url stringlengths 37 208 | title stringlengths 4 148 | author stringclasses 173
values | publish_date stringclasses 1
value | categories listlengths 0 12 | tags listlengths 0 27 | featured_image stringlengths 0 272 | content stringlengths 0 56.1k | comments_count int64 0 900 | scraped_comments_count int64 0 50 | comments listlengths 0 50 | scraped_at float64 1.76B 1.76B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/09/scope-noob-microcontroller-quirks-with-dds/ | Scope Noob: Microcontroller Quirks With DDS | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"dac",
"dds",
"holdoff",
"microcontroller",
"r2r",
"scope noob",
"sine wave"
] | In this installment of
Scope Noob
I’m working with Direct Digital Synthesis using a microcontroller. I was pleasantly surprised by some of the quirks which I discovered during this process. Most notably, I had a chance to look at errant triggers solved by using holdoff and a few timing peculiarities introduced by my use of the microcontroller. Here’s a video synopsis but I’ll cover everything in-depth after the break.
Direct Digital Synthesis
DDS is a method of creating analog signals from a set of digital inputs. I was inspired to give it a try after watching [Bil Herd’s]
post and video on DDS
. But he was using programmable logic and I thought I’d give it a try with a microcontroller.
R/2R Ladder
A simple R/2R Ladder is the key to this experiment. It’s a network of resistors in a 1:2 ratio with one another. I would recommend targeting 10k and 20k resistors; what I had handy was 500 and 1k which worked well for this. Eight bits of the microcontroller drive the digital inputs of the ladder, with a single output that is an analog voltage between 0V and Vcc.
My code examples for each of these experiments are
available in this repository
. The code was written for an ATmega328p (which is what the Trinket Pro is rockin’) but it’s vanilla enough to easily port for anything. My first run is a simple
ramp signal using code that loops
through an 8-bit variable and is also used as the output value. When it overflows the ramp begins again.
uint8_t counter = 0;
while(1) {
PORTC = counter;
PORTB = counter >> 6; //Shift the counter so MSB is on PB0 and PB1
++counter;
}
Notice that there are several yellow blips on that ramp signal. I’ll get into that in a little bit, but with a working “hello world” for the DDS I wanted to refine my methods by
using hardware interrupts
. Setting up Timer2 at the system clock rate of 16MHz with a counter resolution of 256bits still allows me to generate a frequency of 440 Hz:
ISR(TIMER2_COMPA_vect)
{
static uint8_t counter = 0;
PORTC = counter; //Set PORTC
PORTB = counter >> 6; //Set PORTB
counter++;
}
It is worth noting that those blips in the signal are still there, just a bit harder to see on the above screenshot. As you can see, this signal is clocked at 438Hz, quite close to my target of 440Hz. That frequency is an ‘A’ in pitch. I figure I might morph this into an audio project eventually and if that happens I’ll wanted a signal that sounds better than a ramp wave does.
I Saw the Sine
This setup is well prepared for generating more interesting signals. All that’s needed is a better set of data to push to the ports than an incrementing counter. The most common way of doing this is to use a lookup table. I found a website that will
generate sine wave values based on your parametric needs
. I loaded up one with 256 bits of resolution so that I could still use the counter overflow as the index of the array.
ISR(TIMER2_COMPA_vect)
{
static uint8_t counter = 0; //Declare static this will only be instatiated the first time
PORTC = sine[counter]; //Set PORTC
PORTB = (sine[counter++]) >> 6; //Set PORTB and increment the counter
}
That’s quite a pretty curve, but now we’re still seeing those signal anomalies and there’s a new issue. When I zoom in on the waveform I sometimes get a double signal. This looks like a sine wave inverted and overlaid on itself.
Not knowing what caused this I pinged [Adam Fabio] to see if he had any insights. He mentioned that it’s probably an issue of the scope triggering when it shouldn’t be.
The DS1054z that I’m using has two settings in the trigger menu that may be able to help with this. The first is a toggle that tells the scope to ignore noise when triggering. I was able to get this to work a little bit depending on my timebase and trigger voltage but it wasn’t a sure fix. The other option was Holdoff.
Learning about Holdoff
Holdoff is a feature that allows you to dial in a “blackout” window where the scope will not trigger. The best discussion of the feature that I found is [Dave Jones’]
video regarding holdoff
. He shows several use cases but mine is one of the easiest. I know the timing that my signal uses and I calculated that a holdoff just a bit longer than 2.1ms should be enough for the scope to trigger at the start of each period.
Splitting Microcontroller Ports
It’s finally time to figure out what’s going on with those blips in the signal. Here you can see that I’m measuring one of those blips which is about 1.024 us wide. That’s actually quite a lot and so I started probing around with channel two to see what’s going on. Very quickly I figured out that the blips always occur between bit 5 and bit 6 of the R/2R ladder.
In this case I’m really glad I used the Trinket Pro because otherwise I wouldn’t have had these blips to play around with. Normally I would use all eight bits on a single port but this board doesn’t offer that. Because of this I’m using PC0-PC5 and PB0-PB1. The blip occurs because of latency between writing PORTC and writing PORTB.
The C code that I wrote in the Interrupt Service Routine is very concise and beautiful C code. But the assembly generated from it shows why I’m getting large blips:
You can see that there are numerous instructions between the write to PORTC and the subsequent write to PORTB. This was simple to trace down because of my probing using the scope. The best part is that you don’t have to resort to writing your own assembly, instead you can just craft your C code with timing in mind:
ISR(TIMER2_COMPA_vect) {
static uint8_t counter = 0;
static uint8_t prewindC = 0;
static uint8_t prewindB = 0;
PORTC = prewindC; //SET PORTC
PORTB = prewindB; //SET PORTB
prewindC = sine[counter];
prewindB = (sine[counter++]) >> 6;
}
In the interest of brevity, here is the resulting assembly and the new blip measurement (click to enlarge):
Only one instruction between port writes.
This blip is about 5 times shorter than before!
The result of coding with the microcontroller in mind shortens the blip in the signal by about 5 times! It is perhaps possible to further reduce this by half by using in-line assembly as there is still one instruction call in between port writes. But I think this a fantastic example of an oscilloscope saving you time in troubleshooting.
A Rant about Microcontroller Choice
Obviously working with a bare chip rather than a breakout board would have allowed me to use 8-bits on one port. But lets assume you were required to work with this restriction. With most 8-bit controllers you’ll hit another gotcha that I experienced here: to write to PORTB using one instruction I have to blow out the entire PORTB register even though I’m only writing 2 bits.
The reason for this is that you cannot write both digital 1 and digital 0 to the port using bitwise instructions. The best you could do is to first set your target bits to a known value, then to use a second instruction to write the bitwise values you seek. Obviously if you’re dealing with timing this is not optimal.
Most 32-bit microcontrollers (and some 8 or 16 bit varieties) have a workaround for this. Above is a paragraph from
the TI datasheet for a TM4C123 chip
. It shows that this processor allows single-instruction write without overwriting the entire port because it has a mask feature in the upper bits of the register. You can use an assignment operator and only the bits set in the mask register will be affected.
Homework
I don’t have a firm plan yet for next week so I can’t tip you off about the topic. Help me along by suggesting an area for me to explore by leaving a comment below. | 40 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "2229156",
"author": "Michał",
"timestamp": "2014-12-09T15:25:58",
"content": "This series will be of great value to me, especially as a fresh owner of the very same scope model.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2229836",
... | 1,760,375,977.898561 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/09/clap-on-a-breadboard/ | Clap On! A Breadboard | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"clap",
"clapper",
"flip-flop",
"home automation",
"SR flip-flop",
"The Clapper"
] | The Clapper™ is a miracle of the 1980s, turning lights and TVs on and off with the simple clap of the hands, and engraving itself into the collective human unconsciousness with a little jingle that implores – nay,
commands
– you to Clap On! and Clap Off! [Rutuvij] and [Ayush] bought a clap switch kit, but like so many kits, this one was impossible to understand; building the circuit was out of the question, let alone understanding the circuit. To help [Rutuvij] and [Ayush] out, [Rafale] made his own version of the circuit,
and figured out a way to explain how the circuit works
.
While not the most important component, the most obvious component inside a Clapper is a microphone. [Rafale] is using a small electret microphone connected to an amplifier block, in this case a single transistor.
The signal from the microphone is then sent to the part of the circuit that will turn a load on and off. For this, a bistable multivibrator was used, or as it’s called in the world of digital logic and Minecraft circuits, an S-R flip-flop. This flip-flop needs two inputs; one to store the value and another to erase the stored value. For that, it’s two more transistors. The first time the circuit senses a clap, it stores the value in the flip-flop. The next time a clap is sensed, the circuit is reset.
Output is as simple as a LED and a buzzer, but once you have that, connecting a relay is a piece of cake. That’s the complete circuit of a clapper using five transistors, something that just can’t be done with other builds centered around a 555 timer chip. | 11 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "2228889",
"author": "repkid",
"timestamp": "2014-12-09T13:28:12",
"content": "link please?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2228914",
"author": "Iw2",
"timestamp": "2014-12-09T13:44:06",
"content": "Foun... | 1,760,375,977.258604 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/09/overhauling-a-3-zone-relow-oven/ | Overhauling A 3-Zone Reflow Oven | Ethan Zonca | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"pid",
"PID temperature control",
"reflow controller",
"reflow oven"
] | [Ed] owns a 3-zone reflow oven (which he coincidently uses to manufacture reflow oven controllers), but its performance has gotten worse and worse over time. The speed of the conveyer belt became so inconsistent that most boards run through the oven weren’t completely reflowed. [Ed] decided to
rip out the guts of the oven and replace it with an Arduino
, solving the belt problem and replacing the oven’s user-unfriendly interface
When [Ed] was looking into his belt speed problem, he discovered that the belt motor was controlled by an adjustable linear regulator with no feedback. Although this seems a bit sketchy by itself, the motor also had some mechanical issues and [Ed] ended up replacing it entirely. After realizing that closed-loop speed control would really help make the oven more consistent, [Ed] decided to overhaul all of the electronics in the oven.
[Ed] wanted to make as little custom hardware as possible, so he started out with an Arduino Mega and some MAX31855’s that measure multiple thermocouples in the oven. The Arduino controls the belt speed and runs PID loops which control heating elements in each of the oven’s 3 zones. The Arduino can be programmed with different profiles (stored in EEPROM) which are made up of 3 zone temperatures and a conveyor speed. Don’t have a 3-zone oven of your own to hack? Check out some
DIY reflow oven
builds we’ve
featured before
. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "2228334",
"author": "zaprodk",
"timestamp": "2014-12-09T09:33:57",
"content": "RELOW-OVEN ?! – Yep that sounds about right HAD :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2228659",
"author": "Matt",
"timestamp": "2014-1... | 1,760,375,977.540886 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/08/ephemeral-photographs-staged-with-artful-inventions/ | Ephemeral Photographs Staged With Artful Inventions | Sarah Petkus | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"arc",
"art tech",
"bubble blower",
"bubbles",
"electrified flowers",
"electrified plants",
"giant bubble",
"hawaii",
"kirkwood",
"photography"
] | [Gordon Kirkwood’s] focus as a photographer is in
capturing ephemeral phenomena
, that is, things that are exhilarating to see but also fleeting. In the pursuit of documenting such blips of beauty found in the natural word, he has taken on engineering the circumstance through which they occur by means of technology.
One of the amazing mechanical creations he’s constructed to aid in his photography is a large computer controlled, bubble blower. A few stepper motors work to dilate three segments of soap-soaked rope engaged at 120 degree angles to create a triangular aperture. When the aperture closes, the segments overlap slightly, covering themselves with a consistent coating of suds. When the segments stretch apart, a fan blows a current of air towards the center, pushing the sheath of fluid into ginormous glimmering orbs which he uses as the focal point in some of his photographs.
More currently, [Gordon] has been developing a body of work that involves zapping botanical subject matter with a quarter-million volts from a portable arc producing device he’s created and capturing the reaction with an ultra low-tech camera (the kind with the bellow and sheet you hide under while exposing the film). Using a method all his own, the shots recorded on large format film are claimed to turn out with even more clarity than any current digital camera in use today. [Gordon] has launched a crowd funding campaign to support
a pilgrimage to the majestic island of Hawaii
, where he’ll use his lightning producing apparatus on ten different specimens of tropical plant life so that he can record the outcome with his tried and proven technique. (see below an artsy shot of his lightning summoner)
Sometimes Kickstarter isn’t so much about commercialism as it is starting a dialogue with the world and beginning a personal adventure. May the journey lead to new inventions and larger, more ambitious projects! Oh yeah- the bubble blowing machine is a must-see in action. Wicked cool: | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "2228000",
"author": "neon22",
"timestamp": "2014-12-09T07:25:05",
"content": "kirlian photography",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "2228933",
"author": "gardencellist",
"timestamp": "2014-12-09T13:53:10",
"content": "T... | 1,760,375,977.594711 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/08/an-msp430-based-automatic-fish-feeder/ | An MSP430-based Automatic Fish Feeder | Ethan Zonca | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"aquarium",
"fish feeder",
"msp430",
"stepper motor"
] | [Dmitri] wanted to buy an automatic feeding setup for his aquarium, but he found that most off-the-shelf feeders are really inaccurate with portion control. [Dmitri]’s fish is sensitive to overfeeding, so an off-the-shelf feeder wouldn’t get the job done. Since [Dmitri] knows a thing or two about electronics, he set out to
build his own microcontroller-based automatic feeding machine
.
[Dmitri]’s machine is based around a MSP430 that starts feeding at scheduled times and controls how much food is dispensed. The MSP lives on a custom PCB that [Dmitri] designed, which includes a stepper motor driver and input for an endstop sensor. The board is wired to a stepper motor that advances a small wooden board with a series of holes in it. Each hole is filled with a single serving of food. The board slides along a piece of U-channel, and food drops out of each hole into the aquarium when the hole reaches the end of the channel.
The whole build is very well documented, and [Dmitri] explains each block of his schematic in detail. His firmware is also open-source, so you can build your own fish feeder based off of his design. Check out the video after the break to see the feeder in action. | 9 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "2227432",
"author": "Fennec",
"timestamp": "2014-12-09T03:58:36",
"content": "Awesome! Just have to remember to keep the food storage topped up. :)I still want to 3D print myself a corkscrew cat-feeder, but I love feeding them myself so much that I would feel bad for automating it."... | 1,760,375,977.317684 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/08/making-t-glaze-crystal-clear/ | Making T-Glase Crystal Clear | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"clear",
"filament",
"glass",
"optically clear",
"t-glaze"
] | There are 3D printing filaments out there with a lot of interesting properties. Whether it’s the sanded-down MDF feel you get from Laywood, the stretchy and squishy but somehow indestructible feel of Ninjaflex, or just regular ‘ol PLA, there’s a filament out there for just about any use.
Even optically clear printed objects
. Yes, you can now do some post-processing on printed parts to make T-glase crystal clear.
The big advance allowing translucent parts to be made clear is
a new product from Smooth-On
that’s meant to be a protective and smoothing coating for 3D printed objects. With PLA, ABS, and powder printed parts, this coating turns objects shiny and smooth. Strangely – and I don’t think anyone planned this – it also has the same index of refraction as T-glase. This means coating an object printed with T-glase will render the layers invisible, smooth out the tiny bumps in the print, and turn a single-walled object clear.
There is a special technique to making clear objects with T-glase. The walls of the print must be a single layer. You’ll also want a perfect layer height on your print – you’re looking for cylindrical layers, not a nozzle that squirts out to the side.
The coating for the pictures above was applied on a makeshift lathe built out of an electric drill and a sanding pad. This gave the coating a nice, even layer until it dried. After a few tests, it was determined lenses could be printed with this technique. It might not be good enough for 3D printed eyeglasses, but it’s more than sufficient for creating windows for a model, portholes for an underwater ROV, or anything else where you want nothing but light inside an enclosure. | 26 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "2226619",
"author": "ERROR_user_unknown",
"timestamp": "2014-12-09T00:25:42",
"content": "if you modified the slicer program to leave gaps then pulled a vacuum on the print while it is in a tank of this product you might get a thicker print to be clear. this is quite fascinating Ten... | 1,760,375,977.501615 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/11/reverse-engineering-super-animal-cards/ | Reverse Engineering Super Animal Cards | Elliot Williams | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"barcode",
"reverse engineering",
"super animals"
] | If you don’t have a niece or nephew we encourage you to get one because they provide a great excuse to take apart kids’ toys.
[Sam] had just bought some animal-themed trading cards. These particular cards accompany a card-reader that uses barcodes to play some audio specific to each animal when swiped. So [Sam] convinces her niece that they should
draw their own bar codes
. Of course it’s not that easy: the barcodes end up having even and odd parity bits tacked on to verify a valid read. But after some solid reasoning plus trial-and-error, [Sam] convinces her niece that the world runs on science rather than magic.
But it can’t end there; [Sam] wants to hear all the animals. Printing out a bunch of cards is tedious, so [Sam]
opens up the card reader and programs and Arduino to press a button and blink an IR LED
to simulate a card swipe. (Kudos!) Now she can easily go through all 1023 possible values for the animal cards and play all the audio tracks, and her niece gets to hear more animal sounds than any child could desire.
Along the way, [Sam] found some interesting non-animal sounds that she thinks are Easter eggs but we would wager are for future use in a contest or promotional drawing or something similar. Either way, its great fun to get to listen in on more than you’re supposed to. And what better way to educate the next generation of little hackers than by spending some quality time together spoofing bar codes with pen and paper? | 15 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "2235846",
"author": "Tom the Brat",
"timestamp": "2014-12-11T13:07:35",
"content": "Get what? A niece or nephew?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2235848",
"author": "anonymous",
"timestamp": "2014-12-11T13:08:3... | 1,760,375,978.26435 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/11/building-a-portable-ham-radio-station/ | Building A Portable Ham Radio Station | Eric Evenchick | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"CAT control",
"ham",
"HAM station",
"Microham",
"rack mount",
"ubuntu"
] | Nowadays, you can get into ham radio on the cheap. A handheld radio can be had for less than $30, and licensing is cheap or free depending on where you live. However, like most hobbies, you tend to invest in better kit over time.
[Günther] just finished up building this
portable ham station
to meet his own requirements. It runs off 230 VAC, or a backup 12 V car battery for emergency purposes. The
Yaesu FT897d
transceiver can communicate on HF + 6m, 2m, and 70 cm bands.
This transceiver can be controlled using a
Microham USB-3 interface
, which provides both CAT control and a soundcard. This pre-built solution is a bit simpler than the
DIY option
. With the interface in place, the whole rig can be controlled by a laptop running Ubuntu and open-source HAM software.
With the parts chosen, [Günther] picked up a standard 5 U 19″ rack, which is typically used for audio gear. This case has the advantage of being durable, portable, and makes it easy to add shelves and drawers. With an automotive fuse block for power distribution and some power supplies, the portable rig is a fully self-contained HAM station. | 23 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "2235370",
"author": "jean-marc",
"timestamp": "2014-12-11T09:20:34",
"content": "I’m afraid it has nothing to do with a hack. Pure ham activity!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2235682",
"author": "Brian Benchoff",
... | 1,760,375,977.652103 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/10/the-eric-1-microcomputer/ | The ERIC-1 Microcomputer | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"6502",
"ATmega1284p",
"pal"
] | Everyone is having a go at building their own 8-bit 80s-era microcomputer now, and [Petri] thought he would
throw his hat into the ring with ERIC-1
, a homebrew, 6502-based computer that’s running at about 2MHz.
We’re about 30 or 40 years ahead of the game compared to the old-school 6502 designs, and [Petri] decided to capitalize on that. Instead of a separate ROM, VIA, and other peripherals, [Petri] is connecting a microcontroller directly to the data and address pins. This is a technique
we’ve seen before
, and [Petri] is doing it right: the micro and 6502 share 64k of RAM, with the ROM stored in the micro’s Flash. Video (PAL in this case) is handled by the ATMega, as is clocking and halting the CPU.
There were a few changes [Petri]
made along the way
to make this microcomputer a little more useful. One of the biggest changes was switching out the old NMOS Rockwell 6502 with the modern CMOS W65C02 from Western Design Center. The CMOS variant is a fully static design, keeping the registers alive even if the clock is stopped and making single-stepping and halting the CPU easier.
The CMOS variant also has a Bus Enable (BE) pin. Like similar pins on later, more advanced processors, this pin puts the address, data, and R/W pins into a high impedance state, giving other peripherals and microcontrollers the ability to write to RAM, peripherals, or anything else. It’s a handy feature to have if you’re using a microcontroller for everything
except
the CPU.
It’s already a great build, and since [Petri] has the skills to program
this 8-bit ‘duino game
, he’s sure to come up with something even better for this computer.
Oh, if you’re looking for something
even cooler
than a 3-chip 6502,
there’s a bunch of stuff over on hackaday.io you should check out
. Everything from 4-bit computers built from discrete components to dual AVR board can be found there. | 12 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "2235161",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "2014-12-11T07:52:39",
"content": "This is great Brian. I always like the articles you present.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "2235953",
"author": "Tomo",
"timestamp": "2014-12-11... | 1,760,375,978.554541 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/10/dead-simple-hack-allows-for-rebel-keurig-k-cups/ | Dead Simple Hack Allows For “Rebel” Keurig K-Cups | Rick Osgood | [
"cooking hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"brew",
"cofee",
"drm",
"k-cup",
"keurig",
"kitchen",
"lockout chip",
"vulnerability"
] | If you haven’t actually used a Keurig coffee machine, then you’ve probably at least seen one. They are supposed to make brewing coffee simple. You just take one of the Keurig “k-cups” and place it into the machine. The machine will punch a hole in the foil top and run the water through the k-cup. Your flavored beverage of choice comes out the other side. It’s a simple idea, run by a more complex machine. A machine that is complicated enough to have a
security vulnerability
.
Unfortunately newer versions of these machines have a sort of DRM, or
lockout chip
. In order to prevent unofficial k-cups from being manufactured and sold, the Keurig machines have a way to detect which cups are legitimate and which are counterfeit. It appears as though the machine identifies the lid specifically as being genuine.
It turns out this “lockout” technology is very simple to defeat. All one needs to do is cut the lid off of a legitimate Keurig k-cup and place it on top of your counterfeit cup. The system will read the real lid and allow you to brew to your heart’s content. A more convenient solution involves cutting off just the small portion of the lid that contains the Keurig logo. This then gets taped directly to the Keurig machine itself. This way you can still easily replace the cups without having to fuss with the extra lid every time.
It’s a simple hack, but it’s interesting to see that even coffee machines are being sold with limiting technology these days. This is the kind of stuff we would have joked about five or ten years ago. Yet here we are, with a coffee machine
security vulnerability
. Check out the video demonstration below. | 141 | 36 | [
{
"comment_id": "2234269",
"author": "cr0sh",
"timestamp": "2014-12-11T03:07:46",
"content": "This isn’t the kind of stuff we joked about – this was the kind of stuff we WARNED about…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2302706",
"author":... | 1,760,375,977.814573 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/10/casting-engagement-rings-or-other-small-metal-parts/ | Casting Engagement Rings (Or Other Small Metal Parts!) | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"casting rings",
"diy casting",
"jewelry casting",
"metal casting"
] | [Paul Williams] wrote in to tell us about his most recent and dangerous endeavor.
Marriage.
As a masters student in Mechanical Engineering, he wanted to give his wife (to be) to be a completely unique engagement ring — but as you can imagine, custom engagement rings aren’t cheap. So he decided to learn
how to make it himself.
During the learning process he kept good notes and has produced a most excellent Instructable explaining the entire process — How to make the tools you’ll need, using different techniques and common problems you might have. He even describes in detail how to make your own mini-kiln (complete with PID control), a vacuum chamber, a wax injector and even the process of centrifugal casting.
While
soup can forges
are probably the easiest to make, we love the simplicity and
design of [Paul’s] Kiln — professional but on a budget.
