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/2014/08/21/smt-and-thru-hole-desoldering/ | SMT And Thru-Hole Desoldering | Bil Herd | [
"Featured",
"hardware",
"how-to",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"bil herd",
"desolder",
"hot air",
"ir",
"pcb",
"reoair",
"rework",
"smd",
"smt",
"solder"
] | My introduction to electronic manufacturing was as a production technician at Pennsylvania Scale Company in Leola PA in the early 1980’s. I learned that to work on what I wanted to work on I had to get my assigned duties done by noon or thereabouts. The most important lesson I had learned as a TV repairman, other than not to chew on the high voltage cable, was to use your eyes first. I would take a box of bad PCB’s that were essentially 6502 based computers that could count and weigh, and first go through inspecting them; usually the contents were reduced 50% right off by doing this. Then it was a race to identify and fix the remaining units and to keep my pace up I had to
do my own desoldering
.
Desoldering with IR System
It worked like this; you could set units aside with instructions and the production people would at some point go through changing components etc. for you or you could desolder yourself. I was pretty good at hand de-soldering 28 and 40 pin chips using a venerable Soldapulit manual solder sucker (as they were known). But to really cook I would wait for a moment when the production de-soldering machine was available. There was one simple rule for using the desoldering station: clean it when done! Failure to do so would result in your access to the station being suspended and then you might also incur the “wrath of production” which was not limited to your lunch bag being found frozen solid or your chair soaked in defluxing chemicals.
One thing was that I could never afford was an automatic de-soldering station… until now. I have found that there is a wide assortment of stations available from overseas and through eBay that mimic their production quality brethren and I demonstrate here a vacuum based desoldering station, an Infrared Heat based station, and some other tools such as hot air and desoldering tweezers.
Vacuum Desoldering
Automatic Desoldering Station utilizes a vacuum to remove solder.
The vacuum based through-hole desoldering station consisted of a soldering iron with a hollow tip and body which leads to a glass tube capped by a filer at one end which is also the end the vacuum is applied to. The trick is to heat up the whole solder joint (I use an ample amount of flux to assist) and then start the vacuum by pulling the trigger. During this time I am also wiggling the soldering iron tip in order to break the component pin free from the wall of the hole or plate-through. Done correctly both the PCB and the component being removed are reusable.
Infrared Desoldering
The infrared based system, referred to as an Infrared Welder by the manufacturer, can ultimately heat a smaller area to a hotter temperature than hot air, or so I believe. To mask off the surrounding area for hot air you need to keep your airflow low and redirect it away from the rest of the PCB. To redirect Infrared you use the reflective properties of aluminum foil. It’s then mostly a matter of firing up the fume fan and having the patience to wait for the direct heat to do the job. Again a judicious use of flux helps.
IR Desolder System for removing larger SMD
Hot Air Desoldering
Hot Air is similar in that flux helps, fumes and smoke may be present and you have to have the patience to wait for the part to come fully loose — half loose doesn’t cut it. To this end I recommend a hot air holder, a fume fan and an egg timer. If you don’t have an egg timer I am sure there is an app for that somewhere.
Desoldering SMT with Chip Quik
Desoldering with Chip Quik and an iron
I have found The quickest way to desolder SMT without investing in any of this equipment is to use a product like
Chip Quik
which lowers the melting point of the solder metal when mixed with it as it allows a soldering iron to melt the entire chip’s footprint simultaneously allowing it to be removed.
Solder Sucker, Solder Wick, Chip Quik
Desoldering Tweezers
Finally the tweezers. You don’t need these… I certainly didn’t. But what the heck, there is a certain cleanliness of motion that when removing a part with two pins to use what essentially is two soldering irons. Oh yeah… lots of flux first.
Desoldering Tweezers
Back to the story: Four years later I had worked my way up to being one of the lead design engineers at the best home computer company of its day. We had hard deadlines like the CES show in Las Vegas which would inevitably occur while we still had 3% of the product to finish. It’s a safe bet that being able to de-solder quickly and more importantly
without damaging
prototype chips and boards that were irreplaceable, was an indispensable skill at 2:00AM when any technician in their right mind would be home in bed instead of pulling chips for the engineer whose bed was an air mattress in his office. We never missed a CES. | 67 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1737072",
"author": "pcf11",
"timestamp": "2014-08-21T15:06:58",
"content": "The biggest mistake I see rookies make when they are desoldering is they act like there is some kind of prize awarded if they can manage to take burnt out components out whole, and intact. That stuff is gar... | 1,760,376,095.600668 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/21/when-worlds-collide-68008-bootstrapped-by-an-arduino-uno/ | When Worlds Collide: 68008 Bootstrapped By An Arduino Uno | Adam Fabio | [
"classic hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"68000",
"68008",
"68k",
"arduino",
"breadboard",
"microprocessor",
"retrocomputer"
] | [Peter Bjornx] brings classic microprocessors and modern microcontrollers together with his
Arduino bootstrapped 68008 computer
. The Motorola 68008 is the 8-bit external bus version of the well-known
68000 (or 68k) microprocessor
. A friend gave [Peter] one of these chips, so he built a simple computer around it.
This isn’t one of those clean retrocomputers with every connection carefully planned out and wire wrapped. [Peter’s] created a true hack – a working 68k system on a breadboard created with whatever he had on hand at the time. The real gem of this system is the ROM. [Peter] replaced an EPROM chip with an Arduino.
In the not-so-good-old-days, microprocessors (and many microcontrollers) ran from an external ROM chip. This often was a UV-erasable EPROM. Carefully compiled code was burned into the EPROM with a device programmer. If the code wasn’t perfect, the EPROM had to be pulled and placed under a UV lamp for 20 minutes or so to erase it before it was time to try again. EPROM emulators were available, but they were way too expensive for the hobbyist.
Thankfully those days are far behind us now with the advent of EEPROM and then Flash. [Peter] didn’t want to revisit the past either, so he wrote a simple Arduino sketch which allowed it to act as an EPROM emulator, including address logging via the serial port.
The design still caused [Peter] some headaches, though. His major problem was a classic 68k issue, /DTACK timing. /DTACK or Data Transfer Acknowledge is one of several bus control signals used by the 68k. When the 68k performs a read from the data bus, it waits for /DTACK before it transfers data. The Arduino was too slow to release /DTACK in this case, which caused the 68k to think every read was immediately completed. There is a much clearer explanation of the 68k bus cycles
on this Big Mess O Wires page
. [Peter’s] solution was simple – a D flip-flop connected to the address strobe took care of the timing issues.
It took quite a bit of tinkering, but the system eventually worked. Peter was able to run the 68008 from its reset vector into a simple loop using the Arduino. It’s only fitting that the 68k program loaded by the Arduino was an LED blinker, everyone’s favorite hardware Hello World.
Thanks [Robert!] | 23 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1736528",
"author": "jcwren",
"timestamp": "2014-08-21T11:04:16",
"content": "Not that it changes it’s HaD worthiness, but I’d consider this a kludge, not a hack. You’re not really repurposing anything for which it wasn’t intended.(Yeah, semantics, I know. You can call a spade a spa... | 1,760,376,095.233319 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/21/from-broken-laptop-screen-to-portable-light-table/ | From Broken Laptop Screen To Portable Light Table | James Hobson | [
"laptops hacks"
] | [
"diy light table",
"laptop backlight",
"laptop light table",
"portable light screen"
] | If you’re like most of us here at Hack a Day, you probably shudder at the amount of e-waste that gets thrown out — here’s a clever way to
make some good use out of a broken laptop screen!
[Victor] recently received a broken laptop from a friend, and as it turned out, only the LCD was broken. It’s old though so he didn’t want to buy a new screen for it. Instead he chopped it in half and used the functioning half as a media HTPC for his TV. He was about to trash the screen when he had an idea — the LCD was busted, but the back light wasn’t!
He carefully took apart the screen and removed the LCD portion, making sure to leave the back-light and various filters in place. The tricky part is getting the back light to work, and even that’s not too difficult. Depending on your donor laptop it may be an LED or CCFL back light — if it’s LED, it’s pretty simple, if it’s CCFL, you’ll have to figure out how to power the inverter board to get it to work. [Victor] reverse-engineered his and found a schematic for the inverter online, throwing together a little circuit to give it power — he even added a potentiometer to have variable brightness!
Once you have it powered on, you’ll need a piece of glass to replace the LCD in its case so it sits right — [Victor] bought some from a local glass store to match the dimensions — now he has a portable light table for sketching!
And if you’re looking for an even bigger light table…
save a flat screen TV from the garbage! | 16 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1736222",
"author": "phlt",
"timestamp": "2014-08-21T08:53:09",
"content": "Great thing for technical drawing when you have to do it by hand (probably only while studying ;] )",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1736403",
"autho... | 1,760,376,095.351344 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/20/axis-glove-that-controls-a-robot/ | Axis Glove That Controls A Robot | Matt Terndrup | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"drones",
"power glove",
"temperature sensor",
"ultrasonic rangefinder"
] | This homemade glove and gesture controlled rover
was created by [electro18]. It can send temperature, battery level, and object distance to the LCD panel on the wrist. Instead of a typical joystick, this wireless system taps into an embedded accelerometer to maneuver the robot like magic.
The main chassis platform is made of clear acrylic and has additional acrylic strips fixed to the edges for additional strength. A LM35 temperature sensor is wired to the front that monitors the environments that the rover explores. An HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Rangefinder acts as the eyes of the machine. The photodiode is covered with an adaptation of a 6mm heat shrink tube to avoid false readings. Once hooked up and turned on, the robot can be controlled with the futuristic power glove consisting of two parts. An accelerometer strap and a display strap are the biggest parts. The project shows that it is relatively easy to make a system like this. Other items like quadcopters and tiny water boats could be controlled with a similar type of setup.
A video of the axis glove maneuvering the vehicle on a slope can be seen after the break: | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1735742",
"author": "jiananli",
"timestamp": "2014-08-21T05:50:38",
"content": "Reminds me of this:http://www.jeremyblum.com/portfolio/sudoglove-hardware-controller/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1736670",
"author": "garym... | 1,760,376,095.000905 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/20/a-hackable-hi-fi-audio-dsp/ | A Hackable Hi-Fi Audio DSP | Eric Evenchick | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"adau1701",
"adc",
"crossover",
"dac",
"dsp",
"SigmaDSP",
"SigmaStudio",
"speakers"
] | Audiophiles tend to put analog systems on a pedestal. Analog systems can provide great audio performance, but they tend to be quite costly. They’re also hard to tinker with, since modifying parameters involves replacing components. To address this, [tshen2] designed the
DSP 01
.
The DSP 01 is based around the Analog Devices
ADAU1701
. This DSP chip includes two ADCs for audio input, and four DACs for audio output. These can be controlled by the built in DSP processor core, which has I/O for switches, buttons, and knobs.
[tshen2]’s main goal with the DSP 01 was to implement an
audio crossover
. This device takes an input audio signal and splits it up based on frequency so that subwoofers get the low frequency components and tweeters get the higher frequency components. This is critical for good audio performance since drivers can only perform well in a certain part of the audio spectrum.
Analog Devices provides
SigmaStudio
, a free tool that lets you program the DSP using a drag-and-drop interface. By dropping a few components in and programming to EEPROM, the DSP can be easily reconfigured for a variety of applications. | 31 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1735365",
"author": "Tverka Likus",
"timestamp": "2014-08-21T03:48:15",
"content": "Eh. Not a hack.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1735499",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "2014-08-21T04:32:13",
"conten... | 1,760,376,095.299495 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/20/hackerspace-tour-syn-shop-las-vegas/ | Hackerspace Tour: Syn Shop, Las Vegas | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"hackerspace",
"hackerspace tours",
"las vegas",
"Syn Shop"
] | While we were at DEFCON, we had the chance to visit a few places in the area that are of interest to the Hackaday readership. We made it over to
Syn Shop
, the Las Vegas hackerspace.
Years ago, this area of town was home to the Greyhound bus depot, complete with all the adventures associated with that. Since then, Zappos set up their HQ nearby, massive amounts of money flowed in, and gentrification got a big thumbs up from the decaying casinos in the area. Syn Shop is just down the street from the Denny’s
with a bar
and the twelve story tall slot machine with a zip line, making this space perfect for the community outreach that is lacking in so many other hackerspaces. In the hour or so I was there, no fewer than two groups of people took a gander through the plate glass asking themselves if this was ‘one of those makerspaces or something’. It’s a far cry from hackerspaces found tucked away in business parks, and something that has worked well for the members of the shop.
[Andrew Bogerri] took me around the space, first showing off the PDP-11/23 which you can drive around with a remote control. Yes, it works. No, not Unix. Yes, the entire stack
should
weigh about 500 pounds, but the guts of the RL02 drives were replaced with something considerably more modern. Just think of it as a 200 pound remote control car, with the momentum that goes along with that.
Syn Shop has a huge space for classes, and the tutors to go along with it. Classes range from CAM design and CNC operation, to tutorials on how to use the huge ShopBot in the space. There’s also a craft night, plenty of help available for running the laser cutter, and enough electronics paraphernalia to work on anything in the sub-Gigahertz range.
Even though most of the Syn Shop members were away at the Rio getting geared up for the con when I went through, you could still tell the space is constantly buzzing with energy and spurious emissions. I caught up with a few of the other regular members at the Hardware Hacking village at the con, but that’s a subject for another post.
Pics below. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1734808",
"author": "charliex",
"timestamp": "2014-08-20T23:47:49",
"content": "neato – such a clean shop!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1734823",
"author": "true",
"timestamp": "2014-08-20T23:57:32",
... | 1,760,376,095.174039 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/20/biometric-secured-golfcart-allows-for-keyless-start/ | Biometric Secured Golfcart Allows For Keyless Start | James Hobson | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"attiny",
"attiny85",
"biometric golfcart",
"biometrics",
"finger print scanner",
"finger print secured vehicle",
"fingerprint scanner",
"GT511-C1",
"GT511C1"
] | Who uses keys these days, really? Introducing the world’s first(?)
biometric secured golf cart.
Gives “push to start” a whole new meaning!
[Ramicaza] lives in a small community where many families (including his!) use golf carts to commute short distances, like to the grocery store, or school. Tired of sharing a key between his parents and siblings, [Ramicaza] decided to soup up his ride with a fingerprint sensor allowing for key less start.
He’s using an ATtiny85 and a GT511-C1 finger print sensor from SparkFun. After throwing together a circuit on a breadboard and testing the concept he went straight to a PCB prototype for install in the cart. What we really like is the case he integrated into the golf cart’s dash. It features a flip-up lid which turns the circuit on when it is opened, and off when it is closed to save battery. Scan your finger and a relay triggers the ignition allowing you to drive away.
In case your interested in making your own fingerprint controlled something, [Ramicaza] has also shared his source code over on
GitHub
.
Oh and don’t worry — the original keys still work too. Next up,
a fingerprint secured garage door? | 22 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1734359",
"author": "James S. (@StripeyType)",
"timestamp": "2014-08-20T20:57:51",
"content": "This is a cool hack, with one caveat:As has been hashed over again and again and again, biometrics are excellent for identification, and piss-poor for authentication.We’ve got 10-2-1 on se... | 1,760,376,095.067581 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/20/12-hours-of-hacking/ | 12 Hours Of Hacking | Mike Szczys | [
"Major Tom",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"TheHackadayPrize"
] | If you’re better working under a deadline you should be at your best RIGHT NOW. That timer is counting down the last 12 hours to
enter The Hackaday Prize
. | 20 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1734125",
"author": "ganzuul",
"timestamp": "2014-08-20T19:17:30",
"content": "Faster kittycomp! Render! Render! Render!BTW I’m making my video 2:01 long. :P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1734202",
"author": "Mike Sz... | 1,760,376,095.120443 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/20/speedy-drinkmaker-keeps-party-guests-hydrated/ | Speedy Drinkmaker Keeps Party Guests Hydrated | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"bartender",
"drink",
"drink dispenser"
] | After five weekends of work, [Alex] completed
his automatic drink maker, the RumBot
. What makes this automated bartender different from others is the fact that it is fast. VERY fast. It can serve drinks to five different locations in as little as 3 seconds per drink. By [Alex]’s estimation, this could keep a party of 100 people going without anyone waiting on a drink.
The RumBot can make either of five pre-programmed drinks at varying levels of alcoholic intensity, ranging from 1 (“Virgin”) to 10. And for that extra push over the cliff, you can turn the knob to 11 (“Problem”).
Drink selection itself is handled by a simple digital I/O on an Arduino with a 1950s-styled user interface. The frame is built out of wood and uses 3D Printed plastic parts. It houses a very robust servo on a
belt
screw-driven stage to move the drink nozzle, and special sensors placed at either of the five drink locations detect a cup ready to be filled. Any cup placed at any of the positions will automatically be filled based on the RumBot’s settings at any particular time.
Based on the quality of the build and the increased speed of this automatic drink maker, this should be a huge hit at any party. With all the knobs turned to 11 though, it might be a good idea to
have a breathalyzer on hand
! All of the code and schematics for the project are available at the project site as well. | 23 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1733933",
"author": "Moser Labs",
"timestamp": "2014-08-20T17:36:50",
"content": "that is pretty awesome! …until some drunk-o decided to stick a half full glass under it. Maybe a scale or determining circuitry to determine how much to pour? Also I am curious, does each station se... | 1,760,376,095.494716 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/20/ask-hackaday-floating-to-space/ | Ask Hackaday: Floating To Space | Will Sweatman | [
"Ask Hackaday",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"aerospace",
"high altitude balloon",
"space"
] | On a cool September morning just west of Sturbridge, Massachusetts, a group of MIT students launched a low-budget
high altitude project
that would go on to gain global attention. They revealed to the world that with a small weather balloon, a hacked camera, cheap GPS phone and a little luck, you could get pictures that rival those from the Space Shuttle. Their project set forth a torrent of hackers, students, kids and parents the world over trying to copy their success. Many succeeded.
Others did not
.
At 100,000 feet or about 20 miles up, it’s a brisk 60 degrees below zero. The atmosphere at this height is but a fraction of its density at sea level. Solar radiation rains down like a summer squall, and the view is just short of
breathtaking
. It seems so agonizingly close to space that you could just reach out and touch it. That one could almost float right on up into orbit.
Sound impossible? Think again. A little known volunteer based company operating out of California is trying to do just this.
[JP’s] Big Idea
Meet
JP Aerospace
, America’s
other
space program, as [
John Powell
] likes to say. They’ve been doing professional high altitude balloon experiments for years. Their wildly successful “
Pong Sat
” program has allowed students all over the country to hitch a ride on one of their balloons, which carries their ping pong ball sized experiment to near space.
But we’re not here to talk about
near space
. We’re going to talk about their ambitious Airship to Orbit program, which uses balloons to reach orbit. That’s right, balloons. It works something like this:
Stage 1
– An atmospheric airship flies from the surface to 140,000 feet. It uses buoyancy and aerodynamic lift to get there.
Stage 2
– There is a two mile wide permanent floating space station at that altitude called The Dark Sky Station, or DSS.
Stage 3
– Docked with the DSS is a spaceship called The Ascender. It’s a mile long and constructed at the DSS. It uses buoyancy to get to 200,000 feet. Then it fires its electric engines to slowly reach orbital velocity. Slowly, as in about 9 days slowly.
Now, before you think we’ve lost our transistors, know that
this is real
(pdf warning). They even made a
video
of the concept! They’ve been researching this idea for decades, and have hundreds of high altitude experiments under their belt. Our job is to discuss two things:
A) Practicality. What’s possible and what is not.
B) Scalability. Would the idea work for smaller craft that a couple of hackers can make?
Stage 1 – The Airship
A) Practicality
–
The real idea here is changing the shape and material of a basic high altitude balloon to give it some lift and make it steerable. A test vehicle called
The Tandem
tested some basic propellers at high altitude, which worked. But 140,000 feet? Can you get a high altitude airship that high?
B) Scalability
–
Consider a typical 1000 gram high altitude balloon project. Is it possible to take that helium and instead of putting it in a latex balloon, put it into a fixed shape object, such as a
Mylar constructed
“mini airship” , leaving room for the helium to expand without changing the shape of the craft? Could such an object obtain high altitude? How high? What shape would you use to take advantage of lift? What kind of propulsion would you use, if any?
