Halloween Pumpkin Automation

Woody sure knows how to have fun during Halloween! This Halloween Pumpkin is sure to put the fear into some of the trick or treaters who dare come for candy at Woddy’s house. Since Woody is a control electrician he is using some expensive gear to control his creations but the same effect could be done on a tiny budget with some hobby electronics.

"Most of my haunt is controlled by a Allen Bradly SLC 5/04. My sound is controlled from Digital Sound Repeaters, Mp3 players, and a computer 8 channel sound card.I use stand alone controllers like Prop-1,A/B pico,and VSA software. I’ve just started to teach my self mold making and sculpting. If anyone has questions or needs a little help with making your own animatronics just ask."

Automated Halloween Coffin using PVC Pipe and a Sprinkler Valve

The Prop Master shows us how this cool Automated Halloween Coffin works. The coffin was made some plywood that was painted black, a skeleton of PVC pipe, a Halloween mask, an old suit and a sprinkler valve. Notice how the PVC has slip point that allow the system to pivot to raise a portion of the skeleton. There are also a few non-essentials that were added to enhance the scare effect, some speakers and a sound chip allow for some spooky zombie voices and the red flood light illuminates the zombie as he raises. Watch the video below to see how sit up fast the action is!

Check out more of the Prop Masters work here.

Mini V12 RC Car Engine

If you are into RC vehicles you need to have a look at this cool Mini V12 RC Car Engine. This is sure to make everyone who looks at it drool.

"12-cylinder-4-stroke V-engine with two camshafts below, mixed lubrication and air cooling. * 21 mm bore stroke 21 mm Displacement 87 cm ³ engine capacity to 7,25 cc per cylinder. * Compression ratio of 1:10 weight ca 4800 g speed of 950 - 5000 1/min"

Name the Thing Contest - 62

This contest will run for one week (Oct 4 - Oct 9, 2008) . Ending time is based on central standard time. To enter, identify the item pictured above and give an example of what can be done with it. Please do not give the answer in the comments.

Send an email to contest @ hackedgadgets.com with "Name the Thing Contest" as the subject, and the message body consisting of:

• The name of the item in the above picture
• An example of what the item pictured above can be used for

The winner will be chosen at random from all of the correct entries.

Below is a picture of the prize.

Motorola 68HC11 powered K’NEX Robot

Gary Teachout has put together an interesting robot that uses a Motorola 68HC11 as a brain and K’NEX for the structure. It has some smarts built into it, this includes a fight or flight reaction!

"ERC is a small computer, a few motors, some cardboard, and a bunch of K’NEX. For a long time it was a mobile robot, with differential drive, and I used it for many navigation experiments. It has an oscillating scan platform with two seven zone, convergent mode, infrared, range finders. Seven IR emitters mounted behind the upper lens (pocket magnifier), produce beams that converge with the field of view of a detector (behind the lower lens), at different distances from about nine inches away, to nine feet away. ERC divides this 360 degree view into 32 directions, and for each gets a distance of one to seven, or beyond range."

Computer with no Cooling Fans

When I shut down my computers in my workroom there is an strange silence. It’s nice but feels strange since there is usually the whir of computer fans in the background. I have often though it would be nice to locate the computers remotely and simply have a monitor, keyboard and mouse in the room for each system. This passive cooling idea is interesting but you will never see this in an inexpensive off the shelf system since it would increase the cost tremendously. A small heat sink with a high speed fan is a much lighter and cheaper method of removing the heat from our modern heat producing systems.

"When designing passive cooling, first thing you have to have is lots of surface area to dissipate the heat that a modern computer produces. The second thing to take into account is the airflow. Without fans, the airflow rests solely on convection that is a very low force. This means that the places the air must go, must be open, and clear of obstacles. Convection means that hot air goes up. This would suggest that the heatsinks are lined vertically. This in turn, suggests that the case be modeled like a tower."

Off Grid Generator uses Diesel and old Cooking Oil

Garygadget15 has a great idea that puts an old motor to use providing power by consuming waste cooling oil.

"I have built a "off the Grid" home generator using a 1950’s Coventry Victor one cylinder diesel generator, I can run this on diesel or a diesel and used cooking oil mixture and have it attached to a large battery via a 40amp car alternator which supplies my garden lighting and via an inverter for 600 watts of home power and lighting. The waste heat is used to keep my garage warm as well."

LEGO V8 Engine

This LEGO V8 Engine looks very impressive but that’s what I would expect for 4 months of work. Is there anything that you can’t make with LEGO?