Search Results Category: Electronics
I have started my first open source project called DroidOrb. This is an extensible accessory for Android that most electronics hobbyists can build for themselves. The basic accessory will act as a phone dock and display notifications via the glowing “orb” in various colours. Extensions will allow the docked phone to control other systems, such as your home alarm or automation system.
For more information, please see the DroidOrb website: http://droidorb.com
I was extremely excited when Google announced the Open Accessories Development Kit (http://accessories.android.com/) at Google IO earlier this year. I decided that this was the ideal opportunity to bring together my hardware and software skills and create an interesting accessory.
So far, I have a working prototype, and more details will be posted once my accessory nears completion, but you can check out the current progress here: https://plus.google.com/118226948467140990198/posts/JzPAkmKWa6B
The idea is to see how close I can take my idea to a store store shelf…
I built a home theatre utilising two projectors to create a massive 3.5+ meter screen! Read all about it here. Also part of this home theatre is a home-built subwoofer capable of a flat response down to 35Hz, and I have a plan to get that down to 25Hz or less, using a home-built subwoofer amplifier and a Linkwitz Transform Subwoofer Equaliser.
Other plans include bi-amping the main speakers using a pair of 80watt Gainclones which I’ve already built (using my own PCB design, etched at home). Unfortunately I went bonkers with the torroid transformer, bought a hefty 700VA job that provides *just* a bit too much voltage for the poor TDA7293 chips I’m using, although they’ll survive if I don’t use high volume. Part of that plan was to use a pair of parallel chips bridged together (that is 4 chips each capable of delivering 80 to 100 watts), for a grand total of around 600 continuous, crazy, RMS watts! That’s when I realised my subwoofer can only handle 350 watts peak! So what am I gonna do with the 10 TDA7293′s I bought? 
I really get a kick out of using simple electronics to get massively improved performance out of consumer electronics. For example, with my above plans, I should be able to make my R5000 sound system sound like a R20000+ sound system. As another example, I want to build myself a CMoy headphone amplifier complete with cross-feed and the Linkwitz transform equaliser for the best headphone sound possible. This would probably sound better than any off-the-shelf headphone amplifier (even using cheap headphones), simply because I can tune it for the best sound *for my ears*.