Stage 2 – The Dark Sky Station
A) Practicality
–
Keeping a high altitude balloon at a specific altitude has been done before. NASA has developed what is known as a
Super Pressure Balloon
, which can stay put in the upper atmosphere for long periods of time. Is there any reason why this could not be done on such a large scale?
B) Scalability
–
It would seem feasible to take a typical 1000 gram balloon and equip it with a venting system to keep it at altitude. Google has even
toyed with the idea
to get internet access to remote locations, and
has seen some amazing results
. The problem is, the latex and mylar will slowly lose helium, and you will get large swings in altitude between night and day. How would you keep a small high altitude balloon at a fixed altitude for an extended period of time?
Stage 3 – The Ascender
A) Practicality
–
It’s a mile long. How do you keep a mile long balloon craft rigid without it weighing too much? They’ve made headway with
generators
using model rocket
engines
. But the thing’s a
mile long
!
B) Scalability
–
Going back to our Stage 1 mini airship, consider installing a
small ion engine
on it. Use solar power and a small
Van De Graaff generator
for power and… could this really be possible? You would need to supply your own inert gas for the engine and some sort of heat shielding would be necessary. The big questions is – could you propel a small, buoyant craft resting at 100,000 feet to orbital velocity over a long period of time using an ion engine?
“Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?”
– [Robert Browning] | 51 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1733403",
"author": "André Esteves",
"timestamp": "2014-08-20T14:13:26",
"content": "Why not use electric charge at that altitude to pump up the volume of the balloon, like a kind of reverse capacitor, using same charge repulsion on a central electrode and the outer balloon?In the e... | 1,760,376,095.4412 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/20/lost-pla-casting-with-a-little-help-from-your-microwave/ | Lost PLA Casting With A Little Help From Your Microwave | Adam Fabio | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"aluminum",
"casting",
"lost PLA",
"lost wax",
"microwave",
"molding",
"sprue"
] | [Julia and Mason] have been perfecting their
microwave-based lost PLA casting
technique over at
Hackaday.io
. As the name implies, lost PLA is similar to
lost wax casting
techniques.
We’ve covered lost PLA
before, but it always involved forges. [Julia and Mason] have moved the entire process over to a pair of microwaves.
Building on the work of the
FOSScar project
, the pair needed a way to burn the PLA out of a mold with a microwave. The trick is to use a
susceptor
. Susceptors convert the microwave’s RF energy into thermal energy exactly where it is needed. If you’ve ever nuked a hot pocket, the crisping sleeve is lined with susceptor material. After trying several materials, [Julia and Mason] settled on a mixture of silicon carbide, sugar, water, and alcohol for their susceptor.
The actual technique is pretty simple. A part printed in PLA is coated with susceptor. The part is then placed in a mold made of plaster of paris and perlite. The entire mold is cooked in an unmodified household microwave to burn out the PLA.
A second microwave with a top emitter is used to melt down aluminum, which is then poured into the prepared mold. When the metal cools, the mold is broken away to reveal a part ready to be machined.
We think this is a heck of a lot of work for a single part. Sometimes you really need a metal piece, though. Until metal 3D printing becomes cheap enough for everyone to do at home, this will work pretty well. | 45 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1733003",
"author": "Serifus",
"timestamp": "2014-08-20T11:33:29",
"content": "This has me wondering if the entire sprue could be procedurally generated and printed at the same time as the part, and also if the pla could be recovered afterwards, assuming its possible to melt it out ... | 1,760,376,095.799068 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/20/the-chipwhisperer-at-defcon/ | The ChipWhisperer At Defcon | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware",
"Security Hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"clock glitching",
"embedded hardware security",
"security",
"side channel analysis",
"side channel attack"
] | We’ve seen [Colin]’s entry to The Hackaday Prize before. After seeing his lightning talk at Defcon, we had to get an interview with him going over the intricacies of this very impressive piece of hardware.
The ChipWhisperer
is a security and research platform for embedded devices that exploits the fact that all security measures must run on real hardware. If you glitch a clock when a microcontroller is processing an instruction, there’s a good probability
something
will go wrong. If you’re
very
good at what you do, you can simply route around the code that makes up the important bits of a security system. Power analysis is another trick up the ChipWhisperer’s sleeve, analyzing the power consumption of a microcontroller when it’s running a bit of code to glean a little information on the keys required to access the system. It’s black magic and dark arts, but it does work, and it’s a real threat to embedded security that hasn’t had an open source toolset before now.
Before our interview, [Colin] did a few short and sweet demos of the ChipWhisperer. They were extraordinarily simple demos; glitching the clock when a microcontroller was iterating through nested loops resulted in what can only be described as ‘counter weirdness’. More advanced applications of the ChipWhisperer can supposedly break perfectly implemented security, something we’re sure [Colin] is saving for a followup video.
You can check out [Colin]’s 2-minute video for his Hackaday Prize entry below. | 24 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1733034",
"author": "Indyaner",
"timestamp": "2014-08-20T11:50:49",
"content": "I cant watch videos with Brian. I’ve tried it, but he is just trying to hard. The cringe factor is through the roof :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,376,096.390063 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/19/hands-free-recording-looks-silly-but-is-super-effective/ | Hands Free Recording – Looks Silly But Is Super Effective | James Hobson | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"camera goggles",
"SJ4000"
] | While most hackers probably like to claim they’re good at everything,
no one
is good at filming one-handed. Setting up a tripod and adjusting it every shot can be tedious — wouldn’t it be great if you could just
film what you see?
That’s what inspired [Hans de Bruin] to make these camera goggles. He’s using those big old school safety glasses that you can remove the glass lenses from. From there he traced the outline and 3D printed an adapter that would fit snugly in the glasses while holding up a video camera — He’s using a Chinese version of the GoPro called the SJ4000, but it should fit a real one too.
But wait, you’ll get a headache staring into one pixeley LCD screen! [Hans] also added a biconvex optical lens between his eye and the camera – it’s the same kind used in
Google’s Cardboard VR kit
.
Sound like a tool you could use? Head on over to Thingiverse to
grab the files
and print it out! | 16 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1732228",
"author": "twerkalicious",
"timestamp": "2014-08-20T05:25:37",
"content": "That camera sucks ass. Its max resolution is 720p, lame. Also, putting new links below the Prize article makes it look like there are no new articles. Good job.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth":... | 1,760,376,096.100938 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/19/steam-gauge-keeps-track-of-your-internet-usage/ | Steam Gauge Keeps Track Of Your Internet Usage | James Hobson | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"analog gauge",
"pressure gauge hack",
"steam gauge hack"
] | There’s a certain appeal to analog gauges in a vastly digital world. [Ed Konowal] is a Network Operations Supervisor for a school district in Florida — part of his job is to ensure a stable and fast internet connection, so he decided to make
an internet usage gauge for his office.
What we really like about this hack is the fact that [Ed] had no idea how to do it. It’s a simple enough idea, right? Google was his friend and Ed started learning about all kinds of things. Raspberry Pi’s and Arduinos, wireless receiver/transmitters, servos and steppers, Python…
After quite a bit of trial and error, [Ed] eventually settled on a wired design which uses a Raspberry Pi running a Python program to poll the internet bandwidth, which in turn calculates the servo position for the dial and sends that number to the Arduino to move it into position. This repeats every 10 seconds. Pretty cool!
Kind of reminds us of this project to
make custom gauges using a stepper motor breakout board!
[Thank Justin!] | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1731856",
"author": "Silicon Skum",
"timestamp": "2014-08-20T03:28:58",
"content": "Very nice, but this has been done quite a few times. Actually this seems to be a copy of this project called the “Internet Pressure Gauge” from back in 2008.http://handley.org.uk/fzz/?page_id=62Only ... | 1,760,376,096.042467 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/19/faucet-add-on-attempts-to-save-water-by-changing-colors/ | Faucet Add-On Attempts To Save Water By Changing Colors | Matt Terndrup | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"Arduino Uno",
"h2o hackathon",
"liquid flow sensor",
"Lithium-ion battery",
"Neopixels"
] | This augmented water device
was rapidly developed during an
H2O hackathon in Lausanne, Switzerland
. It was built by a software engineer code-named [tamberg]. His creation contained an Arduino Uno, a strip of NeoPixels, a liquid flow sensor, and a tiny lithium-ion battery attached to a cut medical tube that was re-purposed for monitoring water use.
From the looks of it, this project addressed a specific problem and went on to solve it. The initial prototype showed a quick and dirty way to monitor precious water that is literally being flushed down the drain.
To see how the device was made, click the first link posted above for a set of Instructables. Code for the device can be found on
[tamberg]’s bitbucket account
. A demo video of the device being tested on a sink can be seen after the break. | 21 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1731380",
"author": "iojfga",
"timestamp": "2014-08-19T23:14:05",
"content": "Facepalm.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1731391",
"author": "loans",
"timestamp": "2014-08-19T23:19:39",
"content": "What a terrible wri... | 1,760,376,096.27597 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/19/a-mipi-dsi-display-shieldhdmi-adapter/ | A MIPI DSI Display Shield/HDMI Adapter | Mathieu Stephan | [
"FPGA",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"display serial interface",
"fpga",
"hdmi"
] | [Tomasz] tipped us about the well documented
MIPI DSI Display Shield / HDMI Adapter he put on hackaday.io
. The
Display Serial Interface
(DSI) is a high speed packet-based interface for delivering video data to recent LCD/OLED displays. It uses several differential data lanes which frequencies may reach 1 GHz depending on the resolution and frame rate required.
The board explained in the above diagram therefore allows any HDMI content to be played on the DSI-enabled scrap displays you may have lying around. It includes a 32MB DDR memory which serves as a frame buffer, so your “slow” Arduino platform may have enough time to upload the picture you want to display.
The CP2103 does the USB to UART conversion, allowing your computer to configure the display adapter internal settings. The platform is based around the XC6SLX9 Spartan-6 FPGA and all the source code may be downloaded from the
official GitHub repository
, along with the schematics and gerbers. After the break we’ve embedded a demonstration video in which a Raspi drives an iPhone 4 LCD. | 77 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "1730972",
"author": "Backwoods Engineer",
"timestamp": "2014-08-19T20:38:07",
"content": "Adafruit, please begin stocking this NOW.Beats the heck out of PiTFT, which doesn’t even work with the present Raspbian build.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,096.49997 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/19/retrotechtacular-forces-acting-on-an-airfoil/ | Retrotechtacular: Forces Acting On An Airfoil | Kristina Panos | [
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"aerodynamics",
"airfoil",
"atmospheric pressure",
"drag",
"flight",
"lift",
"manometer",
"pressure",
"relative wind",
"thrust"
] | We’ve probably all experimented with a very clear demonstration of the basic principles of lift: if you’re riding in a car and you put your flattened hand out the window at different angles, your hand will rise and fall like an airplane’s wing, or airfoil. This week’s Retrotechtacular explains exactly how flight is possible through the principles of lift and drag. It’s an Army training documentary from 1941 titled “
Aerodynamics: Forces Acting on an Air Foil
“.
What is an airfoil? Contextually speaking, it’s the shape of an airplane’s wing. In the face of pressure differences acting upon their surfaces, airfoils produce a useful aerodynamic reaction, such as the lift that makes flight possible. As the film explains, the ideas of lift and drag are measured against the yardstick of relative wind. The force of this wind on the airfoil changes according to the acute angle formed between the airfoil and the direction of the air flow acting upon it. As you may already know, lift is measured at right angles to the relative wind, and drag occurs parallel to it. Lift is opposed by the weight of the foil, and drag by tension.
Airfoils come in several types of thicknesses and curvatures, and the film shows how a chord is derived from each shape. These chords are used to measure and describe the angle of attack in relation to the relative wind.
The forces that act upon an airfoil are measured in wind tunnels which provide straight and predictable airflow. A model airplane is supported by wires that lead to scales. These scales measure drag as well as front and rear lift.
In experimenting with angles of attack, lift and drag increase toward what is known as the stalling angle. After this point, lift decreases abruptly, and drag takes over. Lift and drag are proportional to the area of the wing, the relative wind velocity squared, and the air density. When a plane is in the air, drag is a retarding force that equals the thrust of the craft, or the propelling force.
Airfoil models are also unit tested in wind tunnels. They are built with small tubes running along many points of the foil that sit just under the surface. The tubes leave the model at a single point and are connected to a bank of manometer tubes. These tubes compare the pressures acting on the airfoil model to the reference point of atmospheric pressure. The different liquid levels in the manometer tubes give clear proof of the pressure values along the airfoil. These levels are photographed and mapped to a pressure curve. Now, a diagram can be made to show the positive and negative pressures relative to the angle of attack.
In closing, we are shown the effects of a dive on lift as an aircraft approaches and reaches terminal velocity, and that lift is attained again by pulling slowly out of the dive. Remember that the next time you fly your hand-plane out the window.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoN-xHiS0fo
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
. | 20 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1730665",
"author": "Vikas V",
"timestamp": "2014-08-19T17:46:53",
"content": "Excellent. A question which has always puzzled me is, how can an aircraft fly upside down if the airfoil shaped wings produce lift in the downward direction! This doco might provide an answer.",
"pare... | 1,760,376,096.334673 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/19/open-source-gpu-released/ | Open Source GPU Released | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"3d graphics",
"fpga",
"gpu",
"graphics",
"graphics card",
"synthesizable"
] | Nearly a year ago, an extremely interesting project hit Kickstarter: an open source GPU, written for an FPGA. For reasons that are obvious in retrospect, the GPL-GPU Kickstarter was not funded, but that doesn’t mean these developers don’t believe in what they’re doing. The first version of this open source graphics processor
has now been released
, giving anyone with an interest a look at what a late-90s era GPU looks like on the inside, If you’re cool enough, there’s also
enough supporting documentation
to build your own.
A quick note for the PC Master Race: this thing
might
run Quake eventually. It’s not a powerhouse. That said, [Bunnie] had a hard time finding an open source GPU for the Novena laptop, and the drivers for the VideoCore IV in the Raspi
have only recently been open sourced
. A completely open GPU simply doesn’t exist, and short of a few very, very limited thesis projects there hasn’t been anything like this before.
Right now, the GPL-GPU has 3D graphics acceleration working with VGA on a PCI bus. The plan is to update this late-90s setup to interfaces that make a little more sense, and add DVI and HDMI output. Not bad for a failed Kickstarter, right? | 25 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1730164",
"author": "jacksonliam",
"timestamp": "2014-08-19T14:38:14",
"content": "Amazing, could be a fairly popular GPU for HTPC if they got ahead of the game with accelerated codecs and it got paired with a fairly decent open CPU core.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,096.638071 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/19/developed-on-hackaday-beta-testers-and-automated-testing/ | Developed On Hackaday: Beta Testers And Automated Testing | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"developed on hackaday",
"limpkin",
"mooltipass",
"password",
"password keeper",
"smart card"
] | At Hackaday we believe that your encrypted vault containing your credentials shouldn’t be on a device running several (untrusted) applications at the same time. This is why many contributors and beta testers from all over the globe are currently working on an offline password keeper, aka
the Mooltipass
.
Today we’re more than happy to report that all of our 20 beta testers started actively testing our device as they received the v0.1 hex file from the development team. Some of them had actually already started a few days before, as they didn’t mind compiling our source files located
on our github repository
and using
our graphics generation tools
. We are therefore expecting (hopefully not) many bug reports and ways to improve our device. To automatize website compatibility testing, our beta tester [Erik] even developed a java based tool that will automatically report non-working pages found inside a user generated list. You may head
here
to watch a demonstration video. | 17 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1729771",
"author": "iiogjio",
"timestamp": "2014-08-19T11:41:59",
"content": "Memorizing 3 passwords (bank account, e-mail and steam) is not hard nor requires a piece of plastic with blue leds.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,376,096.697412 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/19/the-most-basic-basic-computer/ | The Most Basic BASIC Computer | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"ATmega 1284P",
"AVR",
"basic",
"microconroller",
"tiny BASIC"
] | AVR microcontrollers can do pretty much anything nowadays. Blinking LEDs, handling sensor inputs, engine control modules, and now, thanks to [Dan], a
small single chip BASIC computer
with only ten parts (and four of them are capacitors).
[Dan]’s homebrew computer has it all. The ATmega 1284P microcontroller outputs a composite video signal and handles inputs from a PS/2 keyboard. The microcontroller runs at 16 MHz, has 7 kB of memory for programs, and can use a separate EEPROM to store data. It also has an array of GPIO pins for interacting with the physical world.
For software, the microcontroller runs a version of BASIC called
Tiny BASIC
plus, which is a stripped-down language that can fit in 3 kB of memory. This is crucial if you’re in the 1970s or if you’re programming on an AVR microcontroller in the 21st century.
We’ve seen other Arduinos and
AVR-type microcontrollers that can run BASIC
, but this one has a great form factor and clean look. It’s also a great way to get familiar with homebrew computing and the BASIC programming language! | 38 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "1729441",
"author": "James Shield",
"timestamp": "2014-08-19T08:19:38",
"content": "Me thinks you may want to check that 10 components number.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1729531",
"author": "nyder",
"times... | 1,760,376,096.57325 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/18/an-auto-leveling-gyro-camera-for-motorcycle-enthusiasts/ | An Auto-Leveling Gyro Camera For Motorcycle Enthusiasts | Matt Terndrup | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"Arduino Uno",
"digital servo",
"gyrocam",
"triple axis accelerometer"
] | [Saftari] was inspired by the technology used to capture video in the MotoGP World Championship races to create these
instructables on how to build an auto-leveling Gyro camera
. The setup he developed maintains the camera at a consistent level perpendicular to the earth no matter how much the motorcycle angles against the ground when turning.
The components involved include an Arduino Uno, a Triple Axis Accelerometer, a digital servo, and a Gyro breakout board. A bracket was built to house and secure the camera to the side of the vehicle. 2mm acrylic was used for this and was bent by heating up the material. Once complete, test runs were completed showcasing the capabilities of this type of Do-It-Yourself rig.
The quality of the video after the break is a little bit blurry, but it proves the point that a Gyro camera setup can be built at home: | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1729314",
"author": "Gerneral Zhao",
"timestamp": "2014-08-19T07:18:35",
"content": "Hate to break it to you, but that’s not a motorbike. It’s a hair dryer :P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1729515",
"author": "BlackEternit... | 1,760,376,096.749396 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/18/beach-buddy-is-a-boombox-phone-charger-and-sunburn-warner/ | Beach Buddy Is A Boombox, Phone Charger, And Sunburn Warner | Marsh | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"digital audio hacks",
"Solar Hacks"
] | [
"custom enclosure",
"MintyBoost",
"portable",
"solar",
"solar charge",
"solar charger",
"spf",
"spf rating",
"uv"
] | When you venture out onto the beach for a day in the sun, you’re probably not preoccupied with remembering the specifics about your sunscreen’s SPF rating—if you even remembered to apply any. [starwisher] suffered a nasty sunburn after baking in the sunlight beyond her sunscreen’s limits. To prevent future suffering,
she developed The Beach Buddy
: a portable stereo and phone charger with a handy sunburn calculator to warn you the next time the sun is turning you into barbecue.
After telling the Beach Buddy your
skin type
and your sunscreen’s SPF rating, a UV sensor takes a reading and an Arduino does a
quick calculation
that determines how long until you should reapply your sunscreen. Who wants to lug around a boring warning box, though?
[starwisher] went to the trouble of crafting a truly useful all-in-one device by modifying
this stereo
and
this charger
to fit together in a sleek custom acrylic enclosure. There’s a switch to activate each function—timer, charger, stereo—a slot on the side to house your phone, and an LCD with some accompanying buttons for setting up the UV timer. You can check out a demo of all the Beach Buddy’s features in a video below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZhkwpgfkVA
[via
Dangerous Prototypes
] | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1728893",
"author": "Zain Munad",
"timestamp": "2014-08-19T03:56:04",
"content": "Hey guys we should make an app where you scan the barcode of the sunscreen on your phone and then it automatically warns you when there is a danger of sunburn happening.",
"parent_id": null,
"d... | 1,760,376,096.79502 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/18/the-remaining-hours-are-more-than-enough-to-get-in-the-game/ | The Remaining Hours Are More Than Enough To Get In The Game | Mike Szczys | [
"News",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"TheHackadayPrize"
] | Whether you’re just finding out now or are a procrastination ninja, it is
not
too late to give yourself a shot at winning that trip to space.
