The USB Pumpkin in the Cloud

By martinm, in DIY, october 21,2011.

Getting into Halloween time, we thought it could be fun to show a Yocto-Color used within a pumpkin, and to use its RGB leds to change the pumpkin color. Nothing really special, actually. To make it a bit more challenging, we thought that it would look much better if we could have some kind of cloud floating around the pumpkin. Forget the small demo that we had originally planned, our pumpkin just bubbled into a big overkill...

Pimp My Mouse

By martinm, in DIY, october 14,2011.

Today’s article is about a useless, but nevertheless quite impressive piece of fun. Gamers know the excellent Razer mouses, mostly known for their precision, but also for their typical illumination inside the mouse. However, this illumination cannot be controlled. Hence the idea to put a Yocto-Color module inside the mouse, to be able to dynamically change the mouse color using our USB-driven RGB leds. More details and even a video after the break...

Josephine the USB coffee machine

By martinm, in DIY, september 16,2011.

The number one fantasy among DIYers is probably hacking the coffee machine to remote control it. We thought about this for many years. Today we finally decided to do it. Meet Josephine, our coffee machine, an old JURA IMPRESSA F505 model.

The most difficult part was to dismantle it. Obviously, the guys who designed it did not want us to have a look inside. There is almost no screw: all parts are clipped-in.

USB Fan

By martinm, in DIY, august 22,2011.

When it's hot like today, a fan is kinda cool, but a USB fan is so much cooler. So to build a USB fan we need: a basic fan bought from the nearest appliance store, a Yocto-PowerRelay, 15 minutes to properly install the device in the fan, some more time to code a nice web page to control it, et voila! a nice USB fan remotely controlled from your desk. Have a peek below...