How to Add Custom Ringtones to a Wireless Doorbell

I moved into a new house this year One of the many things left behind by the previous owner was a pair of wireless doorbells. So I took the opportunity to try modding them to make them more interesting. One idea that I had was to use a recording module to give the doorbell custom ringtones. Since the wireless receiver uses a ground signal to activate the ringer, all I had to do was move one wire from the doorbell's speaker to the recording module's play pin. Then you can just record whatever ringtone you want and use it as a doorbell. The only down side is that the recording module that I used was really quite so it wouldn't work for a whole house doorbell.

For step by step instructions for this project, check out my Instructables page: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Add-Custom-Ringtones-to-a-Wireless-Doorbell/

How to Make Any Home Appliance Into a Solar Electric Hybrid

The biggest problem with implementing residential solar power is the start up cost. Home solar systems can cost tens of thousands of dollars and most families just can't afford it. So I came up with an idea for scaling a solar electric system down to make it cheaper and easier to implement. By designing a system for a single appliance, all the parts can be smaller/cheaper and it doesn't require any rewiring of the home's electrical system.

Here are the basics. A solar panel charges a battery. When the battery is fully charged, the system turns on a power inverter and switches the appliance from running on grid power to running on the solar power that is stored in the battery. When the battery gets low, the system automatically switches the appliance back to running on grid power. By using the solar power on a duty cycle, you take full advantage of all the available solar power.

I built a simple system that periodically powers a desk lamp for less than $200

For step by step instructions on how to build one of these systems, check out my Instructables page:
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-any-home-appliance-into-a-solar-electr/

DIY Capacitive Stylus

Whenever I get to try out a new electronic gadget, I inevitable start trying to figure out how it works. This was the case with my new smart phone. I started researching touch screens and experimenting with how they work. I figured out that you can use pretty much anything conductive as a DIY capacitive stylus. So I made a brief video on a few designs that worked fairly well.

For a more detailed description, check out my Instructables page: http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Capacitive-Stylus/

LED Easter Eggs

Little kids love Easter egg hunts. But as they get older, they start to lose interest. So this project is an attempt to try to make Easter egg hunts more interesting. Just make a bunch of LED throwies (minus the magnets) and put them in the eggs with the candy. And voila! Glow in the dark Easter Eggs for nighttime Easter egg hunts. Soon you will have a bunch of kids running around in the dark, staring at the ground and not looking where they are going. What could possibly go wrong?

Miniature Beeping Circuit Prank

For April Fool's this year, I designed this little electronics project. It is a 555 timer circuit that beeps every few minutes. The beeps are just infrequent enough that it is hard to locate but still be really annoying. It is basically a DIY Annoy-a-tron. The main advantage of this project is how small it is. It can fit just about anywhere and even be attached to vertical surfaces with just a small piece of tape.

As with all pranks, it is very important to choose your victims carefully. Someone who is paranoid might mistake it for a bomb or something ridiculous like that.

For step by step insctuctions for this project, check out my Instructables page: http://www.instructables.com/id/Miniature-Beeping-Circuit-Prank/

Flashlight Tag Badge

Flashlight tag is a fun game. But I always love trying out new variations on old classics. So I decided to add some simple light sensing circuits to the game to see what would happen. With this circuit, any time that you shine a light on the badge, it beeps for a few seconds. That way there is no ambiguity as to whether or not someone was tagged. It's a fairly simple design that can be built for about $5 each. It probably won't be the next big thing, but it was a fun little project to make.

For step by step instructions for this project, check out my Instructables page: http://www.instructables.com/id/Flashlight-Tag-Light-Sensitive-Badges/

Automatic Dimming Nightlight

In this project, I designed a nightlight that automatically dims and turns itself off. A lot of people find it difficult to fall asleep when they suddenly transition from a brightly lit room to complete darkness. A dim source of light such as a nightlight helps them to adjust to a lower brightness and fall asleep more easily. But the down side of most nightlights is that they waste electricity because they are on all night when you really only need them to be on while you are falling asleep. So I designed a nightlight that will automatically dim and turn itself off after a certain period of time that is set by the user.

For step by step instructions check out my Instructables page: http://www.instructables.com/id/Automatic-Dimming-Nightlight/