Vehicles

The MINI2440 is an effecient ARM9 development board with a comprehensive price, it characterizes simple method and high performance-price ratio. Based on the Samsung S3C2440 microprocessor, it embodies professional stable CPU core power source chip and reset chip to ensure the stability of the system operation.

From our friend Cottonbuds, here's a very cool how-to from Engadget, showing you how to make a Black Box for your car. Maybe a better description might be a photo travel log (for very short distances). Basically what it does is uses a GPS and digital camera, and snaps about 800 photos per hour while you're driving, then stamps them with the locations from the GPS. Considering it takes so many pictures however, it would continually overwrite the old photos. What you could do is adjust number of photos to maybe 6 per hour, and use that as a trip log as well.

Here's a great resource for those of you that don't just want an electric car, but want to build one yourself. The site itself goes over all the basics you need to convert a car to use electric instead of gas. Also includes links to books which will provide you additional details.

This one's not a straight DIY, but rather a kit. Greasecar.com has a kit that allows you to convert a diesel engine into an engine that only uses vegetable oil for fuel, supposedly with no loss in performance or efficiency. Another nice plus is, if you're stuck out in the middle of nowhere with no fuel and no grocery store in sight, you can still switch over to diesel (provided there's a diesel station nearby).

Here's a link to a very cool motorcycle/computer mod. This guy added a Unix machine to his bike. Might be wondering why someone would do this, and he's got some pretty good answers. Right now he can record videos with his helmet cam, and eventually wants to log his riding using GPS.

By way of this Slashdot article

Here's an article that shows you how to build a hovercraft. This isn't one of those tabletop ones made out of cardboard and a balloon, this is one that you can ride! I love their suggestion for emergency brakes in case it starts going too fast: "use an AC-powered leaf blower or shopvac, and have an adult remain near the wall outlet. If the hovercraft moves too fast, yank the power plug to put on the 'brakes.' Use this only in emergencies, since the passengers will fly off when the hovercraft suddenly halts." If you're using an AC powered leaf blower or shop vac, this will probably happen anyway if you're going too fast

Hey, this is a great site. I recently did myself a big favor by buying some hardware and thought I will share that with your visitors. I recently bought a Palm Tungsten T3 and a Navman Bluetooth GPS as a GPS solution for my car. My requirements were not very simple:

• I travel a lot so I was looking at a solution that is portable from one car to another
  
• I already use a cell phone and a PDA and did not want to add more hardware to my list
  
• Budget. Under $1000 (but I beat that)
  
• Voice navigation
  
• Nationwide coverage and Europe too
  
• Hate too many wires (sales pitch: wireless freedom)
  
• Reliable, Durable (and in case of an emergency will help me save the world from the evil forces of Zurg)

I read a lot of the reviews and finally settled on the Navman GPS-4460 Wireless Voice Enabled Bluetooth GPS Receiver - for Palm Operated Handheld PDAs and the Tungsten T3. The Tungsten T3 is only my second Palm after my trusty Palm IIIx (no really). I will post some more information but this is it for now. Cheers.

Ok, this one I'd classify as EXTREMELY DANGEROUS, but very cool. This site actually shows how a jet engine can be built in a garage. They even have videos of it running (watch the Oops video to see how dangerous this can be).

Now this project is cool. This guy built a Segway. Not just a motorized scooter, but a 2 wheeled, self balancing scooter, very much like a Segway. He's got some interesting ideas for future projects too - "I wonder if I could learn to control it without a handlebar at all. Perhaps with some sort of ski boots & bindings for greater control." - I see a future extreme sport in the making there :) Check out some pretty interesting robot links at the bottom of his page.

Add horsepower and torque into your engine just by upgrading your car's computer chip. According to this New York Times article (free registration required) people are adding aftermarket "performance chips" into their cars to add power. This looks like one of those hacks I wouldn't even try (considering I don't even change my own oil). But for those who aren't afraid of getting under the hood (and risking thousands of dollars in repairs), this one does look interesting.