He can’t take all the credit though, as [Wolfgar77]
showed him the way.
Oh yeah, and after all the blood sweat and tears that went into the ring… She said yes. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "2234211",
"author": "3trip",
"timestamp": "2014-12-11T02:58:46",
"content": "talk about a serious investment!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2234863",
"author": "Paul Williams",
"timestamp": "2014-12-11T05:57:... | 1,760,375,977.948039 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/10/periusboost-a-diy-usb-battery-pack/ | PeriUSBoost: A DIY USB Battery Pack | Eric Evenchick | [
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"batteries",
"charger",
"LTC3426",
"switching regulator",
"usb"
] | If you travel often, use your mobile devices a lot, or run questionable ROMs on your phone, you likely have an external USB battery pack. These handy devices let you give a phone, tablet, or USB powered air humidifier (yes, those exist) some extra juice.
[Pedro]’s
PeriUSBoost
is a DIY phone charging solution. It’s a switching regulator that can boost battery voltages up to the 5 volt USB standard. This is accomplished using the
LTC3426
, a DC/DC converter with a built in switching element. The IC is a tiny SOT-23 package, and requires a few external passives work.
One interesting detail of USB charging is the resistor configuration on the USB data lines. These tell the device how much current can be drawn from the charger. For this device, the resistors are chosen to set the charge current to 0.5 A.
While a 0.5 A charge current isn’t exactly fast, it does allow for charging off AA batteries. [Pedro]’s testing resulted in a fully charged phone off of two AA batteries, but they did get a bit toasty while powering the device. It might not be the best device to stick in your pocket, but it gets the job done. | 34 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "2233219",
"author": "anonymous",
"timestamp": "2014-12-10T21:23:59",
"content": "What is the difference between this and mintyboost?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2233380",
"author": "steves",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,375,978.217598 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/10/vintage-apple-keyboard-revived-as-standalone-computer/ | Vintage Apple Keyboard Revived As Standalone Computer | Matt Freund | [
"Mac Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"apple",
"atmega32u4",
"HASU",
"keyboard",
"raspberry pi",
"WN722N"
] | Many of our readers are familiar with the gold standard of classic PC keyboards – the bunker with switches known as the IBM Model M. The Model M’s Apple contemporary is the Apple Extended Keyboard and they are just as highly sought-after by their respective enthusiasts. Though discontinued almost 25 years ago and incompatible with anything made in the last 15, the codenamed “Saratoga” is widely considered the best keyboard Apple ever made.
[Ezra] has made a hobby of modernizing these vintage heartthrobs and rescuing them from their premature obsolescence. In
a superbly documented tutorial
he not only shows how to convert them to USB (a
popular
and trivial hack), but teaches you how and where to smuggle a Raspberry Pi in as well.
After disassembly, the project requires only a little bit of chisel and Dremel work before the soldering iron comes out. [Ezra] was fairly meticulous in removing or redirecting the Pi’s connectors and hardwiring the internals. Only 3 pins need to be traced from the original keyboard and [Ezra]’s ADB–>USB Rosetta Stone of choice is the
Hasu Converter
running on a Atmega 32u4 clone. Balancing cost, range, and power draw from the Pi, he settled on the TP-LINK WN722N for his WiFi solution which is also tucked away inside the case. A single pullup resistor to finish it off and [Ezra] was delighted to discover it worked the first time he plugged it in.
Keyboards from this era use actual momentary switches that audibly click twice per keypress. In our world of screens-as-keys celebrating the lack of tactile constraints, using beasts like the Model M or the AEK to force transistors to do your bidding is like racking a shotgun during a game of lasertag – comically obtuse but delightfully mechanical.
If you are looking to expand on [Ezra]’s tinkering, he has already made a wishlist of additions: a toggle switch to lobotomize the Pi back into a plain USB keyboard, an internal USB hub, and a power switch.
Hear the video of an AEK in action after the break (or loop it to sound productive while you nap). | 23 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "2232777",
"author": "Jock Murphy",
"timestamp": "2014-12-10T18:05:07",
"content": "Correction: it is an Arduino Pro Mini Clone not a ATmega32u4 clone",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2237085",
"author": "Matt Freund",
... | 1,760,375,978.387034 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/08/trinket-everyday-carry-contest-roundup-musicians-assistant-and-bitmasher/ | EDC CONTEST ROUNDUP: Musician’s Assistant AND BitMasher! | Adam Fabio | [
"contests",
"Featured"
] | [
"adafruit",
"arudino",
"Hackaday Contests",
"Pro Trinket",
"Trinket",
"Trinket Everyday Carry",
"Trinket Everyday Carry Contest"
] | We’re getting all sorts of entries in the
Trinket Everyday Carry Contest!
Today we’re featuring just a couple of the awesome entries dedicated to creating music!
[johnowhitaker] is hard at work on
A Musician’s Assistant
. [John] is creating a device that does anything a practicing musician might need on the go. The Musician’s Assistant will include a metronome, tap/temp counter, and tuner. He’s hoping to also give it the ability to play back arbitrary notes using the Pro Trinket’s on-board ATmega328. [John] is trying to do all this with just LEDs and buttons as a user interface, though he is willing to go to an LCD or OLED if he needs to.
[Michele Perla] is working on
BitMasher
, portable lo-fi music sequencer. The BitMasher will allow a musician on the go to create music anywhere. [Michele] began with a SID based sequencer in mind, but he’s currently trying to do it all on the Pro Trinket. He’s already got [Roman’s]
BTc Sound Compression Algorithm
working on an Arduino Leonardo. Lo-Fi for sure, but that’s what makes BitMasher fun! [Michele] envisions the song entry to be similar to that of the classic Roland TR-808. The primary user interface will be an Adafruit Trellis 4×4 button+LED driver board.
Don’t forget that our second random drawing will be held on Tuesday, December 9th, at 9pm EST. To be eligible you need to submit your project as an official entry and publish at least one project log during the week. This week’s prize is a
Cordwood Puzzle
from
The Hackaday Store
. Check out
the contest page
for the full details! | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "2232267",
"author": "BillBrasskey",
"timestamp": "2014-12-10T13:45:56",
"content": "Pretty sweet and the other features should be easy to add. Keep on buildin’ and good luck with the EDC :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "22452... | 1,760,375,978.434262 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/08/compiling-your-own-programs-for-the-esp8266/ | Compiling Your Own Programs For The ESP8266 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Parts",
"Slider"
] | [
"8266",
"cnlohr",
"ESP",
"ESP8266",
"wifi"
] | When the ESP8266 was first announced to the world, we were shocked that someone was able to make a cheap, accessible UART to WiFi bridge. Until we get some spectrum opened up and better hardware, this is the part you need to build an Internet of Things thing.
It didn’t stop there, though. Some extremely clever people figured out the ESP8266 had a reasonably high-power microcontroller on board, a lot of Flash, and a good amount of RAM. It looked like you could just use the ESP8266 as a controller unto itself; with this chip, all you need to do is write some code for the ESP, and you have a complete solution for your Internet connected blinking lights or WiFi enabled toaster. Whatever the hip things the cool kids are doing these days, I guess.
But how do you set up your toolchain for the ESP8266? How do you build projects? How do you even upload the thing? Yes, it’s complicated, but never fear;
[CNLohr] is here to make things easy for you
. He’s put together a video that goes through all the steps to getting the toolchain running, setting up the build environment, and putting some code on the ESP8266.
It’s all in a git
, with some video annotations.
The tutorial covers setting up
the Xtensa toolchain
and a patched version of GCC, GDB, and binutils. This will take a long, long time to build, but once it’s done you have a build environment for the ESP8266.
With the build environment put together, [CNLohr] then grabs the Espressif SDK from the official site, and puts together the example image.
Uploading to the module
requires pulling some of the pins high and some low, plugging in a USB to serial module to send the code to the module, standing well back, and pressing upload.
For his example image, [CNLohr] has a few WS2812 RGB LEDs connected to the ESP8266 WiFi module. Uploading the image turns the LEDs into something controllable with UDP packets on port 7777. It’s exactly what you want in a programmable, WiFi chip, and just the beginning of what can be done with this very cool module.
If you’re looking around for some sort of dev board with an ESP8266 on it, [Mathieu]
has been playing around with some cool boards
, and we’ve been looking into making a Hackaday version to sell in the store. The Hackaday version probably won’t happen because FCC.
Edit
: [CNLohr] points out there’s
a more preferred toolchain
that most people have switched to. | 73 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "2225746",
"author": "charliex",
"timestamp": "2014-12-08T18:11:28",
"content": "I have never used or imported an unauthorised low power transmitter into the USA.Be interesting to see how many WS281x’s you can run directly off the esp8266, i figured it’d only be a few but i should NO... | 1,760,375,979.067398 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/08/the-last-week-of-the-mooltipass-approacheth/ | The Last Week Of The Mooltipass Approacheth | Brian Benchoff | [
"Crowd Funding",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"crowdfunding",
"mooltipass"
] | A year and two days ago, [Mathieu] started out on a quest to develop some hardware with the help of Hackaday readers. This project became known as the Mooltipass, an open source offline password keeper that’s pretty much a password management suite or Post-It notes on a monitor, except not horribly insecure.
The product has gone through multiple iterations of software, [Mathieu] flew out to China to get production started, and the project
finally made it to a crowdfunding site
. That crowdfunding campaign is almost over with just eight days left and just a little bit left to tip this project into production. This is the last call, all hands in, and if you’re thinking about getting one of these little secure password-storing boxes, this is the time.
You can check out the
Developed on Hackaday series
going over the entire development of the Mooltipass, made with input from Mooltipass contributors and Hackaday readers. The Venn diagram of those two groups overlaps
a lot,
making this the first piece of hardware that was developed for and by Hackaday readers.
Even if you have a fool-proof system of remembering all your passwords and login credentials, the Mooltipass
is still a very cool-looking Arduino-compatible board
. Note that (security device) and (Arduino thing) are two distinct operating modes that should not be conflated.
[Mathieu] and other contributors will be in the comments below, along with a bunch of ‘security researchers’ saying how this device ‘is horrifying’, ‘full of holes’, and ‘a terrible idea’. One of these sets of people have actually done research. Guess which? | 46 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "2225549",
"author": "SergeantFTC",
"timestamp": "2014-12-08T16:45:36",
"content": "Let’s make it happen!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "2225569",
"author": "James Hobson",
"timestamp": "2014-12-08T16:56:00",
"conten... | 1,760,375,979.654177 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/08/saving-the-planet-one-flush-at-a-time/ | Saving The Planet One Flush At A Time | Rich Bremer | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"sink",
"terlet",
"toilet",
"water"
] | Water is a natural resource that some of use humans take for granted. It seems that we can turn on a facet to find an unlimited supply. That’s not true in all parts of the world. In the US, toilets use 27% of household water requirements. That’s a lot of water to only be used once. The water filling the toilet after the flush is the same as that comes out of the sink. [gregory] thought it would make sense to
combine toilet tank filling with hand washing
as those two activities happen at the same time.
To accomplish this, a DIY sink and faucet were put in-line with the toilet tank fill supply. The first step was to make a new tank lid. [gregory] used particle board and admits it probably isn’t the best material, but it is what he had on hand. A hole was cut in the lid where a metal bowl is glued in. Holes were drilled in the bottom of the bowl so that water could drain down into the tank. The faucet is just standard copper tubing. The curve was bent by hand using a wire wrap method to keep it from kinking. The only remaining part was to connect the fill line (after the fill valve) to the faucet. Now, when the toilet is flushed, the faucet starts flowing.
Although [gregory’s] project may have increased the percentage of household water used by his toilet, it’s only due to the reduction of non-toilet related water usage. This water saving mod has inspired quite a few folks to make their own sink-toilet hybrid, check them out: | 88 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "2225314",
"author": "Someone",
"timestamp": "2014-12-08T15:11:13",
"content": "This is actually pretty genius.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2225956",
"author": "Rick Downer",
"timestamp": "2014-12-08T19:43:5... | 1,760,375,979.254308 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/08/crosswalk-pong-auf-deutschland/ | Crosswalk Pong Auf Deutschland | Sarah Petkus | [
"Crowd Funding",
"Lifehacks"
] | [
"cross walk",
"designed objects",
"germany",
"intersection",
"jaywalking",
"pong",
"street indicator",
"street pong"
] | What is there to do in America while you’re waiting to cross the street at an intersection? Nothing; listen to that impatient clicking sound, and if you live in a busy city, pray you don’t get plowed into. In Germany however, pedestrians will now get to play Pong with the person on the other side.That’s right, as a means to encourage people to just hang in there and wait out the cycle instead of darting across against the light, design students [Sandro Engel] and [Holger Michel] came up with an entertaining incentive involving a potential conversation sparking duel with your impromptu counterpart across the street.
The first of these interactive cross-walk indicators was installed recently in Hildesheim, Germany, two years after the duo first designed them back in 2012. There was a little friction about installing the touch screen equipped modules initially, but after a proper redesign for functionality taking traffic science into account, the city authorities caved and allowed them to test the wings of their progressive idea on one city intersection so far. The mindset behind the invention of these indicators is part of a larger movement to make public spaces safer through means of fun and entertainment. Instead of threatening to punish those partaking in unsafe activity with fines, the notion is to positively enforce following rules by adding a level of play. While pedestrians have the right to walk, the screen shows how much time is left to make their away across, and for the duration that traffic is rolling through, the score will be kept for an individual game of pong for those on either side of the light.
Since the idea is generating some interest, the group of developers involved with the project have moved to promote their work (now branded as Actiwait) with an
Indiegogo campaign
. They hope to turn their invention into a full fledged product that will potentially be seen all over the world. Admittedly, it’d be charming to see this sort of technology transform our urban or residential environments with a touch of something that promotes friendly social interaction. Hopefully my faith in our worthiness to have nice things is warranted and we start seeing these here in America too. Nice work!
Check out this encounter with the street indicator here. The guy introducing the invention loses to the girl on the other side, but they share a high-five as they pass in the street: | 34 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "2224926",
"author": "Mithrandir",
"timestamp": "2014-12-08T12:05:26",
"content": "Grammar Nazi incoming:In Germany = In DeutschlandIn German = Auf deutschDepends on what you want to say. The term “Auf Deutschland” doesn’t make any sense in that context. :P",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,375,979.134673 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/08/calculator-msp430-ir-led-tv-remote/ | Calculator + MSP430 + IR LED = TV Remote? | Matt Freund | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"calculator",
"ir",
"led",
"msp430",
"remote",
"tv"
] | Eschewing the store-bought solution, [Stefan] managed to build a
TV remote out of an old calculator
. The brains of the calculator were discarded and replaced with an MSP430, leaving only the button matrix and enclosure. Rather than look it up, he successfully mapped the matrix manually before getting stumped with the infrared code timings. Some research pointed him to a peculiarity with Samsung IR codes and with help from an open source remote control library he got it working.
When the range was too limited to satisfy him he added a booster circuit and an LED driver which he snapped off the top of an old remote; now it works from 30 feet away. Some electrical tape and hot glue later and it all fit back into the original case.
It cannot
take photos
or
play Super Smash Brothers
, but it does what a remote needs to do: browses channels in the guide, control volume, and turn the TV on or off. Considering that all this calculator was built to do was boring basic arithmetic, it is a procrastination-enabling upgrade.
See the video after the break for some smiles. | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "2224918",
"author": "Robertus98",
"timestamp": "2014-12-08T12:01:28",
"content": "I like it! ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2225757",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2014-12-08T18:17:53",
"cont... | 1,760,375,978.653532 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/07/chaos-theory-in-practice-chuas-circuit/ | Chaos Theory In Practice: Chua’s Circuit | Ethan Zonca | [
"hardware"
] | [
"breadboarding",
"chaos theory",
"chua circuit",
"random number generator"
] | Chua’s circuit is the simplest electronic circuit that produces chaos—the output of this circuit never repeats the same sequence, and is a truly random signal. If you need a good source of randomness, Chua’s circuit is easy to make and is built around standard components that you might have lying around. [Valentine]
wrote a comprehensive guide
which walks you through the process of building your own source of chaos.
The chaos of Chua’s circuit is derived from several elements, most importantly a nonlinear negative resistor. Unfortunately for us, this type of resistor doesn’t exist in a discrete form, so we have to model it with several other components. This resistor, also known as Chua’s diode, can be created with an op-amp configured as a
negative impedance converter
and a couple pairs of diodes and resistors. Other variations such, as the schematic above,22`01 model Chua’s diode using only op-amps and resistors.
The rest of the circuit is quite simple: only two capacitors, an inductor, and a resistor are needed. [Valentine] does note that the circuit is quite sensitive, so you might encounter issues when building it on a breadboard. The circuit is very sensitive to vibration (especially on a breadboard), and good solder connections are essential to a reliable circuit. Be sure to check out the
Wikipedia article on Chua’s circuit
for a brief overview of the circuit’s functionality and a rabbit trail of information on chaos theory. | 29 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "2224101",
"author": "Indyaner",
"timestamp": "2014-12-08T06:44:44",
"content": "Could I need this for a true Random Number Generator (RNG)?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2224138",
"author": "Trui",
"timestamp... | 1,760,375,979.311595 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/07/bad-code-results-in-useless-passwords/ | Bad Code Results In Useless Passwords | Rick Osgood | [
"internet hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"admin",
"arris",
"att",
"owasp",
"passwords",
"username",
"vap2500",
"vulnerabilities",
"vulnerability",
"web portal"
] | [HeadlessZeke] was excited to try out his new AT&T wireless cable box, but was quickly dismayed by the required wireless access point that came bundled with it. Apparently in order to use the cable box, you also need to have this access point enabled. Not one to blindly put unknown devices on his network, [HeadlessZeke]
did some investigating
.
The wireless access point was an Arris VAP2500. At first glance, things seemed pretty good. It used WPA2 encryption with a long and seemingly random key. Some more digging revealed a host of security problems, however.
It didn’t take long for [HeadlessZeke] to find the web administration portal. Of course, it required authentication and he didn’t know the credentials. [HeadlessZeke] tried connecting to as many pages as he could, but they all required user authentication. All but one. There existed a plain text file in the root of the web server called “admin.conf”. It contained a list of usernames and hashed passwords. That was strike one for this device.
[HeadlessZeke] could have attempted to
crack the passwords
but he decided to go further down this rabbit hole instead. He pulled the source code out of the firmware and looked at the authentication mechanism. The system checks the username and password and then sets a cookie to let the system know the user is authenticated. It sounds fine, but upon further inspection it turned out that the data in the cookie was simply an MD5 hash of the username. This may not sound bad, but it means that all you have to do to authenticate is manually create your own cookie with the MD5 hash of any user you want to use. The system will see that cookie and assume you’ve authenticated. You don’t even have to have the password! Strike two.
Now that [HeadlessZeke] was logged into the administration site, he was able to gain access to more functions. One page actually allows the user to select a command from a drop down box and then apply a text argument to go with that command. The command is then run in the device’s shell. It turned out the text arguments were not sanitized at all. This meant that [HeadlessZeke] could append extra commands to the initial command and run any shell command he wanted. That’s strike three. Three strikes and you’re out!
[HeadlessZeke] reported these vulnerabilities to Arris and they have now been patched in the latest firmware version. Something tells us there are likely many more vulnerabilities in this device, though.
[via
Reddit
] | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "2223833",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2014-12-08T04:42:31",
"content": "“[HeadlessZeke] reported these vulnerabilities to Arris and they have now been patched in the latest firmware version. Something tells us there are likely many more vulnerabilities in this device, thoug... | 1,760,375,979.365464 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/07/hackaday-links-december-7-2014/ | Hackaday Links: December 7, 2014 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"arduino",
"artificial consciousness",
"bullet",
"bullet earbuds",
"earbuds",
"ECTO-1",
"ghostbusters",
"lego",
"medical device",
"time zone",
"tzdata",
"USB cable",
"USB Implementers Forum"
] | Have some .40 cal shell casings sitting around with nothing to do?
How about some bullet earbuds
? If you’ve ever wondered about the DIY community over at imgur, the top comment, by a large margin, is, “All of these tools would cost so much more than just buying the headphones”
Here’s something [Lewin] sent in
. It’s a USB cable, with a type A connector on one end, and a type A connector on the other end. There is no circuitry anywhere in this cable. This is prohibited by the USB Implementors Forum, so if you have any idea what this thing is for, drop a note in the comments.
Attention interesting people in Boston
. There’s a lecture series this Tuesday
on Artificial Consciousness and Revolutionizing Medical Device Design
. This is part two in a series that Hackaday writer [Gregory L. Charvat]
has been working with
. Talks include mixed signal ASIC design, and artificial consciousness as a state of matter. Free event, open bar, and you get to meet (other) interesting people.
Ghostbusters. It’s the 30th anniversary, and to celebrate the event [Luca]
is making a custom collectors edition
with the BluRay and something very special:
the Lego ECTO-1
.
Let’s say you need to store the number of days in each month in a program somewhere. You could look it up in the
Time Zone Database
, but that’s far too easy. How about a lookup table, or just a freakin’ array with 12 entries? What is this, amateur hour? No, the proper way of remembering the number of days in each month
is some bizarre piece-wise function
. It is:
f(x)
= 28 + (
x
+ ⌊
x
⁄
8
⌋) mod 2 + 2 mod
x
+ 2 ⌊
1
⁄
x
⌋.
At least the comments are interesting
.
Arduinos were sold in the 70s! Shocking, yes, but don’t worry,
time travel was involved.
Here’s a still
from
Predestination
, in theatres Jan 9, rated R, hail corporate. | 53 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "2222676",
"author": "nickmolo",
"timestamp": "2014-12-08T00:11:15",
"content": "This logic analyzer I have has a USB A to USB A cable. Its strange.http://www.pctestinstruments.com",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2225724",
... | 1,760,375,979.450901 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/07/kid-designs-his-own-prosthetic-arm-at-a-summer-camp/ | Kid Designs His Own Prosthetic Arm At A Summer Camp | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"e-nable",
"kid mob",
"pier 9",
"prosthetics"
] | Ever heard of the summer camp called Superhero Cyborgs? It’s where [Coby Unger] met nine-year-old [Aidan Robinson] and helped him
design his very own custom prosthetic arm.
The
camp
is put on by
KIDmob
for kids who have various limb disabilities, and helps give them the tools and guidance to be able to make their very own prosthetics. Some of the designs the children come up with are cool, useful, pretty and sometimes not overly functional — but [Aidan’s] designs really intrigued [Coby] who is a designer and part of the staff at
Pier 9
, a world-class fabrication facility (and makerspace) run by Autodesk.
There’s a lot of problems with prosthetics for children. They’re very expensive, kids don’t stay the same size, and even though they might cost a lot, they don’t necessarily work that well. [Aidan] had a few commercial options but didn’t like any of them, so much so that he preferred not wear them period. But when he attended the camp he realized he had the ability to design a prosthetic that he’d actually want to wear.
[Aidan] wanted a prosthetic that could use different attachments specific to what he wanted to do, taking inspiration from a Swiss army knife. He wanted to be able to play the Wii, assemble LEGO, eat food, and even play an instrument. His mom wanted the prosthetic to be able to “grow” with [Aidan]. A tall order? Perhaps, but [Coby] was up to the challenge.
It’s rather ingenious actually. [Coby] designed a flower shaped piece of plastic that can be 3D printed and then thermoformed in warm water to form around the end of a limb.
To tighten it, he stole a ratcheting adjustment system from an adjustable knee strap, allowing for quick installation and removal — something [Aidan] can do himself.
This way as he continues to grow, the prosthetic remains adjustable, and worst case, just needs a new part 3D printed. To allow for the attachment of various tools, [Coby] added a quick release clamping system designed to hold anything with a 1/2″ diameter shaft making it super easy for [Aidan] and his mom to make their own attachments.
