If you are a gadget freak seeking a new adventure, someone with plenty of unused stuff lying around at home or a bored individual looking to burn some time, then you’re in for a treat. Here are three simple hacks that would turn your old contraptions into creative masterpieces and make MacGyver green with envy.
Homemade Stun Gun
With the number of crooks, idiots and overall douches at an all-time high, it is now a necessity to bring some form of self-defense each time you hit the streets. Since pepper sprays are too weak and firearms are illegal in most places, the best option you have left is a stun gun. It incapacitates your assailant through electric shocks.
Unlike guns and knives, a stun gun can easily bypass common security checks in malls and hotels; however, stun guns are quite expensive, including those with below standard quality. With this hack, you no longer have to shell out hundreds of dollars to feel safe and secure outdoors. All you need is a disposable camera and a soldering iron.
home made stun gun
1. First, take off the protective plastic casing of the camera.
2. Remove the battery inside to avoid getting jolted.
3. Take out the tiny light bulb on the circuit board very carefully to avoid breaking anything.
4. Construct the shocking electrodes by soldering a wire on each connection point from the flashbulb to the circuit board.
5. Close the camera, but leave the two electrodes hanging out.
6. Wrap some insulation around the stun gun to avoid electrocuting yourself.
7. Slap a battery into your new weapon.
8. You may now zap attackers by sticking the two wires to them and pressing the flash button of the camera to emit electricity.
Gamepad Conversion
When the original Xbox was released in 2002, everybody was ecstatic. It was the first gaming console that used a hard disk drive for storing game saves and downloads from the Internet. Unfortunately, everything didn’t end well for the Xbox as it failed to compete against newer technologies and video game consoles. This forced Microsoft to upgrade their product and halt all production of games for the original version.
One of the coolest pieces of the Xbox is its controller, Duke. Its innovative shape makes the games easier to control and more enjoyable to play. Now, you can transfer the awesome gaming experience you had in the Xbox to your personal computer by adopting the Duke controller for desktop games. You will need an old Xbox controller, male USB cable, pair of scissors, solder and electrical tape.
step in gamepod conversion
1. Cut the square end, not rectangle, of the USB cable to expose the wires.
2. Do the same with the Xbox controller.
3. Match the wires of the USB cable and Xbox controller color for color.
4. Set aside the yellow wire from the Xbox controller alone because you won’t need it anyway.
5. Solder the wires and make sure that they don’t touch each other.
6. Wrap each exposed wiring with electrical tape to prevent them from rubbing against each other.
7. Plug your new controller into the USB hub.
8. Install the XBCD Version 0.57 driver on your operating system so Windows would recognize the new device.
9. Enjoy!
External Hard Drive
For some people, 250 gigs of disk space is enough to last a lifetime; however, if you are one of those techies who require nearly a terabyte of space every year, you either have a room full of DVDs or a small stack of external hard drives. Instead of constantly buying external drives, why not build your own and save more cash?
To get things started, you need an internal hard drive and an enclosure that matches the size of your HDD. A 2.5-inch HDD is the standard for laptops, while the 3.5-inch version is for your standard PC. The connection of your enclosure must be at least USB 2.0 so it would work on most computers and laptops. It is also better if the HDD has a fan to avoid overheating. If there is no power switch on the PC enclosure, you must unplug the adapter to power down the drive.
HDD back-up
Set the HDD to the Master setting or Master/No Slave if one exists).
Connect the enclosure’s Molex power connector and ATA or SATA ribbon cable to the HDD. The Molex connector is characterized by four large round pins.
Screw the HDD into the enclosure.
Even though there is only one way to connect the HDD to the enclosure, make sure you double-check in case you forgot something.
Close the enclosure and connect the USB or FireWire and power cord, if present, to the newly-built external hard drive.
Connect the USB or FireWire to your computer and the power cord to your UPS or surge protector.
Format your new storage device.
Backup all your files before transferring them to the external hard disk.
Profit!
These three hacks should satisfy your thirst for something new. This trio saves you some serious cash, while earning you points for awesomeness and creativity as well. Not a bad way to pass time, eh?