Chindogu: Food Magnifier

A chindogu is an "unuseless" invention. They tend to focus on functionality to the exclusion of practicality. They work, but no one would ever use them. Just do an image search for "chindogu" and you will find a ton of ridiculous products. So when Instructables hosted a chindogu contest, I had to contribute with something ridiculous of my own. The result was "The Food Magnifier." Check it out.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Chindogu-Food-Magnifier/

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/

Fake Padlock

This is a fun visual gag that you can use to make anything look like it is padlocked. This project uses a standard padlock and hasp. The only thing that we are changing is the screws. Cut off the threads of the screws and file down the cut end. Then glue the cut screw heads into the holes of the hasp. This will give the appearance that they are screwed into whatever surface that you mount it on. To hold everything in place put a piece of double sided tape on the back side of the hasp. Attach the padlock and have fun putting it on random things. A lot of people won’t look close enough to notice that it is fake. It is especially fun to confuse people by putting it on surfaces like glass that generally can’t have hardware mounted to it.

Christmas Present Shake Prank

We all know someone who shakes their presents to try to figure out what's inside. This project is the perfect thing to give someone who does this. It's a box that plays prerecorded sounds whenever an internal shake sensor is activated. So when they go to shake their present, they hear broken glass or a kitten crying or whatever you want to record to mess with them.




For step by step directions, check out my Instructables page: http://www.instructables.com/id/Christmas-Present-Shake-Prank/