The Hackaday Prize is really just getting started
. At 11:50pm Wednesday night ( that’s PDT on 8/20/14, or 06:50 GMT on Aug 21) we close the entry window and the build phases will begin. That’s right, you don’t actually need to have any hardware done, you only need to document your idea and how you’re going to get there.
Close your eyes and assemble your vision of a connected device. Now open them and start typing. You need to share your overall idea and how you’re going to get there. Draw out a basic system design, and film a video of 2 minutes or less that explains it all. Think this sounds like a lot? You’re wrong…
I did it in only a few minutes
.
When will you have such a great opportunity to win something awesome and secure the adoration of the hacking masses? Enter now and have no regrets! | 70 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1727797",
"author": "Hans Peter",
"timestamp": "2014-08-18T20:13:11",
"content": "How does this hold up with the requirement of the 4 project logs?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1727818",
"author": "Ben Delarre",
... | 1,760,376,097.109386 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/18/the-hema-imager-accessible-thermal-imaging-for-smart-devices/ | The Hema-Imager: Accessible Thermal Imaging For Smart Devices | Matt Terndrup | [
"Crowd Funding"
] | [
"kickstarter",
"thermal imaging camera"
] | [Erik] began working on this project a few years back to help him improve his electronics skills. Now, after meeting an electronic’s manufacturer through LinkedIn, he is ready to get his device out into the market through a
Kickstarter campaign
. If successful, the technology will be shipped out and deployed in areas of construction, manufacturing, hospitals and emergency services; all of which could utilize the heat-mapping potential of this affordable device.
In addition to commercial uses, this product can assist in the reduction of household energy consumption by locating areas of heat loss. Without thermal imaging, the initial source of these types of drafts and airflows can be extremely hard to pinpoint. Abnormal equipment heating can also be found as well. For instance, electrical panels can overheat with loose or poorly attached connections.
Now, Hema-Imager is not the only product that is surfacing through crowd funding campaigns.
MuOptics
, for example, has raised over $280,000 through Indiegogo in 2013 without having to show an actual working product, barely even showing a 3D modeled prototype. Yet, they still achieved their goal, opening up the door for another device like the Hema-Imager to come in and raise a similar amount of money. The differences between the two can be seen on the Hema-Imager’s Kickstarter page.
[Thanks for the tip Enn!]
After the break is a video of [Erik] describing the Hema-Imager project along with a fire fighter’s point of view:
Loving the how they begin their sales pitch with a Predator reference – ED | 32 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1727903",
"author": "LK",
"timestamp": "2014-08-18T21:28:25",
"content": "Nice to see a thermal imager that doesn’t appear to be vaporware (in one update, the muoptics team admits they “screwed up”).This is great for applications where the thermal overlay over the normal camera view... | 1,760,376,097.483772 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/18/tft-lcds-hit-warp-speed-with-teensy-3-1/ | TFT LCDs Hit Warp Speed With Teensy 3.1 | Adam Fabio | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"arduino",
"lcd",
"Paul",
"PJRC",
"spi",
"Teensy",
"Teensy 3.1",
"tft"
] | [Paul Stoffregen], known as father of the Teensy, has leveraged the Teensy 3.1’s hardware to obtain some
serious speed gains with SPI driven TFT LCDs
. Low cost serial TFT LCDs have become commonplace these days. Many of us have used
Adafruit’s TFT LCD library
to drive these displays on an Arduino. The Adafruit library gives us a simple API to work with these LCDs, and saves us from having to learn the intricacies of various driver chips.
[Paul] has turbocharged the library by using hardware available on Teensy 3.1’s 32 Freescale Kinetis K20 microcontroller. The first bump is raw speed. The Arduino’s ATmega328 can drive the SPI bus at 8MHz, while the Teensy’s Kinetis can ramp things up to 24MHz.
Speed isn’t everything though. [Paul] also used the Freescale’s 4 level FIFO to buffer transfers. By using a “Write first, then block until the FIFO isn’t full” algorithm, [Paul] ensured that new data always gets to the LCD as fast as possible.
Another huge bump was SPI chip select. The Kinetis can drive up to 5 SPI chip select pins from hardware. The ATmega328 doesn’t support chip selects. so they must be implemented with GPIO pins, which takes even more time.
The final result is rather impressive. Click past the break to see the ATmega based Arduno race against the Kinetis K20 powered Teensy 3.1.
Paul’s library is open source and
available on Github.
Update:
In response to some questions in the comments, [Paul] added a second video comparing the Teensy 3.1 to the Arduino Due. The Due running at a higher SPI clock speed, however the Teensy with its hardware advantages and optimized library still proved to be faster. | 39 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1727476",
"author": "Tectu",
"timestamp": "2014-08-18T17:07:19",
"content": "Interesting work. However, one could also just use a library which targets exactly use cases like this one such as the µGFX library:http://ugfx.org",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []... | 1,760,376,097.318024 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/18/hot-wheels-toy-turned-radar-detector/ | Hot Wheels Toy Turned Radar Gun | Matt Terndrup | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"doppler radar",
"hot wheels",
"mattel",
"radar detector"
] | [Ken] was strolling through a department store one day looking for a gift for his daughter when he stumbled across a Mattel’s Hot Wheels Radar Gun for $30. He purchased it, took it home, and tested it out. Surprisingly, the device had the ability to not only scan toy cars, but also regular size vehicles, spinning bicycle wheels, and joggers as well. As his mind began to churn coming up with new ideas, he purchased another toy and repackaged it creating a more
professional grade DIY radar speed detector
.
The process was pretty simple. First, he disassembled the device getting to the Doppler radar system inside, which was similar to the professional radar guns that police officers used. This toy was able to transmit a continuous wave at 10.525GHz, measuring the returning frequency of returning waves that bounced off of moving objects. However, the detection range of this toy was severely limited. [Ken] then upgraded the antenna housing unit with a 3″ diameter acrylic document tube, making the quality look a lot better. After that, the system was attached to a tripod allowing for the device to be easily transported and setup near a busy traffic road, quietly watching the speed of cars driving by.
This custom toy radar gun hack is a useful tool that can be transitioned into other areas like baseball. The antenna might need to be upgraded for that use, but this project is a good starting point for creating a nice little radar gun that could be utilized elsewhere. | 42 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "1727197",
"author": "tz2026",
"timestamp": "2014-08-18T14:07:55",
"content": "It is not turned into a Radar DETECTOR as the title says, it is turned into a radar GUN.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1727249",
"author":... | 1,760,376,098.072057 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/18/the-numitron-geekwatch/ | The Numitron Geekwatch | Matt Terndrup | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"DIY wrist watch",
"nixie tubes",
"numitron",
"PLA"
] | [Johannes] wanted to develop an unusual way to display time on a custom wristwatch. LED’s were too common, and mechanical indicators with small engines were too expansive, but Nixie tubes were just right. His design for the
Numitron Geekwatch
utilized two boards that were soldered together at a right angle, with a 3D printed enclosure made of semi-transparent PLA.
Future designs of this will improve on the button functionality as well as the housing of the wristwatch to protect the fragile tubes from external forces.
After the break is a video (in German) with [Johannes] going through the steps needed to make one of these of your very own:
EDIT:
This watch contains a vacuum with some filaments, not a gas. There is a difference between numitrons and nixie tubes, which has been stated in the comments below. | 18 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1726853",
"author": "jcwren",
"timestamp": "2014-08-18T11:08:00",
"content": "Numitrons are not nixie tubes. Numitrons are filaments, and there’s a vacuum, not a gas.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1727245",
"author": "zapr... | 1,760,376,097.22326 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/18/the-hackaday-antiduino-browser-plugin/ | The Hackaday Antiduino Browser Plugin | Brian Benchoff | [
"internet hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"browser plugin",
"Chrome plugin"
] | Hackaday – and the projects featured on Hackaday – get a lot of flak in the comments section simply for mentioning an Arduino. The Arduino complainers are, of course, completely wrong; everyone here is trying to make something, not make something in the most obscure possible way.
The Arduino is a legitimate tool, but still there are those among us who despise anything ending in ~duino.
This browser plugin is for them
. It’s a Chrome extension that selectively replaces or removes Arduino content from Hackaday depending on the user’s preference.
There are three settings to the plugin: See No Evil replaces images of Arduinos with
serious business
. Hear No Evil removes all occurrences of the word ‘Arduino’ and replaces them with something of your choosing. Speak No Evil removes all posts
in the Arduino Hacks category
.The last option also removes the ability to
comment
on any post in the Arduino Hacks category, so obviously the quality of the comments here will drastically increase by tomorrow.
You can grab the plugin
on the gits
. It’s Chrome only, but if someone wants to port it to Firefox, we’ll gladly put up another post.
There you go, Internet. You’re free now, and the biggest problem in your life has now been solved. Go give [SickSad] a virtual pat on the back, or tell him he could have done the same thing with a 555. Either of those are pretty much the same thing at this point. | 134 | 49 | [
{
"comment_id": "1726466",
"author": "spacecoyote",
"timestamp": "2014-08-18T08:10:52",
"content": "The arduino “hate” is more about the hacker notion of efficiency (“hack value”) than the hipster notion of obscurity.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment... | 1,760,376,097.867553 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/17/voice-controlled-rgb-led-lamp/ | Voice Controlled RGB LED Lamp | Rick Osgood | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"instructables",
"led",
"recognition",
"RGB LED",
"speech",
"visual basic .net"
] | [Saurabh] wanted a quick project to demonstrate how easy it can be to build devices that are voice controlled. His latest
Instructable
does just that using an Arduino and Visual Basic .Net.
[Saurabh] decided to build a voice controlled lamp. He knew he wanted it to change colors as well as be energy-efficient. It also had to be easy to control. The obvious choice was to use an RGB LED. The LED on its own wouldn’t be very interesting. He needed something to diffuse the light, like a lampshade. [Saurabh] decided to start with an empty glass jar. He filled the jar with gel wax, which provides a nice surface to diffuse the light.
The RGB LED was mounted underneath the jar’s screw-on cover. [Saurabh] soldered a 220 ohm current limiting resistor to each of the three anodes of the LED. A hole was drilled in the cap so he’d have a place to run the wires. The LED was then hooked up to an Arduino Leonardo.
The Arduino sketch has several built-in functions to set all of the colors, and also fade. [Saurabh] then wrote a control interface using Visual Basic .Net. The interface allows you to directly manipulate the lamp, but it also has built-in voice recognition functionality. This allows [Saurabh] to use his voice to change the color of the lamp, turn it off, or initiate a fading routing. You can watch a video demonstration of the voice controls below. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1726498",
"author": "jonathanjamieson",
"timestamp": "2014-08-18T08:20:31",
"content": "I didn’t have voice control on my jar but it did have bluetooth!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4BDwZSmR-IThese lamps make good projects. They don’t take too long to make and they are something ... | 1,760,376,097.528197 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/17/pool-cleaning-robot-rebuild-works-like-a-3-dimensional-roomba/ | Pool Cleaning Robot Rebuild Works Like A 3 Dimensional Roomba | James Hobson | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"pool cleaning robot",
"pool robot",
"water roomba"
] | Pools are great – Cleaning them, not so much. [Davide Gironi] had a pool cleaning robot, but years of working in a chlorine environment resulted in one of its gaskets failing, destroying the electronics inside. Instead of replacing it, he decided to try his hand at
rebuilding it using an AVR ATmega8 microcontroller
.
But wait! Wasn’t there a warranty? Expired. Couldn’t he just get a new board from the manufacturer? Costs almost as much as a new robot – time to open it up!
He’s broken the project into two parts, the out of water timer circuitry, and the robot itself. The timer is responsible for converting 220VAC to low voltage DC for the robot, and for turning it on and off based on a schedule (duh). He’s using an
ATmega8 based countdown programmable timer
which he designed himself for a previous project.
The robot on the other hand is even simpler. It has two motors, one which sucks the water to filter it (also creating the suction effect so the robot can scale the pool’s walls), and the second one to steer it around. All [Davide] had to do here was replace the motor driver! | 26 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1725808",
"author": "Trav",
"timestamp": "2014-08-18T02:47:14",
"content": "This project sucks. Which is a good thing…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1725827",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2014-08-18T02:55:38",
... | 1,760,376,097.703487 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/17/hackaday-links-august-17-2014/ | Hackaday Links: August 17, 2014 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"chromecast",
"Commodore 16",
"D-sub",
"drawing paper",
"Flite Fest",
"flite test",
"LaTeX",
"NeXT",
"picoitx",
"stripboard"
] | [wjlafrance] recently picked up an old NeXTstation, complete with keyboard, mouse, display… and no display cable. The NeXT boxes had
one of the weirder D-sub connectors
a still weird DB-19 video connector, meaning [wjla]
would have to roll his own
. It’s basically just modifying a pair of DB-25 connectors with a dremel, but it works.
Here’s the flickr set
.
The guys at Flite Test put on a
their first annual Flite Fest
last month – an RC fly-in in the middle of Ohio – and they’re finally getting around to
putting up the recap videos
. +1 for using wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube men as an obstacle course.
My phone’s battery is dead and my water pressure is too high
.
Stripboard drawing paper
, written in [; \LaTeX ;].
Remember the Commodore 16?
[Dave] stuck a PicoITX mother board in one
. He used
the Keyrah interface
to get the original keyboard working with USB. While we’re not too keen on sacrificing old computers to build a PC, it
is
a C16 (sorry [Bil]), and the end result is very, very clean.
A Chromecast picture frame
. [philenotfound] had a 17″ LCD panel from an old Powerbook, and with a $30 LVDS to HDMI adapter, he made a pretty classy Chromecast picture frame. | 29 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1725102",
"author": "Matt",
"timestamp": "2014-08-17T23:11:29",
"content": "FYI, those 13W3 connectors were pretty standard on proper workstations back then. You’ll find them on any Sun or SGI systems from that same time as well.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies... | 1,760,376,097.934433 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/17/dampen-workshop-noise-with-paper-pulp-and-kool-aid-oh-yeah/ | Dampen Workshop Noise With Paper Pulp And Kool-Aid — OH YEAH! | Kristina Panos | [
"green hacks",
"how-to"
] | [
"cnc",
"CNC router",
"kool-aid",
"noise",
"noise dampening",
"paper",
"shredded paper"
] | If you’re fortunate enough to have a garage and a workshop, you probably also have neighbors. The truly blessed must work within the confines of an HOA that restricts noise, porch couches, and most types of fun. [Mike] is among the truly blessed, and when
he decided to design a cabinet for his CNC equipment
, he took noise dampening into consideration.
[Mike]’s design isn’t a blanket noise dampener; it’s specifically designed for the high-pitch symphony of his router, compressor, and vacuum. He also sought to avoid vibrating the cabinet. To achieve this, the sound-dampening panels are hung on eye hooks with a 1/2″ gap between them and the frame. The backer boards are cut from 3/4″ plywood. [Mike] considered using cement board, but thought it might be overkill since he plants to shell the cabinet in a layer of 3/4″ plywood.
The deadening material is paper pulp made from various shredded papers. After soaking the shreds in water and blending the mixture to an oatmeal consistency, he drained most of the water through a cloth bag. Then he added just enough wood glue to hold the pulpy goo together. The tropical punch Kool-Aid powder isn’t just for looks; it provides visual confirmation of even glue distribution.
[Mike] made some tape walls around the edge of his backer boards to hold the mixture in place and painted on some wood glue to hold the pulp. He spread the tropical concoction to 1/2″ thickness with a tiling trowel to avoid compressing it. The peaks and valleys help scatter any sound that isn’t absorbed. Pudding awaits you after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-X-6becj-M | 82 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1724795",
"author": "Sven",
"timestamp": "2014-08-17T20:26:29",
"content": "Another even cheaper colorant is actual color, with the added benefit that you can find out exactly what it is and if it will interfere with the glue… I thought “Kool Aid” was a hackaday joke, didn’t think a... | 1,760,376,097.639871 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/17/real-life-gta-driving-a-car-in-third-person-is-hard/ | Real Life GTA? Driving A Car In Third Person Is Hard! | James Hobson | [
"Transportation Hacks",
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"driving in third person",
"drone third person",
"third person",
"third person drone",
"third person view"
] | Do you fancy yourself an excellent driver in video games featuring a third person view for the driving experience? Ever wonder what it’d be like in real life? [Tom] and [Oli] wanted to find out so they decided to
setup this awesome experiment.
They’re using the
Bovingdon airfield
, which was a Royal Air Force station during WWII — today it stands empty and is a beloved testing ground for many custom vehicles in the UK, like [Colin Furze’s] world record-setting
baby carriage
. The car chosen for the challenge is a Mazda MX-5 Miata, which we don’t think they care too much about considering the potential obstacles they’ll be hitting!
The driver wears a set of video goggles, and a co-pilot comes along for the ride to help prevent any major collisions. A hexrotor drone is flown by another person who attempts to keep it mostly behind the car in the stereotypical third person view. The video signal is then transmitted down to the driver in real time.
It looks like a blast and definitely isn’t as easy as you might think — despite ultra low latency, both of the drivers felt that they experience lag during the experience.
For a slightly safer experiment, you could always build
a third person camera backpack! | 23 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1724441",
"author": "Koen Blank",
"timestamp": "2014-08-17T17:12:41",
"content": "Vision impaired driving is really hard! /sCool experiment using limited experiments. For the record, i hit many objects in GTA 5 while driving. That is with HD and no input lag.",
"parent_id": null... | 1,760,376,097.994016 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/17/defcon-22-the-hackrf-portapack/ | DEFCON 22: The HackRF PortaPack | Brian Benchoff | [
"ARM",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"HackRF",
"HackRF PortaPack",
"PortaPack",
"radio",
"sdr",
"software-defined radio"
] | What do you get when you combine one of the best (and certainly one of the best for the price) software defined radios with the user interface of a 10-year-old iPod? The HackRF PortaPack, developed by [Jared Boone], and demonstrated at DEFCON last weekend.
[Jared] is one of the original developers for the
HackRF
, a 10MHz to 6GHz software defined radio
that can also transmit
in half duplex. Since the development of the HackRF has (somewhat) wrapped up, [Jared] has been working
on the PortaPack
, an add-on for the HackRF that turns it into a portable, ARM Cortex M4-powered software defined radio. No, it’s not as powerful as a full computer running GNU Radio, but it does have the capability to listen in on a surprising amount of radio signals.
Because [Jared] is using a fairly low-power micro for the PortaPack, there’s a lot of tricks he’s using to get everything running smoothly. He gave a lightning talk at the Wireless Village at DEFCON going over the strengths and weaknesses of the chip he’s using, and surprisingly he’s using very little floating point arithmetic in his code. You can check out the video for that talk below. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1724239",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"timestamp": "2014-08-17T15:06:16",
"content": "Just after filming this interview Jared showed how the hardware can be used to listen in on our wireless microphone. Took about 2 minutes to set that up.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"... | 1,760,376,098.116985 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/17/robotic-scalextrics/ | Robotic Scalextrics | Brian Benchoff | [
"Robots Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"garage",
"scalextric",
"slot car",
"slot cars"
] | At the Volkswagen factory there are two towers – AutoTürme – filled with gigantic robots lifting cars into parking spaces. It’s by far the most efficient way of putting a huge number of cars in a small footprint. Slot cars exist, so
how about a completely overwrought yet entirely awesome robotic parking garage
for 1:32 scale cars? (.es, Google
translatrix
)
The project
is built around several ‘racks’
to hold cars arranged around a central elevator. An Arduino takes care of moving all the motors and reading all the sensors, with the basic idea behind the project being the ability to select a car and have it appear in the pit of the track a few moments later.
Although this is just one small part of what is already a very impressive slot car track, it is however the most electronic. Other unique additions include a very unique
cantilever/suspension bridge
and the usual modeling techniques of creating a landscape with little more than cardboard and glue.