3D printing is doing some great things for prosthetics. Earlier this year we saw an
Iron Man themed prosthetic
hand to make kids dreams come true, a cute story about someone
making an artistic prosthetic for a random stranger
and the introduction of
E-nable
, a community dedicated to DIY prosthetics — to give the world a “Helping Hand”.
[Thanks Jerome!] | 18 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "2222387",
"author": "CodeRed",
"timestamp": "2014-12-07T21:17:29",
"content": "Very neat. The availability of good quality tools is definitely brining a revival of the art of making things. Prosthetic s is on of those areas that can’t really benifit from the cost reductions of mass... | 1,760,375,979.572827 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/07/8-bit-message-in-a-digital-bottle/ | 8 Bit Message In A Digital Bottle | Sarah Petkus | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"anonymous",
"art tech",
"communication",
"harm",
"led matrix",
"lorem ipsum",
"message"
] | As seasoned
data-travelers
, we’re used to wielding the internet to send messages and communicate to others without any limitations. No one has to be stranded on a figurative island blowing smoke signals… unless of course they wanted to be. What [Harm Alexander Aldick] has done with his project “
Lorem Ipsum
”, is create a situation where others can only communicate to him through a sort of message in a bottle. The bottle in this case is an electronic widget.
In this social experiment, [Harm] has stationed a small Ikea picture frame at his desk, which shows images and text sent to him in real-time from others in the world. With an Arduino as the brain, a small 8×8 LED matrix mounted at the bottom right of the frame displays the data received by means of an ethernet module. Anyone can use his web interface to modify the pixels of the matrix on a
virtual version of the installation
. Once sent, the message is transmitted through an IPv6 internet connection and is translated to UDP which the unit is controlled by.
[Harm]’s project investigates how people react when given the chance to send a message in complete anonymity to someone they don’t know… in of all things, the form of something as limited as 64 pixels. The project name “Lorem Ipsum” refers to the filler text used in graphic design to hold the place of what would otherwise be more meaningful information, so that it doesn’t detract from the experience of viewing the layout. Curious about what sort of ‘graphical experience’ I would come up with myself, I took a shot at punching away at [Harm’s] GUI. I got momentarily lost in turning the little red dots on and off and eventually turned out this little ditty:
It was supposed to be something of a triangle, yet turned into a crop circle… or pronged nipple. After it was sent, I wondered whether or not [Harm] actually saw it. In the case that he did, I can only imagine what I communicated to our fellow hacker abroad with my squall of dots. All of these thoughts though are the whole point of the project. Awesome work! | 20 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "2222148",
"author": "meninosousa",
"timestamp": "2014-12-07T19:01:55",
"content": "some tetris is a good idea :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "2222164",
"author": "RandyKC",
"timestamp": "2014-12-07T19:13:02",
"con... | 1,760,375,979.511893 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/07/an-expanding-wooden-table/ | An Expanding Wooden Table | Brian Benchoff | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"capstan table",
"carpentry",
"expanding table",
"table",
"wooden table",
"woodworking"
] | A few years ago, the world of fine woodworking was presented with the
Fletcher Capstan table
. It’s a round table, able to expand its diameter merely by rotating the top. A gloriously engineered bit of mechanics move the leaves of the tables out while simultaneously raising the inner part of the table. It’s a seriously cool table, very expensive, and something that will probably be found in museums 100 years from now.
[Scott Rumschlag] thought his woodworking skills were up to the task of creating one of these expanding tables
and managed to build one in his workshop
. Like the Fletcher Capstan table, it’s a table that increases its diameter simply by rotating the table top. Unlike the commercial offering, this one doesn’t cost as much as a car, and you can actually see the internal mechanism inside this table.
The top of [Scott]’s table is made of three pieces. The quarter-circle pieces are the only thing showing when the table is in its minimum position, and are arranged on the top of the ‘leaf stack’. When the table expands, four additional leaves move up from beneath with the help of a linear bearing made of wood and a roller that slides along the base of this mechanical contraption.
The center of the table – the star – is a bit more difficult to design. While the leaves move up the stack of table tops with the help of a ramp, this is an impractical solution for something so close to the center of the table. Instead of a ramp, [Scott] is using a lifting lever and metal hinge that brings the star of the table up to the right level. Even though it’s a crazy amount of woodworking and fine tuning to get everything right, it’s not too terribly difficult to get your head around.
Videos, including one of the assembly of the table, below. | 28 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "2221710",
"author": "Jacques1956",
"timestamp": "2014-12-07T15:32:42",
"content": "Really ingenious! Bravo!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "2221722",
"author": "nixieguy",
"timestamp": "2014-12-07T15:36:07",
"conten... | 1,760,375,979.713967 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/07/an-attiny-boost-converter/ | An ATtiny Boost Converter | Eric Evenchick | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"attiny85",
"boost converter",
"leds",
"LTSpice",
"switch mode"
] | This schematic is all you need to build your own voltage converter. [Lutz] needed a converter that could boost 5 V to 30 V to power a string of LEDs. The solution was to use low cost ATtiny85 and some passive components to
implement a boost converter
.
This circuit follows the classic
boost converter
topology, using the ATtiny85 to control the switch. The 10 ohm resistor is fed back into the microcontroller’s ADC input, allowing it to sense the output voltage. By measuring the output voltage and adjusting the duty cycle accordingly, the circuit can regulate to a specified voltage setpoint.
A potentiometer is used to change the brightness of the LEDs. The software reads the potentiometer’s output voltage and adjusts the voltage output of the circuit accordingly. Higher voltages result in brighter LEDs.
Of course, there’s many other ways to implement a boost converter. Most practical designs will use a chip designed for this specific purpose. However, if you’re interested in rolling your own, the source and LTSpice simulation files are available. | 49 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "2221418",
"author": "lgrunenberg",
"timestamp": "2014-12-07T12:45:45",
"content": "Great way to reduce component count if LED brightness is to be controlled by a uC anyways. In every other case I would just throw in a dedicated LED driver and don’t worry about correct regulation.",
... | 1,760,375,979.887428 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/07/amazon-fire-tv-update-bricks-hacked-devices/ | Amazon Fire TV Update Bricks Hacked Devices | Rick Osgood | [
"News",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"amazon",
"brick",
"fire",
"firmware",
"hack",
"jail break",
"jailbreak",
"root",
"tv"
] | The Amazon Fire TV is Amazon’s answer to all of the other streaming media devices on the market today. Amazon is reportedly selling these devices at cost, making very little off of the hardware sales. Instead, they are relying on the fact that most users will rent or purchase digital content on these boxes, and they can make more money in the long run this way. In fact, the device does not allow users to download content directly from the Google Play store, or even play media via USB disk. This makes it more likely that you will purchase content though Amazon’s own channels.
We’re hackers. We like to make things do what they were never intended to do. We like to add functionality. We want to customize, upgrade, and break our devices. It’s fun for us. It’s no surprise that hackers have been jail breaking these devices to see what else they are capable of. A side effect of these hacks is that content can be downloaded directly from Google Play. USB playback can also be enabled. This makes the device more useful to the consumer, but obviously is not in line with Amazon’s business strategy.
Amazon’s response to these hacks was to
release a firmware update
that will brick the device if it discovers that it has been rooted. It also will not allow a hacker to downgrade the firmware to an older version, since this would of course remove the root detection features.
This probably doesn’t come as a surprise to most of us. We’ve seen this type of thing for years with mobile phones. The iPhone has been locked to the Apple Store since the first generation, but the first iPhone was
jailbroken
just days after its initial release. Then there was the PlayStation 3 “
downgrade
” fiasco that resulted in
hacks to restore the functionality
. It seems that hackers and corporations are forever destined to disagree on who actually owns the hardware and what ownership really means. We’re locked in an epic game of cat and mouse, but usually the hackers seem to triumph in the end. | 60 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "2220982",
"author": "nyder",
"timestamp": "2014-12-07T09:07:07",
"content": "Not true.http://www.aftvnews.com/amazon-fire-tvs-efuse-explained-rooted-devices-not-at-risk-of-bricking/What the efuse won’t allow is loading a custom boot rom, if the bootloader ever gets fully unlocked. ... | 1,760,375,980.447845 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/06/raspberry-piphone-thermostat-monitors-your-entire-house-or-at-least-thats-the-plan/ | Raspberry PiPhone Thermostat Monitors Your Entire House — Or At Least That’s The Plan | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"iphone hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"iphone thermostat",
"raspberry pi thermostat",
"thermostat"
] | [Jeff McGehee] or how he likes to be known, [The Nooganeer] just finished his first big tech project after finishing grad school. It’s a connected thermostat
that makes use of his old iPhone 4, and a Raspberry Pi.
Ever since [The Nooganeer] bought his first home with his wife back in the spring of 2014, he’s had ever consuming dream of adding home automation to every appliance. As he puts it…
Home automation has always been a fascination of mine. How much time and irritation would I save if I didn’t have to worry about turning things on and off, or wonder in which state they were left? How much more efficient would my home be? Wouldn’t it be cool to always know the state of every power consumer in my home, and then be able to record and analyze that data as well?
His first challenge was making a smart thermostat — after all, heating and cooling your house typically takes the most energy. Having used a Raspberry Pi before he figured it would be the best brain for his system. After researching a bit about HVAC wiring, [The Nooganeer] settled on a Makeatronics Solid State Relay board to control the HVAC. This allows him to use the GPIO’s on the Raspberry Pi in order to control the furnace and AC unit.
Now most thermostats just use a single thermosensor in order to
determine the temperature — since he’s got a Raspberry Pi, he figured he’d add temperature sensors in a few rooms using a Spark Core kit! The software he’s using is written in Python for visualizations, and he’s using a MySQL database in order to collect analytics.
It’s connected to the net to allow for easy monitoring and control from wherever he is, and since he had an iPhone 4 lying around he decided to use it as the display screen for the thermostat. His blog has tons of info on how he’s created the device, and in time he hopes to publish a more in-depth tutorial for people so they can connect their homes too.
Next up he plans on integrating humidity, light, and motion sensors into small wireless packages to place around the house. Maybe he’ll add
a wireless outlet too… | 18 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "2220949",
"author": "cyk",
"timestamp": "2014-12-07T08:47:40",
"content": "BTW: The new layout still sucks.I still visit hackaday, but I don’t read many articles, because it hurts my eyes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "22211... | 1,760,375,980.348105 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/06/scanning-on-the-cheap/ | Scanning On The Cheap | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d scanner",
"3d scanning",
"scanner"
] | [Will] recently stumbled across the MakerBot Digitizer, a device that’s basically a webcam and a turntable that will turn a small object into a point cloud that can then be printed off on a MakerBotⓇ 3D printer. Or any other 3D printer, for that matter. The MakerBot Digitizer costs $800, and [Will] wondered if he could construct a cheaper 3D scanner with stuff sitting around his house. It turns out,
he can get pretty close
using only a computer, a webcam, and a Black and Decker line laser/level.
The build started off with a webcam mounted right next to the laser line level. Software consisted of Python using OpenCV, numpy, and matplotlib to grab images from the webcam. The software looks at each frame of video for the path of the laser shining against the object to be scanned. This line is then extracted into a 3D point cloud and reconstructed in MeshLab to produce a 3D object that might or might not be 3D printable.
This is only [Will]’s first attempt at creating a scanner. He’s not even using a turntable with this project – merely manually rotating the object one degree for 360 individual frames. It’s extremely tedious, and he’ll be working on incorporating a stepper motor in a future version.
This is only attempt number 1, but already [Will] has a passable scanned object created from a real-world thing. | 20 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "2220320",
"author": "noname",
"timestamp": "2014-12-07T03:21:15",
"content": "I made a similar scanner using a turntable… but some details are impossible to capture using this type of scanner",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "22... | 1,760,375,980.141911 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/06/cordless-drill-turned-into-bicycle-powered-generator/ | Cordless Drill Turned Into Bicycle-Powered Generator | Rich Bremer | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"generator"
] | The bicycle is a great invention. It is an extremely efficient method of transportation, even more so than walking. So why not harness that efficiency for other things? [Tony] had that same thought so he ordered a bike generator but after waiting too long for the company to send it, he decided to
make his own
.
[Tony] is an bicycle enthusiast so he had an old bike and an old training stand he could use for the project. Generating electricity from pedaling the bike requires some sort of generator. Lucky for him, [Tony] happened to have a cordless drill that stopped going in reverse. Since he had since upgraded, this was the perfect candidate for the generator. The drill was mounted to the training stand so that a pulley inserted in the chuck pressed against the rear wheel. Wires were added to connect the drill’s battery connectors to a 12vdc to 120vac inverter. As the bike is pedaled, the rear wheel spins the drill, which spins the drill motor creating DC voltage. That DC voltage is then converted to AC by the inverter. With a multimeter connected to the output from the drill, it is easy to adjust the pedaling speed to keep the output in the 11-14v range which is required by the inverter.
In the photo above, you can see a light bulb being powered by the bike. However, the bike powered generator could not power the larger load of a computer. The remedy for this was to purchase a solar charge controller and a 12 volt battery. The bike charges the battery and the battery can power the computer through the inverter. | 27 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "2219941",
"author": "DainBramage",
"timestamp": "2014-12-07T00:58:55",
"content": "Interesting hack. I wonder how long he has to ride to fully charge the batteries.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "2219946",
"author": "Brenda... | 1,760,375,980.513997 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/06/chaos-computer-club-and-hackaday-blocked-by-british-porn-filters/ | Chaos Computer Club (and Hackaday) Blocked By British Porn Filters | Brian Benchoff | [
"News"
] | [
"british porn filter",
"ccc",
"filter",
"isp"
] | The Chaos Computer Club, Europe’s largest association of hackers and hackerspaces,
has been blocked by several UK ISPs
as part of a government filter to block adult content.
Since July, 2013, large UK ISPs have been tasked with implementing what has been dubbed the Great Firewall of Britain, a filter that blocks adult content, content related to alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and opinions deemed ‘extremist’ by the government. This is an opt-out filter; while it does filter out content deemed ‘unacceptable’, Internet subscribers are able to opt out of the filter by contacting their ISP.
Originally envisioned as a porn filter,
and recently updated with list of banned sexual acts
including spanking, aggressive whipping, role-playing as non-adults, and humiliation, the British Internet filter has seen more esoteric content blocked from British shores. Objectionable material such as, “anorexia and eating disorder websites,” “web forums,” “web blocking circumvention tools”, and the oddly categorized, “esoteric material”
are also included in the filter
.
A site built by the Open Rights Group is currently tracking which ISPs blocking which domains.
http://ccc.de is currently blocked by ISPs Three and Vodafone
. Interestingly, this site – Hackaday –
is blocked by the ‘Moderate’ British Telecom filter
. The ‘Light’ BT filter – and all other British ISPs – still somehow let Hackaday through, despite
posts about building shotguns
cropping up from time to time.
UPDATE: Upon reflection, it comes to my attention that Brits have a choice of ISP. | 59 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "2219396",
"author": "######",
"timestamp": "2014-12-06T21:13:02",
"content": "The worst part of censorship is #### ##########.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "2219415",
"author": "geremycondra",
"timestamp": "2014-12-06T... | 1,760,375,980.617956 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/06/extending-the-range-of-an-electric-bike/ | Extending The Range Of An Electric Bike | Rich Bremer | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bike hack",
"diy electric bike",
"ebike",
"electric bicycle"
] | Cruising around town on your electric bike is surely a good time…. unless your bike runs out of juice and you end up pedaling a heavy bike, battery, and motor back to your house. This unfortunate event happened to Troy just one too many times. The solution: to
extend the range of his electric bike
without making permanent modifications.
Troy admits his electric bike is on the lower side of the quality scale. On a good day he could get about 15 miles out of the bike before it required a recharge. He looked into getting more stock battery packs that he could charge and swap out mid-trip but the cost of these was prohibitive. To get the extra mileage, Troy decided on adding a couple of lead-acid batteries to the system.
The Curry-brand bike used a 24vdc battery. Troy happened to have two 12v batteries kicking around, which wired up in series would get him to his 24v goal. The new batteries are mounted on the bike’s cargo rack by way of some hardware store bracketry. The entire new ‘battery pack’ can be removed quickly by way of a few wing nuts.
Connecting the new batteries to the stock system go a little tricky and the stock battery pack did have to be modified slightly. The case was opened and leads were run from the positive and negative terminals to two new banana plugs mounted in the battery pack’s case. The leads from the new batteries plug right into the banana plugs on the stock battery pack. The new and old batteries are wired in parallel to keep the voltage at 24.
Troy found that he’s getting about twice the distance out of his new setup. Not to bad for a couple on-hand batteries and a few dollars in odds and ends. | 19 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "2219057",
"author": "timgray1",
"timestamp": "2014-12-06T18:39:07",
"content": "This is the 26″ E-Zip bike from what I can tell from walmart’s website. You can buy far higher capacity LifEpO4 batteries for it to dramatically extend the range, but those batteries are ungodly expensi... | 1,760,375,980.725656 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/06/this-message-will-self-destruct-as-you-read-it/ | This Message Will Self Destruct… As You Read It? | Rick Osgood | [
"chemistry hacks",
"computer hacks"
] | [
"ben krasnow",
"colored fire",
"fire",
"flames",
"flash paper",
"harvard",
"InfoFuse",
"information",
"nitrocellulose",
"transmission"
] | A group of Harvard chemists have come up with a
novel use for fire
. Through experimentation, they have been able to build what they call an InfoFuse. As the name implies, it’s essentially a burning fuse that can “transmit” information.
The fuse is made from flash paper, which is paper made from nitrocellulose. Flash paper burns at a relatively constant speed and leaves no smoke or ash, making it ideal for this type of project. The chemists developed a method of conveying information by changing the color of the flame on the paper. You might remember from high school chemistry class that you can change the color of fire by burning different metal salts. For example, burning copper can result in a blue flame. This is the key to the system.
The researchers dotted the flash paper with small bits of metal salts. As the flame reaches these spots, it briefly changes colors. They had to invent an algorithm to convert different color patterns to letters and numbers. It’s sort of like an ASCII table for fire. Their system uses only three colors. The three colors represent eight possible combinations of color at any given time. Just two quick pulses allow the researchers to convey all 26 letters of the English alphabet as well as ten digits and four symbols. In one test, the researchers were able to transmit a 20 character message in less than 4 seconds.
[Ben Krasnow] found the Harvard project and just had to
try it out for himself
. Rather than use colors to convey information, he took a more simple approach. He started with a basic strip of flash paper, but left large tabs periodically along its length. As the paper burns from end to end, it periodically hits one of these tabs and the flame gets bigger momentarily.
[Ben] uses an optical sensor and an oscilloscope to detect the quantity of light. The scope clearly shows the timing of each pulse of light, making it possible to very slowly convey information via fire. Ben goes further to speculate that it might be possible to build a “fire computer” using a similar method. Perhaps using multiple strips of paper, one can do some basic computational functions and represent the result in fire pulses. He’s looking for ideas, so if you have any be sure to send them his way! Also, be sure to check out Ben’s demonstration video below. | 27 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "2218640",
"author": "noname",
"timestamp": "2014-12-06T15:42:17",
"content": "Can I get 10 pounds of this nitrocellulose?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2218966",
"author": "cak",
"timestamp": "2014-12-06T18:0... | 1,760,375,980.874646 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/06/prints-in-space-said-in-pigs-in-space-voice/ | Prints In Space (Said In “Pigs In Space” Voice) | Rich Bremer | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"delta 3D printer",
"space"
] | 3D Printing on Earth is soooo last year. Recently, NASA has
sent a 3D Printer to the International Space Station
in order to test printing capability in space. The agency’s ultimate goal is to have a means to make parts and tools for astronauts that are far away from earth.
So, why should NASA have all of the extra-terrestrial printing fun? Three 15 year-olds thought that same thing and decided to build their own
space printer
. It’s goal, however, is a bit different from the one on the ISS. This printer is made to print on other celestial bodies such as the moon or Mars, not in a space station. The students call their project the DELTA 3 and as its name implies, is a delta-style printer and that’s where all similarities with conventional printers end. This printer has tank tracks so that it can maneuver itself around the planet. There is no print bed. The printer prints directly to the surface of which it is resting on. The frame is open at the front of the printer so that it can back up leaving a free-standing print in its wake. It certainly beats
the hot-glue versions
seen before and we think this is the
Automated Build Platform
of the future, today!
The DELTA 3’s electronic controls are also quite different from the norm. There is a Lego EV3 controller that is responsible for navigating the printer around obstacles to find a suitable print area. Once a location has been picked out, the EV3 triggers the standard Arduino Mega/RAMPS combo to coordinate the printing.
The young creators brought their DELTA 3 to the
World Robot Olympiad
just last month. They came in 4th in their division.
[via
3Dprint.com
] | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "2218880",
"author": "RandyKC",
"timestamp": "2014-12-06T17:28:36",
"content": "Tough division.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "2218897",
"author": "DainBramage",
"timestamp": "2014-12-06T17:40:49",
"content": "+1 for... | 1,760,375,980.66674 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/03/scope-noob-bridge-rectifier/ | Scope Noob: Bridge Rectifier | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider"
] | [
"ac",
"bridge rectifier",
"dc",
"full-wave rectifier",
"oscilloscope",
"scope noob"
] | Welcome back to this week’s installment of
Scope Noob
where I’m sharing my experiences learning to use my first oscilloscope. Last week
I started out measuring mains frequency
using an AC-AC wall wart adapter. Homework, for those following along, was to build a bridge rectifier and probe the signals from it. Let’s take a look.
Bridge or Full-Wave Rectification
To the left is a schematic of a full-wave rectifier. Again, the important thing to note is that I’m using a 2-prong “wall wart” AC-AC adapter that converts the 120V line voltage down to 12V. Because of this I’ve used 1N4001 diodes to make the bridge rectifier.
Bridge rectifiers are also known as full-wave rectifiers because they take the alternating current and use both parts of the waveform to generate a direct current. A full explanation is not the purpose of this column so check out resources like
this tutorial on the top
(link dead, try
Internet Archive
) for the theory and math behind the concept.
I made a video of these measurements which is embedded above. I started by again probing my incoming AC waveform to make sure that I had a known starting point. This time I used “AC” as the trigger source which is found by pressing the menu button on the trigger part of the scope. This uses the mains signal powering the scope to trigger the measurements which is quite handy for this particular exercise.
But when I went to probe the rectified waveform I was met with a surprise. My full-wave rectified signal was only showing up as half-wave rectified on the scope. The screenshot to the right shows an upward curve followed by a flat area where in there should have been continual arcs.
You Can’t Probe Everything at Once
It only took me a few moments of head-scratching to figure this one out. With a reference-clip from both probes (channel 1 and 2) connected I’m actually shunting around one of the diodes, effectively turning the bridge back into a half-wave rectifier. That’s because, as I talked about last week, the reference clips for all of the channels on the scope are connected to each other and to the ground pin on the scope’s power cord.
Disconnecting channel one from the AC measurement resulted in the full-wave rectified signal I was anticipating. But here’s a question I need help answering: Why is every-other waveform transition a bit mangled? I had expected a consistent waveform through every transition.
Smoothing and Regulating
To complete this set of tests I added an electrolytic capacitor to the DC connections to smooth the output. This cap is both under and over spec’d at the same time, being 3300uF but only 10V. It’s a cap I pulled off of an old motherboard and was floating loose in the same container as some of my jumper wires.
The image above shows the regulated power rail on channel 1 (yellow) and the smoothed DC rail on channel 2 (blue). The 7805 is putting out 5.79V according to these measurements. When I was making the video I was puzzled because I thought the smoothed signal was a higher voltage than without the capacitor. Looking at the screenshots now I realize that isn’t the case. I think this is an important lesson as well. Take screenshots as you’re troubleshooting a circuit so that you can double-check the values you thought your remembered!
Homework
I’ve already done a bit of work on next week’s column and I’m super excited to share all the things I’ve learned. Here’s a little taste of the good stuff. I should be seeing just one sine wave on the scope but I’m getting two of them. I also delighted in finding a hiccup in the signal and using that to track down the cause in my code.
