Who left the garage open?

My kids love my keys and all the gadgets attached to them... including the remote garage door opener attached to them. This leads to the garage doors always being in a mysterious "Schrödinger's cat" like state of either open or closed.. but which one is it?
Well.. we live in what the Realtor called a "transitioning" neighborhood...  transitioning for the better or worst has yet to be determined. So leaving the garage open for any period of time is like having a free sale on tools, all you can carry!

So, it was either buy an indicator for $35 (which was the wife's choice.. ) or make one with left over stuffs from the bottomless parts box (my choice). The criteria for the project was it had to be as reliable as an off-the-shelf unit and cost $0 in parts. I thought it would take an hour... but like most everything else.. that always turns into a weekend instead.

finished unit.. (just imagine the lights blinking spasmodically)

Digging around the shop I found .. a salvaged roller snap switch, a roll of 24g solid phone wire, a 9v 300mA powersupply from an old answering machine, some perfboard,  some connectors, some scrap wood, recycle aluminum from an old sign, and a Velleman MK102 Flashing LED kit I bought on closeout at the Radio Shack for $2 years ago. One could just use a couple of regular LEDs,  but I wanted something that blinked and wouldn't be overlooked when it was on.

The Velleman kit worked out great since it has potentiometers that allow you to adjust the rate the LEDs flash.. and only consumes 17 mA of power when on. The only modification I did was to solder the LEDs to the backside of the board so they would be able to stick through the holes in the wood box I made for it. The box was made from some leftover pine that I chip-carved in a southwestern motif to match the house... and used a couple of magnets to attach it to the wall.

The contact switch is mounted to a wood block just above the garage door

 a scrap piece of aluminum is screwed to the garage door to make contact with switch when door is closed

Everything connects to a simple perf-board circuit located on the wall just on the other side of the LED module in the house

All in all it works quite well and was worth the extra time I spent doing the woodworking for the LED housing. A bonus is that my youngest one goes crazy when the garage door is open now, running around telling everyone about the "linking light! linking light!".
So I'll consider this a success since it now gives us an added layer of security and I didn't have to make a single trip to the hardware store to finish it.

That 's "Master Jedi Geek" to you....

This was another project that was in flux for years that I finally got around to finishing.
Completely useless but oh-so high in the geekness factor.... ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Lightsaber! Not as clumsy or as random as a blaster. An elegant weapon for a more civilized time. It has full sound effects and a LED on the side that lights up and changes color depending on the sound effects chosen.
Everyone asks why there is no illuminated blade, simple.... that is too damn cheesy!! What is the point of a plastic blade anyways? Beside the fact that it isn't real.... you digitally edit the blade in anyways! Duh!
I've wanted to build one of these for years.... but it wasn't until I found a vintage Heiland flash unit at a thrift store for 3 bucks that I was re-energized into completing it. For years I have been collecting the spindles from dead hard drives thinking that they would make great emitters for a lightsaber. The top portion of the LS is constructed from to HDD spindles and the tape head of an old VCR which have been mounted together. I was hoping to get the HDD spindles to spin up when it was turned on but they are stepper motors and would require a controller to activate and run them... too much trouble.
The guts are a hacked up "StarWars Clone Wars Ultimate LS" kit that had the ability to display either a blue, green, or red blade with different sound effects for each. I kept the orginal sound board and wired a three position switch with a tri-colored LED that allows me to select between the 3 sound banks with the LED lighting up to the corresponding color.
I kept the original flash trigger and internal switch mechanism which required some crafty modifications to run all the wires through and have it still operate. All in all it turned out pretty cool although the crash sensor still needs some more work, will probably custom build a new one that is a bit more sensitive.
I'll post a video soon of it turning on and off and the different sound effect modes to give you an idea of how rad it truely it!
May the Schwartz be with you......