The best way to get a sense of how cool the parking garage is through the video. You can check that out below.
Thanks [Oscar] for sending this one in. | 10 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1723868",
"author": "ERROR_user_unknown",
"timestamp": "2014-08-17T11:09:09",
"content": "cool system I’m wondering if you could get a quicker place to place time by having the software move both rotation and up/down simultaneously or if that would cause cars to fall off.",
"par... | 1,760,376,098.161748 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/17/lego-and-arduino-meet-han-solo/ | LEGO And Arduino Meet Han Solo | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"555 timer",
"arduino",
"blaster",
"lego",
"star wars"
] | This
full-size replica blaster from Star Wars
, most iconically used by Han Solo and Princess Leia, has everything. Flashing LEDs, blaster noises, LEGO, and yes, even an Arduino. Not bad for [Baron von Brunk]’s first project to use an Arduino!
The blaster was based on electronics and LEGO that were lying around and was intended for use for Star Wars Day 2014. (May the Fourth be with you.) “Lying around” in this sense might be a bit of an understatement for [Baron von Brunk], as the design of the blaster required the use of the LEGO Digital Designer and 400 blocks, some of which are quite rare.
The electronics for the project are tied to a moving trigger mechanism (also made from LEGO). The trigger mechanism hits a momentary pushbutton which tells the Arduino to activate the LEDs and a separate 555 timer and sound recording/playback device which handles the classic blaster sounds. The whole thing is powered by a 9V battery and housed in the front of the blaster, and all of the code (and the LEGO schematics) are available on the project’s site.
This is quite an impressive replica, and the craftsmanship that went into the build shows, especially in the LEGO parts. We think Han Solo would indeed be proud! If you’re ready to go even further with Star Wars and LEGO, you might want to check out this
barrel organ that plays the Star Wars theme
. | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1723583",
"author": "jpnorair",
"timestamp": "2014-08-17T08:11:30",
"content": "It needs a longer barrel. Han’s pistol was built from a Mauser 1896. Otherwise, I love the effort and I think the result is great.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauser_C96",
"parent_id": null,
"d... | 1,760,376,099.167836 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/16/tilda-mke-the-emf-2014-badge/ | TiLDA MKe: The EMF 2014 Badge | Eric Evenchick | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"Arduino DUE",
"ARM Cortex-M3",
"badge",
"conference"
] | Hardware conference badges keep getting more complex, adding features that are sometimes useful, and sometimes just cool. The Electromagnetic Field (EMF) 2014 badge,
TiLDA MKe
, is no exception.
This badge displays the conference schedule, which can be updated over an RF link with base stations. It even notifies you when an event you’re interested in is about to start. Since we’ve missed many a talk by losing track of the time, this seems like a very useful feature.
Beyond the schedule, the device has a dedicated torch button to turn it into a flashlight. A rather helpful feature seeing as
EMF
takes place outdoors, in a field of the non-electromagnetic sort. They’re also working on porting some classic games to the system.
The badge is compatible with the Arduino Due, and is powered by an ARM Cortex M3. It’s rechargeable over USB, which is a nice change from AA powered badges. It also touts a radio transceiver, joystick, accelerometer, gyroscope, speaker, infrared, and is compatible with Arduino shields.
For more technical details, you can check out the
EMF wiki
. EMF 2014 takes place from August 29th to the 31st in Bletchley, UK, and you can still purchase tickets to score one of these badges. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1724524",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2014-08-17T17:59:59",
"content": "I was very much hoping to see an Atmel SAM3 variant on the DUE platform, but unfortunately, it’s the same obtrusively large SAM3X8E.Has anyone come across any efforts to get the Arduino eco system up-and-runn... | 1,760,376,098.471192 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/16/aquaponic-system-uses-arduino-for-consistent-performance/ | Aquaponic System Uses Arduino For Consistent Performance | Rich Bremer | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"aquaponics",
"farming",
"hydroponics",
"plants"
] | Food is just one of those things that we need to survive. Plants can grow on their own without human intervention but the quantity and quality of the crop will vary from year to year. Even elaborate farms can have good and bad years due to variables such as weather, disease, bugs, pollution and soil condition.
There is a system called Aquaponics that attempts to control those variables. Aquaponics combines aquaculture (raising aquatic animals) with hydroponics (growing plants in water). The Aquaponic system tries to emulate what happens in nature without the variation; water-based animals eat plants and excrete waste and that waste is used as food for plants.
[Kijani Grows] has built an
Aquaponic setup
and added a smart controller that is made out a bunch of stuff you would not normally associate with a garden. Their are several sensors in the system that measure water flow, tank level, water quality and dissolved oxygen. An Arduino monitors these sensors and reports the information back to a $20 router running OpenWRT. All of the recorded data is also stored for review later. Software on the router determines what needs to be adjusted in the enclosed ecosystem. The router communicates this information back to the Arduino which in turn controls the water pumps, heaters, fish feeder and lighting. And as if that wasn’t enough, the control system can be set up to send out messages via email, SMS or social media. | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1722863",
"author": "Waterjet",
"timestamp": "2014-08-17T02:18:03",
"content": "That’s really neat. How closed loop is it exactly? It looks like it needs electricity to run the pumps and maybe nutrients for the fish? Has anybody done something similar before?",
"parent_id": null... | 1,760,376,098.647471 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/16/hacking-a-bee-hive/ | Hacking A Bee Hive | Matt Terndrup | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino duo",
"bee hive",
"dht22"
] | [Marc] created a
self-contained monitoring platform
that enabled him to record the temperature and humidity of his bee hives.’
The health of colony can be determined based on a few factors. One is temperature which is an early indicator of whether or not the bees are about to swarm. Once temperature spikes are noticed, the bee wrangler can take the necessary steps to reduce the chance of losing the hive to a neighbor. Another indicator of bee health is humidity. If the area is too damp, it can damage the hive.
With that in mind, [Marc] developed a system to alert him via SMS or email if the sensor readings go beyond a certain range. In addition, he monitored the weight of the hive to see how much honey is inside. Frequency of the buzz was also recorded, and so was the activity of the entrance. He used an Arduino Duo and a DHT22 temperature/humidity sensor. A solar panel powered the bee monitoring system.
There were some challenges that needed to be overcome. Initially the Arduino wasn’t sending out data, but that was fixed with a simple debugging session. From there, he was able to broadcast the information creating graphs with the data. Battery levels, temperature, and humidity were all recorded. With the bee hive hacked and monitored, [Marc] was able to make progress on his system making great use of an Arduino. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1722620",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2014-08-17T00:31:20",
"content": "Why not just give the queen a cellphone? Neat project, it should be interesting to see the data he logs over the winter.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"commen... | 1,760,376,098.920228 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/16/thp-entry-a-6502-sbc-robot-on-multiple-boards/ | THP Entry: A 6502 SBC Robot (On Multiple Boards) | Brian Benchoff | [
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"6502",
"65c02",
"boe-bot",
"line following",
"robot",
"SBC",
"the hackaday prize"
] | Robots have always been a wonderful tool for learning electronics, but if you compare the robot kits from today against the robot kits from the 80s and early 90s, there’s a marked difference. There are fairly powerful microcontrollers in the new ones, and you program them in
languages
, and not straight machine code. Given this community’s propensity to say, ‘you could have just used a 555,’ this is obviously a problem.
[Carbon]’s entry for The Hackaday Prize
is a great retro callback
to the Heathkit HERO and robotic arms you can now find tucked away on a shelf in the electronics lab of every major educational institution. It’s a 65C02 single board computer, designed with robotics in mind.
The 6502 board is just what you would expect; a CPU, RAM, ROM, CPLD glue, and a serial port. The second board down on the stack is rather interesting –
it’s a dual channel servo board
made entirely out of discrete logic. The final board in the stack is an 8-channel ADC meant for a Pololu reflective sensor, making this 6502 in a
Boe-bot chassis
a proper line-following robot, coded in 6502 assembly.
[Carbon]’s video of his bot below.
The project featured in this post is an entry in
The Hackaday Prize
. Build something awesome and win a trip to space or hundreds of other prizes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5xz5AuFySE | 18 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1722126",
"author": "icanhazadd",
"timestamp": "2014-08-16T20:10:58",
"content": "That’s nice, but they could have just used a 555.There, I said it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1722185",
"author": "ItsThatIdiotAgain",
... | 1,760,376,098.869293 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/16/an-fpga-based-6502-computer/ | An FPGA Based 6502 Computer | Eric Evenchick | [
"classic hacks",
"FPGA"
] | [
"6502",
"apple II",
"basic",
"commodore 64",
"fpga",
"xilinx"
] | It’s no secret that people love the 6502 processor. This historic processor powered some of our favorite devices, including the Apple II, the Commodore 64, and the NES. If you want to play with the 6502, but don’t want to bother with obtaining legacy chips, the
CHOCHI board
is for you.
While many people have built
modern homebrew 6502 computers
, the CHOCHI will be much easier for those looking to play with the architecture. It’s based on a Xilinx XC3S50 FPGA which comes preconfigured as a 6502 processor.
After powering on the board, you can load a variety of provided binaries onto it. This collection includes a BASIC interpreter and a Forth interpreter. Of course, you’re free to write your own applications in 6502 assembly, or compile C code for the device using the
cc65
compiler.
If you get bored with the 6502 core, you can always grab Xilinx’s
ISE WebPACK
for free and use the board as a generic FPGA development tool. It comes with 128K of SRAM and 31 I/O pins. Not bad for a $30 board. | 20 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1721856",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2014-08-16T17:34:03",
"content": "Where do you buy them? I couldn’t find a link to purchase them on the site.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1721884",
"author": "Mark",
... | 1,760,376,099.119722 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/16/makerspace-tours-hexlab-in-tarzana-california/ | Makerspace Tours: HexLab In Tarzana, California | Matt Terndrup | [
"Featured",
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"hexlab",
"makerspace",
"research & design firm",
"southern california"
] | This time around, we dive into the world of 3D printing and laser cutting at a local community-driven space near Van Nuys, California. We were invited to visit
HexLab Makerspace
by [Jonathan] and [Mike] who own and run the company. They showed us the large selection of resources that they have made available to the public. This includes a variety of 3D printers, laser cutters, industrial sewing machines, 3D scanners, computer workstations, wood working tools, manual metal lathes, heaps of testing equipment, a leather embossing/hot stamping machine, and even a plastic injecting machine. And yes, they have a ventilator too.
With all this equipment, HexLab has the ability to prototype practically anything that floats into the mind of someone walking in the door. Specialties include paper craft, costume tailoring, laser etching wood products, manufacturing acrylic glass objects, and much more.
What makes this place different from a lot of other makerspaces is the history of the company. Originally, they started as a Research and Design firm about 14 years ago and have recently opened up the doors to the outside community. Because they began as a business that was previously similar to a hackerspace, they had already acquired the necessary tools for the space. The change makes the tools accessible to entrepreneurs, artists, designers, and musicians alike. This has bred a fantastic teaching environment where the community helps each other through the learning process.
In the future, HexLab plans to continue hosting classes and has even hinted at an up-coming mobile project that is certain to spark a local and portable maker movement. Eventually, they would like to help develop a sustainable model that can be given out to other makerspaces in an effort to assist in the creation of additional places like this. In the meantime though, we look forward to seeing how the community grows through them, and what types of amazing products with be produced out of their space. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1721502",
"author": "aegjio",
"timestamp": "2014-08-16T14:18:57",
"content": "That dude from 6:00 – so much hype, so little useful work.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1721613",
"author": "pcf11",
"timestamp":... | 1,760,376,099.012452 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/16/melting-chocolate-for-science/ | Melting Chocolate – FOR SCIENCE! | James Hobson | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"chocolate hysteresis",
"IYPT",
"IYPT 2014",
"melting chocolate",
"pid",
"PID temperature control",
"rotary viscometry"
] | [Patrick Herd] was in Sweden recently and decided to help out a team of high school students in the International Young Physicist Tournament — The challenge?
Chocolate Hysteresis.
Chocolate what? When chocolate melts, it doesn’t actually re-solidify at it’s melting point — in fact, it’s quite below that. The challenge here is figuring out a scientific way of measuring the time (and temperature) it takes to return to a solid state. This in itself is kind of tricky considering you have to accurately measure the temperature and be able to empirically tell if its solid or liquid.
The first scientific apparatus they came up with was the Chocolate Rig V1 – a very simple peltier heated and cooled calorimeter. They used an Arduino to control the temperature and a motor shield to power the peltier plate. It kind of worked but they discovered it was difficult to assess the physical state of the chocolate. This is when [Patrick] started doing some research and discovered
rotary viscometry.
It works by determining the shear force in a fluid by rotating some kind of object in it, with sensor feedback measuring the torque. This was quite a bit more challenging to create than their first rig, but they pushed onward anyway.
The sensor they built to measure the shear force is quite ingenious. They are rotating the heated crucible with a shear probe stuck in the middle — string is wrapped around the probe and attached to a force gauge. When the chocolate is liquid it spins around the probe with little to no rotation — but as soon as it hardens up, the probe starts rotating with the chocolate which in turn pulls on the force gauge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h-RSurx3Qo
The entire project is quite fascinating, so if you’re into scientific experimentation, you should definitely give his whole blog post a good read! | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1721177",
"author": "Rob Thomas",
"timestamp": "2014-08-16T11:15:52",
"content": "He should have talked to a choclatier. There is weird science involved with solidifying chocolate. Including changes due to stirring while cooling.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies... | 1,760,376,098.972325 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/16/table-top-mame-cabinet-dubbed-the-water-cooler/ | Table-Top MAME Cabinet Dubbed “The Water Cooler” | Rich Bremer | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"arcade cabinet",
"arcade machine",
"mame",
"video game"
] | [Greg] wanted to build a
MAME cabinet
. Not one of those monsters that take up a bunch of floor space, mind you: this one would be table-top size. He admits he could have made his game system out of new, currently available, off the shelf parts, but part of the design goal was to reuse old hardware that was kicking around. It was important to [Greg] to keep unnecessary waste out of the landfill.
An old PC motherboard was pulled out of an old desktop. It’s not fast enough for use as an everyday computer but it will be totally sufficient for a MAME machine. The project’s screen is an old 13 inch Gateway CRT computer monitor. Notice that it is turned 90 degrees so that it is taller than it is wide. This screen orientation lends itself better to certain types of games. The monitor’s plastic casing was removed before some measurements were taken. SketchUp was used to plan a basic idea of the cabinet.
The controls consist of a joystick and 4 buttons. During past projects, [Greg] has had experience with the least-expensive arcade controls available on eBay. Well, you get what you pay for. This time around he ponied up the extra cash for some high quality controls and is satisfied with the purchase. These buttons were wired straight into a PS/2 keyboard so the computer does not know the difference between the keyboard keys or recently added controls… another great re-use of old obsolete hardware.
The cabinet is made from MDF, glued and screwed together. The limited wood working tools available wasn’t a show stopper for this dedicated builder. For example, the square hole for the joystick was made by removing most of the material with a spade drill bit before using a chisel to clean up the edges. Doing it this way was a little tedious, but you have to do what you have to do sometimes. Once the entire cabinet was finished, several coats of paint were added in a yellow and blue water-theme. Black rubber molding finishes off the edges of the cabinet nicely. | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1720908",
"author": "Ed",
"timestamp": "2014-08-16T08:13:10",
"content": "Very nice project! :-)Recently, I was asked to add a degauss button to the CRT in an arcade cabinet… The screen can rotate for both screen formats, so degaussing is necessary every time you change the orientat... | 1,760,376,099.063736 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/15/pid-controlled-glue-gun/ | PID Controlled Glue Gun | Eric Evenchick | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"control system",
"ebay",
"glue gun",
"hot glue",
"pid",
"temperature",
"thermocouple"
] | Hot glue falls into the same category of duct tape and zip ties as a versatile material for fixing anything that needs to be stuck together. [Ed]’s Bosch glue gun served him well, but after a couple of years the temperature regulation stopped working. Rather than buying a new one, he decided to rip it apart.
With the old temperature regulation circuit cooked, [Ed] looked around for something better on eBay. He came across a cheap PID temperature controller, and the
Frankengluegun
was born.
A thermocouple, affixed with some kapton tape and thermal paste, was used to measure the temperature of the barrel. Power for the glue gun was routed through the PID controller, which uses PWM to accurately controller the temperature. All the wiring could even be routed through the original cord grips for a clean build.
Quality glue guns with accurate temperature control are quite pricey. This solution can be added on to a glue gun for less than $30, and the final product looks just as good. | 21 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1720622",
"author": "Emerica",
"timestamp": "2014-08-16T05:14:24",
"content": "Personally i just use a lighter and roll it over the flame. A good glue gun might save me a glue burn or two.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1720... | 1,760,376,099.435473 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/15/bluetooth-low-energy-beacons-in-a-flock-of-birds/ | Bluetooth Low Energy Beacons In A Flock Of Birds | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"bird",
"birdsong",
"bluetooth",
"bluetooth low energy",
"BTLE"
] | No, not real birds! [Kyle] works in operations at a web company and needed a way to send alerts to his fellow coworkers, so he modified a flock of Audubon Society plush birds to
respond to a Bluetooth beacon
.
Using NRF24L01+ Bluetooth Low Energy modules, [Kyle] installed one each in these battery-powered singing birds. The devices are presumably powered off of the battery that comes with the birds, but the use of the BTLE module means the batteries won’t discharge as rapidly.
[Kyle] also built an API that works over HTTP or IRC, which means that the employees in the office can activate everyone else’s birds over a simple and intuitive interface. The birds can be activated one at a time, or all together in “panic” mode as one giant flock (in case of an emergency in the office). They can also be activated one at a time on a specific hour to simulate the Audubon Society’s bird call clock.
He calls the device equail and it’s a very unique notification system with a lot of applications. All of [Kyle]’s code and documentation of his project are available on his github site. He also used
this primer on BTLE
to get started, and
this guide on sending data over BTLE
to help get the project in the air. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1720365",
"author": "OneShot Willie",
"timestamp": "2014-08-16T02:57:03",
"content": "So lemme guess… They’re twitter activated?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1720502",
"author": "wmatl",
"timestamp": "2014-0... | 1,760,376,099.222649 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/15/hacklet-11-cameras/ | Hacklet #11- Cameras | Adam Fabio | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"cameras",
"Digital cameras",
"dslr",
"film",
"hacklet",
"kodachrome",
"SLR"
] | We preempt this week’s Hacklet to bring you an important announcement.
Hackaday.io
got some major upgrades this week. Have you checked out
The Feed
lately? The Feed has been tweaked, tuned, and optimized, to show you activity on your projects, and from the hackers and projects you follow.
We’ve also rolled out
Lists!
Lists give you quick links to some of .io’s most exciting projects. The lists are curated by Hackaday staff. We’re just getting started on this feature, so there are only a few categories so far. Expect to see more in the coming days.
Have a suggestion for a list category? Want to see a new feature?
Let us know!
Now back to your regularly scheduled Hacklet
There are plenty of cameras on Hackaday.io, from complex machine vision systems to pinhole cameras. We’re concentrating on the cameras whose primary mission is to create an image. It might be for art, for social documentation, or just a snapshot with friends.
[theschlem] starts us off with
Pinstax, a 3D Printed Instant Pinhole Camera
. [theschlem] is using a commercial instant film camera back (the back for a cheap Diana F+) and 3D printing his own pinhole and shutter. He’s run into some trouble as Fuji’s instant film is fast, like ISO 800 fast. 3 stops of neutral density have come to the rescue in the form of an ND8 filter. Pinstax’s pinhole is currently 0.30mm in diameter. That translates to just about f/167. Nice!
Next up is [Jimmy C Alzen] and his
Large Format Camera
. Like many large format professional cameras, [Jimmy’s] camera is designed around a mechanically scanned linear sensor. In this case, a TAOS TSL1412S. An Arduino Due runs the show, converting the analog output from the sensor to digital values, stepping the motor, and displaying images in progress on an LCD. Similar to other mechanically scanned cameras, this is no speed demon. Images in full sunlight take 2 minutes. Low light images can take up to an hour to acquire.
