Posted Aug 23rd 2008 4:30PM by Eliot Phillips
Filed under: portable video hacks, daily
Popular Mechanics contributor [Anthony Veducci] wanted a
virtually indestructible video player that he could use anywhere. Not finding a commercial solution, he decided to build his own. He already had a large waterproof case and another for the
iPod Touch. The 8" display came from an iPod accessory. Unfortunately it was developed before Apple implemented their stupid accessory locking, so he had to use an Apple approved video cable through several adapters to get it to work. The speakers were also salvaged parts. The case was assembled using a jigsaw and a whole lot of epoxy. The speaker openings are covered with latex from a pair of gloves and everything is sealed with silicone. We're usually trying to escape technology when we head outside, but we'll be looking back at this the next time we need to ruggedize something.
[via
Gizmodo]
Posted Aug 19th 2008 11:31AM by Caleb Kraft
Filed under: ipod hacks, portable video hacks, daily
[jongscx] picked up a Myvu personal media viewer and promptly began scheming about improvements. He decided he wanted to be able to
watch any input on the device, not just an Ipod.
After some messing about with different inputs, he eventually calls Myvu to ask some questions. Surprisingly, he gets the engineer who designed the thing. The engineer turns out to be pretty helpful and is happy to help him hack the device. [jongscx] ends up finally getting it to work and posts the schematic for the world to see.
He says his hands are full with some other projects right now, but hopefully he'll do an official write up with pictures of the final product soon.
[DrNathan] wrote in to note that [RetroPlayer] was responsible for much of the work as well as contacting the engineer.
[thanks, DrNathan]
Posted Jul 18th 2008 7:36AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: handhelds hacks, home entertainment hacks, portable video hacks, daily
Today, [sprite_tm] let us in on one of his
pet projects. This is an inexpensive portable game platform runs about $50 and happens to use an ARM CPU and a 320x240 color LCD. Because it's so cheap, he's been working on reverse engineering the thing and there's already a proof of concept
homebrew version of Pong out for it.
Update: Yeah, yeah - title's fixed.
Posted Jan 6th 2008 11:04PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: home entertainment hacks, portable video hacks
I've been trying to find an excuse to pick up one of the HD Aiptek cams for a while now. [windowlikker]
posted his simple pre-amp + external audio input mod for his Aiptek AHD videocam. Unfortunately, the mod is limited to mono input unless there's an un-used stereo input on the encoder board.
Posted Jan 3rd 2008 9:42PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: playstation hacks, portable video hacks
[Robin] over at acidmods sent in
this interesting PSP mod. [PvP] added an internal hard drive (with the exception of a mini-usb cable sticking out the top) to his PSP. The advantage? Laptop hard drives are dirt cheap while sony memory sticks are still pretty pricy. More details should be along soon, but [Robin] assures me that this means up to 200GB of storage is possible for the PSP.
Posted Nov 15th 2007 4:30PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: home entertainment hacks, portable video hacks
[Johny Lee] sent in
his(pdf) awesome projector calibration project. By adding embedding some optical fiber that feed into a set of USB connected light sensors, his groups software can determine the exact pixel position of each sensor. Once the positions are determined, the projected image can be dynamically adjusted to fix the screen. The technique can be used to stitch together multiple projectors, and even calibrate an image to project onto a three dimensional model. I know some home theater nuts that would love to have this system for calibrating their CRT projectors.
This is such an excellent project, that I want to give credit where it's due - it was developed by [Johnny C. Lee], [Paul H. Dietz], [Dan Maynes-Aminzade], [Ramesh Raskar] and [Scott E. Hudson].
Be sure to check out the video demo after the break!
Continue reading Automatic projector calibration
Posted Nov 13th 2007 11:17PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: portable video hacks
Sometimes it may seem like I suffer from goldfish memory. [Chris] sent
this in a while back and I'd almost forgotten about it. He built a simple VGA test box using a PIC 18F452. I'd probably be more interested in using it to add simple VGA output to another project than use a test box, but it can definitely be handy if you need a small portable video test signal.
Posted Nov 8th 2007 2:00PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: misc hacks, portable video hacks
[Mark] couldn't resist sending
this in, and I can see why. It turns out that this is made from off the shelf parts, but the functionality is awesome. The pilot wears a video headset - igoggles, etc, and has a gyro/accelerometer sensor mounted on it that outputs commands to the R/C transmitter. On the plane, a
servo pan tilt camera matches position based on the viewers head motions. Just about all the components are listed in the credits at the end, but you can use any RF camera and a transmitter with enough channels to run the extra servos.
Posted Oct 7th 2007 9:47PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: misc hacks, portable video hacks
[Jake] sent in his source for a
cheap head mounted display. In his writeup he notes that the
spy video car comes with quite a pile of handy electronics - video tx/rx, camera and this simple black and white monocle head mounted display. (Which happens to be available as a replacement unit for a mere $20) The screen is a
Kopin 300M (Black and white, 300x240 pixels) The display is actually somewhat usable out of the box, but he takes the time to note some simple mods that'll improve the displays performance.
If you ever bought a virtual boy just to gut the display, then you know you want one. In fact, I've got a perfect project in mind for this particular toy.
Posted Jun 20th 2007 1:27PM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: portable video hacks
[Jonas] sent in a surprisingly retro
concept given the number of small cheap funky video recorders on the market. He built his own. At the heart is a sony Digital8 recorder, combined with a security camera and a SLR lens. It's finished out with an LCD viewfinder and a handful of AA batteries to power the security camera.
Posted Dec 29th 2006 10:14AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: handhelds hacks, portable audio hacks, portable video hacks
TomTom already runs Linux. The
OpenTom project has documented the TomTom hardware and software to allow custom software builds to run. The Wiki covers everything from build tools to hardware connections. So far, a
mp3 player has been released using the build tools. Hmm, I might have to pick one up to develop on myself. Thanks to [kniVes788] for the
tip.
http://www.opentom.org/Main_Page
Posted Dec 16th 2006 5:07AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: laptops hacks, misc hacks, portable video hacks
Ben's been working on
this one forever. This new version 2 Atari 800 laptop features a CF drive, a RS lcd, original Atari hardware and lots and lots of friggin soldering. That keyboard is hand wired, along with the CF adapter. Unlike the xbox 360 laptop, this one's got Ni-MH batteries that are good for about an hour of play.
Posted Dec 6th 2006 11:36AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: misc hacks, portable video hacks
[aboxman] brought this nice
wavecom jr mod to my attention. I first ran across scanning for wireless video signals a couple years ago when the X10 version came out. People were surprised at just how many video signals were flying through the air.This little project results in a unit that can scan a wide 2.3 to 2.7Ghz range. Of course, if you're across the pond, you might want
a european version.
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