Voltage Regulator

"Ahoy-hoy." If telephone titan Alexander Graham Bell had his way, we'd all be answering phones like Mr. Burns. Thankfully, frienemy Thomas Edison had enough sense to realize we weren't always on the briny. He preferred "hello" as our standard telephone greeting, which he is c ...more

What's the first thing you would do once you realized you were lost in, say, a desert? If you're like me, you would immediately pull out your cell phone and start dialing every number. But what if you have no service? What if your battery is dead? If you make this survival so ...more

[community/members/babblin5/ Babblin5] is a tenacious tinkerer. Here he shows us HowTo get a dead battery running again. How? Well, it becomes a bit involved as he splices together a cordless drill, voltage regulator, alligator clips, a circuit board and a hand crank. What w ...more

How do you make a 1950 Studebaker even cooler? By installing an iPod Nano in the dashboard, of course! The folks over at MAYA Design hacked their way to a touch-controlled sound system with this project they've dubbed the "Nano-Baker" (or "Stude-iPod") using a pair of Apple ea ...more

I'm back with the third part to my laser weapon series (see part one and two), and I'll be explaining the function, application, and potential of semiconductor lasers, aka laser diodes. Surely, most of you have used a laser pointer at some point. Whether purchased at a dollar ...more

We've all been there before: We're in a hurry to get somewhere (often in bad weather), so we get in the car, turn the key in the ignition and.....WHUH! WHUH! WHUH! The darned battery is dead! After a stream of choice expletives (that is, if you're anything like me....;o)), we ...more