DIY Portable, Solar Powered Wi-Fi Repeater

With a Wi-Fi hotspot, you can remain connected to the cloud from anywhere. Even then, a Wi-Fi router needs electricity to operate. To cut this umbilical cord, you can power it with the help of the sun or the wind just like this portable, solar powered Wi-Fi repeater.

 A solar panel powers a Linksys WRT54G v8 router with 7.5 volts at 500 milliamps in direct sunlight. For sunless times, you have a backup of 5 AA batteries that get charged up thanks to the solar panel. The solar-powered repeater is packed neatly into a cigar box for easy portability.

 What’s even neater is that the self built Wi-Fi repeater has a custom firmware called DD-WRT that scans and connects to the strongest signal automatically and then repeats it. You just need to switch on your laptop and connect to the web. See how it works and download the instructions as a PDF.

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Incredible 3D Printing With Sunlight and Sand

We’ve shown you the power of the sun before, and here’s another superb example.  This 3D printing project demonstrates what you can do in the desert with just two materials: sand and sun.  In the demo above, sunlight and sand are used to build up a design layer by layer to create glass objects using a 3D printing process.

The Sun-Printer is a solar-powered, semi-automated, low-tech printer that runs on solar power and directly channels its rays through a glass lens to build 3D objects using a cam-guided system.

The experiment uses silica sand which, at high temperatures, turns into glass.  Check out full details on the 3D printing experiment.

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The Solar Powered RC Electric Lawn Mower

While spending too many hours during my childhood mowing the lawn, I always thought, “why don’t we have a robot doing this for us?”  This DIYer has made that wish come true.  And not only has he created one, but he is releasing a series of intricately detailed video tutorials which walk you through the step by step process.  Starting with a stock Black and Decker electric lawn mower, he created a custom frame to house the electronics and remote control receiver.

 In addition, he used two electric wheel-chair motors, a couple of swivel wheels, a Sabertooth 2×25 dual-motor driver, a 5-channel transmitter/receiver, charge controller, two 12v 20 watt solar panels, a power inverter, and quite a few other goodies.  With one of these, you can sit on the porch with your lemonade and drive your lawn mower around the yard.  Next step: make it autonomous!  There is also a dedicated project website where you can find more info.

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