Attic Duct Upgrade

Here in Oklahoma it's kind of hard to tell that Summer is right around the corner, but it is. Since air conditioning is a large portion of my utility bills I am moving my energy saving focus in that direction before it gets hot. When I bought this house the HVAC unit was virtually non-functional, and to be honest I was a tad scared to turn it on, so I had it replaced. Having a spiffy new HVAC I didn't pay much attention to it as a place to save money until I went in the attic and saw this; The main return air duct was patched together with plastic and duct tape.

DIY Lancape Rock Light

Ever see those neat landscaping lights that light up your tree at night but stay hidden in the day acting like rocks? Ever notice how the store bought ones look fake? Plastic rocks are hard to make look like real rocks, and even if you find one that looks like a real rock, does it look like the other rocks in your garden? Probably not, and you just paid $20 to $50 to have a plastic rock in your garden. We can do far better for far cheaper.

Simple Desktop Power Supply Hack

If you do small electronics projects and you're just beginning you probably do what I did for years to power your projects while working them which is to cut the business end off the the cord on a wall wart power adapter with the appropriate voltage. This works but keeping around a pile of plug-less adapters for project possibilities is kind of a pain. There's the ever common 9 volt and 12 volt adapters, but who has a 3 volt adapter to test battery driven projects or god forbid; a drawer full of spare batteries to blow through while working out your latest design? If you've reached the breaking point and started looking at desktop power supplies you have probably noticed the stupid high price on most desktop supplies designed for the job or maybe you've stumbled across the PC power supply DIY option. I've seen both and I neither wanted to spend a Benjamin on a supply nor wanted a monstrous PC power supply sitting on my desk all the time. I came up with a quick hack that makes for a nice, small, inexpensive desktop power supply.

Cutting the Cord: PART 4

I'll probably die years from now still irked at the cable company for raising my rates 49% overnight. I've had some success in my quest to eliminate cable TV from my life. With my DVR needs fulfilled with an over-the-air solution that has network access to it's content it's time to get that content on my TV. Let's give Roku a whirl.