diy

I'd like to pass along a press release from one of my favorite Silicon Valley start-ups. It's a place you can go to make chips... but I'd better explain that.

A lot of people do woodworking at home. The equipment is moderately priced and there's plenty of support available from TV shows such as Norm Abram's New Yankee Workshop on PBS and a variety of woodworking shows on the DIY Network.

But for those of us who like working with metal instead of wood, things aren't so simple. The equipment, for example, is much … Read more

The DIY home security market is one of those fast-growing markets you don't hear that much about. But trust me, it's hot, and InGrid, one of the leading developers of digital home protection services, has entered the fray with the announcement today of the direct to consumer availability of its Digital Home Protection system.

According to the release, "The next generation in home security uses portable, digital technology and fully integrated broadband providing a nearly impossible to defeat system. Each InGrid kit comes with quick, easy step-by-step instructions and illustrations that guide installation and activation in less … Read more

This whole thing started weeks ago when fellow Craver Tim Moynihan posted a story on a vintage NES game controller and cartridge that had been modded into an MP3 player and portable speaker. Not to be outdone, I realized that my homebrew MP3 player, the Little Professor, needed an equally nostalgic portable speaker system. A quick look through my closet produced the most worthy candidate imaginable--a malfunctioning vintage Texas Instruments Speak & Spell, manufactured the same year as the Little Professor--the year of my birth, 1978. Excellent.

Transforming the Speak & Spell into a portable speaker system wasn't nearly … Read more

Junior's artwork looks great on the fridge, but it would look even better next to a full-on light show.

If you've ever wanted to turn your fridge into a big ol' Lite Brite, you're in luck. Thanks to this tutorial on the excellent and addictive Instructables site, it's easier than ever.

Using some surface-mount resistors, conductive nickel paint, LEDs, a 4.5 volt power supply, and some other parts, you can recreate the Aqua Teen Hunger Force LED hoax or whatever else you want. In marquee style. On your fridge.

The entire tutorial is available on … Read more

The most surprising thing about this household energy monitor is that it's made in Japan. Not because the country has anything against green technology, but because the device doesn't have animated penguins or some other irritating example of the country's kawaii culture.

The "Wattson Limited Edition" supposedly can monitor individual appliances and instantaneously provide information on the amount of power it uses and at what cost. OhGizmo notes that it's unclear how the gadget from DIY Kyoto connects or taps into the power lines, but it had better work if consumers expect to recoup … Read more

There are plenty of laptop stands available, and you can probably find one that meets your budget and computing-from-the-couch needs. But where's the fun in simply clicking a link and waiting for UPS to deliver this final product to your door? Why not build your very own laptop stand? A man who calls himself the IKEA Hacker shows off various laptop stands made from cheap, Swedish furniture. A $19 wooden stool and a $6 saw, for example, will net you a nice-looking stand. Other designs include a stand made from a paper towel holder and another from a kitchen … Read more

I've been threatening to make my own MP3 player for a few months now, but after meeting with a group called Teuthis at this year's Maker Faire, I finally caved in and bought the Daisy DIY MP3 player kit. I mean, how am I supposed to objectively rate MP3 players for CNET if I haven't made one myself?

So here's a 16-slide photo gallery of the whole construction--starting with the bare board and ending with the final product. There's also a little time-lapse video footage of the construction in this week's Crave vodcast.

The … Read more

If you haven't noticed by now, we had a blast at this past weekend's Maker Faire. The above photo links to yet another gallery of some choice projects we found Crave-worthy.

Sadly, feeling ripped off is common when you need to fix some complex piece of equipment at home, in a car, or on a hard drive. Since Thanksgiving, I've suffered a long-distance tech support nightmare trying to get a four-year-old laptop to connect to the Internet. More tech manufacturers are dropping the ball on product support, so forget about free help from the company that made your computer. BestBuy's Geek Squad may be down the street, but $99 is steep just for a diagnosis.

While I've been without a PC for half a year, I've often … Read more