This is a pipe organ chair that plays a tune when you sit down (insert your musical furniture joke here). I built this as the encore to the Word family's musical playroom. This isn't the easiest DIY. So if you're not up to the challenge, just sit back, relax, and enjoy my silent movie debut.

MATERIALS:

* Wooden chair
* Aluminum alloy tube, 2" outside diameter, 1-1/2" inside diameter, 6' length
* Oak Dowel Rod 2" Diameter, 36" Length
* 2 Black pipes, 10 3/4"
* 1 Black pipe, 6 3/4"
* 3 Flanges, 3/4"
* 3 Black pipe reducers, 3/4" to 1"
* 3  Rubber reducers, 1" to 2"
* 90-Degree elbow fittings, 3/4"
* Big piece-o-leather .105in or 2.66mm thick
* Box of 100 small wood screws, 1"
* Wood glue
* 3 Ball valves, 3/4"
* Scraps of lauan
* 2 Spring loaded hinges
]]>Guru BrianAug 27, 2008http://2pointhome.com/diys/steps/45934When we met the Word family, we knew we'd have to come up with something special. Every member of this family has incredible musical talent, not just Lewis (who's hard at work on his hip hop masterpiece).

We wanted to build something that would let the family make music at any moment‚ even with just a wave of their hands.

This is a pretty simple Infrared Harp. The sensors work like on/off switches to trigger various sounds when they are plugged into your computer's music program. With the MidiTron you can use any type of analog or digital input device, from temperature sensors to regular switches, to trigger your sounds. Get creative, it's really fun to think about all the things you could play!

MATERIALS:

* Epoxy
* 8 - 10 Infrared Sensors
* MidiTron
* 22- 24 gauge wire in red, black, and yellow
* Needle nose pliers
* MIDI to USB converter
* Two 4 - 6' aluminum u- channels
* Two 4 - 6' of 2 x 4 wood
* Large SPST On/Off Switch
* Wood Screws
* Drill
* Stepper drill bit for drilling through metal
* Zip ties (small)
* Zip tie mounts
* Wire Butt Connectors (small 26 - 24)
* Crimper for the connectors
* Multimeter for testing connections
* 9V 300mA power supply with connector
* Solderless Breadboard
* Box of jumper wires
* Jewelry screwdriver set

SOFTWARE:

* Music software like Garage Band
* MidiTron Software
* USB Driver software

The USB software driver should come with the MIDI to USB converter.

Maybe you've even done Mother Earth a favor and e-cycled that squeaky old doorstop of a cassette player instead of throwing it out.

But what about the cassettes themselves? The garage sale shoppers didn't want 'em ("C'mon lady, it's Meatloaf for 25 cents!") but you feel guilty chucking all that plastic in the landfill...and the big, frizzy hair on some of those 80s cassette covers is pretty fun to look at still...

Well, video-maker loup226 has come up with a fun, easy solution to the problem of all those miles of dusty, analog shelf-hoggers -- make a Jacob's Ladder. These simple folk toys date back to the Pilgrim days, but are still a lot of fun for kids to make and play with. (Seriously -- can you walk by one of these things without picking it up and trying it?)

You may notice that loup226 uses new cassettes in this video...so unless you're one of those OCD collector-types who leaves everything in the shrink-wrap, you might want to secure your old cassette cases closed with some cellophane tape first.

Stream photos and music from your PC to your TV with this free feature of FiOS TV's Multi-Room DVR.

...Or "dingtones," as Popular Science author Dave Prochnow calls the personalized sounds that echo through your home after doing this cool custom hack.

In a nutshell, AFTER the all-important step of disconnecting the power, you connect your doorbell's wires to the inside of your mp3 player's play button, and rig the player and a small speaker to work on electrical power. Pick a song on your mp3 player, and you'll hear it whenever someone rings your doorbell.

This project takes a decent amount of electrical know-how already, but if you want to get really 2.0 about it, you can even rig up a fingerprint reader (pictured) and play a different song for each one of your friends! (Full instructions at popsci.com)

Thanks to bvosrich for pointing out this cool project on the discussion board, in What would you like to see in Season 2? Got any other projects or ideas you think the Techno-Gurus should incorporate into their new high-tech makeovers? Join the discussion board and let us know!

]]>Jim 2.0Mar 21, 2008http://2pointhome.com/diys/steps/44267An older gentleman told me the other day "no one makes any records anymore!" Well, I thought to myself; "millions of people make records every week, just not on vinyl or tape like in the old days..."

Ever since the Irving Family episode where I showed Joelle how to convert all her old mix tapes to mp3's, a lot of people have come up to me asking how to go about doing it.

Well I finally got around to putting together a short tutorial on how to convert those tapes to mp3's, and many of you will find it surprisingly easy. Most of what you need is probably lying around your office, or in your storage closet; I also offer suggestions on how to achieve the best audio quality. Good luck and enjoy this fun video!

One of the most fun highlights of each 2.0 block party -- not to mention the technology makeovers themselves -- is getting to rock the wildly popular Guitar Hero video game on a chest-rattling, state-of-the-art system.

The only catch is, you have to play the notes they want you to play, in the order they want you to play 'em. Green, red, yellow, green, red, blue, yellow...sometimes you just want to escape those colored dots and do your own thing.

Well, now you can.

Programmer Josh Breckman hacked a Wii Guitar Hero guitar controller so it actually can be played like a real instrument, with 45 different available pitches.

While the actual creation of such an instrument is probably best left to those with Guru Lloyd-level computer skills, just watching Josh's video demo should bring a grin to anyone who's ever strapped on a plastic guitar and heard that jarring "SKROINK!" when you hit a bum note.

For those of you out there with real cyber-chops, Josh's directions are quoted below, courtesy of HackedGadgets.com:

“I combined: WiimoteLib and [Wrapper Library for Windows MIDI API] to handle midi stuff

past that, in the same bit of code that looks for nunchuck/classic controller stuff, i managed to figure out the byte/bit patterns of the different keys:

mWiimoteState.GuitarState.Whammy = (float)(buff[offset + 3] - 240) / 10; mWiimoteState.GuitarState.DownStrum = (buff[offset + 4] & 0×40) == 0; mWiimoteState.GuitarState.UpStrum = (buff[offset + 5] & 0×01) == 0; mWiimoteState.GuitarState.Note1 = (buff[offset + 5] & 0×10) == 0; mWiimoteState.GuitarState.Note2 = (buff[offset + 5] & 0×40) == 0; mWiimoteState.GuitarState.Note3 = (buff[offset + 5] & 0×08) == 0; mWiimoteState.GuitarState.Note4 = (buff[offset + 5] & 0×20) == 0; mWiimoteState.GuitarState.Note5 = (buff[offset + 5] & 0×80) == 0;
break;

From there, I had access to midi, what buttons were pressed, the wiimotelib already had the accelerometers rigged up, and all I had to do was put them all together :)”

Kudos, Josh...keep on rockin'!