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Outré USB Gadgets

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the any-port-in-a-storm dept.

PreacherTom writes, "We've all connected a myriad of useful things to USB ports: flash drives, printers, webcams. How about a vacuum cleaner? Pair of heated gloves? Anti-cubicle missile system? Joseph Pisani offers a listing of some of the most creative USB-controlled gadgets available, and includes a slide show of the most popular."

8 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. USB controlled or USB powered? by Matt+Perry · · Score: 4, Informative
    Pisani offers a listing of some of the most creative USB-controlled gadgets available

    Only the little missles look like they could be USB controlled. The rest just seem to be drawing power from the USB port.
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  2. I've got the missile launcher, it's okay. by phillymjs · · Score: 4, Informative

    I wanted to up the ante in a rubber-band-gun arms race in my office, but I couldn't find it available from any online vendors in the U.S. I see ThinkGeek now has a listing for them and they're expected in stock there in October. Anyway, I ended up picking one up on eBay from a guy in Australia for a decent price, about a month and a half ago.

    It takes AA batteries to actually power the launcher motors, with a switch on the underside of the base. The part of the missile that locks into the spring mechanism is actually heavier than the the rest of it, so it doesn't always fly nose-first like you'd think. It also doesn't have much in the way of range. If I could find extra missiles for it I'd experiment a bit with weighting the tips to try to address those issues.

    I haven't used the included (Windows-only) control app yet, but a guy wrote a control app for it for OS X that's not too bad. You can find it on Versiontracker, I'm too lazy to hunt it down and make a link right now.

    ~Philly

  3. uhhh. yeah. by highwaytohell · · Score: 2, Informative

    how this didnt rate a mention is beyond me!

  4. Re:USB by Cyno01 · · Score: 4, Informative

    The missile launcher is aimable and fireable through windows.

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  5. USB in the PSU by Madbastard · · Score: 2, Informative

    With this thing it seems that I can keep my USB missile launcher at Defcon 1 even when the PC is off. Wuhahahahahaha http://www.northq.com/products/powersupply/nq4200G P-USB.html

  6. Re:USB Powered != USB Gadget by jridley · · Score: 2, Informative

    Pick up any copy of Nuts and Volts. There are ads galore for USB development kits and inexpensive interface chips, and most issues have some damn thing or another that interfaces to USB.

  7. Re:USB Powered != USB Gadget by saider · · Score: 3, Informative

    Go to Sparkfun and search for USB. Lots of cheap (less than $30) dohickeys for doing all kinds of electronics projects.

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  8. Re:USB "short run" gadgets by Bassman59 · · Score: 2, Informative
    Last I looked, USB development kits with any chance of helping you succeed right away were about $2000. If you wanted to make a USB device that supplied some simple information, e.g. temperature probe? the light is on --or not--, how would you go about it?

    Look again: Silicon Labs

    makes some nifty microcontrollers and you can buy a developer's kit with in-circuit debugger for a hundred bucks. And you can use sdcc for your compiler.

    Of course if you want to sell your USB device you need to get your own Vendor ID from the USB-IF.