You’ve seen our strangest DIY gadgets list, now check out the “Top 10 Coolest DIY Gadgets”. Which ones are your favorites?
10. 500-lb Potato Battery
Here’s a first: someone built a 500-pound potato battery to power his sound system. The potatoes — each generating 0.5 volts and 0.2 milliamperes — were put into groups and then connected inside of a truck.
In this case the potato provides phosphoric acid, which enables a chemical reaction causing electrons flow from copper to zinc. The zinc came from galvanized nails and copper came from small pieces of copper
[Source]
9. NES (Famicon) Drum Machine
Constructed from eight NES (Famicon) consoles and a Roland 606 drum machine, this thing definitely rocks. Its creator wasn’t worried about the cost, the real headache came when building a “flightcase” that actually fit everything . This also wasn’t a project that he thought up overnight, its been in the works since the late 90’s! [Source]
8. Playstation 2 Computational Cluster
This Playstation 2 Linux cluster consists of 65 compute nodes, 1 prototype node (software installation tests), and 4 user login/development nodes. Based on an earlier version of Red Hat Linux, this distrubution uses Linux 2.2.1 ported over to the PS2’s Emotion Engine CPU. Click image for a full-sized version.
All the nodes run the Sony Linux distribution for PlayStation 2. The compute nodes fill a 24-inch rack; 5 shelves at 13 per shelf
[Source]
7. MacMini Portable MkII
Peter Green took a Mac Mini, stuffed the internals into a custom enclosure, attached an LCD screen, battery pack, thumb board, and trackpad — to create the “MacMini Portable MkII”.
…which makes numerous improvements upon its predecessor such as mounting the thumb board flush with the case, significantly reducing the overall size of the device, and generally making it look more like something you’d want to take out in public
[Source]
6. Connect Four Lego Robot
TeamHassenplug created this interesting Lego robot that plays Connect-Four. It’s powered mainly by 2 x RCXs w/AC adapter, 4 x motors, 2 x rotation sensors, 5 x Mindstorms touch sensors, 1 x 16MHz processor, 1 x light, and 5 x Cybermaster touch sensors. Video demonstration after the jump. How good is it at playing? This is what its creator had to say:
During most days, where it will play for up to eight hours at a time (close to 100 games), I can usually count the number of times it lost on one hand.
[Source]
5. Touchscreen Boombox PC
This Touchscreen Boombox PC combines a Hitachi TRK-8200HR and Fujitsu Stylistic 1200 Color Tablet PC into the sleek retro package you see above. Powered by Windows 98, this PC features a 20GB hard drive, 802.11b Wi-Fi, internal webcam, 4 USB ports, and a “custom desktop to keep original aesthetics”. [Source]
4. The Painstation 2
Created by Volker Morawe and Tilman Reiff, the Painstation 2 is an arcade machine that inflicts pain via electric shocks in a Pong-like game. The latest version features modular construction, an integrated PC, 15-inch monitor, Atmel microprocessor, PainControlUnit (PCU), and a 2.1 speaker system.
Pain level can be adjusted via the PCU from 50 to 150% giving the possibility to challenge an opponent on a certain level.
[Source]
