Wi-Fi Toys: 15 Cool Wireless Projects For Home, Office, And Entertainment

In my childhood days, there was no internet yet. Television and radios were the most advanced communication devices. And that time, I usually had read several books like Thate Pan (Science) Magazines and Thu Ta Swe Zone (Wikipedia) from my school library and too interested in radio and television broadcasting and receiving technologies. But, as of I was living in country side, and there were nobody who could teach me such subjects and did not have books to study such kind of subject, the result was that my hobbies were not properly grown up.

By that time, there was only one TV channel in Burma, MRTV and it usually transmitted in the evening only. We can receive those signals in the evening only. One day, I tried to build my homemade television antenna which can receive satellite signal. I took old 7/029 cables and removed the insulations to get copper wires only. When I got a few numbers of copper wires of about 1 meter length, I tried to make it mesh look alike to satellite receiver dish. I took one 7/044 cable and take out copper wire and put it in the middle of the mesh as I saw on most of the LNBs. Rear part of my own receiver dish, I took one small tin and tied it nicely. Ok. Its appearance was quite similar to the satellite receiver already.

My next step was to find out long bamboo because I needed it to put it higher in the air. Usually there were a few long bamboos with flap and hooks in every house in country side which meant for fire preventive measures, so that I could use that bamboo in my project. I tied my receiving antenna at the top of that bamboo and connect the antenna with old, long coaxial cable to connect to my B/W television in my living room. Installing my antenna was done. Next step was to tune the television frequencies. I turned my TV on and tried to tune. It was a lucky day that I could receive TV signals from neighbor country, Bangladesh. They were transmitting sport channels; I could even watch the football matches even though it was not so clear. But, as of lack of knowledge of electronic engineering, I didn't know how to boast signals, how to filter and reduce noise, how to make antenna more efficient, my own satellite antenna project was ended up in that stage.

The morale of the my own story is that there were a lot of things we want to create, we want to try in our childhoods, but as of lack of support and guidance that can give us a hand to move ahead, our dreams and ideas were faded away. One of my friends who I met in high school, he also tried too much to build up own helicopter in his home. He had collected so many books regarding to that subject and he even built up own toy airplane that can run very fast on the horizontal plane. He used dc motors from walkman cassette player as engine for airplane’s propellers. He tried several times, but his airplane run very fast on the horizontal level, cannot go up to the air. The problem was that the running speed produced by the motor cannot lift up its own weight into the air. Finally, he gave up. The final conclusion is that the normal dc motor won’t be able to use as propeller engine if we want airplane to fly up.

Today, we can see some toy helicopters with DC motor that can go up into the air; I thought that the motor assembly will be different from the ordinary dc motor. Now he was working as seaman already. His dream was to be an aeronautical engineer but ended up with the seaman profession.

Until now, sometime we are trying to play with such kinds of electronic equipments in our environment. I hope that some of my friends will also like to play around like this. For those who want to play, this book is for you.

Here is a book named "Wi-Fi Toys", you all can modified the existing Wi-Fi equipments in your home by yourself. Here is a short description of the book.

Wireless is all about freedom-freedom from cables, cords, plugs, and limitations. So why be limited to ready-made, cookie-cutter products? This book frees your imagination as it helps you create 15 exciting, individual projects using wireless technology. Each includes the necessary background, a list of materials, and step-by-step, illustrated instructions. Build a custom antenna, set up a car-to-car video link, or Wi-Fi your TiVo. Wardrive with Netstumbler and map your results. It's your freedom. Make the most of it.


The Toys

Each with a complete materials are listed and detailed, illustrated instructions.

1. Wi-Fi antenna cable
2. Laptop paperclip antenna
3. Directional tin cantenna
4. Modified access point using high-gain antenna
5. Setup for a wardrive
6. Netstumbler wardriving
7. Wardrive mapping
8. Personal outdoor access point
9. Solar-powered wireless repeater
10. Free wireless hotspot
11. Access point gaming
12. TiVo with Wi-Fi
13. Long-distance Wi-Fi link
14. Car-to-car videoconference link
15. Dynamic wireless digital picture frame

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