Give this a try yourself this week. I’m using Direct Digital Synthesis by driving an R/2R ladder using a microcontroller. I was inspired to take this on by [Bil Herd’s]
in-depth explanation of the topic
. If you use a microcontroller as I have, I encourage you to split the eight digital outputs between two ports of the microcontroller and see what happens. I’ll cover this and more next week!
I also need help with suggestions for future
Scope Noob
topics so let me know what you think I should try by leaving a comment below. | 58 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "2206875",
"author": "j",
"timestamp": "2014-12-03T18:49:09",
"content": "Be wary when doing high power projects. The bench power supply I was using ties DC ground to ac ground. I found that out only because the power supply’s internal relays clacked when it shouldn’t of.",
"par... | 1,760,375,980.989129 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/03/fixing-an-nes-for-good/ | Fixing An NES For Good | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"card edge",
"Front Loader",
"nes",
"zif",
"zif socket"
] | Sometime in the late 80s, the vast collective consciousness of 8-year-olds discovered a Nintendo Entertainment System could be fixed merely by blowing on the cartridge connector. No one knows how this was independently discovered, no one knows the original discoverer, but one fact remains true: dirty pins probably weren’t the problem.
The problem with a NES that just won’t read a cartridge is the ZIF socket inside the console. Pins get bent, and that spring-loaded, VCR-like front loader assembly is the main point of failure of these consoles, even 30 years later. You can get replacement ZIF sockets for a few bucks, and replace the old one using only a screwdriver, but this only delays the inevitable. That ZIF socket will fail again a few years down the line.
Finally, there is a solution
.
The Blinking Light Win, as this project is called, replaces the ZIF connector with two card-edge slots. One slot connects to the NES main board, the other to the cartridge connector. There’s a plastic adapter that replaces the spring-loaded push down mechanism created for the original ZIF connector, and installation is exactly as easy as installing a reproduction NES ZIF connector.
If you’re wondering why consoles like the SNES, Genesis, and even the top-loader NES never had problems that required blowing into the cartridge connector, it’s because the mere insertion of the cartridge into the slot performed a scrubbing action against the pins. Since the ZIF socket in the O.G. NES didn’t have this, it was prone to failure. Replacing the ZIF with a true card-edge slot does away with all the problems of dirty contacts, and now turns the NES into something that’s at least as reliable as other cartridge-based consoles. | 45 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "2206317",
"author": "Dan",
"timestamp": "2014-12-03T15:40:53",
"content": "See also: 10NES modI clicked the link and went ‘aw damn it, Kickstarter’ then closed tabKickstarter is to hackaday as Rickrolling is to the Internet ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": ... | 1,760,375,980.810394 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/03/popular-electronics-magazine-archive-online/ | Popular Electronics Magazine Archive Online | Elliot Williams | [
"classic hacks",
"Roundup"
] | [
"archive",
"magazine",
"popular electronics",
"retro"
] | They began publishing Popular Electronics magazine in 1954, and it soon became one of the best-selling DIY electronics magazines. And now you can relive those bygone days of yore by browsing through
this archive of PDFs of all back issues from 1954 to 1982
.
Reading back through the magazine’s history gives you a good feel for the technological state of the art, at least as far as the DIYer is concerned. In the 1950s and 1960s (and onwards) radio is a big deal. By the 1970s, hi-fi equipment is hot and you get an inkling for the dawn of the digital computer age. Indeed, the archive ends in 1982 when the magazine changed its name to Computers and Electronics magazine.
It’s fun to see how much has changed, but there’s a bunch of useful material in there as well. In particular, each issue has a couple ultra-low-parts-count circuit designs that could certainly find a place in a modern project. For example, a “Touch-Controlled Solid State Switch” in
July 1982
(PDF), using a hex inverter chip (CD4049) and a small handful of passive components.
But it’s the historical content that we find most interesting. For instance there is a nice article on the state of the art in computer memory (“The Electronic Mind — How it Remembers”) in
August 1956
(PDF).
Have a good time digging through the archives, and if you find something you really like, let us know in the comments. | 43 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "2205836",
"author": "jeff",
"timestamp": "2014-12-03T12:41:50",
"content": "I’m readingThe Innovatorsby Walter Isaacson, and it tells of Paul Allen finding on a newstand the January 1975 issue featuring “First Minicomputer Kit to Rival Commercial Models – Altair 8800”. He takes it t... | 1,760,375,981.067193 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/03/extremely-detailed-fmcw-radar-build/ | Extremely Detailed FMCW Radar Build | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"6ghz",
"continuous wave",
"fmcw",
"radar",
"radio"
] | A lot of hackers take the “learn by doing” approach: take something apart, figure out how it works, and re-purpose all of the parts. [Henrik], however, has taken the opposite approach. After “some” RF design courses, he decided that he had learned enough to build his own
frequency-modulated continuous wave radar system
. From the level of detail on this project, we’d say that he’s learned an incredible amount.
[Henrik] was looking to keep costs down and chose to run his radar in the 6 GHz neighborhood. This puts it right in a frequency spectrum (at least in his area) where radar and WiFi overlap each other. This means cheap and readily available parts (antennas etc) and a legal spectrum in which to operate them. His design also includes frequency modulation, which means that it will be able to determine an object’s distance as well as its speed.
There are many other design considerations for a radar system that don’t enter into a normal project. For example, the PCB must have precisely controlled trace widths so that the impedance will exactly match the design. In a DC or low-frequency AC system this isn’t as important as it is in a high-frequency system like this. There is a fascinating amount of information about this impressive project on [Henrik]’s project page if you’re looking to learn a little more about radio or radar.
Too daunting for you? Check out this post on
how to take on your first radar project
. | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "2205778",
"author": "eyes bleeding",
"timestamp": "2014-12-03T12:17:17",
"content": "Super sexy! Can’t get the project page to load though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2205961",
"author": "Leithoa",
"timest... | 1,760,375,981.111846 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/02/kentucky-fried-induction-furnace/ | Kentucky-Fried Induction Furnace | Elliot Williams | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"foundry",
"induction heater",
"melting aluminum"
] | [John] and [Matthew] built an
induction-heater based furnace
and used it to
make tasty molten aluminum cupcakes
in the kitchen. Why induction heating? Because it’s energy efficient and doesn’t make smoke like a fuel-based furnace. Why melt aluminum in the kitchen? We’re guessing they did it just because they could. And of course a
video
, below the break, documents their first pour.
Now don’t be mislead by the partly low-tech approach being taken here. Despite being cast in a large KFC bucket, the mini-foundry is well put together, and the writeup of exactly how it was built is appreciated. The
DIY induction heater
is also serious business, and it’s being monitored for temperature and airflow across the case’s heatsinks. This is a darn good thing, because the combination of high voltage and high heat demands a bit of respect.
Anyway, we spent quite a while digging through [John]’s website. There’s a lot of good information to be had if you’re interested in induction heaters. Nonetheless, we’ll be doing our metal casting in the back yard. | 34 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "2204184",
"author": "IH8UKULELE",
"timestamp": "2014-12-03T03:21:38",
"content": "Horrible idea inside your home ( I hear no fume extractors). Potential for fire is very high as well! In industry we like to call risk reduction engineering control. /sarcasm But, seriously my buddy... | 1,760,375,981.353284 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/02/trinket-everyday-carry-contest-drawing-1-results/ | Trinket Everyday Carry Contest Drawing #1 Results | Adam Fabio | [
"contests"
] | [
"hackaday store",
"Trinket",
"Trinket Everyday Carry",
"Trinket Everyday Carry Contest"
] | We just had our first drawing for the
Trinket Everyday Carry Contest
. Thanks to a little help from
random.org
, the winner is [Korishev] with his project
Trinket Timer
!
[Korishev] finds that family life calls for a lot of timed events, from how long the kids spend on their homework to keeping the peace by sharing toys. The plan is to build at least a one timer for each child that they will be able to carry around and use as needed. We hope he gets them in on the build to help sow the seeds of hardware development at a young age.
As the winner of the first drawing [Korishev] will receive this beautiful
BLINK(1) MK2
from
The Hackaday Store
. The USB dongle houses a programmable RGB LED. We wonder if this will also be applied as an additional timer for the household?
If you didn’t win this week, don’t worry, there are still four more chances to win a random drawing! Our next drawing will be on 12/9/2014 at 9pm EST with
the Cordwood Puzzle
as a prize. To be eligible you need to submit your project as an official entry and publish at least one project log during the week.
The deadline for
the main contest
is January 2, 2014! There are
just over 40 entries right now
, and the top 50 will receive custom t-shirts. Of course the three top prizes are the real juicy ones. Let’s get those pocketable projects going! | 6 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "2204031",
"author": "j0z0r",
"timestamp": "2014-12-03T02:52:15",
"content": "Congratulations [Korishev]! Just wondering, does winning one of the random drawings disqualify you for the rest of them? I don’t think so, but I don’t know…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"rep... | 1,760,375,981.495533 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/02/a-wooden-led-matrix-coffee-table/ | A Wooden LED Matrix Coffee Table | Ethan Zonca | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"coffee table",
"RGB LED",
"RGB LED table",
"WS2801"
] | [johannes] writes in with a
pretty impressive LED table he built
. The table is based around WS2801 serially addressable LEDs which are controlled by a Raspberry Pi. The Pi serves up a
node.js
-driven web interface developed by [Andrew Munsell] for a
room lighting setup
. The web interface controls the pattern shown on the display and the animation speed.
[johannes] built a wooden coffee table around the LED matrix, which includes a matte glass top to help diffuse the lighting. An outlet to plug in a laptop and two USB charging ports are panel-mounted on the side of the enclosure, which are a nice touch. The power supply for the LEDs is also inside the enclosure, eliminating the need for an external power brick.
While [johannes] hasn’t written any software of his own yet, he plans on adding music synchronization and visualizations for weather and other data. Check out the video after the break to see the table in action. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "2203410",
"author": "mark",
"timestamp": "2014-12-03T00:12:30",
"content": "Cool as it is. But imagine how badass it would be with one of those flir cameras detecting objects placed on it, so it could react to hot/cold items being placed on it??",
"parent_id": null,
"depth":... | 1,760,375,981.531422 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/05/fixing-a-multimeters-serial-interface/ | Fixing A Multimeter’s Serial Interface | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"bipolar",
"data logging",
"multimeter",
"rs-232",
"serial port",
"tool"
] | [Shane] bought a multimeter with the idea of using its serial output as a source for data logging. A multimeter with a serial port is a blessing, but it’s still RS-232 with bipolar voltage levels.
Some modifications to the meter were required to get it working with a microcontroller
, and a few bits of Python needed to be written, but [Shane] is getting useful data out of his meter.
The meter in question is a Tenma 72-7735, a lower end model that still somehow has an opto-isolated serial output. Converting the bipolar logic to TTL logic was as easy as desoldering the photodiode from the circuit and tapping the serial data out from that.
With normal logic levels, the only thing left to do was to figure out how to read the data the meter was sending. It’s a poorly documented system, but [Shane] was able to find
some documentation
for this meter. Having a meter output something sane, like
the freaking numbers displayed on the meter
would be far too simple for the designers of this tool. Instead, the serial port outputs the segments of the LCD displayed. It’s all described in a hard to read table, but [Shane] was able to whip up a little bit of Python to parse the serial stream.
It’s only a work in progress – [Shane] plans to do data logging with a microcontroller some time in the future, but at least now he has a complete understanding on how this meter works. He can read the data straight off the screen, and all the code to have a tiny micro parse this data. | 25 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "2214038",
"author": "Lwatcdr",
"timestamp": "2014-12-05T13:00:58",
"content": "You are not fixing serial interface you are modifying at best breaking at worst.Why not just use this chiphttp://www.mouser.com/new/maxim-integrated/maximmax232/?gclid=CL30hr76rsICFZPm7AodkU8AVQon the mic... | 1,760,375,981.703922 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/05/chinese-temperaturehumidity-sensor-is-easily-hacked/ | Chinese Temperature/Humidity Sensor Is Easily Hacked | Bryan Cockfield | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"humidity",
"sensor",
"temperature",
"thermostat",
"usr-htw",
"wi-fi"
] | There’s a new piece of electronics from China on the market now: the USR-HTW Wireless Temperature and Humidity Sensor. The device connects over Wi-Fi and serves up a webpage where the user can view various climate statistics. [Tristan] obtained one of these devices and
cracked open the data stream
, revealing that this sensor is easily manipulated to do his bidding.
Once the device is connected, it sends an 11-byte data stream a few times a minute on port 8899 which can be easily intercepted. [Tristan] likes the device due to the relative ease at which he could decode information, and his project log is very detailed about how he went about doing this. He notes that the antenna could easily be replaced as well, just in case the device needs increased range.
There are many great reasons a device like this would be useful, such as using it as a remote sensor (or in an array of sensors) for a
homemade thermostat
, or a
greenhouse
, or in any number of other applications. The sky’s the limit! | 25 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "2213468",
"author": "Mirar",
"timestamp": "2014-12-05T09:54:18",
"content": "While this is a quite lovely idea, it should be noted that you can also go for a 433MHz transciever and a much cheaper 433MHz humidity/temperature sensor. For instance the telldus stuff:http://telldus.se/pr... | 1,760,375,981.644749 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/04/microdma-and-leds/ | MicroDMA And LEDs | Brian Benchoff | [
"Slider",
"Software Development"
] | [
"dma",
"launchpad",
"stellaris",
"ti",
"Tiva C",
"ws2812",
"ws2812b",
"μDMA"
] | [Jordan] has been playing around with WS2812b RGB LED strips with TI’s Tiva and Stellaris Launchpads. He’s been using the SPI lines to drive data to the LED strip, but this method means the processor is spending a lot of time grabbing data from a memory location and shuffling it out the SPI output register. It’s a great opportunity to learn about
the μDMA available on these chips
, and to write a library that uses DMA to control larger numbers of LEDs than a SPI peripheral could handle with a naive bit of code.
DMA is a powerful tool – instead of wasting processor cycles on moving bits back and forth between memory and a peripheral, the DMA controller does the same thing all by its lonesome, freeing up the CPU to do real work. TI’s Tiva C series and Stellaris LaunchPads have a μDMA controller with 32 channels, each of which has four unique hardware peripherals it can interact with or used for DMA transfer.
[Jordan]
wrote a simple library
that can be used to control a chain of WS2812b LEDs using the SPI peripheral. It’s much faster than transferring bits to the SPI peripheral with the CPU, and updating the frames for the LED strip are easier; new frames of a LED animation can be called from the main loop, or the DMA can just start again, without wasting precious CPU cycles updating some LEDs. | 19 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "2213154",
"author": "Kristian",
"timestamp": "2014-12-05T08:08:15",
"content": "It’s worth noting that, at least for the MSP430 processors that I’ve worked with, the DMA suspends the processor for 2 clock cycles for each byte or word moved. It’s still much faster than using the CPU,... | 1,760,375,981.585509 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/04/motion-through-time-painted-in-light/ | Motion Through Time Painted In Light | Sarah Petkus | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"art tech",
"led strip",
"light painting",
"light rowing",
"long exposure",
"long exposure painting",
"motion exosure",
"steven orlando"
] | Photographer [Stephen Orlando] has an awesome
body of work
that focuses on human motion. The images he captures with colored light and a camera set up in a setting of choice tell a story of time in a way that’s visually stunning.
[Stephen] has experimented with various types of action. He’s attached LED strips onto props like oars in order to capture the rhythmic movements of rowing, or directly onto parts of the body to visualize more chaotic gestures, like the forms of a martial artist. His camera is set up to take long exposures, soaking in the light as it plots itself through space over time.
Though this isn’t a hack directly in itself, [Stephen’s] experimentation with time and light is a great case of technology being added to the arsenal of traditional mediums we’re accustomed to seeing in the production of artistic work. The clean execution of his idea to tell a story about what we don’t typically get to see by use of light should inspire all of us who love to play around with LEDs in our projects. Sometimes the more interesting aspects of our work are created in the negative space we forget to consider.
The next time you find yourself working on a hack, look at what you’re creating from a perspective beyond its original context. For example, 3D printing with a delta robot is a bit of a departure from it’s original purpose as a pick and place machine. Even further yet is the concept of using one to
draw images in space with light
. Often the process of somethings creation, as well as the byproduct of what it took to make it, is just as worthy of investigation. Don’t forget to search between the lines… that’s where the magic is. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "2212165",
"author": "TheRegnirps",
"timestamp": "2014-12-05T03:10:05",
"content": "I would give a lot to see motion that wasn’t through time.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2215659",
"author": "Mike",
"timesta... | 1,760,375,981.920037 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/04/generating-laser-cut-boxes-in-c/ | Generating Laser Cut Boxes In C | Brian Benchoff | [
"Laser Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"g-code",
"laser cut boxes",
"laser cutter",
"svg",
"wooden boxes"
] | [Mike] is a laser cutting newbie and has never had the opportunity to create a file and send it off to a laser for cutting. He knew he didn’t want to squint at a CAD package, nudging lines by tenths of a millimeter, only to screw something up and have to do it all over again. His solution, like so many other automation tasks,
was to create a program that would generate a box of any size in .SVG format
.
[Mike]’s program runs in C, and only requires a few variables set in the program to create a box of any size. There’s no argc or argv for the program – the one thing that would turn this into a command line utility that simply creates SVG boxes. Perhaps another time.
The rest of [Mike]’s hackerspace,
Fab Lab xChc
, was impressed the program worked the first time. With this small bit of C code, [Mike] has an easy, simple tool to generate laser cut boxes. The only remotely complicated bit of C this program uses is printf(), so even an Arduino can spit out the SVG for a laser cut box. | 31 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "2211480",
"author": "Steve",
"timestamp": "2014-12-05T00:20:33",
"content": "Author should slap a proper license on it and throw it up on github. “…you are more than welcome to use this to generate your basic box.” doesn’t count as a proper license, really.",
"parent_id": null,... | 1,760,375,981.870541 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/04/hacking-paypal-accounts-with-csrf/ | Hacking PayPal Accounts With CSRF | Rick Osgood | [
"internet hacks"
] | [
"bounty",
"bug",
"cross-site request forgery",
"csrf",
"hacking",
"owasp",
"paypal",
"security",
"web application"
] | The computer security industry has made many positive changes since the early days of computing. One thing that seems to be catching on with bigger tech companies is bug bounty programs. PayPal offers such a program and [Yasser] decided to throw his hat in the ring and see if he could find any juicy vulnerabilities. His curiosity
paid off big time
.
Paypal is a huge player in the payment processing world, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t without their flaws. Sometimes the bigger the target, the more difficult it is to find problems. [Yasser] wanted to experiment with a cross-site request forgery attack. This type of attack typically requires the attacker to trick the victim into clicking a malicious link. The link would then impersonate the victim and make requests on the victim’s behalf. This is only made possible if the victim is logged into the target website.
PayPal has protection mechanisms in place to prevent this kind of thing, but [Yasser] found a loophole. When a user logs in to make a request, PayPal gives them an authentication token. This token is supposed to be valid for one user and one request only. Through experimentation, [Yasser] discovered a way to obtain a sort of “skeleton key” auth token. The attacker can attempt to initiate a payment transfer without first logging in to any PayPal account. Once the transfer is attempted, PayPal will request the user to authenticate. This process produces an auth token that apparently works for multiple requests from any user. It renders the authentication token almost entirely ineffective.
Once the attacker has a “universal auth token”, he can trick the victim into visiting a malicious web page. If the user is logged into their PayPal account at the time, the attacker’s webpage can use the universal auth token to trick the victim’s computer into making many different PayPal requests. Examples include adding email addresses to the account, changing the answers to security questions, and more. All of this can be done simply by tricking the user into clicking on a single link. Pretty scary.
[Yasser] was responsible with his disclosure, of course. He reported the bug to PayPal and reports that it was fixed promptly. It’s always great to see big companies like PayPal promoting responsible disclosure and rewarding it rather than calling the lawyers. Be sure to catch a video demonstration of the hack below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoFFayw58ZQ
[via
Reddit
] | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "2211085",
"author": "ItsThatIdiotAgain",
"timestamp": "2014-12-04T21:33:35",
"content": "Ahh… so thats why I just took delivery of 100,000 garden gnomes.. I was sure I hadn’t ordered any….time to check my paypal account ;¬0 … this shows some pretty smart thinking on the part of Yas... | 1,760,375,981.971051 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/04/amazing-sciences-simple-electric-train/ | [Amazing Science’s] Simple Electric Train | Theodora Fabio | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"battery",
"electromagnet",
"magnet"
] | Making an electromagnet is as simple as wrapping some wire around a nail and taping the wire to both ends of a battery. When you’re done, you can pick up some paper clips – it demonstrates the concept well, but it could use some more oomph. [Amazing Science] has done just that,
making an “electric train”
(YouTube link). All that’s needed is some coiled copper wire, a battery and magnets thin enough to fit through the coils. The magnets snap onto both ends of the battery. Put the battery inside the coil and watch the fun! The electromagnetic force generated by the current moving through the coil pushes against the magnets attached to the battery, pushing the battery along the way.
[Amazing Science] plays with the setup a bit. Connect both ends of the coil together and the battery will travel in a loop until it’s drained. Add a small hill, or even another battery/magnet set to the mix, and watch them go! We may even make a version of this ourselves to take with us to family gatherings this holiday season – it’s simple, fun, and can teach the young ‘uns about science while we swig some egg nog.
[via Reddit] | 106 | 36 | [
{
"comment_id": "2210634",
"author": "mikemac",
"timestamp": "2014-12-04T18:16:08",
"content": "OK, I’m stumped. It’s been a “few” years since I’ve had Physics 201 so I’m a bit rusty. Does the battery have anything to do with the motion other than acting as a spacer between the two sets of magnets? ... | 1,760,375,982.493971 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/04/flash-memory-endurance-testing/ | Flash Memory Endurance Testing | Brian Benchoff | [
"Parts"
] | [
"cycle testing",
"endurance",
"flash",
"flash memory"
] | [Gene] has a project that writes a lot of settings to a PIC microcontroller’s Flash memory. Flash has limited read/erase cycles, and although the obvious problem can be mitigated with error correction codes, it’s a good idea to figure out how Flash fails before picking a certain ECC. This now became a problem of banging on PICs until they puked,
and mapping out the failure pattern of the Flash memory in these chips.
The chip on the chopping block for this experiment was a
PIC32MX150
, with 128K of NOR Flash and 3K of extra Flash for a bootloader. There’s hardware support for erasing all the Flash, erasing one page, programming one row, and programming one word. Because [Gene] expected one bit to work after it had failed and vice versa, the testing protocol used RAM buffers to compare the last state and new state for each bit tested in the Flash. 2K of RAM was tested at a time, with a total of 16K of Flash testable. The code basically cycles through a loop that erases all the pages (should set all bits to ‘1’), read the pages to check if all bits were ‘1’, writes ‘0’ to all pages, and reads pages to check if all bits were ‘0’. The output of the test was a 4.6 GB text file that looked something like this:
Pass 723466, frame 0, offset 00000000, time 908b5feb, errors 824483
ERROR: (E) offset 0000001E read FFFFFFFB desired FFFFFF7B.
ERROR: (E) offset 00000046 read FFFFFFFF desired 7FFFFFFF.
ERROR: (E) offset 00000084 read EFFFFFFF desired FFFFFFFF.
ERROR: (E) offset 0000008E read FFEFFFFF desired FFFFFFFF.
ERROR: (E) offset 000000B7 read FFFFFFDF desired FFFFFFFF.
ERROR: (E) offset 000000C4 read FFFBFFFF desired FFFFFFFF.
ERROR: (E) offset 000001B8 read FF7FFFFF desired 7F7FFFFF.
ERROR: (E) offset 000001BE read 7FFFFFFF desired FFFFFFFF.
ERROR: (E) offset 000001D2 read FFFFFF7F desired FFFFFFFF.
