…or Nintendo Wii.
And boom. You’re done. With only two pieces of software, you’ve transformed your Wii into a low-resolution, but free, personal video recorder. Beats the pants off having to look at that Tivo logo, doesn’t it? (Thanks, Dan!)
