Awesome Diy

Putting the Halo in Halloween, Pete Mander’s Covenant Elite costume also puts anything we’ve ever fielded to shame; it features joystick-operated top and bottom mandibles.

Warning: do not try this at home (or anywhere else); Kipkay.com has built the world’s loudest alarm clock, replacing a cheap 1″ speaker with two ear-splitting, 140 dB electric horns.

Using a Power Wheels truck, flux83 puts other dads to shame with a Warthog conversion for his kid; it’ll seat up to two mini-Spartans and includes a Vulcan made out of PVC pipes.

It uses NESp, a Chinese PMP, but this hacked NES Cartridge still rocks our plumber’s socks: it plays NES/GB games and sports a 2.8″ TFT LCD, 4GB storage, FM radio, and TV out.

Instructables member vv_767’s Super Bright Lightsaber puts other Jedi weaponry to shame: it’s a DIY project that cost $160 and features a 36″ polycarbonate tube w/300 lumen LED.

Oh Beer & Pizza Bike, where have you been our entire lives: created by Portland’s Hopworks Urban Brewing, it’s a pedal-powered bar with two kegs and a pizza compartment.

Doug Haffner’s Steampunk Arcade Cabinet is a double-dose of old school; covered with a patina and green backlit Frankenstein photos, it uses MAME on a PC to play arcade games.

Using a repurposed cooler, Brian De Vitis’ R2D2 carries far more than Death Star plans: it’s packed with eight consoles, a sound system and a dome-mounted projector.

It’s not designed to be used while moving, but the ARider is ideal for cyclers who need hands-free navigation; it’s a retractable helmet-mounted display that pulls data from an iPhone 3GS.

Nathan Sawaya’s LEGO cello not only is roughly the size of a real cello, but can be played, too–just don’t’ expect it to sound like one; watch the time lapse, brick-by-brick video above.

Our friends at 0-60mag.com show you how to build your own Need For Speed: Shift-themed racing console for only $500 (not including electronics); get the 60-page PDF here.

We’ve seen Twitter for power usage and watering plants, but the Tweeting Kegerator is easily the most useful: it monitors beer temp, handle pulls and brew levels; follow it on Twitter.

Loved for being open-source and hacker-friendly, Chumby is now available in kit-form; Chumby Guts is cheaper and comes unassembled, but is limited to 3 per order due to popularity.

IBM’s Deep Blue may be a chess champ, but Queens University’s Deep Green is a hustler-in-training; the team is also working on human-friendly augmented reality pool.

Kevin Cyr’s Camper Bike is a functional three-wheeled, pedal-powered RV that made the rounds in China in 2008; he’s currently at work on his next project, the urban-inspired Camper Kart.

We’re still waiting for our own flight to space, but MIT students recently sent a camera 17.5 miles into near-space using a prepaid GPS cellphone, hand warmers and a styrofoam beer cooler.

Behind every great business is a great flowchart: this Computer Repair Flowchart may have been made in 2003, but is still a goldmine of information on common hardware issues.

Solving Sudoku is trivial for this LEGO robot by Hans Andersson; the hardest part is image recognition, accomplished with a light sensor and several algorithms. Thanks, Nurgak!

We can almost picture a medieval battlefield with this fantastic Chain Mail Chess Set; it’s made by artisan David Austin and consists of precisely 42,256 rings.

Learn how to build your own Dry Ice Cannon above, which can send objects up to 80 m with 22 bar of pressure by mixing dry ice and water; red beret not necessary for max range.

Waterloo Labs’ FPS with Real Guns rigs up a projection screen with accelerometers to detect bullet impacts: in other words, it lets you literally shoot the screen while playing Half-Life.

The folks over at Verna’s Vipers have DIY instructions not just for a single Battlestar Galactica Viper rocket, but an entire squadron: build everything from the MK II to the Blackbird.

Sticky Light is a smart laser scanner that uses a laser diode, mirrors and detector to trace contours, enabling you to play games like air hockey and pinball with bare hands. Thanks, Chris!