[Jason’s]
Democracycam
aims to use open source hardware to document protests – even if the camera is confiscated. A Raspberry Pi, Pi Cam module, and a 2.8″ LCD touchscreen make up the brunt of the hardware of the camera. Snapping an image saves it to the SD card, and uses
forban
to upload the images to any local peers. The code is in python, and easy to work with. [Jason] hopes to add a “panic mode” which causes the camera to constantly take and upload images – just in case the owner can’t.
The venerable Raspberry Pi also helps out in [Kimondo’s]
Digital Holga 120d
. [Kimondo’s] fit a Raspberry Pi model A, and a Pi camera, into a Holga 120D case. He used the Slice of pi prototype board to add a GPIO for the shutter release button, a 4 position mode switch, and an optocoupler for a remote release. [Kimondo] even added a filter ring so he can replicate all those instagram-terrific filters in hardware. All he needs is to add a LiPo battery cell or two, a voltage regulator, and a micro USB socket for a fully portable solution.
Finally, we have [LeoM’s]
OpenReflex rework
. OpenReflex is an open source 3D printed Single Lens Reflex (SLR) 35mm film camera. Ok, not every part is 3D printed. You still need a lens, a ground glass screen, and some other assorted parts. OpenReflex avoids the use of a
pentaprism
by utilizing a top screen, similar to many classic twin lens reflex cameras. OpenReflex is pretty good now, but [Leo] is working to make it easier to build and use. We may just have to break out those rolls of
Kodachrome
we’ve been saving for a sunny day.
That’s it for this week’s Hacklet! Until next week keep that film rolling and those solid state image sensors acquiring. We’ll keep bringing you the best of
Hackaday.io! | 22 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1719872",
"author": "jaiog",
"timestamp": "2014-08-15T23:19:15",
"content": "In my opinion all protests (or better said – riots) should be instantly broken by police or military, with deadly force if required. Those pathetic left winged pricks don’t realize that by shouting some stu... | 1,760,376,099.379542 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/15/why-should-you-enter-the-hackaday-prize-because-ben-heck-says-so/ | Why Should You Enter The Hackaday Prize? Because [Ben Heck] Says So. | Brian Benchoff | [
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"ben heck",
"the hackaday prize"
] | [Ben Heck] is well-known in the circles we frequent for being a consummate modder, tinkerer, builder, and hacker. We’ve seen his
XBox 360 laptops
,
portabalized PS3s
,
the ultimate glue gun
, and
shutter shades that are too cool for [Kanye]
. Now he’s telling us about something else that’s really cool –
The Hackaday Prize
.
All you need to be in the running for prizes that range from a thousand dollars in electronic components to milling machines
to a trip to space
is build a project that is open, connected (smoke signals count), and documented on
hackaday.io
. Think you don’t have time to submit an entry before the first round cutoff next week? You’re wrong.
You can sit down and hit all the requirements in an hour
. All you need is an idea at this point, and you have until November to actually build it.
Talking to Hackaday readers IRL gives us the impression that
a lot
of you have an idea for something cool and spaceworthy, but you just need a kick in the pants to write it down and start building it. Here it is. Go. | 25 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1719724",
"author": "pcf11",
"timestamp": "2014-08-15T22:10:42",
"content": "I say we skip the contest and just send Ben.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1719751",
"author": "Gdogg",
"timestamp": "2014-08-15T22:24:43",
... | 1,760,376,099.71633 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/15/pivena-the-open-source-raspberry-pi-case/ | Pivena – The Open Source Raspberry Pi Case | James Hobson | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"Novena",
"Raspberry Pi Case",
"raspberry pi tablet"
] | Still not too sure how to house your awesome Raspberry Pi B model? Don’t worry, [Timothy Giles] has got you covered! He’s just finished this very sleek open source
PIvena case
for anyone to use.
Why is it called the PIvena? He’s basing it off of [Bunnie’s]
Novena project
which is a hobby-based open source laptop! For more information you can checkout the recent
interview we had
with [Bunnie] himself!
Anyway, back to the hack — it features a laser cut case which has plenty of room for the Pi and any additional hardware you want to add. Like the Novena, the screen also functions as a lid, opening up to reveal the electronics, allowing for easy tinkering. All the files can be acquired over at
Thingiverse
, and he has assembly instructions available on
Instructables
.
Besides being open source, which is the name of the game over here at Hack a Day, [Timothy’s] also written up an excellent summary of some of the design challenges he had during the project’s creation — one of which was making his own hinges, which took several iterations to become the following:
For more juicy design tips don’t forget to check out
his blog! | 13 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1719790",
"author": "tewkr",
"timestamp": "2014-08-15T22:37:21",
"content": "Nice! It does seem that the OS crowd is better than anyone else at slaughtering gadget names- WiFiduino etc. NoIR is just as bad.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"com... | 1,760,376,099.658744 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/15/ask-hackaday-how-did-they-shoot-down-a-stealth-aircraft/ | Ask Hackaday: How Did They Shoot Down A Stealth Aircraft? | Will Sweatman | [
"Ask Hackaday",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"f117",
"Fixed-wing aircraft",
"invisible",
"military",
"radar",
"serbia",
"stealth"
] | It was supposed to be a routine mission for U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Darrell P. Zelko, a veteran pilot of the 1991 Gulf War. The weather over the capital city of Serbia was stormy on the night of March 27th, 1999, and only a few NATO planes were in the sky to enforce Operation Allied Force. Zelco was to drop 2 laser guided munitions and get back to his base in Italy.
There was no way for him to know that at exactly 8:15pm local time, a
young Colonel
of the Army of Yugoslavia had done what was thought to be impossible. His men had
seen
Zelco’s
unseeable
F117 Stealth Fighter.
Seconds later, a barrage of Soviet 60’s era
S-125
surface-to-air missiles were screaming toward him at three times the speed of sound. One hit. Colonel Zelco was forced to eject while his advanced stealth aircraft fell to the ground in a ball of fire. It was the first and only time an F117 had been shot down. He would be rescued a few hours later.
How did they do it? How could a relatively unsophisticated army using outdated soviet technology take down one of the most advanced war planes in the world? A plane that was supposed be invisible to enemy radar? As you can imagine, there are several theories. We’re going deep with the “what-ifs” on this one so join us after the break as we break down and explore them in detail.
Theory 1 – Lucky Shot
The Serbian Army was monitoring US and NATO UHF and VHF communications, which were oddly enough unencrypted. This combined with the fact that the stealth fighters were using the same entry and egress routes means they could have worked out the general area of where they were going to be and when they were going to be there.
Theory 2 – Radar Hack
It has been theorized that they modified the antiquated soviet radars to operate at longer wavelengths. So when the bomb bay doors opened, they could see the aircraft. But using a longer wavelength would have required modification to the radar antenna. Such modifications are not easy to pull off, and would require advanced test equipment and knowledge. Is it possible to do this in the field with no testing or equipment?
Theory 3 – The Invisible Man in the Rain
Imagine Harry Potter had donned his invisibility cloak and was making his way out of the castle, when it started raining. Though other wizards and witches might not be able to see Harry directly, they would be able to see a disturbance in the rain. Want to see something invisible? Provide a medium and look for the disturbance within it.
It has been speculated that Colonel Dani tapped into the country’s cell phone network then looked for, found and targeted such a disturbance. But how would they pull this off? Would a stealth fighter, or any plane cause a visible disturbance in the RF field? If so, how do you detect it?
Theory 4 – Your Turn
How would
you
detect a stealth aircraft? | 207 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "1719097",
"author": "DKay (@Futuneral)",
"timestamp": "2014-08-15T17:06:11",
"content": "“Sorry, we didn’t know it was invisible, so we just shot it down”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1719956",
"author": "c!co",
... | 1,760,376,099.924878 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/15/astronaut-or-astronot-somebody-won-something/ | Astronaut Or Astronot: Somebody Won Something! | Brian Benchoff | [
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"astronaut or astronot",
"the hackaday prize",
"too cool for Kickstarter"
] | It’s time once again for our weekly installment of people complaining about
our community voting system for The Hackaday Prize
! The theme this week – as it was last week – is ‘too cool for Kickstarter’. We’re looking for projects that are so awesome they would never see any mainstream appeal. If you’re still wondering what we mean by that, if
this amazing project
doesn’t make the top ten in this round of voting, I’ll be terribly disappointed.
Just like last week, we’re trying to give away a goodie bag of programmers, dev boards, and essential bench tools (
prize list here
) to someone on hackaday.io
who has voted for a project that is too cool for Kickstarter
.
This week
one of you
got lucky. Because [Eric] is such a good sport and was kind enough to click a few buttons during this round of community voting, we’re sending him a boat load of dev boards, all the programmers he’ll ever need, a meter that will last him for the rest of his life, and a pretty good power supply. Awesome.
Now go congratulate him
.
There’s only five days left until the cutoff,
so get your project into The Hackaday Prize
. At this stage the requirements are extremely minimal,
and you can knock everything out in a few hours
. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1718869",
"author": "M",
"timestamp": "2014-08-15T15:06:24",
"content": "I’d love to vote, but posting to the setVote url on the vote page is giving a 500. Never sure if it’s our crappy filtered work network or not, so I’ll try at home later.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1... | 1,760,376,102.140622 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/15/hacking-vga-for-trippy-video-effects/ | Hacking VGA For Trippy Video Effects | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"synthesizer",
"vga",
"video",
"visualization",
"Waveform Generator"
] | Ever since flat panel LCD monitors came on the scene, most old CRTs have found their ways into the garbage or into the backs of closets. For this project, it might be a good idea to pull out the old monitor or TV out and dust it off! [James] has found a way to hack the VGA input to these devices to get them to
display vivid visualizations based on an audio input
.
The legacy hardware-based project is called RGB.VGA.VOLT and works by taking an audio signal as an input, crossing some wires, and sending the signal through a synthesizer. The circuit then creates a high-frequency waveform that works especially well for being displayed on VGA. The video can also be channeled back through an audio waveform generator to create a unique sound to go along with the brilliant colors.
[James]’s goals with this project are to generate an aesthetic feeling with his form of art and to encourage others to build upon his work. To that end, he has released the project under an open license, and the project is thoroughly documented on his project site.
There have been plenty of hacks in the past that have
implemented other protocols with VGA
or
implemented VGA on microcontrollers
, but none that have hacked the interface entirely to create something that looks like the Star Gate sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey. We think it’s a great piece of modern art and a novel use of VGA!
Thanks for the tip, [Kyle]! | 9 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1718934",
"author": "syntroniks",
"timestamp": "2014-08-15T15:43:23",
"content": "Repost:http://hackaday.com/2006/11/09/analog-video-synth/:D I’m a long-time reader",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1718938",
"author": "syntro... | 1,760,376,101.764889 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/15/retro-time-tech-fran-and-pocket-watches/ | Retro Time Tech: [Fran] And Pocket Watches | Marsh | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"pocket watch",
"pocketwatch",
"regulation",
"watch"
] | Whether you own a pocket watch, want to own one, or just plain think they’re cool, [Fran’s]
video on setting and regulating pocket watches
provides a comprehensive overview on these beautiful works of mechanical art. After addressing the advantages and disadvantages between stem, lever, and key set watches, [Fran] cracks open her 1928 Illinois to reveal the internals and to demonstrate how to adjust the regulator.
Though she doesn’t dive into a full teardown, there’s plenty of identification and explanation of parts along the way. To slow her watch down a tad, [Fran] needed to turn a
very
tiny set screw about a quarter of a turn counterclockwise, slowing down the period: an adjustment that requires a fine jewelers screwdriver, a delicate touch, and a lot of patience. Results aren’t immediately discernible, either. It takes a day or two to observe whether the watch now keeps accurate time.
Stick around for the video after the jump, which also includes an in-depth look at a 1904 Elgin watch, its regulator and other key components. | 16 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1718473",
"author": "nixieguy",
"timestamp": "2014-08-15T11:29:30",
"content": "So many steampunkers should learn things like this…Anyhoe it’s good to have some Fran back :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1718506",
"author"... | 1,760,376,102.042502 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/15/sprite-graphics-accelerator-on-an-fpga/ | Sprite Graphics Accelerator On An FPGA | Eric Evenchick | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"2d",
"fpga",
"game",
"lcd",
"sprites",
"stm32"
] | Graphics accelerators move operations to hardware, where they can be executed much faster. This is what allows your Raspberry Pi to display high definition video decently. [Andy]’s latest build is a 2D sprite engine, featuring hardware
accelerated graphics on an FPGA
.
In the simplest mode, the sprite engine just passes commands through to the LCD. This allows for basic control. The fun part sprite mode, which allows for sprites to be loaded onto the FPGA. At that point, you can show, hide, and move the sprite. By overlapping many sprites, you something like the demo shown above.
The FPGA is from Xilinx, and uses their Block RAM IP to store the state of the sprites. The actual sprite data is contained on a 128 Mb external flash chip, since they require significant space.
The game logic runs on a STM32 Cortex M4 microcontroller which communicates with the FPGA and orders the sprites around. The FPGA then deals with generating frames and sending them to the LCD screen, freeing up the microcontroller.
If you’re wondering about the LCD itself, it’s 3.2″, 640 x 360, and taken from a Ericsson U5 Vivaz cellphone. [Andy] has a detailed
writeup on reverse engineering
it. After the break, he gives us a video overview of the whole system. | 16 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1718242",
"author": "agop",
"timestamp": "2014-08-15T09:11:50",
"content": "It’d be impressive if he’d done it on an 8-bit AVR or PIC, now it’s just another “meh” project.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1718376",
"aut... | 1,760,376,101.871793 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/14/circuit-printer-doubles-as-a-pick-and-place/ | Circuit Printer Doubles As A Pick And Place | Eric Evenchick | [
"Crowd Funding",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"bga",
"crowdfunding",
"flexible PCB",
"kickstarter",
"pcb",
"prototyping"
] | Prototyping circuits is still a pain. The typical process is to order your PCBs, await their arrival, hand assemble a board, and start testing. It’s time consuming, and typically takes at least a week to go from design to prototype.
The folks at BotFactory are working on fixing that with the
Squink
(Kickstarter warning). This device not only prints PCBs, but also functions as a pick and place. Rather than using solder, the device uses conductive glue to affix components to the substrate.
This process also allows for a wide range of substrates. Traditional FR4 works, but glass and flexible substrates can work too. They’re also working on using an insulating ink for multilayer boards.
While there are PCB printers out there, and the
home etching process
always works, building the board is only half the battle. Hand assembly using smaller components is slow, and is prone to mistakes. If this device is sufficiently accurate, it could let us easily prototype complex packages such as BGAs, which are usually a pain.
Of course it has its limitations. The minimum trace width is 10 mils, which is a bit large. Also at $2600, this is an expensive device to buy sight unseen. While it is a Kickstarter, it’d be nice to see an all in one device that can prototype circuits quickly and cheaply. | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1717892",
"author": "Miklos Marton",
"timestamp": "2014-08-15T06:50:06",
"content": "Measuring the printed sheet resistance with a Radioshack DMM says something about the project and the team seriousity…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"com... | 1,760,376,102.100607 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/14/bubble-displays-are-increasing-in-resolution/ | Bubble Displays Are Increasing In Resolution | Rich Bremer | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"3d display",
"bubble",
"bubble display",
"linux"
] | [Bruce] has created a pretty cool
bubble display
that is capable of showing recognizable photographs of people. This entire art installation is no slouch at 3-stories tall! This one resides at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto, Canada. If you are unfamiliar with bubble displays, they consist of several clear vertical tubes filled with a liquid. A pneumatic solenoid valve mounted at the bottom of each tube allows a controlled amount of air to enter the tube at a very specific time. Since the air weighs less than the liquid, the air bubble travels up the tube of liquid. Interesting patterns can be made if these bubbles are timed correctly. This setup uses a
Linux-based computer
with custom control software to manipulate the valves.
[Bruce] didn’t start off making super-complex bubble displays. This is actually his 3rd go-around and with 96 individual tubes and capable of displaying raster images, it is the most complicated so far. His first creation consisted of 16 tubes, each larger in diameter than the most recent creation. With the larger diameter and less number of tubes came less resolution and the ability to only display simple shapes. Version 2 had twice as many tubes, 32 this time. In addition to doubling the tube quantity [Bruce] also colored the fluid in the tubes, not all the same color but all the colors of the rainbow, from red to violet. Still, this version could not show raster images. It appears to us that the
third time’s the charm
! Video after the break….
If you’re interested in more DIY-friendly bubble displays, check out this
60-tube build with RGB’s
or this
3 dimensional
bubble display.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhhnBgFOtg0 | 14 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1717211",
"author": "sw~ (@asan110)",
"timestamp": "2014-08-15T02:23:29",
"content": "Ah, I’ve seen his original one at the MN Science museum. I didn’t realize they had mineral oil in them, I remembered the bubbles moving much faster. Now that makes me want to try something similar ... | 1,760,376,101.821623 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/14/thp-entry-a-433mhz-packet-cloner/ | THP Entry: A 433MHz Packet Cloner | Brian Benchoff | [
"Radio Hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"433MHz",
"frame",
"frame cloner",
"ISM",
"on off keying",
"OOK",
"radio",
"the hackaday prize"
] | The first generation of The Internet Of Things™ and Home Automation devices are out in the wild, and if there’s one question we can ask it’s, “
why hasn’t anyone built a simple cracking device for them”.
Never fear, because [texane] has your back with
his cheap 433MHz OOK frame cloner
.
A surprising number of the IoT and Home Automation devices on the market today use 433MHz radios, and for simplicity’s sake, most of them use OOK encoding. [Texane]’s entry for THP is a simple device with two buttons: one to record OOK frames, and a second to play them back.
Yes, this project can be replicated with fancy software defined radios, but [Texane]’s OOKlone costs an order of magnitude less than the (actually very awesome) HackRF SDR. He says he can build it for less than $20, and with further refinements to the project it could serve as a record and play swiss army knife for anything around 433MHz. Video demo of the device in action below. | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1716784",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2014-08-15T00:23:50",
"content": "TV-B-Gone just got some competition!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1717668",
"author": "TacticalNinja",
"timestamp": "2014-08-1... | 1,760,376,104.753285 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/14/worlds-most-expensive-industrial-pipe-cover/ | World’s Most Expensive Industrial Pipe Cover | James Hobson | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"Asylum",
"crystal LEDs",
"LED fixture",
"LED sculpture"
] | It’s not hard to get HaD’s attention when you cram 1000’s of RGB LEDs into a single project. In fact,
this funky crystal pipe
has over 9000 of them!
The rather unique project was privately commissioned to cover up an exposed pipe in a new building. It seems like a bit of overkill to us, but the
engineers at Asylum
were more than excited to deliver. The pipe covering features 2,912 control modules for the RGB LEDs and are controlled by a dedicated Linux PC built into the installment. A website was created to allow the client to control the lights from any computer or mobile device.
Each crystal shard was individually glued to the surface (there’s around 3000 of them!) using UV hardening glue. It was a painstakingly slow process, but well worth the result as it looks like it’s out of Superman’s Fortress of Solitude!
If the people commissioning this project have any more funding maybe they should throw
one of these
in another room!
[Via
TheCreatorsProject
] | 38 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1716230",
"author": "Keegan",
"timestamp": "2014-08-14T20:02:59",
"content": "ITS OVER 9000!!!!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiMHTK15Pik",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1717025",
"author": "Mateus",
"timestamp... | 1,760,376,101.988921 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/14/chris-anderson-joins-the-hackaday-prize-as-an-orbital-judge/ | [Chris Anderson] Joins The Hackaday Prize As An Orbital Judge | Mike Szczys | [
"Featured",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"chris anderson",
"judge",
"orbital judge",
"ted",
"TheHackadayPrize"
] | [Chris Anderson] has had many labels in his lifetime: Punk rocker. Technology editor. Best selling author. UAV enthusiast. CEO. He now will also be able to add “Space Enabler” to that list as he joins
The Hackaday Prize
as an “Orbital Judge”. He will be on the panel choosing the Grand Prize winner (space-goer) from the list of five finalists. He joins the cast of “Launch Judges” who will be narrowing from 50 semifinalists down to 5.
