Category: DIY

Okay, multitools may have official jumped the shark with the introduction of Stanley’s Wristwatch Tools. Actually, they’re not really multitools at all, each watch bears a different tool: a flashlight, a tape measure, a hex wrench, screwdriver, etc. Maybe they SHOULD make a multitool version. It’d certainly be less silly than a watch with a single tool. When your watch is a screw driver, every component looks like a screw (or something like that). Our favorite is the watchtop vice, ’cause you never know when you’re going to need a handy pair of thumbscrews.

Only available in Japan so far, no word on US availability or pricing.

[Via CoolHunting]

I had a hard disk die recently, and yes, after preaching to the masses the maxim: “If you can’t afford to lose it, back it up!,” I had months worth of at-risk data.

Looking at going to a data recovery center is not an inexpensive proposition. So I’m intrigued by this piece on Hack-a-Day on how to remove the platters from a dead drive and install them in an identical working drive (bought on the cheap via eBay). It doesn’t look that hard. Don’t know that I’ll do it — the data is too precious to risk — but it is tempting — especially since I’m looking at hundreds of dollars to have somebody else do it.

I’ve come really close to picking up a ColdHeat soldering iron several times, seeing them at my local Radio Crap and on ThinkGeek. A review of the iron on NewTech has me thinking better of it. According to the reviewer, and most everyone else chiming in via comments, it is not a worthwhile product and no substitute for a good ol’ iron ore fire stick.

I love my Roomba, but one of the places where it could be improved is the battery. Mine has already given up the ghost and it’s only a couple of years old. I didn’t want to spend US$50 on a replacement battery, and I knew that lots of people had hacked their Roombas, so I figured they’d played with the batteries as well. I was right! RoombaReview.com hosts a little tutorial on how to take apart your Roomba’s battery and replace its innards with NiMH C-cells intended for R/C cars.

Here’s an amazingly easy hack for a Bluetooth phone headset so that you can listen to your iPod through it, and when a call comes through on the phone, you can pause the Pod, take the call, and then go back to your music. The guy who hacked this up used a cheapo Bluetooth headset and did little more than solder on a stereo mini-plug in place of the headset’s speaker.

Extra geek cred for using the Comic Life program for presenting the how-to piece (a growing little trend we’ve noticed).

[Via Engadget]

Ben Heckendorn is flippin’ insane — this latest hack proves it. The well-known retro video game hacker (who brought us the Portable PlayStation 2 and the Phoenix 2600 handheld) is now showing off an Atari 800 Laptop.

One of the things that really impresses us about Ben’s hardware hacks is, not only are they functional, but they’re gorgeous works of techie folk art as well. Dig that groovy woodgrain finish.

[Via Engadget]

Make magazine, along with the home DIYer ReadyMade, are the subject of a piece in yesterday’s Boston Globe. My Mousey the Robot piece (from Vol. 2) is mentioned.

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There seems to be no end to the wacky and wonderful Altoids tin hacks floating around cyberspace. Few people know this, but it was an Altoids-tin-as-project-box that was the original inspiration behind Street Tech. I saw a how-to project for a phone phreaker’s Red Box — I think it was in Danny Drennan’s awesome ’90s zine Inquisitor — that was housed in an Altoids tin. This got me thinking about Gibson’s famous “the street finds its own uses for things” and the idea of a site that chronicled the growth of such trickle-down “street tech.” We still have an enduring fascination for this type of tech appropriation and the sort of techie folk art seen in things like these prevalent Altoids hacks. Which brings us to…

Aaron Dunlap’s 9V USB Battery Charger Kit. This project, for building a simple 9V battery-based recharger for iPods, cell phones, and any other battery-powered gadgets, has been around for a while, but Aaron has created an inexpensive kit with step-by-step instructions (US$9.50) for those who are too lazy to track down all the parts. You provide the Altoids tin (or other project box).

Having worked on step-by-step photos and instructions for my last two books (with Street Tech’s own photo guru Jay Townsend), I’ve acquired a newfound appreciation for how hard this is to do well, concisely, and clearly. This colors me impressed with PB Fixit, a repair and upgrade site for Apple laptops and the Mac Mini. The site offers Web-based and downloadable (PDF) how-tos for replacing parts and upgrading/adding new ones. The company that runs it wants to sell you the parts to do the work, but the how-tos are available to everyone. Wish they included all Mac models.

Here’s a hack for getting Apple’s new media control software, Front Row, working on earlier Macs and Minis. TUAW is hosting a reader video of a guy in Switzerland who got Front Row working on a Mini using his Bluetooth phone as a remote. His geekly snicker, when he gets the whole thing working, is hysterical.