Pass 723467, frame 0, offset 00000000, time 90aea31f, errors 824492
ERROR: (E) offset 00000046 read 7FFFFFFF desired FFFFFFFF.
The hypothesis tested in this experiment was, “each bit is independently likely to fail, with exponential dependence on number of erase/write cycles”. There were a number of interesting observations that led [Gene] to reject this hypothesis: There were millions of instances where an erase did not reset a bit to ‘1’, but none where a write did not change a ‘1’ bit to ‘0’. That’s great for developing an error correction code scheme.
There was also a bias in which bits in a word produced errors – bits 31 and 32 were slightly more likely to have an error versus other bits in a word. The most inexplicable finding was a bias in the number of failures per row:
A row of Flash in a PIC is 128 bytes, and if all rows were equally likely to produce an error, the above graph would be a little more boring. It’s odd, [Gene] has no idea how to interpret that data, and only decapping one of these PIC and looking at it with a microscope will tell anyone why this is the case.
At the very least, Microchip is severely underrating the number of Flash read/erase cycles on this microcontroller; this chip was rated for 20,000 cycles, and the very first failed bit happened on cycle 229,038. With a separate run, the first failure was around cycle 400,000. | 21 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "2210208",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2014-12-04T15:11:48",
"content": "Of course they severely underrated the number of cycles – it is dependent on the fabrication process and operating temperature, both of which can negatively impact the memory’s lifetime.",
"parent_i... | 1,760,375,982.146461 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/04/cutting-glass-with-cnc/ | Cutting Glass With CNC | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"diamond",
"diamond bit",
"glass",
"milling",
"milling glass"
] | Breaking a pane of glass in half is easy – just score it, break it, and after practicing a few times, you’ll eventually get it right. What about cuts that are impossible with a normal glass cutter, like radiused corners and holes?
For that, you’ll need CNC
. Yes, you can cut glass on a CNC machine. All you need is a diamond burr or glass drilling bit, high speeds, low feeds, and lots and lots of coolant.
Cutting glass on a CNC machine doesn’t require any spectacularly specialist equipment. [Peter] is using an $800 Chinese mini CNC engraver for this project, but that’s not the only tool that was required. A fixture for holding a glass plate was also needed, but [Peter] quickly fabricated one out of acrylic.
Cutting glass with a CNC is something we’ve seen before. [Ben Krasnow] has been using diamond burrs, high speeds, low feeds, and lots of coolant
to cut mirrors so expensive you don’t even want to guess
.
While [Peter] isn’t getting the perfect finish [Ben] got a few years ago, he’s still milling holes and slots in glass. He’s wondering if it could be possible to mill an aspheric lens using this technique and a special spherical burr, something that would be very interesting to see, and could be a pretty good way to rough out telescope blanks. | 33 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "2209969",
"author": "Marcus Aurelius",
"timestamp": "2014-12-04T13:13:56",
"content": "Now this is a machine shop hack that deserves the title…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2211035",
"author": "Dan Fruzzetti",
... | 1,760,375,982.36052 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/04/serial-camera-courtesy-of-the-stm32f4/ | Serial Camera, Courtesy Of The STM32F4 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Crowd Funding",
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"JPEG"
] | Look around for a small, embedded camera module, and you’ll find your options are rather limited. You have the serial JPEG cameras, but they’re rather expensive and only have VGA resolution. A Raspi, webcam, and power supply is a false economy. GoPros are great, but you’re still looking at some Benjamins used.
The guys at GHI Electronics are taking a different tack. They’re using image sensors you would normally find in cellphones and webcams, adding a powerful ARM processor,
and are still able to sell it for about $50
. It’s called the ALCAM, and they’ve stumbled upon a need that hasn’t been met by any manufacturer until now.
On board the ALCAM is an OV3640 3-Megapixel image sensor. On the back of the board is a STM32F4 and a microSD card slot. The board can be set up for time-lapse videos, stop motion animation, or all the usual serial board camera functions, including getting images over a serial connection.
The ALCAM operates either connected to a PC though a 3.3V serial adapter cable, through a standalone mode with pins connected to a button or sensor, to the SPI bus on a microcontroller, or a serial to Bluetooth or WiFi bridge. Images can be saved to the uSD card, or sent down the serial stream.
It’s a pretty cool board, and if you’re thinking it looks familiar, you’re right: there’s a similar DSI camera/STM32F4 board
that was an entry to The Hackaday Prize
. Either way, just what we need to get better cameras cheaper into projects. | 47 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "2209394",
"author": "Lucas",
"timestamp": "2014-12-04T09:15:54",
"content": "This isn’t a hack. It’s two $3 parts, $1.50 worth of connectors on $3 of PCB doing exactly what they’re designed to do. The only link here is to a kickstarter.Can we stop with all this constant kickstarted ... | 1,760,375,984.566328 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/03/happy-meal-hack-produces-a-google-cardboard-test/ | Happy Meal Hack Produces A Google Cardboard Test | James Hobson | [
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"cardboard",
"google cardboard",
"happy meal",
"happy meal hack"
] | Ever since Google Cardboard came out, [Julian Jackson] had been meaning to give it a shot. Affordable virtual reality? Who wouldn’t! But, he never got around to it —
until one day
he was sitting in McDonald’s with his son, explaining to him how the latest Happy Meal toy worked — it was a pair of penguin binoculars.
Fast forward past Thanksgiving and Black Friday and [Julian’s] son had completely forgotten about the McDonald’s toy in all the excitement, so [Julian] asked if he could have it. His son was mildly confused, but curious also, so he let his dad take his toy.
After attempting to dismantle it with a screw driver to get at the lenses, [Julian] carefully calculated the best place to simply break it without damaging them. With the precision of a heart surgeon he swung back his trusty hammer…
The end result is neither pretty, nor very functional due to the long focal length of the lenses (about 6″). But it was enough to allow [Julian] to play around with the
Google Cardboard App
— which is really all he wanted to do.
Happy Meal hacking
should almost be its own event, right?
For more functional versions of home-made Cardboard kits,
check out our recent VR Roundup. | 27 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "2208934",
"author": "Jelllo",
"timestamp": "2014-12-04T06:18:21",
"content": "Now this is something i haven’t seen in a long time. A real HACK!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2209534",
"author": "sage",
"times... | 1,760,375,984.377084 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/03/philly-fixers-guild-will-teach-you-how-to-fish/ | Philly Fixers Guild Will Teach You How To Fish | Kristina Panos | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"6532",
"atari 2600",
"self-repair",
"sustainability"
] | One crisp Saturday afternoon a couple of weeks ago, the
Philly Fixers Guild
held its second Repair Fair. Not second annual, mind you; the first fair was held in September. People came from miles around, hauling with them basement and attic treasures that needed, well, fixing. [Fran] is one of the Guild’s volunteer fixers, and she shot some video of the event which is waiting for you after the break.
The Philly Fixers Guild aims to promote sustainability in the surrounding community by teaching interested parties to repair their possessions that might otherwise end up in a landfill. The fairs are not meant to be a drop-off repair site—attendees are expected to stay and learn about what’s wrong with their item and how it can or can’t be fixed.
The Guild is open to volunteers who are interested in teaching people how to fish, as it were. Expertise is not limited to electronics repair; guild members are just as interested in teaching people how to sew a replacement button on their winter coat or building that thing they bought at IKEA.
Nowhere near Pennsylvania? Several groups like the Philly Fixers Guild have already been established in a few larger US cities. If you’re not near any of those either (and we can sympathize), you could do worse than to start your own. If you’re part of a ‘space, creating such a guild would be a good way to spread the word about it and the gospel of DIY.
In the video, [Fran] discusses an Atari 2600’s control problem with its owner. She re-seats the 6532 RIOT chip and explains that this may or may not have solved the problem. If not, [Fran] is confident that new old stock chips are available out there on the hinterwebs. There might still be some
landfill carts on ebay
if the owner gets it up and running. [Fran] also fixes the controls on a Peavey amp and gets some Pink Floyd to issue forth from a previously non-functioning Zenith portable AM/FM radio that’s old enough to have a snap cover. | 16 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "2208429",
"author": "Fennec",
"timestamp": "2014-12-04T03:27:24",
"content": "People need to be taught how to sew a button? Maybe this is why some get paid more than others.(I agree that engineers should be paid a lot, businessmen/investors…not so much)",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,375,984.887797 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/03/geopolymer-concrete-perfecting-roman-technology-today/ | Geopolymer Concrete, Perfecting Roman Technology Today | James Hobson | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"concrete",
"geopolymer concrete",
"homemade concrete",
"roman concrete"
] | For all the things Romans got wrong (lead pipes anyone?) did you know we’re still using
a less advanced concrete than they did?
Consider some of the massive structures in Rome that have passed the test of time, lasting for more than 2000 years. The typical concrete that we use in construction starts to degrade after only 50 years.
Researchers at Berkeley think they’ve finally figured it out with thanks to a sample that was removed from the Pozzuoli Bay near Naples, Italy. This could vastly improve the durability of modern concrete, and even reduce the carbon footprint from making it. The downside is a longer curing time, and resource allocation — it wouldn’t be possible to completely replace modern cement due to the limited supply of fly ash (an industrial waste product produced by burning coal). Their research can be found in
a few articles
, however
they are both
behind pay walls.
Lucky for us, and the open source community at large, someone from MIT has also been working on perfecting the formula — and
he’s shared his results thus far.
So, who wants to give it a shot? Any material scientists in our midst? | 48 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "2207619",
"author": "whitequark",
"timestamp": "2014-12-04T00:07:38",
"content": "first article:http://rghost.net/59411897",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "2207669",
"author": "Maave",
"timestamp": "2014-12-04T00:28:37",
... | 1,760,375,984.977198 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/03/pico-kubik-quadruped-fits/ | Pico-Kubik Quadruped Fits In The Palm Of Your Hand | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"micropython",
"pro mini",
"quadruped",
"robot",
"VoCore"
] | Most of the legged robots we see here are of the hexapod variety, and with good reason. Hexapods are very stable and can easily move even if one or more of the legs has been disabled. [Radomir] has taken this a step farther and has become somewhat of an expert on the more technically difficult quadruped robot, building smaller and smaller ones each time. He has been hard at work on
his latest four-legged creation called the Pico-Kubik
, and this one will fit in the palm of your hand.
The Pico-Kubik runs Micropython on a VoCore board, which allows for it to have a small software footprint to complement its small hardware footprint. It accomplishes the latter primarily through the use of HK-282A Ultra-Micro Servos, an Arduino Pro Mini, and a tiny lithium ion battery. It’s still a work in progress, but the robot can already crawl across the tabletop.
This isn’t [Radomir]’s first time at the tiny quadruped rodeo, either. He has already built the Nano-Kubik and the
µKubik
, all of which followed the first (aptly-named) Kubik quadruped. Based on the use of SI prefixes, we can only assume the next one will be the
hella
-Kubik! | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "2207597",
"author": "Liam Jackson",
"timestamp": "2014-12-03T23:57:39",
"content": "Nice, I like how he has kept the hardware simple (and scratchy) by just using servo horns, PCB and screws.I personally think this is a little too big to be called pico, but you’d probably need to dro... | 1,760,375,984.712599 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/06/a-web-connected-seismometer/ | A Web Connected Seismometer | Ethan Zonca | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"Intel Edison",
"seismic activity",
"seismometer"
] | [10DotMatrix] has a budding interest in seismology, so she decided to
make her own seismometer
out of some easy-to-find materials. Seismometers are prohibitively expensive for hobbyists, but thankfully it’s really easy to build a usable siesmometer out of simple parts. [10DotMatrix]’s seismometer is built around a modified subwoofer, which acts as a transducer for the earth’s vibrations.
The subwoofer is mounted to the bottom of a tripod, which forms the structure of the seismometer. A slinky is stretched between the top of the tripod and a weight that rests on the coil of the subwoofer. Whenever the ground shakes, the slinky and weight vibrate and induce current in the voice coil.
Since these vibrations are
usually
quite small, the output of the subwoofer needs a bit of amplification. [10DotMatrix] fed the output of the woofer to an AD620 op amp, which amplifies the signal to a measurable level. The amplifier’s output is fed into an Intel Edison board, which samples the voltage and transmits it to a web dashboard for online viewing.
If you’re shaking with excitement about seismic measurements you’ll surely be interested in this similar method which
uses a piezo element as the detector
. | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "2218118",
"author": "nes",
"timestamp": "2014-12-06T11:52:44",
"content": "Nice work, especially the detailed BOM.One observation is that some cash could be saved on the use of an integrated instrumentation amp, instead building one up out of a quad jellybean cmos op-amp, e.g. tl074... | 1,760,375,984.608584 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/05/spoofedme-attack-steals-accounts-by-exploiting-social-login-mechanisms/ | SpoofedMe Attack Steals Accounts By Exploiting Social Login Mechanisms | Rick Osgood | [
"internet hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"ibm",
"linkedin",
"media",
"owasp",
"slashdot",
"social",
"spoof",
"spoofing",
"websites",
"x force"
] | We’ve all seen the social logon pop up boxes. You try to log into some website only to be presented with that pop up box that says, “Log in with Facebook/Twitter/Google”. It’s a nice idea in theory. You can log into many websites by using just one credential. It sounds convenient, but IBM X-Force researchers have recently shown how this can be bad for the security of your accounts. And what’s worse is you are more vulnerable if the service is offered and you are NOT using it. The researcher’s have called their new exploit
SpoofedMe
. It’s aptly named, considering it allows an attacker to spoof a user of a vulnerable website and log in under that user’s account.
So how does it work? The exploit relies on vulnerabilities in both the identity provider (Facebook/Twitter/etc) and the “relying website”. The relying website is whatever website the user is trying to log into using their social media account. The easiest way to describe the vulnerability is to walk through an example. Here we go.
Let’s imagine you are an attacker and you want to get into some victim’s Slashdot account. Slashdot allows you to create a local account within their system if you like, or you can log in using your LinkedIn account. Your victim doesn’t actually have a LinkedIn account, they use a local Slashdot account.
The first step of your attack would be to create a LinkedIn account using your victim’s email address. This needs to be the same address the victim is using for their local Slashdot account. This is where the first vulnerability comes in. LinkedIn needs to allow the creation of the account without verifying that the email address belongs to you.
The second step of the attack is now to attempt to log into Slashdot using your newly created LinkedIn account. This is where the second vulnerability comes in. Some social media services will authenticate you to websites like Slashdot by sending Slashdot your user information. In this case, the key piece of information is your email address. Here’s the third vulnerability. Slashdot sees that your LinkedIn account has the same email address as one of their local users. Slashdot assumes that LinkedIn has verified the account and permits you, the attacker, to log in as that user. You now have access to your victim’s Slashdot account. In another scenario, Slashdot might actually merge the two credentials together into one account.
What’s really interesting about this hack is that it isn’t even very technical. Anyone can do this. All you need is the victim’s email address and you can try this on various social media sites to see if it works. It’s even more interesting that you are actually more vulnerable if you are not using the social logons. Some real world examples of this vulnerability are with LinkedIn’s social logon service, Amazon’s service, and MYDIGIPASS.com’s service. Check out the demonstration video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC0s3S00Dmk | 34 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "2217158",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "2014-12-06T06:51:33",
"content": "I saw this coming so I have never used or implemented OAuth. Entity security is a constant battle between actual security level and user convenience. It the convenience of OAuth that has made it popular and n... | 1,760,375,984.311083 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/05/computer-built-into-a-board-uses-only-10-watts/ | Computer Built Into A Board Uses Only 10 Watts | Bryan Cockfield | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"board",
"computer",
"desktop computer",
"low power",
"wood"
] | In the realm of low-powered desktop computers, there are some options such as the Raspberry Pi that
usually
come out on top. While they use only a few watts, these tend to be a little lackluster in the performance department and sometimes a full desktop computer is called for. [Emile] aka [Mux] is somewhat of an expert at pairing down the power requirements for desktop computers, and got his to run on just 10 watts. Not only that, but he
installed the whole thing in a board and mounted it to his wall
. (
Google Translated from Dutch
)
The computer itself is based on a MSI H81M-P33 motherboard and a Celeron G1820 dual-core processor with 8GB RAM. To keep the power requirements down even further, the motherboard was heavily modified. To power the stereo custom USB DAC, power amplifier board, and USB volume button boards were built and installed. The display is handled by an Optoma pico projector, and the 10-watt power requirement allows the computer to be passively cooled as well.
As impressive as the electronics are for this computer, the housing for it is equally so. Everything is mounted to the backside of an elegant piece of wood which has been purposefully carved out to hold each specific component. Custom speakers were carved as well, and the entire thing is mounted on the wall above the bed. The only electronics visible is the projector! It’s even more impressive than [Mux]’s
first low-power computer
. | 35 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "2216405",
"author": "Fennec",
"timestamp": "2014-12-06T03:32:21",
"content": "All the parts are -designed- to be low power. Hell, he’s using a freakin’ Celeron. But I’m pretty sure that he’s get a better power:oomph ratio is he was using an ARM based processor…The only cool thing ab... | 1,760,375,984.673178 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/05/e-waste-printer-looks-nice-prints-really-really-small/ | E-Waste Printer Looks Nice, Prints Really, Really Small | Rich Bremer | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"3d printer out of e-waste",
"e-waste printer"
] | Prices of 3D Printers have certainly been falling quite a bit over the last few years. Even so, it is still, at a minimum, a few hundred dollars to get going in the hobby. [mikelllc] thought it would be a fun challenge to see if he can build a functional
3D printer for under $100
.
To stay under his budget, [mikelllc] took a reasonable route and decided to use as many recycled parts as he could. In every DVD and floppy drive, there is a stepper motor, lead screw and carriage that is used to move the read/write head of the drive. These assemblies will be used to drive the 3 axes of the printer. Two DVD drives and one floppy drive were dissembled to access the needed components.
Luckily [mikelllc] has access to a laser cutter. He made the frame from 5mm acrylic sheet stock. All of the pieces have slots and tabs to ease assembly and keep everything straight and square. The motors and frames from the DVD and floppy drives are mounted to the acrylic frame pieces in strategically pre-planned holes. The Y axis is responsible for moving the print bed back and forth. It is mounted on screws so that it can be adjusted to ensure a level bed.
A little DVD drive stepper motor just isn’t powerful enough to be used as an extruder motor so a standard NEMA17 motor was purchased for this task. The motor is part of a MK7/MK8 style direct drive extruder that is made from mostly 3D printed parts. The extruder is mounted on the frame and a bowden tube guides the filament to the hot end mounted to the printer’s moving carriage. Remotely mounting the extruder motor keeps it’s mass off of the axes, which in this case may be too heavy for the small, scavenged drive stepper motors.
The electronics are standard RepRap type and the same with for the hotend. The recycled motors work well with the RepRap electronics. After all that hard work, the printable area is a mere 37mm x 37mm x 18mm, but that’s not the point of this project! [mikelllc] met his goal of building a super cheap printer from recycled parts. He has also made the extruder and laser cut frame files available for download so anyone can follow in his footsteps. If you’re digging this e-waste 3D Printer but want a larger print volume, check out
this printer
. | 22 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "2215761",
"author": "andta",
"timestamp": "2014-12-06T00:32:45",
"content": "Luckily he had access to a $5000 laser cutter :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2220568",
"author": "a b c d e f g",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,375,984.770208 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/05/hackrf-blue/ | HackRF Blue | Brian Benchoff | [
"Crowd Funding",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"HackRF",
"HackRF Blue",
"radio",
"sdr",
"software-defined radio"
] | For anyone getting into the world of Software Defined Radio, the first purchase should be an RTL-SDR TV tuner. With a cheap, $20 USB TV tuner, you can listen to just about anything between 50 and 1750 MHz. You can’t send, the sample rate isn’t that great, but this USB dongle gives you everything you need to begin your explorations of the radio spectrum.
Your
second
Software Defined Radio purchase is a matter of contention. There are a lot of options out there for expanding a rig, and the HackRF is a serious contender to expand an SDR rig. You get 10 MHz to 6 Gigahertz operating frequency, 20 million samples per second, and the ability to transmit. You have your license, right?
Unfortunately the HackRF is a little expensive and is unavailable everywhere. [Gareth] is leading the charge and producing the
HackRF Blue
, a cost-reduced version of
the HackRF designed by [Michael Ossmann]
.
The HackRF Blue’s feature set is virtually identical, and the RF performance is basically the same: both the Blue and the HackRF One can get data from 125kHz RFID cards. All software and firmware is interchangeable. If you were waiting on another run of the HackRF, here ‘ya go.
[Gareth] and the HackRF Blue team are doing something rather interesting with their crowdfunding campaign: they’re
giving away Blues to underprivileged hackerspaces
, with hackerspaces from Togo, Bosnia, Iran, India, and Detroit slated to get a HackRF Blue if the campaign succeeds.
Thanks [Praetorian] and [Brendan] for sending this in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giSax3XBbJ4 | 35 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "2215340",
"author": "L00NY_T00Nz",
"timestamp": "2014-12-05T21:20:43",
"content": "Seems Interesting.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "2215374",
"author": "Dale MaCullum",
"timestamp": "2014-12-05T21:37:55",
"content"... | 1,760,375,984.834209 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/05/hacklet-25-esp8266-wifi-module-projects/ | Hacklet 25 – ESP8266 WiFi Module Projects | Adam Fabio | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"ESP8266",
"espressif",
"hacklet",
"The Hacklet"
] | Few devices have hit the hacker/maker word with quite as large a bang as the ESP8266. [Brian]
first reported
a new $5 WiFi module back in August. Since then there have been an explosion of awesome projects utilizing the low-cost serial to WiFi module that is the ESP8266. This week’s Hacklet is all about some of the great ESP8266 projects we’ve found on
Hackaday.io!
We start with [TM] and the
ESP8266 Retro Browser.
[TM] has a great tutorial on combining the ESP8266 with an Arduino Mega2560. [TM’s] goal was a simple one: create a WiFi “browser” to access
Hackaday’s Retro Site.
This is a bit more complex than one would first think, as the Arduino Mega2560 is a 5V board, and the ESP8266 are 3.3V parts. Level shifters to the rescue! [TM] was able to bring up the retro site in a terminal, but found that even “simple” websites like google send enough data back to swap the poor ESP8266!
Next up is [Thomas] with the
Simple Native ESP8266 Smartmeter
. [Thomas] has created a device to measure run time on his oil heating system. He implemented this with some native programming on the ESP8266’s onboard Diamond Standard L106 Controller. When he was done, the ‘8266 had two new AT commands, one to start measurement and one to stop. A bit of web magic with some help from
openweathermap.org
allows [Thomas] to plot oil burner run time against outside temperature.
[Matt Callow] is also checking out native programming using the EspressIf sdk with his project
ESP8266 Native
. ExpressIf made a great choice when they
released the SDK
for the ESP8266 back in October. [Matt] has logged his work on building and extending the demo apps from EspressIf. [Matt] has seven demo programs which do everything from blinking an LED to connecting to thingspeak via WiFi. While the demos aren’t all working yet, [Matt] is making great progress. The best part is he has all his code linked in from his Github repo. Nice work [Matt!]
[Michael O’Toole] is working on
ESP8266 Development PCBs
. The devboards have headers for the ESP8266, an on-board ATmega328 for Arduino Uno compatibility, and a USB to serial converter to make interfacing easy. [Michael] also provides all the important components you need to keep an ESp8266 happy, such as programming buttons, and a 3.3V regulator. We really like that [Michael] has included a header for a graphical LCD based local console.
Want to see more ESP8266 goodness? Check out our curated
ESP8266 list on Hackaday.io!
Hackaday.io Update!
Hackaday.io
gets better and better every day. We’ve just pushed out a new revision which includes some great updates. Search is now much improved. Try out a search, and you’ll find you can now search by project, project log, hacker, or any combination of 11 different fields. Our text editor has been revamped as well. Update a project log to give the new look a try!
