Jan 27th, 2009
Blogsnapper at 06:01 am 
This instructable will show you how to break apart (in computer lingo, parse) text using Excel. The instructable will introduce you to some of the text-handling commands in Excel. This instructable will be based on Excel 2007, but will work in any recent version of the software. The technique can be…
By: KEUrban
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Jan 27th, 2009
Blogsnapper at 06:01 am With a patch to both the Android kernel and browser, Luke Hutchison was able to add usable multitouch support to the T-Mobile G1. If you aren’t concerned about updating your firmware, this is a hack that you can use on your device today, despite this not being an official component of the device’s design.
I moved my original multi-touch code back into the kernel, because it turns out that currently it’s a lot easier to patch the kernel and get a working Android system than it is to patch the Android java stack and get a working system. (The Android java stack that made it into the G1 was branched and polished long before the source code was released publicly, and the source code in git usually doesn’t run without problems due to being in a state of flux.) You can find the kernel patch to the synaptics touchpad driver here. Many thanks to zinx for helping to polish the kernel patch and figure out the best way to get mutitouch info into userspace.
I also patched the Android browser to support multi-touch scaling, source/diffs are linked below. The patched version also includes support implemented by JesusFreke for autorotating web pages based on phone orientation (you turn the phone on its side without even sliding out the keyboard, and the web page you’re viewing rotates) — you have to manually enable this in the Preferences to get it working though.
As you might have noticed in the video above, Luke also created a demo Google Maps browser that uses the multitouch zoom gesture. The map only zooms in and out at the normal tile steps, which is a bit awkward compared to the fractional zoom on the iPhone, but I much prefer the gesture input to clicking plusses and minuses.
Get Multi-Touch Zooming Support on your T-Mobile G1
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Jan 27th, 2009
Blogsnapper at 06:01 am 
Create a faux zebra hide rug using fabric and permanent marker.
(More photos available here: Bromeliad Living)
You will need one or two yards of white fabric such as vinyl or faux suede and a permanent marker or fabric paint.
You will also need access to a digital projector in order to enlarge an…
By: schriste
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Jan 27th, 2009
Blogsnapper at 06:01 am Here’s an idea for a basic, but useful, Arduino project for the relative beginner. It uses an Arduino, an Ethernet Shield, and a Latronix Xport Direct to control a servo-mounted webcam over the net.
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Jan 27th, 2009
Blogsnapper at 06:01 am 
Does all the heart-laden imagery of Valentine’s Day make you want to…barf? Looks like this unicorn feels the same way. [via Feeling Stitchy]
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Jan 27th, 2009
Blogsnapper at 06:01 am 
I noticed that there were no instructables to do with Peggle, a game made and published by Popcap games. It is based on firing balls at coloured pegs and scoring points, but the main aim is described in step 1. There are currently 3 peggle games:
Peggle Extreme was a trial edition introduced by the…
By: The Jamalam
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Jan 27th, 2009
Blogsnapper at 06:01 am 
Hackszine fans and readers, the Hackszine site is moving to a section of MAKE soon http://blog.makezine.com/archive/hacks/ - we’re doing *a lot* of site updates on MAKE and this is the easiest way for us to do this and still keep the hacks content flowing. If you read hackszine via RSS you might not notice, but if something odd happens please let us know.
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Jan 27th, 2009
Blogsnapper at 06:01 am 
All week save 10% on all items in the Maker Shed using code 2009OX; happy Chinese New Year!
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Jan 27th, 2009
Blogsnapper at 06:01 am 
While developing the Roboduino, Scott had to calculate how many amps his project could deliver to attached motors. He wrote up his findings (and how he arrived at them) as a helpful article -
As a review, the total heat generated by the regulator is just the energy in minus the energy out. This is how linear regulators work–they turn excess energy straight into heat.heat generated = (Vin-Vout)*I
(there’s also quiescent current in there which is the current used by the regulation circuity, but this is around 50mA, so we’ll ignore it for brevity).
So, if Vin = 9V, Vout = 5V, and I = 1amp, the heat generated would be about 4W.
As it turns out, our board was only able to dissipate about 2W. A bundle of 20 1/4W resistors (100ohms, 10ohms total) was used as a dummy 1Amp load at 5V. A thermal couple measured regulator temperature at the solder joint. Current was measured before it entered the Roboduino’s input.
Plus the article continues to explain how a circuits trace width determines how much current it can handle. - PCB as a Heat Sink
[Updated - Thanks, anachrocomputer!]
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Jan 27th, 2009
Blogsnapper at 06:01 am 
First off, I’d like to thank Jeff Keyzer for his donation of a PID controller to this project and his exepriences building his hotplate for surface mount soldering. Take a look at his project in his MightyOhm blog at http://mightyohm.com/blog/2009/01/diy-pid-controlled-soldering-hotplate/
Thermoso…
By: kc6qhp
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