Chris’s transmitter uses only 17 parts and has a range of 100 feet indoors.

The goal of this project is for me personally to learn a little more about fm transmitters and fm bug making (may the HAM radio gods bless me in this pursuit). The ideal outcome of this project is a very small and full functional FM transmitter that we can stick into a plastic mint box.

In order to be able to build this, we’ll have to learn a lot about amplifiers, LC oscillators, mixers, antennas and FM. This project assumes you’re already comfortable build your own PCB boards.

We’re big fans of Altoids tins here at MAKE, which is why we love this awesome round-up of 22 Manly Ways to Reuse an Altoids Tin by The Art of Manliness. Highlights include: a pinhole camera, an urban survival kit, and my favorite, the fireball shooter. If, after reading that, you still don’t know what you want to create with your empty tins, check out Make: Online’s exhaustive archive of DIY projects that involve the useful little enclosure.

In the Maker Shed:

Mintronics: Survival Pack

We’re big fans of Altoids tins here at MAKE, which is why we love this awesome round-up of 22 Manly Ways to Reuse an Altoids Tin by The Art of Manliness. Highlights include: a pinhole camera, an urban survival kit, and my favorite, the fireball shooter. If, after reading that, you still don’t know what you want to create with your empty tins, check out Make: Online’s exhaustive archive of DIY projects that involve the useful little enclosure.

In the Maker Shed:

Mintronics: Survival Pack

It's time again to fire up the ol' grill. Check out this itsy bitsy BBQ grill made out of an Altoids Sours tin. Instructables user vmspionage was inspired to build the little guy after seeing the eBq. [via Slashgear]

More:

• How-To: Spruce up an old BBQ
• USB BBQ
• How-To: Make your own BBQ sauce

You may have seen this little beauty floating through the interwebs. It's an Altoids Tin-based COSMAC Elf, built around the classic RCA COSMAC 1802 microprocessor. It's the prototype to a kit that Lee Hart has been developing. P. Todd Decker (Overland Park, KS) sent us a link to this video of his build of the kit prototype. He writes:

I have completed a build of Lee Hart's "COSMAC Elf Membership Card." The idea behind Lee's design was to create an interesting kit to introduce new people to the classic RCA COSMAC 1802 historic microprocessor. This processor has a long, interesting history and is even still used, due to its unique properties when it comes to power and durability. It was the basis for the famous "Elf" home-built computers from the late 1970s. It still has a strong following. Lee's twist on the old reliable was to rework it into an Arduino-style platform that—best of all for makers—fits into an Altoids can. His design doesn't require any surface-mount or complicated build techniques. Herb Johnston has done an excellent job of documenting Lee's efforts to create this kit (see link below).

Lee Hart's 1802 "Membership Card"

A wireless-enabled Arduino-based water valve controlled, neatly packed inside of a mint tin.

Minty Water Valve Controller

Marco Jetti's intervalometer triggers a still camera's shutter at regular intervals (hence the name) using a 555 timer. The movie is made up of 985 photos shot 10 seconds apart. Schematics on Marco's Flickr page.

Instructables user richfiddler11 writes:

My car stereo has only one 'Aux' input, but I have several gadgets that I like to hear on a trip without swapping cables: MP3 Player, talking GPS, Blackberry, XM player, Kindle, etc.

I couldn't find a commercial solution, so I came up with this little passive audio mixer that takes 1/8" headphone outputs from up to four devices and safely mixes the signals into one line that can feed a car stereo Aux input, powered speaker or any other amplifier that can take 1/8" stereo output.

Here's a neat idea for a tablecloth, by Kristine Bjaadal. Normally, one would avoid spilling things on their linens, however the Underfull Tablecloth has a hidden pattern built in that only shows up once it becomes stained. Now you can look at that lovely butterfly pattern and remember that one time you had a bit too much wine, without feeling bad about having ruined the tablecloth! [via neatorama]

From the MAKE Forums:

Forum user LeversFulcrumsLoads has amassed a large quantity of leftover Altoids tins, and is trying to think of something to do with them. Now, we've covered many projects that make use of a single tin, but I can't think of any that called for a whole pile of them. Got some ideas? Chime in on the forum discussion!

It was like stumbling onto something out of National Treasure.

Is there an elegant way of punching holes in the sides without having sharp jaggies surrounding a USB socket?

With literally hundreds of tins, I was thinking on the best use of these (pocket survival kits, minty boosts, recycle, really big LED Throwie's, etc...) but have been overwhelmed by the staggering amount of sugars and fillers ingested in order to stack this cache up. Insights are welcomed. Wow, talk about supporting the U.S. market.

More:

• Altoids and tin cases
• Altoids Tin Garden
• Altoids tin trebuchet
• Altoids tin woodworking tools
• Solar Theremin in an Altoids tin
• Altoids tin guitar