In queste ore, abbiamo avuto il piacere di provare il nuovo pacchetto Duracell Power On, il quale comprende il “Caricatore USB Portatile 1800mAh” di Duracell. Il caricatore USB di Duracell è un ottimo prodotto per chi viaggi per lavoro o per diletto, insieme ai suoi dispositivi portatile come iPod, iPhone o anche e-reader come il Kidle di Amazon. Grazie al Caricatore USB Portatile, potete ricaricare fino a due dispositivi contemporaneamente tramite le due prese USB che troviamo sul dispositivo.
Grazie al caricatore USB Portatile, si possono ottenere prestazioni migliori con iPhone 4 o Nokia N97, infatti, sarà possibile ottenere una ricarica superiore. Con il caricatore USB portatile di Duracell, si possono ottenere fino a 5 ore in più di ricarica rispetto al normale. Tramite i comodi collegamenti USB è possibile ricaricare qualsiasi dispositivo faccia utilizzo di una spina USB per la ricarica. La particolarità di questo caricatore è quella di poter essere utilizzato anche in assenza di una spina elettrica, in quanto, internamente, è presente una batteria da 1800mAh la quale entra in funzione quando non avete corrente elettrica a disposizione.
(...)Continua a leggere Caricatore USB portatile 1800mAh Duracell, su Geekissimo
Caricatore USB portatile 1800mAh Duracell, pubblicato su Geekissimo il 06/10/2011
© Michele Laganà (Mister6339) per Geekissimo, 2011. | Permalink | Commenta! | Aggiungi su del.icio.us Hai trovato interessante questo articolo? Leggi altri articoli correlati nelle categorie Gallery, Recensioni. Post tags: caricabatterie, duracell, usb

A commercial potentiostat can cost several thousand dollars, but the CheapStat is an open source project that makes it possible to build your own at a tiny fraction of that cost. It is possible to build one for less than $80, breaking down the cost barrier faced by many labs that would like to have this test hardware.

A potentiostat is used to measure electrochemical properties. To give you a few examples of what it can do, the hardware can measure arsenic levels in water, Vitamin C concentration in orange juice, Acetaminophen concentrations in over-the-counter medications, and a bunch of other less easily explained tests having to do with chemical compounds and DNA.

The device makes use of an Atmel XMEGA microcontroller and connects to a computer via USB. A Java program grabs that data from the hardware displaying test results on your choice of computer platforms. If you’re looking for all the gory details you won’t be disappointed by their journal paper.

Filed under: chemistry hacks, Medical hacks

Windows only: If you're sick of locking your computer and entering your password every time you come back to it, Predator will ease the process by using a thumb drive as a "key" that instantly locks and unlocks your computer. More »

We still can’t figure out why a standard charging scheme hasn’t been developed for handheld devices (other than greed). Certainly we understand that many devices have different electrical needs as far as voltage and current are concerned, but we still long for the ability to use one charger for many different doodads. [Rupin] is trying to narrow down the number of dedicated chargers he uses by adding a USB charging port to his Nokia cellphone charger. Since the USB standard calls for regulated 5V a hack like this can often be done just by patching into the power output coming off of the voltage regulator in the plug housing of the device. [Rupin's] charger had 5V printed on the case, but when he probed the output he found well over 8 volts. He added a 7805 linear regulator to get the stable output he needed, then cut a hole in the case to house the connector.

Since [Rupin] wants to use this as an iPod charger he couldn’t just let the two data lines float. Apple uses a specific charger verification scheme which requires some voltage dividers to get the device to start charging.

Filed under: cellphones hacks, ipod hacks

More and more lightweight laptops and netbooks are shipping sans optical drives. Don't buy an external drive for for $50+ for those few times you need it, turn an old USB HDD enclosure and DVD drive into an external drive.
It seems like not having a CD/DVD drive would put you at a disadvantage but optical media just isn't that frequently used anymore in the age of high speed downloads—I've never needed an optical drive on my netbook and I've only used the optical drive on my desktop a few times in the last year. Still in those rare instances where you really need an optical drive it's frustrating to be without one. Don't run out and buy a $50+ external drive you're only going to use once in a blue moon if you've got—as most geeks do—a pile of old parts.

Alec from TeamUbermodder, a site dedicated to hardware modding, found himself in a similar situation where he wanted a cheap external burner:

My current Dell Inspiron 530 came with a single DVD drive and no IDE ports. On a limited budget and needing to burn media on-the-fly, I wanted to figure out a way to use my older IDE Ben-q DVDRW drive. Using an old USB hdd drive enclosure, I'll show you how.

The beauty of this hack, simplicity aside, is that unless you're militant about cleaning out old hardware—and I don't know many computer enthusiasts who are—you've likely got enough parts to build more than one of these franken-drives on hand. If you find yourself using the DVD drive more frequently you can always shop around online for an inexpensive enclosure to make the connection more permanent.

Have a hack for squeezing life out of old hardware or combining hardware in handy ways? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Modify a USB HDD Enclosure to Work with a DVD Drive [via Hack a Day]