Chances are that you already know [Chris] in one way or another. His book
Free: The Future of a Radical New Price
was an early analysis of how free and freemium models are changing the way that businesses connect with customers. On the hardware side of things he is the author of
The Long Tail
and
Makers
, both of which discuss the specialty hardware market that we so often explore around here. He has been an editor for Nature, Science, and The Economist. He served as the Editor in Chief of Wired for nearly 10 years, and most recently he started
DIYdrones
, the 50K+ member community that works on open source software and hardware for UAVs and RC controlled flyers. This spawned a company called
3DRobotics
, of which he is the co-founder and CEO. 3DR continues to push the frontier of Open Source Hardware for hobbyists and professional drone users.
If you’ve been on the fence until now, this should convince you to take an afternoon to enter your project idea. You have until August 20th to document your concept of an Open, Connected device. Entry is easy and requires only that you outline your idea with a 2-minute video, proposed system diagram, and four project logs which may discuss different aspects of your plan. If you make the first cut of 50 in August, you’ll already be a winner of at the least a $1000 grab-bag of electronics. You’ll also be well on your way having [Chris] study your work as you advance to a functional prototype in November.
Want a step-by-step view of
putting together an entry in under 4 minutes
? | 12 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1715882",
"author": "Waterjet",
"timestamp": "2014-08-14T17:16:16",
"content": "Chris, not sure if you will be reading comments or not but I thoroughly enjoyed your book Makers. Thank you for being a part of the judging panel as well by the way. I wanted to get your opinion on open ... | 1,760,376,101.917522 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/14/scribble-wait-kickstarter-is-vetting-projects-now/ | Scribble: Wait, Kickstarter Is Vetting Projects Now? | Brian Benchoff | [
"Crowd Funding"
] | [
"Crowd Funding",
"crowdfunding",
"kickstarter",
"pen"
] | First rule of reading anything: if a headline is an interrogative, the answer is a resounding ‘no’. This might be the one exception to that rule.
This Kickstarter
is actually fairly interesting. Not because it’s an obvious scam, mind you, as there’s very, very little to actually call a scam. It’s noteworthy because it was on track to be a highly successful campaign but
it
was shut down by the creators just days after its launch.
Before getting to the unsavoriness of this Kickstarter campaign, a little bit of history is in order. Several years ago and before crowd funding was a thing, a designer came up with a rather clever if completely improbable idea:
a color picking pen
. Simply hold the end of a pen up to an object, press a button, and using technology and/or magic the pen now writes in that color. There are obvious shortcomings in the design like using red, green, and blue ink cartridges for color mixing – a classic case of confusing additive and subtractive color models. Still, this is just a design concept and over the years the idea of a color sensing pen that mixes ink has bounced around the Internet. With enough people willing to throw money at their screens in the hopes of actually getting a product as interesting as this, you just
know
it’s going to be on Kickstarter sooner or later.
Enter the Scribble Pen
. Yes, it’s the same idea as the 5+ year-old color picking pen, with a few of the technical challenges already addressed. They’re using a CMYK (plus White) color model that can theoretically reproduce just about any color, and do so on any color paper. How are they doing this? I have no idea, but the whole campaign is super, super sketchy.
Above you see a screencap of the Scribble Kickstarter on launch day, with $112,000 already in the bank. It has all the markings of a very successful campaign; completely funded in five hours, a slick video, a great story, and wildly popular with the press. They were featured by Huff Po, VentureBeat, most of the Gawker empire, and… wait, Hackaday? How did we end up there?
Oh,
this is why
. A Hackaday links post where I point out how sketchy their project is. That really doesn’t help them in the, ‘try not to be sketchy’ department.
I’ll be honest. The Scribble pen has been on my radar for a while now, and I’ve been wanting to do the complete deconstruction of this already-failed Kickstarter. Why? Because the specs on this pen are insane.
On the now-cancelled Kickstarter, the specs in the pen are extremely ambiguous, listing the processor inside the pen as simply, ‘an ARM.’ There’s nothing wrong with this, as you can find ARM microcontrollers that will fit on the head of a pin or the body of a pen.
The Wayback Machine archive
of the Scribble website is a little more specific: they’re planning to use an ARM 9 processor. This is just a guess,
but I think they mean ARM9
, also known as the kind of processor you would put in a phone, or something that requires a lot of computing power. A color sensing pen, if you can get around the mechanics of dispensing ink in a very small form factor, would never need a processor that powerful. It’s like using a Lamborghini to go to the supermarket.
Actually, no. It’s the complete opposite of picking up some groceries in a Lambo. It’s highly improbable an ARM9 will fit in this pen. It’s like using a dump truck to go to a supermarket.
According to the archive.org cache, the diameter of the Scribble pen is 15mm. The smallest ARM9-based CPU I can find is the Atmel SAM9260, a 217-LFBGA package that is 15mm square. There are references of a 10mm square ARM9 BGA package
.
Add in the wall thickness of the pen, the board the processor is mounted to, and the Scribble design is really, really close to an impossibility. That’s notwithstanding the absurd choice in processor, or the challenges of dispensing five colors of ink in such a small device.
I held off on posting anything about the Scribble until now because I was waiting for the team to get back to me. I emailed them last Monday, asking them about the apparent change in chip choice between the archive.org cache and the now-defunct Kickstarter. They didn’t get back to me; somewhat surprising because we’re apparently we have coat tails cool enough to ride on. Since then, Kickstarter sent an ultimatum. This is directly from the people behind the Scribble pen:
Dear Backers,
With your amazing support, we reached and surpassed our initial goal within 5 hours.
In view of the many requests to better see and understand how the Scribble Pen and Scribble Stylus works, we are currently shooting another video in more depth which will be available sometime next week .
However, We received an email from kickstarter dated 08/12/14 requesting a new and more illustrative video within 24 hours, so we had to cancel the project with hopes of restarting it again with a much more detailed video.
Yes, apparently Kickstarter does do some vetting of projects. Scribble will be back again once these guys can shoot some more video. It’s not like you can easily fake this sort of thing. Oh wait. You can.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0utewCzdF4
At the time this Kickstarter was cancelled, the Scribble team was sitting on $366,000, with a few projections saying they would see about $5 Million by the time the campaign was over. I’m actually somewhat impressed the Scribble team
didn’t
decide to ‘fix it in post’, if you will, and continue the campaign. Don’t worry. They’ll be back, and next time they can legitimately use the Hackaday logo in their campaign. | 102 | 45 | [
{
"comment_id": "1715483",
"author": "Telepath",
"timestamp": "2014-08-14T14:13:36",
"content": "That video is hillarious. Thanks for that laugh :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1715485",
"author": "Michel Luczak",
"timestamp": "2014-0... | 1,760,376,102.27561 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/14/defcon-22-the-badge-designers/ | DEFCON 22: The Badge Designers | Mike Szczys | [
"cons",
"Featured",
"Interviews"
] | [
"badge",
"defcon",
"defcon 22",
"j0nnyM@c",
"LosT",
"p8x32a",
"parallax"
] | If you go to DEFCON next year (and you should), prepare for extreme sleep deprivation. If you’re not sleep deprived you’re doing it wrong. This was the state in which we ran into [LosT] and [J0nnyM@c], the brains behind the DEFCON 22 badge and all of the twisted tricks that torture people trying to solve the badge throughout the weekend. They were popular guys but wait around until late into the night and the throngs of hint-seekers subside just a bit.
Plans, within plans, within plans are included in the “crypto” which [LosT] talks about in the interview above. We were wondering how hard it is to produce a badge that is not only electrically perfect, but follows the planned challenge to a ‘T’. This includes things like holding off soldering mask from some pads, and different ones on a different version of the badge. Turns out that you just do as well as you can and then alter the puzzle to match the hardware.
Speaking of hardware. A late snafu in the production threw the two into a frenzy of redesign. Unable to use the planned chip architecture, [J0nnyM@c] stepped up to transition the badges over to Propeller P8X32a chips, leveraging a relationship with Parallax to ensure they hardware could be manufactured in time for the conference.
If you haven’t put it together yet, this is that
same chip that Parallax just made Open Source
. The announcement was timed to coincide with DEFCON. | 16 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1715333",
"author": "six677",
"timestamp": "2014-08-14T13:00:50",
"content": "What would have been really neat (and prohibitively expensive) would have been to use an FPGA with the propeller verilog onboard rather than an actual propeller chip. Good luck cracking the badge when you ... | 1,760,376,102.494973 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/14/a-raspberry-pi-helmet-cam-with-gps-logging/ | A Raspberry Pi Helmet Cam With GPS Logging | Matt Terndrup | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"encoder",
"FPV",
"mencoder",
"picamera",
"raspberry pi",
"snowboarding",
"video"
] | Over the last 20 years, [Martin] has been recording snowboarding runs with a standard helmet cam. It was good but he felt like he could improve upon the design by
building his own version
and logging additional data values like speed, temperature, altitude, and GPS. In the video shown after the break, a first person perspective is displayed with a GPS overlay documenting the paths that were taken through the snow. [Martin] accomplished this by using a python module called
picamera
to start the video capture and writing the location to a data file. He then modified the program to read the current frame number and sync GPS points to an exact position in the video.
MEncoder
is used to join the images together into one media file.
The original design was based on the
Raspberry Pi GPS Car Dash Cam
[Martin] developed a few months earlier. The code in this helmet cam utilizes many of the same functions surrounding the gathering of GPS data points, recording video, and generating the overlay. What made this project different though were the challenges involved. For example, a camera inside a car rarely has to deal with extreme drops in temperature or the wet weather conditions of a snowy mountain. The outside of the vehicle may get battered from the snow, but the camera remains relatively safe from exposure. In order to test the Raspberry Pi before venturing into the cold, [Martin] stuck the computer in the freezer to see what would happen. Luckily it worked perfectly.
Click past the break for the rest of the story.
Another obstacle [Martin] encountered was circumnavigating around a bug in the Raspberry Pi custom Linux kernel which caused the camera to fail when using a 1-wire sensor at the same time. Reverting to an older kernel version fixed the problem allowing him to hook up a temperature sensor to record the data.
Once everything was in place, [Martin] tried his helmet cam out on the slopes. Surprisingly, the Pi powered system was more robust than he expected. He was able to capture hours of footage within a week’s time with few issues. The only component that failed was a micro USB power cable that split. This caused the Raspberry Pi to continuously reboot, shorting out, and ultimately leading to a corrupt file system.
The overall outcome is a great combination of GPS tracking, environment sensing, and video recording. This type of design can be transitioned to work in motorcycle helmets and other sporting equipment. We see potential of this system being integrated into scuba diving, dirt biking, and football playing (among other things); all of which gives people a chance to step into the perspective of these athletes.To see what it is like to be flying down a snowy mountain, check out [Martin]’s video below: | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1715188",
"author": "NATO",
"timestamp": "2014-08-14T11:41:25",
"content": "He could also have gone out and spent $50-$150 (depending on if he wanted SD or HD) and bought a commercial solution which logs all of this and is about 5x smaller. I wouldn’t want to carry around that much... | 1,760,376,102.815061 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/13/an-open-hardware-platform-for-ecg-eeg-and-other-measurements/ | An Open Hardware Platform For ECG, EEG And Other Measurements | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"ecg",
"eeg",
"electrocardiography",
"electroencephalography",
"emg",
"ENG",
"eog",
"medical"
] | [Eric] tipped us about the
OpenHarwareExG
project which goal is to build a device that allows the creation of electrophysiological signal processing applications. By the latter they mean
electrocardiography
(ECG, activity of the heart),
electroencephalography
(EEG, signals on the scalp),
electromyography
(EMG, skeletal muscles activity),
electronystagmography
and
electrooculography
(ENG & EOG, eye movements) monitoring projects. As you can guess these signals are particularly hard to measure due to their small amplitude and therefore susceptibility to electrical noise.
The ADS1299 8-channel 24-bit analog front end used in this platform is actually electrically isolated from the rest of the circuit so the USB connection wouldn’t perturb measurements. An Arduino-compatible ATSAM3X microcontroller is used and all the board is “DIY compatible” as all parts can be sourced in small quantities and soldered by hand. Even the case is open source, being laser cut from acrylic.
Head to the project’s website to download all the source files and see a quick video of the system in action.
Interested in measuring the body’s potential? Check out an
ECG that’s nice enough to let you know you have died
, or this
Android based wireless
setup. | 19 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1714896",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2014-08-14T09:03:36",
"content": "If it can be certified great, otherwise we will still have to use very expensive “blessed” gear. Medical and even educational electronics seem to be made of unobtainium and delivered by gravy train.",
... | 1,760,376,102.936367 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/13/diy-custom-molded-earbud-roundup/ | DIY Custom Molded Earbud Roundup | Adam Fabio | [
"Portable Audio Hacks"
] | [
"Canalphone",
"earbuds",
"headphone",
"IEM",
"In Ear Monitor",
"ipod",
"mp3",
"Walkman"
] | Headphones have become ubiquitous these days. Thanks to the iPod and the smartphone, it’s become commonplace to see someone wearing a pair of earbud style headphones. Earbuds aren’t always comfortable though. On some people they are too loose. On others, the fit is so tight that they cause pain.To that end, we’ve found a few great solutions for this problem.
[cptnpiccard] has documented his
custom molded Sugru earbuds
in an Imgur gallery. He’s molded a pair of standard earbuds into a cast of his ear. He uses them both for hearing protection and tunes while skydiving.
Sugru’s FAQ
states that while the cured material is safe for skin contact (and in ear use) some people are sensitive to the uncured material.
While discussing his project on
Reddit
, a few users chimed in and mentioned they’ve made custom molded earbuds using
Radians custom earplug
kits. The Radians material hardens up in only 10 minutes, which beats waiting an hour for Sugru.
The absolute top of the food chain has to be
building your own triple driver in ear monitors
, which is exactly what [marozie] has done. Professional custom molded monitors can cost over $1000, which puts them in the realm of professional musicians and audiophiles. [marozie] discovered that mouser stocks quite a few transducers from
Knowles
. These tiny speakers don’t come cheap, though; you can spend upwards of $70 just for a single driver.
[marozie] took a cast of his ear using an earmold impression kit. He used this cast to create a mold. From there it was a matter of pouring resin over his carefully constructed driver circuits and audio tubes. The resulting monitors look and sound incredible.
It goes without saying that making custom in ear monitors involves putting chemicals into you ears. The custom earmold kits come with tiny dams to keep the mold material from going in too far and causing damage. This is one of those few places where we recommend following the instructions. Click past the break to see a demo video of the ear molding process.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiqFiLIVrB8 | 38 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1713984",
"author": "barry99705",
"timestamp": "2014-08-14T02:34:53",
"content": "I used the mold your own silicone ear plugs material. Works really well. Used a pair of earbuds that I lost a tip on.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_... | 1,760,376,103.01245 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/13/gutenberg-clock-keeps-time-by-reading-books/ | Gutenberg Clock Keeps Time By Reading Books | Eric Evenchick | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"books",
"clock",
"fat",
"gps",
"Gutenberg",
"nist",
"Project Gutenberg",
"reading"
] | We’ve seen a wide variety of hacks that keep time, but [ch00f]’s latest build takes a new spin on counting the seconds. The
Gutenberg Clock
keeps time by reading books on a scrolling LED screen.
The content for the clock is sourced from the
Project Gutenberg
, which releases books with expired copyright for free. The library on the clock consists of around twenty thousand such books. Read at eighty words per minute, the clock won’t repeat a passage for the next thirty-three years.
While the clock doesn’t display time itself, it is synchronized to time. Two identical clocks should display the same text at the same time. To get the time, [ch00f] first tried hacking apart a cheap radio clock, which is synchronized to NIST’s 60 kHz broadcast. After reverse engineering the protocol with great success, stray RF energy from the display turned out to cause too much interference.
With the cheap solution out the window, [ch00f] built a custom breakout for an
Adafruit GPS module
and used it to get the time. This was his first RF board, but it worked out fine.
Books are loaded onto a FAT filesystem on an SD card, and [ChaN]’s
FatFS
is used to interpret the filesystem. A microcontroller then sends the text out at a constant rate to a serial port on the display which he hacked his way into.
The project is a neat mix of art and electronics. Stick around for a video overview after the break. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1713342",
"author": "pcf11",
"timestamp": "2014-08-13T23:19:01",
"content": "Just when I’ve thought I’ve seen the stupidest stuff imaginable something like this comes along to show me that I haven’t seen anything yet.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{... | 1,760,376,103.444271 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/13/vr-bowling-game-combines-an-oculus-rift-with-a-wii-remote/ | VR Bowling Game Combines An Oculus Rift With A Wii Remote | Matt Terndrup | [
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"dk1",
"oculus rift",
"wii remote hack"
] | [marclar83] was given an Oculus Rift so that he could prepare for an upcoming conference presentation. He began to download demos, getting familiar with the VR interface but was disappointed to find out that someone hadn’t developed a good virtual reality bowling experience yet. This prompted him to design a
VR game that integrates a Wii Remote
, recording the movements of the controller and sending accelerometer data to his computer.
The game he created is similar to
Wii Sports Bowling
but with the added bonus of being immersed in a virtual world with the Oculus Rift. The D-pad on the Wii Remote was programmed to switch stances and bowling methods, allowing the user to choose whether they want to throw the ball down the middle or curve it a long the way. Pressing the trigger button on the back started the swinging motion, and when released, the bowling ball shot down the alley at a high rate of speed crashing into the pins at the end.
Because the game was designed on the original DK1, the resolution of the images was a challenge that needed to be addressed, but [marclar83] solved this problem by implementing two user interfaces on the side of the screen that showed replays and depicted how many pins remained; proving to be a better experience for the gamer. This free public alpha version was made available for Windows, Mac, and Linux on the
official VRBowling website
. A video describing the project can be seen below. | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1713166",
"author": "nyder",
"timestamp": "2014-08-13T21:47:06",
"content": "Not impressed. Bowling in a Tempest looking graphics situation doesn’t seem right to me. I don’t find this much improvement over the VR from the 90’s. Wood floor bowling lanes, look around and see othe... | 1,760,376,102.856497 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/13/hydroforming-in-the-garage-with-a-pressure-washer/ | Hydroforming In The Garage With A Pressure Washer | James Hobson | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"colin furze",
"DIY hydroforming",
"hydroforming",
"pressure washer hack"
] | Ever heard of hydroforming? It’s a manufacturing process used to form sheet metal into shapes using water at extremely high pressures. Not something you can do at home…
unless of course you’re [Colin Furze].
Hydroforming
works by evenly distributing pressure via water (conveniently, in-compressible) against sheet metal inside of a mold. Many automotive parts are created in this fashion. Typical systems run at around 15,000 PSI.
After building a giant pulse jet engine (complete with butt)
to fart on France
, [Colin] got the idea from a YouTube comment to try to do hydroforming at home — bending the sheet metal for the giant derriere wasn’t that easy. Hydroforming on the other hand is a surprisingly simple process. Weld some sheet metal together, add a pipe fitting to connect your cheap pressure washer and boom — hydoformed metal parts.
Whoa — aren’t we missing a step here? Typical hydroforming uses a mold to push the sheet metal against in order to form a shape. [Colin’s] first attempts are mold-less which limits the complexity of parts he’s able to form — although he is able to make a pretty nice conical exhaust for his souped up mobility scooter…
In the next video he promises to make something very functional out of the process so we’re excited to see what he comes up with. It might be feasible to make molds using concrete, so that may be a possibility.
Don’t forget your safety tie if you’re going to try this! | 74 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1712704",
"author": "Michael",
"timestamp": "2014-08-13T17:01:39",
"content": "This was once demonstrated by the Mythbusters to make their ancient water-surface torpedo.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1712712",
"author": "J... | 1,760,376,103.319124 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/13/hackerspace-tours-pasadena-city-college/ | Hackerspace Tours: Pasadena City College | Matt Terndrup | [
"Featured",
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"Deezmaker",
"education",
"hackerspaces",
"pasadena city college",
"pcc"
] | Pasadena City College is putting together an amazing combination of tools, education techniques, and innovative projects pinning them on the map as
one of the best hackerspaces in the Southern California area
. Led by [Deborah Bird], the Director of the Design Technology Pathway at PCC, and Sandy Lee the DTP Faculty Chair, this Fab Lab provides students with cutting-edge workshops and internships that will define future jobs.
