Rusty Nail Workshop

Raspberry Pi Solar Charger Current Sensor

After constructing a solar panel and battery system to power a Raspberry Pi, I wanted to find a way to monitor how the battery and charger was performing. There are several ways to accomplish this...

24 Jan 2013

Ice Clock

While browsing one of our favorite electronic supplier’s web sites, we found that Ladyada sells a really interesting looking clock that uses a vacuum florescent display with eight glowing digits. This clock proved to be...

01 Jan 2013

A Probotix CNC Machine

One of my interests involves robotics, especially autonomous self-charging robotics. However, I realize most of my skills center around microprocessors, wood construction techniques, electronics, and some limited computer software skills. I knew I was missing...

28 Dec 2012

Solar Powered Raspberry Pi

When I first heard about the Raspberry Pi, a $35 computer that can run Linux, I was mildly impressed. My first problem was that I did not understand Linux, and my second problem was that...

08 Aug 2012

Crock-Pot Yogurt Controller

About a year ago, a friend mentioned how she made yogurt in a Crock-Pot slow cooker. It sounded impressive, and a good way to save on the cost of yogurt. We also figured that we...

20 May 2012

Internet Controlled Robotic Arm

The motivating factor for the construction of this robotic arm originally came from a tour of the Volvo factory in Göteborg, Sweden. It was during this factory tour that I first saw the massive robotic...

20 Nov 2011

PongSat Results

Our PongSat ping pong ball was successfully flown on JP Aerospace flight “Away 47” on April 9, 2011 (it is the experiment on the far left above). It reached a height of 85,549 feet before...

29 Apr 2011

PongSat Experiment

Today, our first PongSat experiment will be launched to the edge of space! JP Aerospace, a group located in California, offers to fly student experiments that fit inside of a ping pong ball to the...

09 Apr 2011

Delicious Homemade Bread

Every once in a while, I find something that I haven’t used in a while and it suddenly catches my interest. In this case, it was an automatic bread maker (machine) which had been sitting...

22 Jan 2011

70 cm Yagi Antenna for Direction Finding

Every once in a while, we happen to lose something around the Rusty Nail Workshop. In most cases, if we wait a while, it will simply turn up again without us having to look very...

17 Oct 2010