We know everyone on .io is awesome, but just in case a spammer slips in, we’ve added “report as inappropriate” buttons to projects and comments. Once a few people hit those report buttons, projects or comments get sent to the admins for moderation.
That’s all the time we have for this week’s Hacklet! As always, see you next week. Same hack time, same hack channel, bringing you the best of
Hackaday.io! | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "2215254",
"author": "Richard J",
"timestamp": "2014-12-05T20:44:07",
"content": "Visithttp://www.esp8266.comto get all the info you need to make your ESP8266 sing! All new talk there about GCC, LUA, and now microPython :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
... | 1,760,375,985.281847 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/05/making-embedded-guis-without-code/ | Making Embedded GUI’s Without Code | Will Sweatman | [
"Reviews",
"Software Development"
] | [
"4d systems",
"programming",
"touch screen"
] | When the
4D Systems display
first arrived in the mail, I assumed it would be like any other touch display – get the library and start coding/debugging and
maybe
get stuff painted on the screen before dinner. So I installed the IDE and driver, got everything talking and then…it happened. There, on my computer screen, were the words that simply could not exist – “doesn’t require any coding at all”.
I took a step back, blinked and adjusted my glasses. The words were still there. I tapped the side of the monitor to make sure the words hadn’t somehow jumbled themselves together into such an impossible statement. But the words remained… doesn’t.require.any.coding.at.all.
They were no different from any of the other words on the IDE startup window – same font and size as all the rest. But they might as well have been as tall as a 1 farad capacitor, for they were the only things I could see. “How could this be?” I said out loud to my computer as the realization that these words were actually there in that order began to set in. “What do you mean, no code…this…this is embedded engineering for crying out loud! We put hardware together, and use code to make everything stick! How does it even talk…communicate….
whatever
.
A sardonic grin traced my face as I chose the ViSi-Genie “no code” option – clicking the mouse with a bit more force than necessary. I started a new project and began to mentally prepare a Facebook post on how stupid this IDE was. I had already thought about a good one by the time everything was loaded and was able to start
drawing on the screen with a crayon
making a project.
Each screen that gets painted to the display is called a “Form”. You can make as many forms as you want, and apply an image as the background or just leave it as a solid color. To apply an image as the background, one simply loads a JPG and the IDE will format it to fit the screen. A dizzying assortment of buttons, gauges, various knob, levers, etc… can be selected and dragged onto the form.
“OK, so this might not be so bad after all”, I said. I loaded an image and just placed a few interactive objects on the form, then hit the dubious “compile and load” button to see what would happen. It asked me to load the micro SD into the computer (that’s where it stores all images and files), put it back in the display, and poof! Within a few seconds, my image and the objects appeared on the display. I could even interact with them – if I touched a button or moved a knob, it moved in real time!
“Ah, but what do these knobs and buttons do in the background? How do you make them do anything without code?” So I went back to the IDE and started to explore the options for the various input devices. It was around this time that my opinion of this “no code” thing started to change. Each button could control an option. One of these options was the “Load Form” option. So I made a few other forms and linked them to the buttons and within minutes, I was touching buttons on the display and loading new forms. Another option was to link objects to one of the five GPIO pins. It only took another couple minutes before I was lighting LED’s by touching buttons and loading forms by controls TTL levels on the GPIO pins.
Next thing I knew, I had created my entire
Pipboy 3000 project
with not a single character of code. Twenty five forms, over two hundred user buttons, two GPIO inputs and three outputs – with no code. Wow. You can download and play with the
IDE for free
. Give it a go and let us know what you think. | 68 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "2214391",
"author": "Alfie275",
"timestamp": "2014-12-05T15:16:28",
"content": "So by “no code” they actually mean you can’t type the code, but have to use a series of drop-down selection menus?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "2... | 1,760,375,985.529233 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/01/christmas-lights-and-ships-in-a-bottle/ | Christmas Lights And Ships In A Bottle | Brian Benchoff | [
"Crowd Funding"
] | [
"Aura",
"kickstarter",
"RF",
"RF power",
"wireless",
"Wireless power"
] | Thanksgiving was last week, and Christmas has been invading department stores for two or three months now, and that can only mean one thing: it’s time to kill a tree, set it up in your living room, and put a few hundred watts of lights on it. All those lights, though; it’s as if Christmas lights were specifically invented as fodder for standup comedians for two months out of the year. Why can’t someone invent
wireless
Christmas lights?
We don’t know if it’s been invented,
but here’s a Kickstarter campaign that’s selling that same idea
. It’s called Aura, and it’s exactly what it says on the tin: wireless Christmas lights, controllable with a smartphone. If it works, it’s a brilliant idea.
Here’s the basic technical breakdown for Aura. A bunch of PCBs with large coils and LEDs (and little else) are somehow stuffed into glass ball ornaments. These ornaments are powered via RF supplied by a coil that snaps around the tree and plugs into the wall. The coil is able to power the lights up to about five feet away. For trees taller than five feet, you can snap the coil around the middle of the tree. A coil will be able to power up to about 100 lights. The smartphone ‘scheduling’ is done directly at the coil turning all the lights on or off, so there’s no worrying about the insane power requirements of putting WiFi in dozens of glass globes.
There’s no question in my mind that something like this can exist. The LEDs in each ornament draws a tiny amount of power, and since you can charge a cellphone with a Powermat or other wireless charger, it’s not unreasonable – even considering the inverse square law – that you could power a few LEDs with a
really
big ‘power ring’. EMC tests are another thing entirely, but at the very least it’s possible.
However – there’s always a however – something about this doesn’t pass the sniff test. It took me a while looking at the Kickstarter campaign until I caught it, and now I have questions that can’t be answered. How on Earth did they get that PCB inside a glass ball? Yes, it’s the classic ship in a bottle problem, only you can’t really assemble a PCB inside a glass ball.
Those aren’t plastic balls, either. The creators of Aura say specifically that they’re glass:
The plastic ones we’ve experimented with are actually pretty cool, just not as “classy” as the clean glass ones, which is why we didn’t start there… Since this is a brand new technology, idea, and implementation, we needed to focus on delivering, so hence the subset of options available for the time being.
It’s a curious thing looking over dozens of shady Kickstarters every day. Most of the projects are easily digestible, and you’re able to make a judgement about the feasibility and potential success of a project rather quickly. Very rarely, you’ll look over a project and something that seemingly insignificant will catch your eye. A great example
is fitting a chip into too small of an enclosure
– a fairly insignificant detail that’s like tugging a loose thread that unravels the whole campaign.
Here we are with Aura, something that’s probably, maybe possible, but with an unanswered question in the back of my mind. And so we go looking for more.
Here’s a video from the Aura campaign that’s so saccharine it would have given [Norman Rockwell] diabetes. It’s exactly what you want in a Kickstarter video: don’t show the product, only show how much better your life will be
with
the product. The only voice over for this video is, “There are a lot of firsts in your world. Your first steps. Your first Christmas. And now, the first ever wireless Christmas lights.” We desperately need media theorists to start trawling through Kickstarter videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS5CPuxez_I
Pretty bland, huh. Let’s take a look at two frames from this video. The first frame shows a boy putting a clear glass ornament on a tree. Pay special attention, because there’s nothing
inside
the ornament.
Mere seconds later, the ornament magically lights up though the power of the Christmas spirit and a device you can fund for $69 on Kickstarter:
A beautiful family gathering, a great interplay of light and shadow, and very good evidence the light coming from the ornament was added in post. Look very carefully at that last picture, and you’ll see how it was done. A spot was placed off to the right; half the tree is lit from the wrong direction. A little bit of Sony Vegas or Final Cut takes care of the actual ornament lighting up – and the light coming from the ornament is far too Gaussian if that word is an adjective. Actually, all arguments about lighting are moot, because we already know there wasn’t anything in the ornament to begin with.
I’m done. After seeing this, I literally cannot evaluate Aura anymore. The Aura team is presenting obviously faked video as a real, wireless Christmas light. I can’t figure out how they fit a PCB in a glass ball. I’m not even going to try to parse the claim, ‘The Power Ring safely creates a magnetic field and only transfers energy when a receiver comes into its field.’ This, of course, is where you come in. Comments are open, guys. Let’s hear your take. | 71 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "2199400",
"author": "Trav",
"timestamp": "2014-12-02T00:15:42",
"content": "Good points. Also, how do you “click a ring” around a tree without breaking the coils? Are the coils in packs like the armature of a motor? Why would you need to “Click a ring” around a tree? Couldn’t you ju... | 1,760,375,985.410811 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/01/astrophotography-and-data-analysis-sense-exoplanets/ | Astrophotography And Data-Analysis Sense Exoplanets | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"astronomy",
"astrophotography",
"barn door tracker",
"dslr",
"exoplanet",
"space"
] | [David Schneider] was reading about recent discoveries of exoplanets. Simply put these are planets orbiting stars other than the sun. The rigs used by the research scientists include massive telescopes, but the fact that they’re using CCD sensors led [David] to wonder if a version of this could be done on the cheap in the backyard. The answer is yes. By
capturing and processing data from a barn door tracker
he was able to verify a known exoplanet.
Barn Door trackers are devices used to move a camera to compensate for the turning of the earth. This is necessary when taking images throughout the night, as the stars will not remain “stationary” to the camera’s frame without it. The good news is that they’re simple to build,
we’ve seen
a few
over the years
.
Other than having to wait until his part of the earth was pointed in the correct direction (on a clear night) at the same time as an exoplanet transit, [David] was ready to harvest all the data he needed. This part gets interesting really quickly. The camera needed to catch the planet passing in between the earth and the star it revolves around (called a transit). The data to prove this happened is really subtle. To uncover it [David] needed to control the data set for atmospheric changes by referencing several other stars. From there he focused on the data for the transit target and compared points across the entire set of captured images. The result is a dip in brightness that matches the specifications of the original discovery.
[David] explains the entire process in the clip after the break. | 28 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "2199085",
"author": "gnlong",
"timestamp": "2014-12-01T21:46:13",
"content": "I am astonished by this. I think I know my next project now once I’ve finished writing my novel.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "2199103",
"author... | 1,760,375,986.095326 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/01/a-z80-computer-with-switches-and-blinkenlights/ | A Z80 Computer With Switches And Blinkenlights | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"8080",
"blinkenlights",
"classic computer",
"comptuer",
"minimal computer",
"z80"
] | While most people who build their own computer from chips want the finished product to do something useful, there’s something to be said about a huge bank of switches and a bunch of blinkenlights. They’re incredibly simple – most of the time, you don’t even need RAM – and have a great classic look about them.
[Jim] wanted to build one of these computers and wound up
creating a minimal system with switches and blinkenlights
. It’s based on the Z80 CPU, has only 256 bytes of RAM, and not much else. Apart from a few extra chips to output data and address lines to LEDs and a few more to read switches, there are only two major chips in this computer.
With the circuit complete, [Jim] laser cut a small enclosure big enough to house his stripboard PCB, the switches and LEDs, and a few buttons to write to an address, perform a soft reset, and cycle the clock. One of the most practical additions to this switch/blinkenlight setup is a
hand crank
. There’s no crystal inside this computer, and all clock cycles are done manually. Instead of pushing a button hundreds of times to calculate something. [Jim] added a small hand crank that cycles the clock once per revolution. Crazy, but strangely practical.
[Jim] made a demo video of his computer in action, demonstrating how it’s able to calculate the greatest common divisor of two numbers. You can check that video out below. | 50 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "2198712",
"author": "SebiR",
"timestamp": "2014-12-01T18:18:59",
"content": "uh, that’s cool! I think I’m going to build one :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "2198717",
"author": "ehud42",
"timestamp": "2014-12-01T18:21... | 1,760,375,985.969541 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/01/home-automation-setup-keeps-you-informed/ | Home Automation Setup Keeps You Informed | Ethan Zonca | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"android",
"display",
"ethernet",
"home automation",
"weather"
] | [johannes] wrote in to tell us about his latest project, a
home automation setup he named
Botman
. While he calls it a home automation system, controlling lights and home appliances (which it does wirelessly on 433MHz) is just a small part of its functionality. The front panel of
Botman
includes a servo which points to laser-etched icons of the current weather. It also has a display which shows indoor and outdoor weather conditions along with the status of public transportation around [johannes]’s house.
Botman
is built around an Arduino with an Ethernet shield. The Arduino has very little memory, so [johannes] used the Google Apps engine as a buffer between his Arduino and the JSON APIs of his data sources. This significantly reduces the amount of data the Arduino has to keep in memory and parse.
[johannes] also wrote an Android app that communicates with
Botman
. The app has buttons for controlling lights in his house and duplicates all the information shown on the front panel. [johannes] also built some logging features into
Botman
. The temperature readings and other information are uploaded from the Arduino to a Google Docs spreadsheet where he can view and graph them from anywhere. Check out the video after the break to see
Botman
in action. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "2198382",
"author": "voxnulla",
"timestamp": "2014-12-01T15:15:30",
"content": "My initial thought about the servo was that it indicated wind direction. That would have been a nice usage, with perhaps some leds highlighting the type of weather icons.",
"parent_id": null,
"de... | 1,760,375,986.147993 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/01/3d-printed-clock-tells-time-with-gears/ | 3D-Printed Clock Tells Time With Gears | Ethan Zonca | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"attiny",
"clock",
"stepper motor"
] | [ekaggrat] designed a
3d-printed clock
that’s fairly simple to make and looks awesome. The clock features a series of 3d-printed gears, all driven by a single stepper motor that [ekaggrat] found in surplus.
The clock’s controller is based around an ATtiny2313 programmed with the Arduino IDE. The ATtiny controls a Darlington driver IC which is used to run the stepper motor. The ATtiny drives the stepper motor forward every minute, which moves both the hour and minute hands through the 3d-printed gears. The hour and minute are indicated by two orange posts inside the large gears.
[ekaggrat] etched his own PCB for the microcontroller and stepper driver, making the build nice and compact. If you want to build your own, [ekaggrat] posted
all of his design files
on GitHub. All you need is a PCB (or breadboard), a few components, and a bit of time on a 3D printer to make your own clock. | 52 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "2198049",
"author": "arachnidster",
"timestamp": "2014-12-01T12:09:58",
"content": "I love the design! It’s crying out for a lasercut adaptation, though.Without a crystal or RTC, though, it seems likely it’s going to keep really terrible time.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1... | 1,760,375,985.874562 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/01/3d-printing-atomic-force-microscopy/ | 3D Printing Atomic Force Microscopy | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"AFM",
"atomic force microscope",
"stl"
] | [Andres] is working with an Atomic Force Microscope, a device that drags a small needle across a surface to produce an image with incredible resolution. The AFM can produce native .STL files, and when you have that ability, what’s the obvious next step? That’s right.
printing atomic force microscope images
.
The AFM image above is of a hydrogel, a network of polymers that’s mostly water, but has a huge number of crosslinked polymers. After grabbing the image of a hydrogel from an Agilent 5100 AFM, [Andres] exported the STL, imported it into Blender, and upscaled it and turned it into a printable object.
If you’d like to try out this build but don’t have access to an atomic force microscope, never fear:
you can build one for about $1000
from a few pieces of metal, an old CD burner, and a dozen or so consumable AFM probes. Actually, the probes are going to be what sets you back the most, so just do what they did in olden times – smash diamonds together and look through the broken pieces for a tip that’s sufficiently sharp. | 15 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "2198340",
"author": "Sylph-DS",
"timestamp": "2014-12-01T14:54:55",
"content": "I recall a lecturer telling me that for probes for his own DIY AFM he would simply grab a piece of solid copper wire and snip off the end with a pair of cutters, once every few cuts this would lead to a ... | 1,760,375,985.58832 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/30/using-the-second-microcontroller-on-an-arduino/ | Using The Second Microcontroller On An Arduino | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"atmega",
"atmega16u2",
"ATMega2560",
"atmega328",
"bootloader",
"cdc",
"dfu",
"firmware"
] | While newer Arduinos and Arduino compatibles (
including the Hackaday.io Trinket Pro. Superliminal Advertising
!) either have a chip capable of USB or rely on a V-USB implementation, the old fogies of the Arduino world, the Uno and Mega, actually have two chips. An ATMega16u2 takes care of the USB connection, while the standard ‘328 or ‘2560 takes care of all ~duino tasks. Wouldn’t it be great is you could also use the ’16u2 on the Uno or Mega for some additional functionality to your Arduino sketch?
That’s now a reality.
[Nico] has been working on the HoodLoader2 for a while now, and the current version give you the option of reprogramming the ’16u2 with custom sketches, and use seven I/O pins on this previously overlooked chip.
Unlike the previous HoodLoader, this version is a real bootloader for the ’16u2 that replaces the DFU bootloader with a CDC bootloader and USB serial function. This allows for new USB functions like HID keyboard, mouse, media keys, and a gamepad, the addition of extra sensors or LEDs, and anything else you can do with a normal ‘duino.
Setup is simple enough, only requiring a connection between the ‘328 ISP header and the pins on the ’16u2 header. There are already a few samples of what this new firmware for the ’16u2 can do
over on [Nico]’s blog
, but we’ll expect the number of example projects using this new bootloader to explode over the coming months. If you’re ever in an Arduino Demoscene contest with an Arduino and you’re looking for more pins and code space, now you know where to look. | 45 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "2197326",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2014-12-01T06:37:35",
"content": "Old fogies? Pshaw I still have several duemilanove and diecimila boards buried in a box somewhere and even those aren’t that old.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"co... | 1,760,375,985.674105 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/02/trinket-everyday-carry-contest-roundup-sniffing-trinket-and-portable-trollmaster-3000/ | Trinket Everyday Carry Contest Roundup: Sniffing Trinket And Portable Trollmaster 3000! | Adam Fabio | [
"contests"
] | [
"contest",
"Hackaday Contests",
"Pro Trinket",
"Trinket",
"Trinket Everyday Carry",
"Trinket Everyday Carry Contest"
] | Hackaday’s
Trinket Everyday Carry Contest
is heating up. In just one week we’ve already got
over 30 entries!
Many of the contenders are completely new open source projects based on the Pro Trinket. Our first drawing will be tonight, at 9pm EST. The first giveaway prize is a
BLINK(1) MK2
from the Hackaday store. Make sure you have at least one project log and a photo up to be eligible for this week’s giveaway!
We can’t help but mention how awesome some of the entries are. [Georg Krocker] is taking on the problem of indoor air quality – not with a central sensor, but with a personal sensor that goes where you do.
Sniffing Trinket
is designed to monitor the air around the user. If the air quality drops, it will alert the user to open a window – or get the heck out. [Georg] has a few sensors in mind, but he’s starting with the MQ135 gas sensor and a DHT11 temperature/humidity sensor. If air quality starts to drop, 3 WS2812b LEDs will alert the user that there is a problem. The system can also be connected to a PC with USB for more accurate readings and logging.
[Georg] has an aggressive schedule planned, with a custom “Trinket Shield” PCB being laid out and ordered next week. January 2 is fast approaching, so hurry up and get those boards designed!
[Dr Salica] is taking a more humorous approach to personal space. The
Portable Trollmaster 3000
is designed to surround its wearer in a bubble of “I Am Glad, ‘Cause I’m Finally Returning Back Home” aka
“The Trololol song”
as sung by
Eduard Khil
. [Dr Salica] plans to pair the Pro Trinket with the popular Sony MMR-70 FM transmitter. The Trinket is capable of playing back short audio clips, so with a bit of I2C magic, [Dr. Salica] will be able to hijack any nearby FM receiver, creating his own personal trollbox.
Do you have an idea for a great wearable or pocketable project? Check out the
Trinket Everyday Carry Contest,
and get hacking! | 16 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "2203046",
"author": "CodeRed",
"timestamp": "2014-12-02T21:11:33",
"content": "1 in 30 chance of winning something. I’m holding my breath. …",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2203087",
"author": "Fennec",
"times... | 1,760,375,986.026854 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/02/retrotechtacular-ma-bells-advanced-mobile-phone-service-amps/ | Retrotechtacular: Ma Bell’s Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"850MHz",
"advanced mobile phone service",
"amps",
"att",
"bell labs",
"cellular",
"cellular network",
"fcc",
"mobile telephony",
"msa"
] | This gem from the AT&T Archive does a good job of explaining the first-generation cellular technology that AT&T called
Advanced Mobile Phone Service
(AMPS). The hexagon-cellular network design was first conceived at Bell Labs in 1947. After a couple of decades spent pestering the FCC, AT&T was awarded the 850MHz band in the late 1970s. It was this decision coupled with the decades worth of Bell System technical improvements that gave cellular technology the bandwidth and power to really come into its own.
AT&T’s primary goals for the AMPS network were threefold: to provide more service to more people, to improve service quality, and to lower the cost to subscribers. Early mobile network design gave us the Mobile Service Area, or MSA. Each high-elevation transmitter could serve a 20-mile radius of subscribers, a range which constituted one MSA. In the mid-1940s, only 21 channels could be used in the 35MHz and 150MHz band allocations. The 450MHz band was introduced in 1952, provided another 12 channels.
The FCC’s allocation opened a whopping 666 channels in the neighborhood of 850MHz. Bell Labs’ hexagonal innovation sub-divided the MSAs into cells, each with a radius of up to ten miles.
The film explains quite well that in this arrangement, each cell set of seven can utilize all 666 channels. Cells adjacent to each other in the set must use different channels, but any cell at least 100 miles away can use the same channels. Furthermore, cells can be subdivided or split. Duplicate frequencies are dealt with through the FM capture effect in which the weaker signal is suppressed.
Those Bell System technical improvements facilitated the electronic switching that takes place between the Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO) and the POTS landline network. They also realized the automatic control features required of the AMPS project, such as vehicle location and automatic channel assignment. The film concludes its lecture with step-by-step explanations of inbound and outbound call setup where a mobile device is concerned.
Retrotechtacular is a weekly column featuring hacks, technology, and kitsch from ages of yore. Help keep it fresh by
sending in your ideas for future installments
. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "2202870",
"author": "Rolf",
"timestamp": "2014-12-02T19:47:55",
"content": "I wish they uploaded more content on youtube at that time. We would have more information about understanding of things back then.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"c... | 1,760,375,986.203715 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/02/yet-another-awesome-working-prototype-of-a-pipboy-3000/ | Yet Another Awesome Working Prototype Of A PipBoy 3000 | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"4d systems",
"4D touch display",
"arm mounted computer",
"Fallout",
"pipboy",
"pipboy 3000"
] | When we’re not busy writing up features on Hack a Day, some of the writers here have some pretty impressive projects on the go. One of our own, [Will Sweatman], just put the finishing touches on this amazing (and functional!)
Pipboy 3000!
The funny thing is, [Will] here isn’t actually a very big gamer. In fact, he
hasn’t even played Fallout
. But when a friend queried his ability to build this so called “PipBoy 3000”, [Will] was intrigued.
His research lead him full circle, right back to here at Hack a Day. We’ve covered
several PipBoy builds
over the years, and [Will] fell in love with
[Dragonator’s] 3D printed version
— it was the perfect place to start. You see, [Dragonator]
shared all the 3D models on his personal site!
Now this is where it starts to get cool. [Will] is using a 4D systems 4.3″ touch display, which doubles as the microprocessor — in fact, he didn’t even have to write a single line of code to program in it! The hardware can be programmed using the free
Workshop 4 IDE
, which allows him to use a visual editor to program the device. Watching a
YouTube video on the Fallout 3 PipBoy
, he was able to recreate all the menus with intricate detail to load onto the device. It even has GPIO which allow him to use buttons to navigate the menus (in addition to the touch screen stylus).
The result is a pretty awesome near perfect replica of the device from Fallout. It could use a coat of paint though.
