Sunday, September 29, 2013
Make JPEG Droplet Is the Fastest Way to Convert Files to JPEGs
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Convert Pandora Stations to Spotify Playlists with a Chrome Extension

Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Convert Battery Powered Electronics to Use an AC Adapter

Saturday, August 17, 2013
How to Convert a Kid's T-Shirt into a Backpack

I should have taken a before picture, but didn't think about taking pictures of the process until I had already started cutting. In any case, it should be relatively clear.
What you will need:
-Long-sleeved t-shirt
-Thread
-Scissors
-Sewing Machine. (Although, I guess you could hand sew it, but it would be a bit tedious.)
-Safety pin or paper clip
-pencil or bamboo skewer

The red lines on the drawing are my cut lines, and the yellow pieces are the ones that I saved for making the backpack.
You can see that I cut the sleeves into strips. They will be used for making the straps.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Convert Battery Powered Electronics to Run on AC
For most applications this circuit can be simplified a little bit. The capacitors are only needed if your load circuit is sensitive to small power fluctuations. So in many cases, these can be eliminated. The variable resistor R2 is useful if you want to be able to power multiple different devices. But if you are going to use the power supply exclusively on one device you can replace it with a fixed value resistor. Wire the circuit as shown with Vin connected to the power supply and Vout connected to the circuit that you want to power. The regulator will bring down the output of the power supply down to the value that you set.
Depending on the power rating of your circuit, you may need to add a heat sink.
Example:
My son's swing normally runs on four C size batteries. So I found an old power supply with a 9V 1000mA output. I figured that would be enough to replace the battery pack. Then I soldered together the LM317 regulator circuit with a 220 ohm resistor for R1 and a 820 ohm resistor for R2. These resistor values give an output voltage of 5.9V. (It would have been ideal to use a 240 ohm for R1 and a 910 ohm for R2 but I didn't have those values on hand) This output is still well within the operating range for a four cell battery pack. Anything between 1.25V and 1.5V per battery will usually work. Since the electronics on the swing just consists of a motor and a speed controller, I decided that the filtering capacitors weren't unnecessary and I left them off. See the following steps for the best methods for connecting everything together.