This is mostly just a fun article that I wanted to write for the simple reason of accessible information for anyone. Basically this is a example project that demonstrates how extremely easy it is to use the Arduino based platform to control high voltage devices via a webpage. This type of concept has many practical applications from home automation to office pranks. While in this article we will demonstrate this concept with a single relay controlled outlet this can easily be scaled up to control up to 15 separate relays with minimal cost using the components used in the base project. - Permalink

So this project has been lying around for a while and I finally found some time to write it up. I was inspired with several of the other popular microcontroller based laser instruments that have been floating around on the web over the last year. Ultimately I wanted to put together a project that was more compact and portable and this is the end result of my first attempt. While I had a lot of fun building this project I honestly learned more about how I would make it different in the future. There are many different ways to design the interface a musician would use and by far its more interesting to design new and experimental ways to expand this concept. Permalink

This project is the next in a series of DIY Photography Studio Equipment projects we are doing to improve the quality of the imagery on our site as well as in preparation for the launch of our new sister site dedicated to photography equipment projects. The next major component I needed was a few good quality reflective umbrellas. Commercially these umbrellas can range in cost from $35 - $80 USD for a 42” umbrella. In my opinion that is to high of a price tag for any self respecting DIY enthusiast. So after a little research and some trial and error we were able to do our umbrella with the same quality materials for only $13.00 with very simple construction techniques that any photogeek should be able to replicate.