And a closeup look at the various menus available on [Sweatman’s] customs Pipboy. | 10 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "2202540",
"author": "m1ndtr1p",
"timestamp": "2014-12-02T17:04:45",
"content": "Well done! It’d be perfect for cosplay or something like that, but it’s not very functional, as in, there is no real data used other than static images for every screen… I’d like to see someone use a pro... | 1,760,375,986.252306 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/02/illumination-captured-in-a-vacuum-jar/ | Illumination Captured In A Vacuum Jar | Sarah Petkus | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"glowing vacuum",
"Gouriet-Clapp",
"oscillator",
"plasma",
"vacuum",
"vacuum pump"
] | Experimentation with the unusual nature of things in the world is awesome… especially when the result is smokey glowing plasma. For this relatively simple project, [Peter Zotov] uses the purchase of his new vacuum pump as an excuse to build a mini vacuum chamber and demonstrate the effect his
mosfet-based
Gouriet-Clapp capacitive three-point oscillator
has on it.
In this case, the illumination is caused due to the high-frequency electromagnetic field produced by the Gouriet-Clapp oscillator. [Peter] outlines a build for one of these, consisting of two different wound coils made from coated wire, some capacitors, a mosfet, potentiometer, and heat sink. When the oscillator is placed next to a gas discharge tube, it causes the space to emit light proportionate to the pressure conditions inside.
For his
air tight and nearly air free enclosure
, [Peter] uses a small glass jar with a latex glove as the fitting between it and a custom cut acrylic flange. With everything sandwiched snugly together, the vacuum hose inserted through the center of the flange should do its job in removing the air to less than 100 Pa. At this point, when the jar is placed next to the oscillator, it will work its physical magic…
[Peter] has his list of
materials and schematics
used for this project on his blog if you’re interested in taking a look at them yourself. Admittedly, it’d be helpful to hear a physicist chime in to explain with a bit more clarity how this trick is taking place and whether or not there are any risks involved. In any case, it’s quite the interesting experiment. | 51 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "2201787",
"author": "Jag",
"timestamp": "2014-12-02T12:43:03",
"content": "This is interesting! I reminds me of an old post here on HaD about a suspended bubble of air in water blasted with ultrasonic frequencies of sound, and how it would sparkle and blink with tiny bits of light.O... | 1,760,375,986.49924 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/02/finding-a-cheaper-usb-to-serial-chips/ | Finding A Cheaper USB To Serial Chips | Brian Benchoff | [
"Parts"
] | [
"CH340",
"CH341",
"serial",
"serial adapter",
"uart",
"usb",
"USB to serial"
] | FTDI-gate wasn’t great for anybody
, and now with hardware hobbyists and technological tinkerers moving away from the most popular USB to serial adapter, some other chip has to fill the void. The cheapest USB to serial chip on the market appears to be the CH340G, available for 20-40 cents apiece from the usual retailers. There is, however, almost no English documentation, and the datasheet for the CH340 family doesn’t include this chip.
[Ian]’s here to help you out
. He got his mitts on a few of these chips and managed to figure out the pinout and a few reference schematics. He even made an Eagle part for you. Isn’t that nice?
The CH340 series of chips do exactly what you would expect them to do: a full-speed USB device that emulates a standard serial interface, with speeds from 50bps to 2Mpbs. The chip supports 5V and 3.3V, and all the weird modem lines are supported. This chip even has an IrDA mode, because wireless communication in the 90s was
exactly
as rad as you remember.
With [Ian]’s help, we now have a cheap source of USB to serial chips. If you need the datasheet,
here you go
. The driver is a bit more difficult to find, but what you’re looking for is the
CH341
family of chips. That can be found with a little bit of Google fu. | 90 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "2201225",
"author": "zaprodk",
"timestamp": "2014-12-02T09:01:53",
"content": "“FINDING A CHEAPER USB TO SERIAL CHIPS” – Really, HAD ? It’s “Chip”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "2201240",
"author": "Alex",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,375,986.621883 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/01/3d-printing-lock-picks/ | 3D Printing Lock Picks | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"lockpicking hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"lock pick",
"lockpick",
"lockpicking"
] | Over at the 23B hackerspace in Fullerton, CA, [Dano] had an interesting idea. He took a zip tie, and trimmed it to have the same profile of a lock pick. It worked. Not well, mind you, but it worked. After a few uses, the pick disintegrated, but still the concept of picks you can take through a TSA checkpoint was proven.
A few days after this demonstration, [C] realized he had a very fancy Objet 3D printer at work,
and thought printing some pics out would be an admirable goal
. After taking an image of some picks through the autotracer in Solidworks, [C] had an STL that could be printed on a fancy, high-end 3D printer. The printer ultimately used for these picks was a Objet 30 Pro, with .001″ layer thickness and 600dpi resolution. After receiving the picks, [C] dug out an old lock and went to town. The lock quickly yielded to the pick, and once again the concept of plastic lock picks was proven.
Although the picks worked, there were a few problems: only half the picks were sized appropriately to fit inside a lock. Two picks also broke within 15 minutes, something that won’t happen with traditional metal picks.
Still, once the models are figured out, it’s easy to reproduce them time and time again. A perfect lock pick design is then trivial, and making an injection mold becomes possible. They might still break, but they’ll be far easier to manufacture and simple to replace. | 24 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "2200756",
"author": "geremycondra",
"timestamp": "2014-12-02T06:18:37",
"content": "Or you could just take your normal picks through. This definitely increases to odds youll get away with it, but I’ve taken mine through TSA and as long as I brought it up with them beforehand it wasn... | 1,760,375,986.675228 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/01/15-car-stereo-bluetooth-upgrade/ | $15 Car Stereo Bluetooth Upgrade | Marsh | [
"car hacks",
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"aux",
"aux in",
"bluetooth",
"car stereo",
"cd player",
"usb"
] | We’ve seen all sorts of ways to implement Bluetooth connectivity on your car stereo, but
[Tony’s] hack may be the cheapest and easiest way yet.
The above-featured Bluetooth receiver is a
measly $15 over at Amazon
(actually $7.50 today—it’s Cyber Monday after all) and couldn’t be any more hacker-friendly. It features a headphone jack for plugging into your car’s AUX port and is powered via USB.
[Tony] didn’t want the receiver clunking around in the console, though, so he cracked it open and went about integrating it directly by soldering the appropriate USB pins to 5V and GND on the stereo. There was just one catch: the stereo had no AUX input. [Tony] needed to rig his own, so he hijacked the CD player’s left and right audio channels (
read about it in his other post
), which he then soldered to the audio output of the Bluetooth device. After shoving all the bits back into the dashboard, [Tony] just needed to fool his stereo into thinking a CD was playing, so he burned a disc with 10 hours of silence to spin while the tunes play wirelessly. Nice! | 29 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "2200131",
"author": "john",
"timestamp": "2014-12-02T03:07:24",
"content": "Its $1.50 here –http://www.pingpongmegastore.com/p/Table-Tennis-Tables/B00HT07QXI/detail/Generic-USB-Bluetooth-Music-Audio-Stereo-Receiver-Fit-for-Car-AUX-in-Home-Mp3-Speaker-Iphone.php",
"parent_id": nu... | 1,760,375,986.848426 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/30/3d-printing-without-support/ | 3D Printing Without Support | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3D printed supports",
"3d printing",
"support"
] | 3D printing is getting better every year, a tale told by dozens of Makerbot Cupcakes nailed to the wall in hackerspaces the world over. What was once thought impossible – insane bridging, high levels of repeatability, and extremely well-tuned machines – are now the norm. We’re still printing with supports, and until powder printers make it to garages, we’ll be stuck with that. There’s more than one way to skin a cat, though.
It is possible to print complex 3D objects without supports
. How? With pre-printed supports, of course.
[Markus] wanted to print the latest comet we’ve landed on, 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. This is a difficult model for any 3D printer: there are two oversized lobes connected by a thin strand of comet. There isn’t a flat space, either, and cutting the model in half and gluing the two printed sides together is certainly not cool enough.
To print this plastic comet without supports, [Markus] first created a mold – a cube with the model of the comet subtracted with a boolean operation. If there’s one problem [Markus] ran into its that no host software will allow you to print an object
over
the previous print. That would be a nice addition to Slic3r or Repetier Host, and shouldn’t be that hard to implement. | 12 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "2197134",
"author": "Waterjet",
"timestamp": "2014-12-01T04:59:05",
"content": "Sort of like this?http://hackaday.com/2014/04/13/printing-in-three-dimensions-for-real-this-time/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "2197309",
"aut... | 1,760,375,986.722549 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/30/hackaday-links-november-30-2014/ | Hackaday Links: November 30, 2014 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"bom",
"breadboard",
"browser plugin",
"crowdfunding",
"Doctor Who",
"ESP8266",
"helicopter",
"r/c helicopter"
] | Tired of wiring up the power rails and serial adapter every time you build something on a breadboard?
[Jason] has you covered.
He put his Breadboard Buddy Pro up on Indiegogo, and it does everything you’d expect it to: power rails, USB to UART bridge, and a 3.3 V regulator. Oh, he’s not using an FTDI chip. Neat.
With Christmas around the corner, a lot of those cheap 3-channel RC helicopters are going to find their way into stockings. They’re cool toys, but if you want to really have fun with them,
you’ll need to add a penny
.
Here’s a crowdfunding campaign for a very interesting IoT module
. It’s a UART to WiFi adapter that has enough free Flash and RAM to run your own code, GPIOs, SPI, and PWM functions. Wait a second. This is just an ESP8266 module. Stay classy, Indiegogo.
Mankind has sent space probes to the surface – and received pictures from – Venus, Mars, the Moon, Titan, asteroids Itokawa and Eros, and comet Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. In a beautiful bit of geological irony, every single one of these celestial bodies looks like a rock quarry in Wales.
That quarry is now for sale
.
Here’s something exceptionally interesting.
It’s a browser plugin
that takes a BOM, and puts all the components into a cart. Here’s the cool bit: it does it with multiple retailers. The current retailers supported are
Mouser
,
Digikey
,
Farnell/Element14
,
Newark
, and
RS Components
.
Want a death ray
? Too bad, because it’s already been sold. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "2197144",
"author": "SavannahLion",
"timestamp": "2014-12-01T05:04:23",
"content": "I’m not quite understanding how Breadboard Buddy Pro integrates with the breadboard. It fits right on top, taking up space? Around it? I have to modify an existing breadboard and solder to it? What?"... | 1,760,375,986.772572 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/30/glasslinger-builds-tiny-tubes/ | [Glasslinger] Builds Tiny Tubes | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"miniature vacuum tube",
"tube",
"vacuum tube"
] | In the early days of transistors, RCA and GE were battling against silicon with ever smaller vacuum tubes. These tubes – Nuvistors, Compactrons, and some extremely small JAN triodes were some of the tiniest tubes to ever be created. [glasslinger], YouTube’s expert on DIY valves,
is pretty close to beating the tiniest tubes that were ever manufactured
. He’s created a miniature diode and triode that are about 1/4″ in diameter and 1″ long.
The most difficult part of making a vacuum tube is getting a perfect glass seal around the pins. For this, [glasslinger] is using very fine tungsten wire and glass beads. A bead is placed around each wire, mounted in a stand, and melted together with a torch.
A diode is simple as far as tubes go, requiring only a filament between two pins. [glasslinger] is just stringing a fine piece of wire between two pins and welding them on with a miniature spot welder. After that, it’s just an issue of melting a 1/4″ glass tube to the base of the tube, putting it under vacuum overnight, and sealing it shut. | 30 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "2196058",
"author": "jacques1956",
"timestamp": "2014-11-30T21:23:02",
"content": "“A diode is simple as far as tubes go, requiring only a filament between two pins.”It needs an anode too. The filament is eated to produce free electrons and the anode when at positive voltage attract... | 1,760,375,987.109307 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/30/build-your-own-raytracing-minion/ | Build Your Own Raytracing Minion | Adam Fabio | [
"classic hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"POV-Ray",
"raspberry pi",
"raytrace",
"raytracer",
"render"
] | A canceled project left [Craig] with six Raspberry Pi based devices he calls “Minions”. A minion is a Raspberry Pi model A in a small enclosure with an Adafruit 2.2″ 320×240 SPI LCD. The LCD lives in a lollipop style circular housing above the base. [Craig] has found a use for one of his minions as a
desktop raytracer
.
The Raspberry Pi is quite capable of running
Persistance Of Vision Raytracer, or POV-Ray
. POV-Ray started life as an early PC based raytracer. Created as a port of an Amiga program called DKBTrace, which was itself a port of a Unix raytracer, POV-Ray first was released in 1987. For the uninitiated, raytracers like POV-Ray
literally trace
rays from a light source to an image plane. As one would imagine, the Raspberry Pi’s little ARM processor would take quite a bit of time to raytrace a high resolution image. However, when targeting a 320×240 LCD, it’s not half bad.
[Craig’s] minion is running his own software which he calls ArtRays. Based upon a setup file, ArtRays can render images from several sources, including the internet via a WiFi dongle, or a local SD card. Rather than walk through the setup and software install, [Craig] has provided a link to download a full SD card image to build your own Minion. It might be worth experimenting on your own first though, rather than killing his server with a 1GB download.
We’re glad [Craig] has found use for one of his minions, now we have to see what he’s done with the other five! | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "2195844",
"author": "Waterjet",
"timestamp": "2014-11-30T18:53:01",
"content": "The Raspberry Pi has is quite?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2195848",
"author": "chris",
"timestamp": "2014-11-30T18:56:21",
... | 1,760,375,986.984321 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/30/locking-a-beer-with-a-3d-printer/ | Locking A Beer With A 3D Printer | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"beer",
"lock",
"locksmith"
] | Have a nice, refreshing IPA sitting in the fridge along with a ton of other beers that have ‘Light’ or ‘Ice’ in their name? Obviously one variety is for guests and the other is for hosts, but how do you make sure the drunkards at your house tell the difference?
A beer bottle lock
, of course.
Because all beer bottles are pretty much a standard size, [Jon-A-Tron] was able to create a small 3D printed device that fit over the bottle cap. The two pieces are held together with a 4-40 hex screw, and the actual lock comes from a six-pack of luggage padlocks found at the hardware store.
It’s a great device to keep the slackers away from the good stuff, and also adds a neat challenge to anyone that’s cool enough to know basic lock picking. Of course, anyone with a TSA master key can also open the beer lock, but if you’re hosting a party with guest who frequently carry master keys around with them, you’re probably having too good of a time to care. | 54 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "2195534",
"author": "noname",
"timestamp": "2014-11-30T15:11:38",
"content": "will I use a screw driver, a key or a knife to unlock this one",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2195667",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timest... | 1,760,375,987.226798 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/30/transferring-audio-to-an-avr-at-12kbps/ | Transferring Audio To An AVR At 12kbps | Brian Benchoff | [
"ATtiny Hacks"
] | [
"AVR",
"cassette",
"cassette port",
"data",
"modem",
"moden",
"modulation"
] | Back in the bad ‘ol days of computing, hard drives cost as much as a car, and floppy drives were incredibly expensive. The solution to this data storage problem offered by all the manufacturers was simple – an audio cassette. It’s an elegant solution to a storage problem,
and something that has applications today
.
[Jari] was working on a wearable message badge with an 8-pin ATTiny. To get data onto this device, he looked at his options and couldn’t find anything good; USB needs two pins and the firmware takes up 1/4 of the Flash, UART isn’t available on every computer, and Bluetooth and WiFi are expensive and complicated. This left using audio to send digital data as the simplest solution.
[Jari] went through a ton of Wikipedia articles to figure out the best modulation scheme for transferring data with audio. What he came up with is very simple: just a square wave that’s changed by turning a pin off and on. When the audio is three samples long without crossing zero, the data is 0. When it’s five samples long without crossing zero, the data is 1. There’s a 17-sample long sync pulse, and with a small circuit that acts as a zero crossing detector, [Jari] had a simple circuit that would transfer data easily and cheaply.
All the code for this extremely cheap modem is
available on GitHub
. | 20 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "2195373",
"author": "Moser Labs",
"timestamp": "2014-11-30T13:25:44",
"content": "I wonder what happens when you play the Best of Justin Bieber thru it",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2195407",
"author": "meninosousa",... | 1,760,375,987.047567 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/30/mixer-for-korg-volcas/ | Mixer For Korg Volcas | Brian Benchoff | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"korg",
"mixer",
"passive mixer",
"synth",
"Volcas"
] | Korg, everyone’s third or fourth favorite synth company, but one of the only ones that still in business, recently put out a new line of synths, drum machines, and groove boxes. They’re called Volcas, and they’re cheap, analog, and very cool. [Jason] has a few of these Volcas, and while he enjoys the small form factor, using an off-the-shelf mixer to dump send the audio from these machines to his computer takes up too much space.
He created a passive mini mixer
to replace his much larger Mackie unit.
The circuit for this tiny passive mixer is an exercise in simplicity, consisting of just a few jacks, pots, and resistors. [Jason] overbuilt this; even though the Volcas only have mono out, he wired the entire mixer up for stereo.
The enclosure – something that looks to be a standard Hammond die cast aluminum enclosure – was drilled out, and a lovely laser cut acrylic laminate placed on top. It looks great, and for anyone interested in learning soldering, you couldn’t come up with a better first project. | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "2195093",
"author": "Z00111111",
"timestamp": "2014-11-30T10:17:25",
"content": "Nothing wrong with future proofing it. I’m sure it’s got plenty more uses than just these mono synths.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "2195153",
... | 1,760,375,987.146065 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/29/micro-word-clock/ | Micro Word Clock | Brian Benchoff | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"clock",
"led matrix",
"matrix",
"word clock"
] | A word clock – a clock that tells time with words, not dials or numbers – is one of those builds that’s on every Arduino neophyte’s ‘To Build’ list. It’s a bit more complex than blinking a LED, but an easily attainable goal that’s really only listening to a real time clock and turning a few LEDs on and off in the right pattern.
One of the biggest hurdles facing anyone building a word clock is the construction of the LED matrix; each LED or word needs to be in its own light-proof box. There is another option, and it’s something we’ve never seen before: you can just buy 8×8 LED matrices,
so why not make a word clock out of that
? That’s what [Daniel] did, and the finished project is just crying out to be made into a word watch.
[Daniel]’s word clock only uses eight discrete components: an ATMega328p, a DS1307 real time clock, some passives, and an 8×8 LED matrix. A transparency sheet with printed letters fits over the LED matrix forming the words, and the entire device isn’t much thicker than the LED matrix itself.
All the files to replicate this build can be found on [Daniel]’s webpage, with links to the Arduino code, the EAGLE board files, and link to buy the board on OSH Park. | 45 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "2192028",
"author": "rizzle",
"timestamp": "2014-11-29T09:23:11",
"content": "Nicely done, a link to his page would be nice though…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2193461",
"author": "formatc1702",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,375,987.610102 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/28/turn-cordless-tool-batteries-into-usb-chargers/ | Turn Cordless Tool Batteries Into USB Chargers | Theodora Fabio | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"battery",
"car charger",
"cordless tool",
"power tool",
"usb"
] | It is the unspoken law of cordless tools – eventually you will have extra batteries lying around from dead tools that are incompatible with your new ones. Some people let them sit in lonesome corners of the garage or basement; others recycle them. [Eggmont] was facing this dilemma with a
Makita battery from a broken angle grinder and decided to make a USB charger out of it
.
[Eggmont] took the simplistic approach, using an old cigarette lighter-to-USB adapter. First, [Eggmont] removed the battery connector from the bottom of the broken angle grinder. Next, the casing surrounding the cigarette lighter plug was removed so that the adapter’s wires could be soldered to the contacts on the battery connector. The USB ports were then glued onto the top of the connector. The adapter was rated 9-24V input, so it was fine to use it with the 18V tool battery. Since the battery connector is still removable, the battery can be recharged.
Tool manufacturers are tapping into the market of repurposing old batteries for charging mobile devices. Both
DeWalt
and
Milwaukee Tool
have now created their own USB adapters that connect to their batteries. Or, you can purchase the Kickstarter-funded
PoweriSite
adapter for DeWalt batteries instead. Compared to their cost, [Eggmont’s] project is very economical if you already have the battery at hand – you can find the USB adapter for less than $10 on Amazon. | 27 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "2191688",
"author": "murdock",
"timestamp": "2014-11-29T07:25:55",
"content": "Unless you have old tools, where the tool itself is made well and won’t break, but the batteries are pretty lousy and short lived. Adapter, anyone?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": ... | 1,760,375,987.46139 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/28/the-halfbug/ | The Halfbug | Elliot Williams | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"walking robot"
] | [Alex] posted up build details of his robot,
Halfbot
, on Tinkerlog. We’ve been big fans of his work ever since his
Synchronizing Fireflies
Instructable way back in the day. [Alex’s] work usually combines an unconventional idea with minimalistic design and precise execution, and Halfbot is no exception.
You’ll have to watch the
video
(embedded below the break) to fully appreciate the way it moves. The two big front legs alternate with the small front pads to make an always-stable tripod with the caster wheel at the back. It lifts itself up, moves a bit forward, and then rests itself down on the pads again while the legs get in position for the next step. It’s not going to win any speed tournaments, but it’s a great-looking gait.
The head unit also has two degrees of freedom, allowing it to scan around with its ultrasonic rangefinder unit, and adding a bit more personality to the whole affair.
[Alex] mentions that he’d recently gotten a lathe and then a CNC mill. So it’s no surprise that he made all the parts from scratch just to give the machines a workout. We think he did a great job with the overall aesthetics, and in particular
the battery pack
.
We’re excited to see how [Alex] adds new behaviors as he develops the firmware. No pressure! | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "2190994",
"author": "Anon Blue",
"timestamp": "2014-11-29T03:55:40",
"content": "Halfbug over Tokyo, awesome!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2191215",
"author": "neon22",
"timestamp": "2014-11-29T04:52:00",
... | 1,760,375,987.285392 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/28/frans-new-project-the-dsky/ | [Fran]’s New Project: The DSKY | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"agc",
"apollo",
"Apollo Guidance Computer",
"DSKY",
"EL display",
"electroluminescent"
] | [Fran] has already made a name for herself in some retro cool historical aviation and computer circles by tearing down a flight-ready spare of
a Saturn V launch vehicle digital computer
, the computer that was responsible for getting all flights to the moon into low earth orbit. Now she’s ready for another project, and again, this is something that hasn’t been done in 40 years.
She’s building a DSKY
, the control panel for the Apollo Guidance Computer
The Apollo Guidance Computer is a well-documented piece of computing history,
with homebrew versions all over the web
. The DSKY is only one small part of the AGC, but it is by far the most famous module. Being the only user interface for the AGC, it’s the only part of the AGC that gets all the screen time in Apollo 13, the travesty on BluRay that was Apollo 18, and is the only device that bears any physical resemblance to its real-life counterpart
in a number of AGC simulators
.
That’s not to say DSKY builds haven’t been attempted before; there are a few out there using LEDs and off-the-shelf buttons for the build, but the DSKY from the mid-60s is much, much cooler than a bunch of LEDs and light pipes. The eery green numbers are actually EL displays. Guess how those displays are controlled? Relays. It’s a masterpiece of technology, made even more impressive in that the folks at MIT who built the thing didn’t have anything better to build the display with.
Because of her deconstruction efforts with the Saturn V LVDC, [Fran] was invited down to the National Air and Space museum in the middle of Washington DC. There, she saw everyones favorite ugliest spacecraft, the Apollo LEM, along with an incredible assortment of paraphernalia from aviation history. The Wright Flyer – yes, the original one – is hanging from the ceiling next to the Spirit of St. Louis, and X-15 rocket plane, right above the command module
Columbia
from Apollo 11. Copies of probes currently rolling over Mars are on display, and you can walk through a training model of Skylab. If you’ve never been, spend half a day there, then take the metro out to the
Udvar-Hazy center
, where you’ll find all the stuff they couldn’t fit in the downtown collection like a Space Shuttle and a Concorde.
