A number of fun projects have been designed and built in the last few years. We have enjoyed working on them and believe they
may be useful to a few who have similar interests. These home made project are shared and given away for free.
All projects on this site can be freely copied and enjoyed by any
hobbiest or maker. The Maker license is simply the Creative Commons which allows use to use whatever you get here as long
as you credit Honey Software LLC. Enjoy!
A Simple and Cheap Webcam
Forget the $100 webcams you purchase on Amazon. If you're
knowledgeable enough to program an microcontroller, you can
make a webcam for as little as $7 or less. Click on the
link to find out how.
The SPIROGRAPH
Similar to pendulum art, we are calling this the "SPIROGRAPH"
An SLR camera captures the movement of a laser light as it points
to a platform moving as the earth and gravity dictates.
Create your own art.
Just Say "Alexa - Open Shades"
Control your louvered shades with this easy to build controller.
It interfaces with Amazon Echo (Alexa) and has a web interface.
Just Say "Hello Google - Garage Door"
Control your garage door from the internet, inside your home, from your car.
This project permits you to control see the status of your garage door and
open or close it from:
A browser
An smart phone app
An Amazon Echo Device by voice
A smart phone by voice
From you auto by voice
The schematics, pc board layout, firmware, case, instructions are given
in the description.
Wirelessly Control Your Meade Telescope Autostar using Bluetooth or WiFi
Wireless telescope control using Bluetooth or Wifi?
Cords tangle up every time you use your Meade "go to" Astronomical Telescope and the
controller that came with it?
Does the cable that connects the Autostar or Audiostar
to the computer gets in the way as the telescope winds around to point to another
astronical object?
Here is a project that allow your laptop to connect to the Autostar wirelessly. Yes
without wires.
This project is a bit complicated to build and may require a
small expertise in serial communication
but with a little help, anyone can build it.
I've provided the schematic and the code.
The cost is only about $15, and includes
all the components necessary. Why not take a look.
Home Built CNC Router Project
Here is another fun project. I got it into my head that I wanted a cnc router
to help with wooden signs and figures.
With a CNC router you can take designs
drawn in a CAD program and realize it in wood. The router cuts out the figure
drawn in wood and metal, depending on the bit.
In order to accomplish this, I
had to design and build the router hardware,
design and build the stepper motor electronics, and then write the CNC controller
software.
This page describes how this was (actually is being) done.
A look at a Home Built Ham Satellite Antenna
Learn about an how we built a ham and weather satellite antenna for about $300.
This project was built from the ground up. The frame was welded from
soft steel. The motors are controlled with a circuit originally borrowed but
modified from the web.
The control board is a standard microcontroller board.
and the PC software was written to interface with Satcom available free on the
web.
CAN Bus Project
As a fun project we have interfaced a laptop computer to a Mercedes 2007 CLK350.
The interface connects to the CAN bus which controls all the audio video controls,
as
well as the door locks and many other functions.
The project uses a commercial CAN bus interface module (a CAN232), the bluetooth
firefly and a laptop computer.
Take a look at what was accomplished.
SLR Camera Motion Detector
A friend of mine wanted to take a picture of a bluebird
flying into his backyard. Unfortunately for him, everytime he went outside
with his camera, the bluebird flew away.
He asked me if it was possible
to have a motion detector trigger his camera, which is a Canon 5D.
I built
this for him. It is a simple project that anyone can make.
If you need one
it can be had for just a small effort. Check it out.
Do you have a Ham License and an ICOM radio?
Try Icom_OKA®
Computer controlled interface for your CT-17
enabled transceiver or receiver. Works great
with the ICOM 706MkII and other ICOM transceivers.
