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"Radio"

Am Radio Transmitter

Roy Hoobler | June 16th, 2008 | No Comments

This was very easy but we had to figure it out ourselves…

We built an AM Radio transmitter using the Electronics Lab from RadioShack. The only piece we had to buy was a 1000mhz oscillator. So it broadcast at 1000 am. FCC allows a 3 meter antenna which will give you a good range. I used a small 1/2 meter antenna (connected to the yellow wire) and it broadcast about 50 feet.

Using other parts from the kit, I also put in a pulsating light that blinks with the beat.

Attached is a photo. There is a 100UF capacitor between the oscillator and LED light.

In the photo is hooked up to my MP3 and running on 4.5 volts. I also hooked it up to my computer and could use the microphone and play things like a “disc jockey”.

RadioShack has come out with a smaller / cheaper version of Electronics lab for $50 which will probably work. I’m not sure if has the transformer on it. In my picture, that is where the MP3 player is plugged in.

Sorry I don’t have a schematic…

MP3 Player -> Transformer
Electricity (4.5 volts) -> Transformer
Transformer and Ground -> Oscillator
Oscillator->Antenna.
Oscillator->capacitor->LED

I also got a solderless “bread board” with a battery plug and it worked as well. Cheaper than the Eletronics Lab but I think the RadioShack product was worth it and got us started doing cool projects.

–Roy

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finding a lost cell phone

Riley Moore | June 16th, 2008 | 1 Comment

My wife was watching my daughter Julia and a friend’s son, Asa. They were playing with her phone, which is pretty normal, but today they turned it on silent and hid it. (It has a one touch silent function.) Julia turns one TODAY! And Asa is just a few months older, so I don’t think that it was on purpose. When Asa’s mom came to pick him up, my wife asked her to call her phone because it was missing. After 2 hours of searching, she gave up and hoped we’d find it when I got home.

I came home, and we ate dinner and began the search. We tried a few methods, including turning off all of the lights and calling it hoping to be able to see the light, but in the end, we found it using a simple product from Radio Shack.

My tool? An emergency handheld radio which I used as a homing beacon. When a powered, poorly sheilded speaker is near a cell phone being called, it makes a few distinctive noises, and noises continue to be made during a call.

My wife called her cell from mine a few times, and we finally found the phone. Take a look at where it was! We would have never found it. In fact, after I knew where it was, it still took a minute or two to fish out. The picture is a car seat base which we were replacing.

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Fan Powered RC Car

Chris Dycus | May 29th, 2008 | 3 Comments

This is an RC car I built. It’s pretty quick, as you can see in the video. It’s easy to build, despite its complicated looks. Here are the basic steps:

Cut a base out of balsa wood, making sure to cut away parts for the front wheels.

Mount the front wheels, including the servo.

Mount a fan on the back wheels and mount those.

Rig up a servo arm to press a switch; that will be the GO button. Have that switch turn a relay, which then feeds power from the main battery to the fan. Mount it.

Mount the relay battery and the fan battery.

Mount the receiver, and hook up the servos.

Attach the batteries for the receiver.

And that’s about it! Thanks for reading.

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M.O.R.T.Y

Mark Crabtree | April 15th, 2008 | 1 Comment

Hello,

Currently I am in progress of gathering components and doing research for my upcoming project, M.O.R.T.Y. M.O.R.T.Y Is going to be a personal servant style robot that will roam around my house possibly making things easier for me, or just get in my way. (more…)

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Video Transmitting Radio

Joshua Coles | April 11th, 2008 | 7 Comments

I am making a radio that transmits video and audio coversation with all your friends within 10 miles. You can also send morse code and typed text. I think that this could soon develope into the replacement of internet at a cheaper cost.

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