This is only the first part of [Fran]’s vlog documenting the construction of a copy of the DSKY, and we haven’t even seen the inner guts of the most famous part of the AGC yet. She’s been working on this for a while now, and there’s no doubt she’ll finish the job and come up with the best replica of a DSKY ever. | 29 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "2190519",
"author": "j0z0r",
"timestamp": "2014-11-29T00:41:02",
"content": "Bares should be bears in this summary.On topic: I like these reconstructions of old space guidance computers. I did some research a while ago because I was wondering why the Space Shuttle and other space ve... | 1,760,375,987.528525 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/28/ask-hackaday-what-is-the-future-of-virtual-reality/ | Ask Hackaday: What Is The Future Of Virtual Reality? | Will Sweatman | [
"Ask Hackaday",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"facebook",
"MMO",
"oculus rift",
"virtual reality"
] | Most of us have heard of
Second Life
– that antiquated online virtual reality platform of yesteryear where users could explore, create, and even sell content. You might be surprised to learn that not only are they still around, but they’re also employing the Oculus Rift and completely
redesigning their virtual world
. With support of the DK2 Rift, the possibilities for a Second Life platform where users can share and explore each other’s creations opens up some interesting doors.
Envision a world where you could log on to a “virtual net”, put on your favorite VR headset and let your imagination run wild. You and some friends could make a city, a planet…and entire universe that you and thousands of others could explore. With a little bit of dreaming
and an arduino
, VR can bring dreams to life.
When you play a computer game where you’re driving an F1 car, when you look back after you’re done playing, you’ll remember playing a computer game. But if you drive an F1 car in virtual reality, you’ll look back and remember driving an F1 car.
-UKRifter
Now, before we get too excited – know that this is not a novel idea. With Facebook’s recent
purchase of the VR giant
, they are clearly looking into the idea of networking VR headsets together to bring users into a
single massive virtual environment
. There are also a handful of
independent
developers
looking into the MMO idea. Though Second Life has a good foundation to make such dreams a reality, they will have competition.
But is this the future of virtual reality? Indeed, the Oculus Rift is a game changer. But what “game” is it changing? Does its future, and the other VR headsets in the pipeline, exist merely as an enhancement for video games? Will VR redefine the social network? Maybe it will live up to the hype and become the next evolution of the “Internet.” Or will it go down as a fad, the way it did before, only to be looked back upon as an interesting novelty with no practical purpose, and discarded as another one of history’s technological creations unable to meet its promises. | 32 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "2190117",
"author": "skyrift",
"timestamp": "2014-11-28T21:11:19",
"content": "Ready Player One?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2190126",
"author": "bobbiy",
"timestamp": "2014-11-28T21:16:43",
"conten... | 1,760,375,987.678915 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/28/hacklet-24-raspberry-pi-projects/ | Hacklet 24 – Raspberry Pi Projects | Adam Fabio | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"Bunnie Huang",
"Holga",
"Novena",
"raspberry pi"
] | Experimenting with embedded Linux used to mean reformatting an old PC, or buying an expensive dev board. In February of 2012, the Raspberry Pi was released, and it has proven to be a game changing platform. According to the Raspberry Pi Foundation, over 3.8 million boards have been sold. 3.8 million translates into a lot of great projects. This week’s Hacklet focuses on some of the best Raspberry Pi projects on
Hackaday.io!
We start with [richardginus] and the
RpiFPV
(aka Raspberry Pi First Person View) project. [Richardginus] is trying to build a low latency WiFi streaming camera system for radio-controlled models using a Raspberry Pi and camera. He’s gotten the system down into a respectable 160 milliseconds on the bench, but in the field interference from the 2.4GHz R/C transmitter drives latency way up. To fix this, [Richardginus] is attempting to control the plane over the same WiFi link as the video stream. We’d also recommend checking out some of those “outdated” 72 MHz R/C systems on the used market.
Next up is [James McDuffie] and his
RPi Holga
. Inspired by
[Peter’s] Holga camera
project, [James] has stuffed a Raspberry Pi model A, a camera module, and a WiFi adapter into a Holga camera body. The result looks like a stock Holga. We saw this camera up close at the Hackaday 10th Anniversary event, and it fooled us – we thought [James] was just a lomography buff. It was only after seeing his pictures that we realized there was a Pi hiding inside that white plastic body! Definitely check out [James’] instructions as he walks through everything from hardware mods to software installation.
No Raspberry Pi list would be complete without a cluster or two, so we have [Tobias W.] and his
3 Node Raspberry Pi Cluster
. The Raspberry Pi makes for a cheap and efficient platform to experiment with cluster computing. [Tobias] did a bit more than just slap a few Pis on a board and call it a day though. He custom machined an aluminum plate to hold his 3 node cluster. This makes wire management a snap. The Pi’s communicate through a four port Ethernet hub and all run from a single power supply. He even added a key switch, just like on the “old iron” mainframes. [Tobias] has been a bit quiet lately, so if you run into him, tell him we’re looking for an update on that cluster!
From [Tim] comes the
PIvena
, a Raspberry Pi laptop which takes its styling cues from [Bunnie Huang’s]
Novena
computer. Pivena is a bit smaller though, with a 7” HDMI LCD connected to the Pi. The case is made from laser cut wood and a few 3D printed parts. Everything else is just standard hardware. [Tim] kept the PIvena’s costs down by using a wooden kickstand to hold up the screen rather than Novena’s pneumatic spring system. The base plate of the PIvena includes a grid of mounting holes just like the Novena. There is also plenty of room for batteries to make this a truly portable machine. The end result is a slick setup that would look great at any Hackerspace. We hope [Tim] creates an update to support the new Raspberry Pi B+ boards!
Our Raspberry Pi-based alarm clock is chiming the hour, so that’s about it for this episode of the Hacklet! As always, see you next week. Same hack time, same hack channel, bringing you the best of
Hackaday.io! | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "2189848",
"author": "richardginus",
"timestamp": "2014-11-28T18:53:38",
"content": "Thank you for featuring my project! As a matter of fact i had planned to borrow an old radio. The control over WiFi feels like a logical step in the development and i am making good progress with it.... | 1,760,375,987.729212 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/28/adding-a-steady-rest-to-a-lathe/ | Adding A Steady Rest To A Lathe | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"lathe",
"machining",
"metalworking",
"mill",
"steady rest"
] | A steady rest is a tool for a lathe, enabling a machinist to make deep cuts in long, slender stock, bore out thin pieces of metal, and generally keeps thin stuff straight. Unlike a tool that follows the cutter, a steady rest is firmly attached to the bed of a lathe. [Josh]’s lathe didn’t come with a steady rest, and he can’t just get parts for it.
No problem, then
: he already has a lathe, mill, and some metal, so why not make the base for one from scratch?
[Josh] was able to find the actual steady rest from an online dealer, but it wasn’t made for his lathe. This presented a problem when attaching it to his machine: because each steady rest must fit into the bed of the lathe, he would need a custom bracket. With the help of a rather large mill, [Josh] faced off all the sides of a piece of steel and cut a 45 degree groove. To make this base level, [Josh] put one side of the base on the lathe, put a dial micrometer on the tool post, and got an accurate reading of how much metal to take off the uncut side.
With the steady rest bolted onto the lathe, [Josh] turned a rod and found he was off by about 0.002″. To machinists, that’s not great, but for a quick project it’s fantastic. Either way, [Josh] really needed a steady rest, and if it works, you really can’t complain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Wxz-3A79g | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "2189515",
"author": "Jack Powell",
"timestamp": "2014-11-28T15:42:22",
"content": "Very nice, I especially like the electrical box set to catch chips!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "2189647",
"author": "Marcus Aurelius",
... | 1,760,375,987.789815 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/29/recovering-colour-from-pal-tele-recordings/ | Recovering Colo(u)r From PAL Tele-recordings | Brian Benchoff | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"chroma",
"chromadots",
"pal"
] | You will never see every episode of
Doctor Who,
and that’s not because viewing every single episode would require a few months of constant binging. Many of the tapes containing early episodes were destroyed, and of the episodes that still exist, many only live on in tele-recordings, black and white films of the original color broadcast.
Because of the high-resolution of these tele-recordings, there are remnants of the PAL color-coding signal hidden away. [W.A. Steer] has worked on PAL decoding for several years,
and figured if anyone could recover the color from these tele-recordings, he could
.
While the sensors in PAL video cameras are RGB, a PAL television signal is encoded as luminance, Y (R+G+B), U (Y-B), and V (Y-R). The Y is just the black and white picture, and U and V encode the amplitude of two subcarrier signals. These signals are 90 degrees out of phase with each other (thus Phase Alternating Line), and displaying them on a black and white screen reveals a fine pattern of ‘chromadots’ that can be used to extract the color. | 64 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "2194612",
"author": "What the UK",
"timestamp": "2014-11-30T06:13:01",
"content": "Jimmy Savile?He’s a colourful character alrighthttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20026910You stay classy HAD …",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "21952... | 1,760,375,987.89728 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/29/micro-python-now-runs-on-the-esp8266-contributors-wanted-to-get-wifi-working/ | Micro Python Now Runs On The ESP8266 – Contributors Wanted To Get Wifi Working | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"ESP8266",
"micro python"
] | [Damien] sent us a quick email to let us know that Micro Python, a lean and fast implementation of the Python scripting language on microcontrollers is
now running on the ESP8266
. You may remember him from
his interview
on Hackaday, back when Micro Python was still at the crowdfunding stage. His campaign gathered £97k (for a £15k objective) and its comment section let us know that the backers are very happy with what he delivered.
As the very cheap ESP8266 Wifi module is gathering a lot of attention, he implemented support for it. You may use the dedicated files in
the main repository ESP8266 folder
together with
esp-open-sdk
or simply use the precompiled binary available
here
. Unfortunately the software doesn’t have WiFi support yet, as it’s only a Python REPL prompt over UART at the moment. Contributors are therefore welcome to help speed up the development! | 15 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "2194367",
"author": "hack",
"timestamp": "2014-11-30T03:42:27",
"content": "Im about to start a project that uses the esp8266 and was trying to figure out if it made sense to use an MCU and AT commands for the increased IO or move to all SPI peripherals so I could use the SDK, with ... | 1,760,375,988.369975 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/29/l3d-cube-takes-the-work-out-of-building-an-led-cube/ | L3D Cube Takes The Work Out Of Building An LED Cube | Adam Fabio | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"3D cube",
"arduino",
"L3D cube",
"LED cube",
"Spark Core"
] | Building an LED cube usually means a heck of a lot of delicate soldering work. Bending jigs, assembly jigs, and lots of patience are the name of the game. The problem multiplies if you want to build with RGB LEDs. [Shawn and Alex] are hoping to change all that with their
L3D cube
. Yes, L3D is a Kickstarter campaign, but it has enough good things about it that we’re comfortable featuring it here on Hackaday. What [Shawn and Alex] have done is substitute WS2812b surface mount LEDs for the 5mm or 3mm through hole LEDs commonly used in cubes. The downside is that the cube is no longer visible on all sides. The upside is that it becomes a snap to assemble.
The L3D cube is open source hardware. The source files are available from separate
software
and
hardware
Github repositories. Not next week, not when they hit their funding goal, but now. We seriously like this, and hope all crowdfunding campaigns go this route.
The L3D cube uses an open source
Spark Core
as its processor and WiFi interface. Using WS2812b’s means less I/O pins, and no LED driver chips needed. This makes it perfect for a board like Spark or Arduino. On the software side, the team has created a
Processing Library
which makes it easy to create animations with no coding necessary.
L3D has all the features one would expect from an LED cube – a microphone for ambient sound visualizations, and lots of built in animations. It seems [Shawn and Alex] have also created some sort of synchronization system while allows multiple cubes to work together when stacked. The team is hoping someone will come up with a 3D printed light diffuser to make these cubes truly a 360 degree experience.
The L3D cube campaign is doing well, [Shawn and Alex] are close to doubling their $38,000 goal. Click past the break to check out their Kickstarter video!
https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/1475318/video-469625-h264_high.mp4 | 29 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "2193918",
"author": "mik",
"timestamp": "2014-11-30T00:07:16",
"content": "woot. I like that the new hackaday tells me where to buy things instead of how to make them.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2193952",
"author... | 1,760,375,988.053558 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/29/the-zork-virtual-machine-implemented-in-hardware/ | The Zork Virtual Machine Implemented In Hardware | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks",
"FPGA"
] | [
"fpga",
"infocom",
"text adventure",
"text adventure game",
"virtual machine",
"z-machine"
] | Zork
,
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
, and all the other Infocom text adventures are much more clever than the appear at first glance. They actually run on a virtual machine, with all the code for the game files squirreled away in the Z-machine format. This is great if you’re writing a game for a dozen platforms; once you have an interpreter running on one system, the entire library of games can be shipped out the door.
While the Z-machine has been ported to all the retrocomputers you can imagine and a few different brands of microcontrollers, no one has yet implemented the Z-machine in hardware. There’s a reason for this: it’s crazy. Nevertheless,
[Charlie] managed to implement the Z-machine in an FPGA
, using only a few extra commands for driving a display.
The circuit is constructed with a $10 eBay special FPGA, the Cyclone II EP2C5. Other than that, it’s just some Flash, some RAM, a display, and a whole lot of wire.
The standard Z-machine spec is followed
, version 3 specifically, meaning this text adventure on a chip can run nearly every Infocom game ever written. The most popular ones, at least.
This isn’t [Charlie]’s first time in the ring with the Infocom Z-machine.
He ported the Z-machine to a freakin’ pen a few years ago
.
You can check out [Charlie]’s video demo below. Because there was a bit of extra space in the FPGA, [Charlie] managed to put a Mandelbrot implementation and
Space Invaders
in as an easter egg. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "2193603",
"author": "Jeff Bush",
"timestamp": "2014-11-29T21:21:30",
"content": "I think almost everybody who starts hacking on FPGA processors thinks at some point “I’ll make a hardware Z-Machine.” However, they run out of steam pretty quickly after realizing how many addressing m... | 1,760,375,988.258321 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/29/articam-interfaces-game-boy-camera-with-ti-calculators/ | ArTICam Interfaces Game Boy Camera With TI Calculators | Adam Fabio | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"classic hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"calculator",
"camera",
"game boy",
"game boy camera",
"gameboy",
"ti-84",
"TiCalc"
] | [Christopher Mitchell] has given Texas Instruments calculators the ability to capture images through a Game Boy Camera with
ArTICam
. First introduced in 1998,
The Game Boy Camera
was one of the first low-cost digital cameras available to consumers. Since then it has found its way into quite a few projects, including
this early Atmel AT90 based hack
, and
this Morse code transceiver
.
TI calculators don’t include a Game Boy cartridge slot, so [Christopher] used an Arduino Uno to interface the two. He built upon the
Arduino-TI Calculator Linking (ArTICL) Library
to create ArTICam. Getting the Arduino to talk with the Game Boy Camera’s M64282FP image sensor turned out to be easy, as there already are
code examples available.
The interface between the camera sensor and the Arduino is simple enough. 6 digital lines for an oddball serial interface, one analog sense line, power and ground. [Christopher] used a shield to solder everything up, but says you can easily get away with wiring directly the Arduino Uno’s I/O pins. The system is compatible with the TI-83 Plus and TI-84 Plus family of calculators. Grabbing an image is as simple as calling GetCalc(Pic1) from your calculator program.
So, If you have an old calculator lying around, give it a try to enjoy some 128×123-pixel grayscale goodness! | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "2193255",
"author": "Jimmy_pop",
"timestamp": "2014-11-29T18:16:07",
"content": "this is great new for me because I have two GB cameras I bought some 10 years ago waiting for me to do something useful out of them. Long life to this man.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"... | 1,760,375,988.306943 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/29/a-staple-gun-caulking-gun-and-four-barrel-shotgun/ | A Staple Gun, Caulking Gun, And Four-Barrel Shotgun | Brian Benchoff | [
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"caulk gun",
"caulking gun",
"gun",
"rifled barrel",
"rifling tool",
"shotgun",
"Staple gun",
"weapon"
] | In its native form, [Clint]’s K-441 is a caulking gun, able to apply silicones, resins, and liquid rubber from a reservoir with compressed air. It’s accurate, powerful, has a huge capacity, and looks strangely steampunk, even for caulking gun standards.
This isn’t any normal caulking gun
; this device was made from a staple gun. Oh, it also fires shotgun shells with the help of four rifled barrels.
This device that shoots lead, steel, and glue started
off its life as an ordinary staple gun
, with the usual 23lb pull you’ll find on these guns. By adding a few plates, hand-winding a spring, and milling a few parts, [Clint Westwood] turned this staple gun into a device that would shoot a single .410 bore shell. A practice round as far as shotguns go, but still a serious amount of punch.
With the idea of a shotgun from a staple gun on a roll, [Clint] continued the build by adding several more barrels, each of which are rifled.
The barrel rifling tool is a hack unto itself
, starting off with a steel rod, wrapped around a larger pipe and tacked into place. A drill bit was attached to this auger-like device, the barrel was mounted in a jig, and the cutter was slowly moved up and down the barrel. The results are impressive for something that was probably made with equipment from Harbor Freight, and with a little cleanup, [Clint] had a quartet of rifled barrels.
In its final shotgun form
, the K-441 holds four .410 shells loaded up with birdshot or slugs. The barrel indexing is done manually, but this device
does
have a safety, so it has that going for it, I guess.
Videos below, and as with all our weapons builds, you’re welcome to complain in the comments about how fat and/or stupid Americans are, or how Satan himself could not come up with a device of such concentrated evil. You’re also welcome to ignore these comments. Guess which one we’re suggesting? | 51 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "2192845",
"author": "steve.eh",
"timestamp": "2014-11-29T15:04:42",
"content": "sweet spawn of Satan, nice build",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2193121",
"author": "r4k",
"timestamp": "2014-11-29T17:12:13",
... | 1,760,375,988.682124 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/29/frappe-coffee-robot-offers-automated-pic-me-up/ | Frappé Coffee Robot Offers Automated PIC-Me-Up | Kristina Panos | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"beverage robot",
"coffee robot",
"cold coffee",
"frappé",
"iced coffee",
"pic",
"PIC16F1937"
] | Although [Giorgos Lazaridis] has graced Hackaday several times, we’ve never covered
the build of his frappé machine
which reader [Jim] encountered after searching for information about the PIC16F1937. His site shows the build as in-progress, but he definitely has a working prototype here, and it’s definitely awesome.
Frappé coffee is made by mixing spray-dried instant coffee, a small amount of cold water, and sugar to taste in a manual shaker or a milkshake machine that uses a single beater. More water and/or milk is added as desired to top off the glass. The method was invented by accident in Thessaloniki, Greece, and has become quite popular.
In addition to sixteen pages of detailed build logs, [Giorgos] shot videos that demonstrate each of the modules that make up the machine. The operator puts a glass in a holder attached to a turntable. It moves first to the coffee and sugar dispenser, which fall through the same easily removable funnel. The next stop combines the add-water-and-beat steps beautifully. A length of hose strapped to the beater’s housing dispenses the initial cold water base. Then, the beater lowers automatically to beat the mixture. After mixing, the beater is drawn back up an inch or so, and more water is dispensed to rinse it off. Then the beater is fully withdrawn and the glass is filled the rest of the way. The final stop for the frappé is essential to the process: a bendy straw must be added. This is vitally important, and [Giorgos] handles it admirably with a stinger that shoots a straw into the glass.
[Giorgos]’s coffee robot is built around a PIC16F1937. He rolled his own PCB for the motherboard and each of the machine’s modules. There is a lot of logistical ingenuity going on in this project, and [Giorgos]’ build logs convey it all very well. Be sure to check out [Giorgos]’ machine in action after the break. The full set of eight videos that shows each module and culminates in the one below is well worth your time.
[Thanks, Jim] | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "2192848",
"author": "zed",
"timestamp": "2014-11-29T15:05:13",
"content": "Ο Βακόνδιος θα δάκρυζε τώρα.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "2193009",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2014-11-29T16:24:58",
"content": "Φρά... | 1,760,375,988.422989 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/28/a-breakout-board-for-the-esp8266-03/ | A Breakout Board For The ESP8266-03 | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"breakout board",
"ESP8266",
"limpkin"
] | In the last few weeks we have been seeing a lot of ESP8266 based projects. Given this WiFi module is only $3 on Ebay it surely makes sense using it as an Internet of Things (IoT) platform. To facilitate their prototyping stage I designed a
breakout board for it
.
The board shown above includes a 3.3V 1A LDO, a genuine FT230x USB to UART adapter, a button to make the ESP8266 jump into its bootloader mode and a header where you can find all the soldered-on-board module IOs. One resistor can be removed to allow 3.3V current measurement, another can be populated to let the FT230X start the bootloader jumping procedure. All the IOs have 1k current limiting resistors to prevent possible short-circuit mistakes. Finally, the board deliberately doesn’t use any through hole components so you may put double-sided tape on its back to attach it anywhere you want. As usual, all the source files can be download from my website. | 32 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "2189056",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2014-11-28T12:07:58",
"content": "$30.00 really?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2189063",
"author": "Mathieu Stephan",
"timestamp": "2014-11-28T12:11:27",
"cont... | 1,760,375,988.49934 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/28/augmented-reality-pinball/ | Augmented Reality Pinball | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"augmented reality",
"CV",
"opencv",
"pinball",
"projector",
"whiteboard"
] | Pinball machines are fascinating pieces of mechanical and electrical engineering, and now [Yair Moshe] and his students at the Israel Institute of Technology has taken the classic game one step further. Using computer vision and a projector, this group of engineers has created an
augmented reality pinball game
that takes pinball to a whole new level.
Once the laptop, webcam, and projector are set up, a course is drawn on a whiteboard which the computer “sees” to determine the rules of the game. Any course you can imagine can be drawn on the whiteboard too, with an interesting set of rules that no regular pinball game could take advantage of. Most notably, the ball can change size when it hits certain types of objects, which makes for a very interesting and unconventional style of play.
The player uses their hands to control the flippers as well, but not with buttons. The computer watches the position of the player’s hands and flips the flippers when it sees a hand in the right position. [Yair] and his students recently showed this project off at
DLD Tel Aviv
and even got [Shimon Perez], former President of Israel, to play some pinball at the conference! | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "2189329",
"author": "Dougmsbbs",
"timestamp": "2014-11-28T14:09:21",
"content": "Nice! Love it. Think I might have to play with something like this myself. Well done!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,375,988.535612 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/11/27/analog-instagram/ | Analog Instagram | Brian Benchoff | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"digital camera",
"lomography",
"polaroid",
"SnapJet"
] | Several decades ago, the all the punks and artsy types had terrible lenses with terrible camera that leaked light everywhere. Film was crap, and thus was born the fascinating world of
Lomography
, with effects and light leaks unique to individual cameras. Now, everyone has a smartphone with high-resolution sensors, great lenses, and Instagram to replicate the warm look of filters, light leaks, and other ‘artististic’ photographic techniques. The new version of this photography is purely in the digital domain, and wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to make your digital selfies analog once again?
The SnapJet team has your back
.
Instead of adding filters and other digital modifications to smartphone snaps, the SnapJet prints pictures onto Polaroid film. Yes, you can still buy this film, and yes, it’s exactly how you remember it. By putting a smartphone down on the SnapJet, you’ll only need to press a button, wait for the film to be exposed, dispensed, and developed. What comes out of the SnapJet is an analog reproduction of whatever is displayed on your phone’s screen, with all the digital filters you can imagine and the option to modify the photos in the analog domain; eac Polaroid can be turned into a transparency, with backlit LEDs being an obvious application:
The current prototype of the SnapJet is an interesting exercise in sourcing components – the guts of the mechanism is torn from a Fuji instant camera. The version the team is working on will completely remake the mechanism, and release it as open source. Yes, this is a completely new mechanism for film that hasn’t changed in a few decades. It’s impressive work, and we can’t wait to see the finished version. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "2188188",
"author": "Paul Klemstine",
"timestamp": "2014-11-28T06:10:06",
"content": "How do you suppose they made the animated picture frame?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "2188796",
"author": "gppk",
"timest... | 1,760,375,988.588135 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.