Like a lot of you out there, I had a leftover Christmas dinner in the fridge but wanted something a little different. The rest of the family was out of town for a couple days after Christmas, so that gave me a few options for dinner. I wanted to fix something that fit the usual requirements:  easy ... [More]

Evil mad scientist has  a great project for the electronic do it yourselfer.  The concept is that a pair of yellow LEDs are placed in an otherwise inconspicuous pumpkin, and a photo sensor allows the circuit to turn on the lights at night.  The circuit itself is very straightforward, incorporating minimal components. ... [More]

This is a toungue in cheek Nerd Beach exclusive, and it could be handy for those who go out on a date, yet are not the most tech savvy (or just like the ideal of dedicated devices).   The ideal is that you whip out the handy Portable Compatibility Calculator when out on a date ... [More]

This Nerd Beach Exclusive is a very quick project in building a solar powered rover.  The main items you need will be a small electric powered car chassis and small solar cells, depending on what you can find.  The solar cells we used were very low efficient (i. ... [More]

Now, how could the readers expect Nerd Beach to pass up an electronic sandwich when it bobs up from the Cyber Sea?  Well, we didn't, and here it is in all of its carbohydrated goodness. I will spare you from all of the jokes about "bread-boarding" that is running rampant in my mind. ... [More]

Building a MAME cabinet is not that unusual, at least to a lot of Nerd Beach readers.  Yes, it is a subset of culture that does so, but usually it ends up more or less as an arcade cabinet.  But building one into a replica of Doctor Who's Tardis?  Now that takes classy and adds an air of cult that I find to be pretty cool. ... [More]

Phillip Torrone from MAKE and the famous Ladyada from Adafruit Industries have teamed up to bring us a new video series of interesting projects, called "Citizen Engineer". In this episode the team tackles phones in general, and they get down to the hardware with mods and more. ... [More]

Any fans of Star Trek would like this DIY project.  Here a Star Trek (tm) Phaser toy is taken apart and retrofitted with a Blu-Ray laser salvaged from a PS3 Blu-Ray drive. The result is a cool phaser gadget that shines a very bright blue light. CAUTION: The Laser Lamp used in this project can cause blindness, do not point at eyes or allow to reflect in eyes. ... [More]

So, you are thirsty, and you are lucky to have some refreshing beverages to drink.  But a quick check on the beverages reveals that they are not quite so refreshing,  but rather room temperature.  What can you do quickly? This DIY shows you how to quick chill you drinks in only two minutes. ... [More]

Building a DIY laser home security system is easier than you think, and the beauty of the finished product is that it can be configured to cover the area as needed.  This gives you an advantage over some other systems in that it is tailor made to fit your property. By using a laser pointer with a decent output you can mount as many mirrors as you need to cover all of the entry points to a given area. ... [More]