NedLog

Here’s an initial take on an idea for running Maxim’s One-wire protocol over standard Cat3 phone cable for cheap, modular networking of a bunch of small temperature sensors…
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The HandySwipe provides a portable magnetic card reader interface and display. It collects card data from a “Type 2″ card reader (shown here), and displays the data on a small character LCD screen. Type 2 stripes are by far the most common in use, such as on credit cards and drivers’ licenses. The device can store up to 50 cards, runs on four AA’s, and has a serial connection to download its memory to your computer in CSV format. It can also download data in a raw bistream format compatable with StripeSnoop, so you can take advantage of StripeSnoop’s powerful parsing and analysis features (LRC error checking, backwards swipes, card type/contents/issuers/etc.)

Read more about it here…

I was looking for a cheap way to interface my PIC microcontroller projects with my X10 home automation system. Plug-in serial X10 interfaces have to be … plugged into the wall, so I thought a good alternative would be to hack a wireless X10 remote. It worked… click to read about it.