We were invited to the space by Joan Horvath, the VP of Business Development over at a
local 3D printing store called Deezmaker
, after meeting her at an Arduino electronics class taught by a young, talented maker named [Quin]. When we arrived, we were greeted by several students who were working on a 3D printed portable map for the blind which was created for an elementary school nearby. The team behind the design attempted to step out of the visual world and into unfamiliar unsighted territory. One of the members gave us a tour of the space showing us the tools and resources they had made available to PCC students. A variety of 3D printers, ventilators, CNC machines, laser cutters, metal lathes, and even a chainsaw were found inside.
After checking out the machines, Deborah Bird sat down with us for an interview to discuss the vision that PCC has for this innovative technology program. The focus, as she says, is centered around design and fabrication methods that help to prepare the students for their upcoming careers. The model is based on communication, collaboration, and team work through a series of project-based learning experiences. The technology is not taught as a standalone element, but rather an integral part of the design and fabrication process.
Backgrounds of the students range from incoming high school students, as well as the PCC engineering club and the machine shop department. About 45% of the members are Hispanic, and a lot of the students are first time college students. A good amount of the people coming in also have major financial obstacles, so it’s nice to see PCC attempting to solve those problems and cater to the students in a very personal way. In addition to allowing college members to utilize the resources, community access to the Fab Lab is something that they look to include in the future.
The funding model is based on a series of grants that have been received from the state and federal levels. A very small amount of money was given to the Fab Lab three years prior through an Innovation Fund at PCC which started the process of gathering the necessary tools. This bought them their very first laser cutter. They have also received a
Title V grant
because of the University’s commitment to serving the local Hispanic community. A lot of wraparound services are provided through this grant including tutoring, mentoring, a college success course, priority enrollment, lab facilities and the technology found in the Fab Lab. An advanced manufacturing grant and the
Career Pathways Trust grant
for information communication technology was also awarded to PCC providing them funding for the next 4-5 years.
It was pleasure visiting the Fab Lab, and we were able to capture some awesome photos which can be viewed below. All of the following pictures were taken by Jasmine Brackett (Hackaday’s Community Manager) during the tour: | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1712441",
"author": "RandyKC",
"timestamp": "2014-08-13T14:29:07",
"content": "Only in Cali would they have to get “ventilators” for their laser cutters. From the look of them I’d say they functioned way beyond what a HEPPA filtration system does.If they need some more space I’d be ... | 1,760,376,103.156033 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/13/homemade-bubble-robot-for-the-children/ | A Homemade Bubble Robot For The Kids | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"bubble machine",
"bubbles",
"children",
"kids",
"projects",
"soap"
] | Kids generally can be amused pretty easily, but when jangling keys stop holding their interest you might want to take a look at [drenehtsral]’s new project. He’s created an
automatic bubble robot
(YouTube link) that keeps the kids endlessly entertained!
The project started as an idea at a festival where one of [drenehtsral]’s kids took great interest at a bubble machine. [drenehtsral] had never heard of a bubble machine before, but it turns out that it’s pretty simple in practice. All that’s required is a tank of soapy water, a motor to turn the bubble wands, and a fan to form the bubbles and make them waft gently through the air.
[drenehtsral] also used a 12V battery for power, some other hardware to hold it all together, and a 5V regulator and some other control electronics for the fan and the motor. He notes that he could have bought a bubble machine but in true hacker style found it fun to build himself. The next step in this project could be
something to vary the size of the bubbles
, or perhaps a set of wheels for the robot so it can entertain the kids on the move! | 10 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1712345",
"author": "twibz",
"timestamp": "2014-08-13T13:37:51",
"content": "See while this might not be a difficult hack or whatever, his kids will see that you don’t have to just buy everything, you can make a lot of it yourself.This might well be the spark that makes these kids t... | 1,760,376,103.201241 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/13/upgrade-that-cheap-o-laser-cutter/ | Upgrade That Cheap-o Laser Cutter! | James Hobson | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"40 watt CO2 laser",
"Arduino Mega 2560",
"co2 laser upgrade",
"laser cutter upgrade",
"RAMPS 1.4"
] | Laser cutters are perhaps one of the most useful tools in a hackerspace’s arsenal of tools, rivaled only by 3D printers and CNC mills. The problem is they’re quite expensive — unless you get one of the cheap little ones from China that is! Unfortunately, you get what you pay for. Lucky for us though they
aren’t that hard to upgrade!
[Dan Beaven] just finished upgrading his 40W CO2 laser to use an Arduino Mega 2560 and RAMPS 1.4 — wanting to share his knowledge he’s posted a guide to help others do the same. The upgrade itself isn’t that difficult, although can be a bit messy for wiring. In the future [Dan] hopes to design a PCB with all the connectors so it’s as simple as plugging it into the RAMPS board.
To control the laser he’s using firmware from the Lansing Makers Network (
GitHub
) designed for use with marlin electronics. He’s modified it a bit for his own purposes (
Google Drive
) including a low output LASAR activation signal.The cool thing with setting up your laser with this hardware is that you can use
a laser output plugin right in Inkscape! | 44 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1711796",
"author": "0xfred",
"timestamp": "2014-08-13T08:44:00",
"content": "A great drop-in replacement for the indescribably awful Moshiboard is one from ChrisCircuits. In this case it gives you control from Mach3/LinuxCNC.http://www.chriscircuits.com/p/products.htmlI know these ... | 1,760,376,103.393315 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/12/electric-longboard-roundup/ | Electric Longboard Roundup | Marsh | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"electric skateboard",
"electric vehicle",
"ev",
"lipo",
"lithium battery",
"longboard",
"motorized longboard",
"Outrunner",
"skateboard"
] | Everybody and their grandmother is longboarding electric-style these days: here are some of the most recent developments in the world of kickless cruising.
First up, [comsa42] has punched up an
excellent step-by-step visual guide
for first-time EV hopefuls, detailing the basics of a battery-powered longboard setup and thoroughly explaining the particulars behind component choices. His build is relatively straightforward: combine a board with a low(ish) kV outrunner motor, some LiPo batteries, an ESC (Electronic Speed Controller), a transmitter/receiver, and a few custom parts for gearing and mounting. This build should be commended not only for its simplicity but also for its frugality: [comsa42] estimates a final cost of around only $300, which is a staggering difference from commercial alternatives such as the
Boosted Board
and newcomer
Marbel
.
[comsa42’s] other significant contribution is a low-key and low-cost cover to house the electronics. He simply fiberglassed a small enclosure to protect the expensive internals, then mounted and painted it to blend seamlessly with the rest of the deck. You can find loads of other useful goodies in his guide, including CAD files for the motor mounts and for the wheel assembly.
But wait, there’s more! Stick around after the jump for a few other builds that ditch traditional wheels in favor of a smoother alternative. There’s also a smattering of videos, including comsa42’s] guide overview and some excellent cruising footage of the other board builds doing what they do best.
If you’re serious about electric vehicle design of any kind, you’ll want to head over to the
forums at endless-sphere
, where you can find the tireless efforts of folks like [pyschotiller], who recently chose to deviate from the traditional skateboard wheel in favor of some beefier alternatives. His
build with all-terrain XT Wheels
offers a reasonable substitute, using off-the-shelf mountainboard parts to cushion his ride. Perhaps more interesting, though, is
his most recent setup
: [psychotiller] sourced some
6″ casters
and rigged them to fit his axles. Although the larger wheel meant a major adjustment to the gear ratio, the end result—a much smoother ride—was worth the effort. Videos of both boards are below.
No mention of EV longboard development would be complete, however, without checking in on [beetbocks], the engineer behind
Alien Drive Systems
. His initial push toward a smoother ride was
this “urban commuter” board
, which also used pneumatic wheels—but not casters. Instead, [beetbocks] sourced the parts from
roller skis (also known as Nordic Skates, or Skikes)
.
The 5″ Skike wheels are smaller than [psychotiller’s] casters and made for a more natural longboarding experience, but the plastic rims introduced a complication. Although they cushioned the ride, these larger wheels
wobbled horribly
(YouTube link).[beetbocks] solved the problem by machining his own custom wheels from scratch. Milled from solid billet 6082 alloy, these aluminum rims are carefully balanced, accept a normal skateboard bearing, and even weigh less than their plastic predecessors. [beetbocks’s] most recent design is a
6″ off-road interpretation
. Be sure to check out the videos that follow!
[comsa42’s] tutorial video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tHmGSwrgxA
[psychotiller’s] board with XT Wheels:
[psychotiller] blasting through the riverbed on the 6″ pneumatic board (with a friend riding the XT):
[beetbocks’s] Urban Commuter Board:
[Thanks Vlad] | 21 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1711709",
"author": "Indyaner",
"timestamp": "2014-08-13T08:04:43",
"content": "That looks affordable and kinda fun (and a bit risky, but then again, whats not).I’m amazed that this small Motor and only two batteries are able to power all this for 10 Km. I guess it is on a flat grou... | 1,760,376,103.505856 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/12/vrcades-the-nightmare-machine-kickstarter-campaign/ | VRcade’s The Nightmare Machine (Kickstarter Campaign) | Matt Terndrup | [
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"3D head scan",
"binaural",
"gaming",
"kickstarter",
"ocvr",
"virtual reality",
"vr",
"vrcade"
] | Aiming to be the leader in Virtual Reality horror experiences is the
immersive VR haunted house in Seattle called ‘The Nightmare Machine’
which promises to be one of the most terrifying events this Halloween. But they need some assistance raising money to achieve the type of scale on a large public level that the project is attempting. The goal is $70,000 within a 30 day period which is quite the challenge, and the team will need to hustle every single day in order to accomplish it.
Yet the focus of the project looks good though, which is to lower the massive barriers of entry in VR that are associated with high hardware costs and provide people with a terrifying 5 minutes of nightmare-inducing experiences. This type of fidelity and range is usually only seen in military research facilities and university labs, like the
MxR Lab at USC
. And, their custom-built head mounted displays bring out this technology into the reach of the public ready to scare the pants off of anyone willing to put on the VR goggles.
The headsets are completely wireless, multi-player and contain immersive binaural audio inside. A motion sensing system has also been integrated that can track movements of the users within hundreds of square feet. Their platform is a combination of custom in-house and 3rd party hardware along with a slick software framework. The technology looks amazing, and the prizes given out through the Kickstarter are cool too! For example, anyone who puts in $175 or more gets to have their head 3D scanned and inserted into the Nightmare Machine. The rest of the prices include tickets to the October showcase where demos of the VR experience will be shown.
Game Jams will be hosted at the VRcade headquarters in Seattle throughout the months of August, September, and October allowing indie game developers to create short, intelligently terrifying experiences that will debut in October at the opening event at the EMP Museum located right underneath the Space Needle. Already, Orange County VR held
the first Game Jam in Irvine, California
where several horrific experiences were manifested during a weekend long hackathon; including this
non-lethal electric chair
.
Overall, the Nightmare Machine has an extremely entertaining virtual reality experience that will be sure to gather some great user reactions. The Kickstarter goal is a little steep though, but VR games have had great success crowdfunding in the past. In addition, all the prizes over $1 include tickets to the VRCade. However, this is limited to those who can travel to the event in Seattle. Perhaps, they should release an update with some additional prizes that are more accessible to VR enthusiasts all over the world. For instance releasing some VR demos that are created during the Game Jams would give backers more incentive to support the project. And maybe a twist on the 3D scanning prize can be modified to include the names of backers somewhere in the game, like the credits, so they don’t have to travel to Seattle for data to be added. Either way, this virtual reality experience is worth supporting; especially after seeing what they have already accomplished so far. | 6 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "1711065",
"author": "chuck",
"timestamp": "2014-08-13T02:50:07",
"content": "Cool technology and I’d love to go out there and try it out, but what a liability nightmare. Four people with VR headsets running around a room sounds like an accident waiting to happen. Not only does this ... | 1,760,376,103.549713 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/11/flex-sensing-for-a-diy-data-glove/ | Flex Sensing For A DIY Data Glove | Matt Terndrup | [
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"Arduino Uno",
"data glove",
"flex sensor",
"minimu-9",
"pololu",
"power glove",
"virtual reality"
] | [Cyber] has been testing out intuitive input methods for virtual reality experiences that immerse the user further into the virtual world than archaic devices like a keyboard or mouse would allow. One of his biggest interests so far was the idea of a data glove that interacts with an Arduino Uno to interface with a PC. Since commercial products are yet to exist on a readily available level, [Cyber]
decided to build his own
.
He started out with a tiny inertial measurement unit called a
Pololu MinIMU-9 v2
that tracks orientation of the 3-axis gyro and accelerometer. The USB interface was soldered into place connecting the wires to an Arduino Uno. From there, he hooked up a flex sensor from Spectra Symbol (which were supposedly used in the
original Nintendo Power Gloves
) and demoed the project by tracking the movement of one of his fingers. As the finger bent, the output printed on the serial monitor changed.
[Cyber] still needs to mount a glove on this system and construct a proper positional tracking method so that physical movement will be mirrored in a simulation.
[Cyber’s] day job has had him busy these last few months, which has forced the project into a temporary hold. Recently though, [Cyber] has been an active member and an influence in the local
Orange County VR
scene helping to build a nice development culture, so we’re hoping to see more updates from him soon.
To view what he has done up to this point, click the link at the top of the page, and check out the video after the break: | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1708227",
"author": "Waterjet",
"timestamp": "2014-08-12T04:05:07",
"content": "The original Power Gloves were so bad.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1708784",
"author": "medix",
"timestamp": "2014-08-12T09:16... | 1,760,376,103.593184 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/11/raspberry-pi-backup-scripts/ | Raspberry Pi Backup Scripts | Rick Osgood | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"backup",
"ext4",
"fat",
"filesystem",
"linux",
"Pi",
"raspberry pi",
"Raspi",
"script",
"sd card"
] | [Matthew’s] recent
blog post
does a good job explaining the basics of the Raspberry Pi’s file system. The Linux operating system installed on a Pi is generally installed on two different partitions on an SD card. The first partition is a small FAT partition. All of the files on this partition are used for the initial booting of the Pi. This partition also includes the kernel images. The second partition is the root file system and is generally formatted as ext4. This partition contains the rest of the operating system, user files, installed programs, etc.
With that in mind you can deduce that in order to backup your Pi, all you really need to do is backup all of these files. [Matt] has written some scripts to make this a piece of cake (or pie). The first script will simply copy all of the files into a gzipped archive. You can save this to an external SD card, USB drive, or network share.
The second script is perhaps more interesting. This script requires that you have one free USB port and a USB SD card reader. The script will automatically format the extra SD card to contain the two critical partitions. It will then copy the “boot” files to the new boot partition and the root file system files to the new SD card’s root partition. When all is said and done, you will end up with an SD card that is an exact copy of your current running file system.
This can be very handy if you have multiple Pi’s that you want to run the same software, such as in a
Pi cluster
. Another good example is if you have spent a lot of time tweaking your Pi installation and you want to make a copy for a friend. Of course there are many ways to skin this cat, but it’s always fun to see something custom-built by a creative hacker. | 19 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1707557",
"author": "netbeard",
"timestamp": "2014-08-11T23:12:03",
"content": "Forgive me for missing the point, but how is this better than just making a full image of the SD card with either win32diskimager, or dd?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{... | 1,760,376,103.751835 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/11/self-assembling-origami-robots/ | Self-Assembling Origami Robots | Matt Terndrup | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"autonomous",
"mit",
"origami",
"robot",
"shrinky dinks"
] | MIT engineers have developed a technique to address the challenges involved in manufacturing robots at a cheap and accessible level. Like a plant folding out its petals, a protein folding into shape, or an insect unveiling its wings, this
autonomous origami design
demonstrated the ability for a mechanical creature to assemble itself and walk away. The technique opens up the possibility of unleashing swarms of flat robots into hard to reach places. Once on site, the robots mobilize from the ground up.
The team behind the project used flexible print circuit boards made out of paper and polystyrene, which is a synthetic aromatic polymer typically found in the commercially sold children’s toy Shrinky Dinks™. Each hinge had embedded circuits that were mechanically programmed to fold at certain angles. Heat was applied to the composite structure triggering the folding process. After about four minutes, the hinges would cool allowing the polystyrene to harden. Some issues did arise though during the initial design phase due to the amount of electrical current running the robots, which was ten times that of a regular light bulb. This caused the original prototypes to burn up before the construction operation was completed.
In the long-term, Core Faculty Member [Robert] would like to have a facility that would provide everyday robotic assistance to anyone in the surrounding community. This place would be accessible to everyone in the neighborhood helping to solve whatever problems might arise, which sounds awfully like a hackerspace to us. Whether the person required a device to detect gas leaks or a porch sweeping robot, the facility would be there to aid the members living nearby.
A video of [Robert] and [Sam] describing the project comes up after the break:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M1zNIVGrjM] | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1707230",
"author": "Nitpicker Smartyass",
"timestamp": "2014-08-11T21:02:14",
"content": "NOT self-assembling (title). The idea is to safe space. It is NOT about “self-replicating” or “self-assembling” robots like the press all over the world has been putting it for about a week no... | 1,760,376,103.807473 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/11/poor-audio-quality-made-great-listen-to-vintage-music-using-an-antique-radio-without-removing-the-insides/ | Poor Audio Quality Made Great: Listen To Vintage Music Using An Antique Radio Without Removing The Insides | Gregory L. Charvat | [
"Featured",
"Musical Hacks",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"audio",
"retrofit",
"vacuum tube audio",
"video"
] | Sometimes it is not how good but how bad your equipment reproduces sound. In a
previous hackaday post
the circuitry of a vintage transistor radio was removed so that a blue tooth audio source could be installed and wired to the speaker. By contrast, this post will show how to use the existing circuitry of a vintage radio for playing your own audio sources while at the same time preserving the radio’s functionality. You will be able to play your music through the radio’s own audio signal chain then toggle back to AM mode and listen to the ball game. Make a statement – adapt and use vintage electronics.
Pre-1950’s recordings sound noisy when played on a high-fidelity system, but not when played through a Pre-War console radio. An old Bing Crosby tune sounds like he is broadcasting directly into your living room with a booming AM voice. You do not hear the higher frequency ‘pops’ and ‘hiss’ that would be reproduced by high-fidelity equipment when playing a vintage recording. This is likely due to the fact that the audio frequency signal chain and speaker of an antique radio are not capable of reproducing higher frequencies. Similarly, Sam Cooke sounds great playing out of an earlier transistor radio. These recordings were meant to be played on radios from the era in which they were recorded.
Choosing an Antique Radio
Vintage radios can be found at garage sales, estate sales, hamfests, antique shops, antique radio swap meets, and Ebay. Millions of radios have been manufactured. People often give them away. For this reason, antique radios are relatively inexpensive and the vast majority are not rare or valuable.
Generally speaking, tube radios must be serviced and may not even work. Transistor radios often work to some level. Try to find a radio that is clean and uses a power supply transformer or batteries.
Click past the break to learn how to restore these radios to working condition
A word of caution with tube radios:
your radio must use a power supply transformer or batteries. For your own safety you cannot use a ‘hot chassis’ radio. ‘Hot chassis’ radios use un-polarized power cords, where one wire is connected directly to the metal chassis and the other to the rectifier providing B+ for the radio. Depending on which way the power cord happens to be plugged into the outlet, it is possible for the metal chassis to be wired directly to hot line voltage. Most post-war table-top tube radios are ‘hot chassis’ radios.
Basic Procedure
Locate where in the circuit the envelope detector ties into the first audio frequency stage. This is typically the first pin to right of wiper pin (bottom view, looking from inside radio to outside) on the volume potentiometer. Wire in a 3-way toggle switch to select between external audio source and radio. Some larger vintage radios have external audio inputs; in this case simply make an adaptor for the external input.
Transistor Radio
When I think transistor radio, something like the
Emerson Pioneer 888
comes to mind. This American-made radio was built in 1957 and uses 8 transistors featuring a push-pull audio output. The front looks like it was part of an AMF bowling alley. For $12 it was not a bad retro purchase.
