After successfully hacking the Christmas tree lights with my Arduino Leonardo I realized I had an abandoned project: lots of brand new ATmega328P-PU chips, which are only waiting to be programmed. I knew that an existing Arduino can be used to achieve this but I experienced problems with a Leonardo.
DIY
Get your tools ready and prepare to get your hands dirty! If I can do it, so can you.Programming an ATmega328P with Arduino Leonardo (Arduino as ISP)
Quick and dirty Christmas light fix with Arduino
Christmas is closing upon us once again, and I was greeted with not so merry news: the LED lights from last year did not work anymore. Being too late the shops are already closed to buy a new one, but you can't leave your family without the famous look of a Christmas tree. Let's see what we can do about this.
us once again, and I was greeted with not so merry news: the LED lights from last year did not work anymore. Being too late the shops are already closed to buy a new one, but you can't leave your family without the famous look of a Christmas tree. Let's see what we can do about this.Passive power supply (PicoPSU clone) in HP Proliant MicroServer
The HP Proliant Microserver was a hit when it appeared on the market. Due to its capabilities it is still a perfect candidate for a low-cost SoHo server, NAS or HTPC. Most users who replaced the stock power supply had problems with the noisy fan and simply fitted a new 1U PSU or swapped the fan itself. For me this was not an option.After a day of drilling, soldering, screwing and testing I am really happy to announce my next achievement: I successfully installed a passive 12V power supply instead of the stock one in a HP Proliant Microserver!
My passive beer can solar furnace
In the cold winter days the temperature in the storage building can fall below freezing point. I could use the spare electric oil heater I happen to have, but keeping it running for long months would cost a fortune. It did not take long until I found the famous passive soda can / beer can / pop can solar heaters / furnaces. This is just an other DIY, sharing my experiences during the building process.P400 battery repaired
Of course the salvaged battery had a shorted cell, so I had to improvise. The good news is that it's fixed and working! I also managed to reflash the BIOS with a non-official mod, enabling 3 Gbps, hot-swappable hard drives on all ports. Hail the high availability!