Modify a vintage transistor radio so that your audio can be played through its amplifier & speaker while maintaining its original AM radio functionality.
Rather than fitting a toggle switch to this radio, I modified its ear phone jack to receive an audio input rather than feed an audio output. The neat feature of the ear phone jack on these radios is that it has a built-in switch. When something is plugged in this switch opens up. I used this feature by feeding the low level audio from the AM detector through this switch and out to the volume potentiometer. When you plug in your audio source, the AM signal is opened and your source is then fed to the volume potentiometer. When you remove your audio source it goes back to being an AM radio. See the schematic below for details:
Rather than drill hole in the radio, use its ear phone jack as both the audio input and switch-over from AM to input mode.
Console Radio:
The
Collin B. Kennedy model 20 B
is an early console radio built in 1929. Its front cover boasts that it is the ‘Royalty of Radios.’ It uses a tuned radio frequency (TRF) architecture that is significantly different from modern receivers.
Conveniently, this radio provides a phonograph input that is not RIAA compensated. Many console radios have this feature. It provides a high impedance connection directly into the radio’s audio amplifier allowing for the connection of an iPod or other audio device. I wired a modern RCA jack to this phono input.
Adding an external audio input to a very old console radio.
There is a switch on the front panel to select either ‘radio’ or ‘phono.’ By selecting ‘phono,’ the line level audio signal from the phono input connection on the back of the radio is fed into the grid of the detector triode. The output of this triode feeds the audio pre-amplifier which then feeds a single-ended audio power amplifier. I wired my audio device into the phono input by using a simple voltage dividing mixer circuit to combine the right and left channels into a single mono signal.
Antique Radio ‘Boom Box’
Vintage tube radio sound is great at home but is more fun when you can bring it with you. For this I restored an
Olympic Model 6-606
battery powered tube radio and modified it so that any audio source can be played through it.
The Olympic 6-606 was built in 1946 and uses either batteries or AC power. Unfortunately, if this radio is plugged in then it functions like a ‘hot chassis’ radio, making it too dangerous to use with an external audio source. For this reason I chose to operate it exclusively on batteries.
Implementing an audio input required the use of resistors in series with the right and left channels feeding an audio step-down transformer. This transformer is similar to those that you might find in old transistor radios. The output of this transformer is fed into a 3-way toggle switch that allows you to select either AM radio or audio input. The first audio frequency stage tube is an 1LH4 which functions as both an envelope detector and as a triode audio frequency gain stage. The audio input/radio toggle switch is a double throw. It interrupts the input to the first audio frequency stage by disconnecting the IF from the envelope detector on one pole of the switch and by selecting between the envelope detector and the audio transformer as an audio source to be fed into the volume potentiometer on the other pole of the switch.
Schematic of minor modifications to the Olympic 6-606 battery tube radio.
The Olympic 6-606 requires two type-B and two type-A batteries providing 90 V for the plates and 9V for the filaments. Unfortunately, you cannot find these at the local hardware store. For this reason I built a modern battery pack equivalent to the two type-B’s by wiring ten 9V batteries in series. I emulated the two type-A batteries by wiring 6 size C batteries in series. All batteries were mounted on to a sheet of aluminum to provide structure and each output was fused at 0.25 A for safety.
Powering this radio with batteries is not inexpensive. It costs over $30 to fill the battery pack. Fortunately, the battery pack lasts for 15+ hours. With this vintage ‘boom box’ you can bring the sound of tubes anywhere, including parties, the beach or on sailing voyages. In social settings it is a great conversation piece.
Less Sound Quality, More Fun
Old recordings sound best when played through the radios that they were meant to play on. Make vintage radios relevant again! With a simple hack you can play your music or podcasts through a vintage radio’s audio circuitry while also keeping the radio’s functionality.
References
bandersontv’s
series
on how to restore vintage electronics
Antique Radios.com
forums.
Acknowledgment:
My cousin,
Juliet Hurley
, for type editing this post.
Author Bio
Gregory L. Charvat
is author of
Small and Short-Range Radar Systems
, visiting research scientist at Camera Culture Group Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, co-founder of Hyperfine Research Inc. and Butterfly Network Inc., editor of the Gregory L. Charvat Series on Practical Approaches to Electrical Engineering, and guest commentator on CNN, CBS, Sky News, and others. He was a technical staff member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory from September 2007 to November 2011, where his work on through-wall radar won best paper at the 2010 MSS Tri-Services Radar Symposium and is an MIT Office of the Provost 2011 research highlight. He has taught short radar courses at MIT, where his Build a Small Radar course was the top-ranked MIT professional education course in 2011 and has become widely adopted by other universities, laboratories, and private organizations. Starting at an Early Age, Greg developed numerous radar systems, rail SAR imaging sensors, phased array radar systems; holds several patents; and has developed many other sensors and radio and audio equipment. He has authored numerous publications and received a great deal of press for his work. Greg earned a Ph.D in electrical engineering in 2007, MSEE in 2003, and BSEE in 2002 from Michigan State University, and is a senior member of the IEEE, where he served on the steering committee for the 2010, 2013, and 2016 IEEE International Symposium on Phased Array Systems and Technology and chaired the IEEE AP-S Boston Chapter from 2010-2011. | 34 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1706766",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2014-08-11T17:30:12",
"content": "Love it! Just one suggestion, why not use a bluetooth audio transmitter? you could tuck it inside each radio and have true wireless sound? Hey $30 bucks and it works with your setup.",
"parent_id": ... | 1,760,376,103.977927 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/11/littlerp-the-latest-of-the-resin-printers/ | LittleRP, The Latest Of The Resin Printers | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Crowd Funding"
] | [
"DLP printer",
"DLP projector",
"LittleRP",
"MakerJuice",
"MakeSolid",
"resin printer"
] | Over the last few years, a few resin / stereolithography printers have been made a few headlines due to print quality that cannot be matched by the usual RepRap style filament printers. These used to be extremely expensive machines, but lately there have been a few newcomers to the field.
The latest is the LittleRP
, an affordable DLP projector-based resin printer that can be put together for under a kilobuck.
Instead of proprietary resins, the LittleRP is designed to use as many different formulations of UV curing resin as possible, including those from
MadeSolid
and
MakerJuice
. These resins are cured with a DLP projector, providing a print area of 60x40x100mm with the recommended 1024×768 projector, or 72x40x100mm with the alternative 1080p projector.
This isn’t the only resin printer that’s come out recently; SeeMeCNC recently announced their cleverly named
DropLit resin printer kit
, going with the same ‘bring your own projector’ idea as the LittleRP. With the price of the printer, both of these kits should cost less than $1000 USD. With the price of UV resin dropping over the last few years, it might be just the time to get in the resin printer game. | 26 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1706401",
"author": "randomer",
"timestamp": "2014-08-11T14:40:45",
"content": "looks all right but im left wondering why so many people build these with projectors and not something a bit simpler? im sure many of u have seen the peachy printer? $100 instead of 1k seems far more tem... | 1,760,376,104.198271 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/11/an-evaporative-swamp-cooler-for-burning-man/ | A Swamp Cooler For Burning Man | Matt Terndrup | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"burning man hacks",
"evaporative cooling",
"solar panel",
"swamp cooler"
] | For those who don’t know, Burning Man is a week-long festival in the middle of the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. The event attracts a wide range of creative people from all over the world.
This year, [Jake] is going to bring his
homemade evaporative ‘swamp cooler’
to help battle the heat. His design uses a medium-sized shipping container with two large holes cut out of it and two 200mm PC cooling fans embedded into the plastic. The fans blow air from the outside into the bin. Humidifier filters sourced from a local dump are inserted into the middle of the container. The filters acts as an absorbent material to hold melt-water being pumped in from another cooler chest above.
A 30 watt solar panel provides enough power to keep the swamp cooler going while giving enough juice to energize decorative LED interior lights along with some backup batteries for phones and cameras. [Jake]’s system contains a re-purposed A/C computer load center for the solar system. He plans to take temperature and humidity readings at the Burn, bringing back the data from the desert to share with the world.
[Jake] does warn about mold with this system though, but one of the advantages with the filters he chose is that they are pretreated with biocidal compounds. This should help to reduce the chance of mold growth. High humidity conditions are also a disadvantage with this type of cooler, but this is a non-issue in the extremely dry desert of The Playa.
If you plan to go to Burning Man, tell about your energy/cooling preparations. Will you be bringing a system similar to this? If so, let us know. | 41 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1705706",
"author": "xeracy",
"timestamp": "2014-08-11T08:20:18",
"content": "Playa dust collects on the panels instantly and there always seems to be enough dust in the air to cut the efficiency of a panel down even significantly. My solar FIGJAM cooler worked in direct sunlight at... | 1,760,376,104.133366 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/10/a-beverage-cooler-with-a-stereo/ | A Beverage Cooler With A Stereo | Rick Osgood | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"cooler",
"fridge",
"music",
"party",
"refrigerator",
"stereo",
"summer"
] | If you are looking for a way to spice up your summertime parties, try following [Pastryboy’s] lead. After letting the idea rattle around in his head for a few years, he finally built himself the
cooler
he always dreamed of.
[Pastryboy] was originally inspired by a
YouTube
video he found a few years ago. He took the basic concept and rolled with it. He started out with a mini fridge he found for $10. He removed the compressor and other plumbing bits. He also removed all of the internal shelving. Any leftover holes were patched up with silicone. Now when the fridge is laid on its back, it’s essentially the same as an ordinary cooler.
Next [Pastryboy] purchased two 6.5″ Boss speakers and an inexpensive head unit. He drilled a few pilot holes in the side of the refrigerator and then used a jigsaw to cut the holes to the proper sizes. Once the speakers were mounted in place, he needed to find a way to waterproof the inside. This was accomplished by using some small plastic bowls. The edges of the bowls were attached to the cooler wall using silicone.
[Pastryboy] was able to run most of the cabling through the inside of the cooler’s walls. The system is powered by a 12V lead acid battery. He chose a specific model of battery that can be stored in any orientation and that can handle being knocked around a little bit.
Next he added a couple of handles to the sides to make it easier to transport. A small bit of ski rope was attached to the inside of the lid, preventing the lid from flopping completely open. [Pastryboy] also added a drain to the bottom to make it easier for one person to empty the cooler. The final touch was to pretty it up a bit. He sanded down the entire thing and gave it several coats of red paint. The end result looks very slick.
[via
Reddit
] | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1705673",
"author": "TacticalNinja",
"timestamp": "2014-08-11T07:59:14",
"content": "Cool.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1705961",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2014-08-11T10:45:53",
"content": "It’s missing ... | 1,760,376,104.023299 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/10/homemade-soldering-stations-for-cheapy-irons/ | Homemade Soldering Stations For Cheapy Irons | Rich Bremer | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"flux",
"solder",
"soldering iron",
"soldering station"
] | Everyone reading this post has had a cheap pencil-style soldering irons that plug straight into the wall at some point in their lives. Even if you’ve upgraded to a professional soldering station, you probably have one of these cheapy irons kicking around that are slow to heat up to an unknown temperature. [Pantelis] thought he could fix the latter problem with his
Homemade Soldering Station
for those basic soldering irons.
Since the intent of the soldering station was to control the temperature of the iron [Pantelis] had to figure out a way to sense the temperature. He did this by strapping a thermocouple to the iron near the tip. The wires were run back through the handle and then along the power cord.
Both the stock iron plug and the thermocouple leads plug into a box put together specifically for this project. In the photo you’ll notice the LCD screen that displays both the target and actual temperatures. The linear potentiometer below the LCD screen is used to set the target temperature. The LED to the right alerts the operator that the iron is heating up and when it is at temperature and read to go.
Although there isn’t a lot of schematic or part list information, [Pantelis] did do a good job photo documenting his build. Check it out, it’s worth a gander. | 32 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1705097",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2014-08-11T03:13:25",
"content": "Thumbs up for the reuse of the low voltage supply. It look like it is out of an old boom box. Also thumbs up for the use of opt-isolation.I’d like to know how he set up a reference for the thermocouple. I tri... | 1,760,376,104.369347 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/10/the-science-of-strengthening-glass/ | The Science Of Strengthening Glass | Rick Osgood | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"glass",
"gorilla glass",
"microscope slide",
"science",
"strengthening glass"
] | [Ben Krasnow] is at it again. This time he’s explaining a simple method for
strengthening glass
. As usual, he does a fantastic job of first demonstrating and explaining the problem and then following it up with a solution.
[Ben] first uses a simple rig to place a controlled amount of force against a glass microscope slide. His experiment shows that the slide shatters once about 30psi of force has been applied to the center of the slide.
[Ben] then goes on to explain that current methods for producing glass leave many tiny impurities, or cracks, in the glass. As the glass slide flexes, the inside edge is placed into a compression force while the outside edge is under tension. The glass is more easily able to handle the compression force. The tension is where things start to break down. The tension force eventually causes those tiny impurities to spread, resulting in the shattering glass.
One possible solution to this problem is to find a way to fill in those tiny impurities. According to [Ben], most glass has sodium added to it in order to lower the melting temperature. [Ben] explains that if you could replace some of these smaller sodium atoms with larger atoms, you could essentially “fill” many of the tiny impurities in the glass.
[Ben] does this himself by heating up a small vat of potassium nitrate. Once the powder becomes molten, he submerges the glass slides in the solution for several hours. During this time, some of the sodium atoms are replaced by potassium atoms due to the natural process of diffusion.
Once the slides have cooled down, [Ben] demonstrates that they become much stronger. When placed in the testing rig, the stronger slides do not break until the pressure gets between 60psi and 70psi. That’s twice as strong as the original glass. All that extra strength from such a simple process. Be sure to watch the full video below. | 24 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1704333",
"author": "hardcorefs",
"timestamp": "2014-08-10T23:21:52",
"content": "How do we know the slide is stronger because of the potassium atoms and not because it has been tempered.Hardened glass is made by heating up a piece of normal glass to relieve any internal stress poin... | 1,760,376,104.430197 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/10/build-an-efficient-inverter-win-a-million-dollars/ | Build An Efficient Inverter, Win A Million Dollars | Edward Becker | [
"contests",
"News"
] | [
"contest",
"power inverter",
"prize",
"solar"
] | Google and the IEEE are giving away a million dollar prize to an individual or team, that can build the most
efficient and compact DC to AC inverter
. The goal is to design and build a 2kW inverter with a power density greater than 50W per cubic inch. To put that in perspective, conventional solar string inverters have power densities around 0.5-3W per cubic Inch, and microinverters around 5W per cubic Inch. So in other words, an order of magnitude more efficient than what we have now.
For the challenge, the inverter needs to convert 450VDC, with a 10 ohm series resistor simulating a solar array, to 240VAC @ 60Hz. Testing will consist of powering various resistive, inductive and capacitive loads ranging from 0-2kVA. The inverter is expected to regulate voltage within 5%, and frequency within 0.05%, while keeping the enclosure below 60 degrees C, and conforming to FCC Part 15 B (Unintentional radiators).
If you and/or your team can figure out the most efficient topology, switching frequency, novel use of high power
wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors
, physically reduce the size of the input and output filters, and keep the whole thing running cool. Then get registered before the September 30, 2014 deadline. Inverters need to be functional and the results of this
test procedure
(PDF warning) sent in before July 22, 2015, then 18 finalists will be chosen to bring their inverters in person to a testing facility in the United States by October 21, 2015. The grand prize winner will be announced sometime in January, 2016
[Thanks for the tip Dmytro]
This
Arduino power inverter
would need a serious upgrade to enter. And speaking of entering challenges, it’s still not too late to enter our very own
Hackaday Prize
! | 86 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1704111",
"author": "bkubicek",
"timestamp": "2014-08-10T20:55:32",
"content": "honestly, I doubt this can be done. Current inverters are already having an efficiency of 98%… so to go to 99.8 % is seriously difficult….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,104.547851 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/10/attiny-watering-timer-turns-off-the-water-when-you-forget/ | ATtiny Watering Timer Turns Off The Water When You Forget | Rich Bremer | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"555",
"attiny",
"delay timer",
"lawn",
"lawn sprinkler",
"plantwatering",
"pool filler",
"timer",
"watering"
] | A pal of [Kyle’s] was regularly leaving his sprinkler on for too long. He also had forgotten to turn the water off while topping off his pool a couple of times, an embarrassing and wasteful situation. Being such a good friend, [Kyle] offered to make him a
water timer
. This isn’t a regular water timer that turns the water on and off at the same time every day. This device allows the user to push a button to have the unit switch on a solenoid valve, permitting water flow. After a predetermined amount of time the unit removes power to the solenoid valve which stops the water flow, successfully preventing pool overflows and excessive watering.
[Kyle] started off his design using a 555 chip to do the counting. He quickly became worried that timer lengths over 10 minutes would cause inconsistent functionality due to the leakage current of the capacitor and the charge current of the resistor. There are ways around this, but rather than complicate the design he switched to an ATtiny microcontroller. The added benefit of the ATtiny is that he could connect up a potentiometer to adjust the on-time without replacing parts or making a new unit. When the potentiometer is turned, the on-board LED will flash a number of times which corresponds with the delay in minutes. Ten flashes means a 10 minute delay. It’s a simple and clear interface.
As if the home etched PCB wasn’t cool enough, [Kyle] 3D printed up a case for the unit. The case permits access to the screw terminals and has provisions for the indicator LEDs. Check out the integrated flap in the top of the case. When this portion of the case is pushed in, it presses the PCB-mounted on/off switch.
If you are interested in making one, all of the files and code are available on
[Kyle’s] site
.
via [dangerous prototypes] | 18 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1703900",
"author": "Waterjet",
"timestamp": "2014-08-10T18:46:10",
"content": "How waterproof is the case?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1703926",
"author": "Kyle",
"timestamp": "2014-08-10T19:03:20",
... | 1,760,376,104.60046 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/10/nfc-ring-lock-box/ | NFC Ring Lock Box | Rick Osgood | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"lock box",
"nano",
"NFC",
"pn532",
"ring",
"servo"
] | [Nairod785] wanted to build a
lock box
that would lock from the inside. He started with an inexpensive, plain wooden box. This kept the cost down but would also allow him to easily decorate the box later on using a wood burning tool.
To keep the box locked, he installed a simple latch on the inside. The latch is connected to a servo with string. When the servo rotates in one direction, it pulls the string and releases the latch. When the servo is rotated in the opposite direction, the latch closes and locks the box once again.
If you are going to have a locked box, then you are also going to need a key to open it. [Nairod785] used a ring with a
built-in NFC tag
, similar to the ring
featured back in March
. Inside of the box is a
PN532 NFC module
. The walls of the box were a little too thick for the reader to detect the ring, so [Nairod785] had to scratch the wall thickness down a bit. The NFC module is connected to an Arduino Nano. Communications are handled with I2C.
The NFC ring actually has two different NFC tags in it; one on each side. [Nairod785] had to program both of the tag ID’s into the Arduino to ensure that the ring would work no matter the orientation.
The system is powered by a small rechargeable 5V battery. [Nairod785] wired up a USB plug flush with the box wall so he can easily charge up the battery while the box is locked. It also allows him to reprogram the Arduino if he feels so inclined. There is also a power switch on the side to conserve energy. | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1703520",
"author": "Mike Lu",
"timestamp": "2014-08-10T14:48:32",
"content": "The USB programming feature is an easily accessible back door. Patching the bootloader to require a password would fix that, but then it won’t be a standard Arduino anymore…",
"parent_id": null,
"... | 1,760,376,104.653933 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/10/the-berlin-cyberbeetle-with-its-own-tv/ | The Berlin Cyberbeetle With Its Own TV | Matt Terndrup | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"coding for da vinci",
"cyberbeetle",
"infrared receiver"
] | The evolution of the mere beetle has transformed from organic matter into robotic gears, circuits, and wires.
This Cyberbeetle project
was born during an open culture hackathon in Berlin throughout a few months time period. The event was called
Coding for Vinci
and was held from April into July 2014. The project used an Arduino and combined openly licensed biology related pictures and sounds from the museums in the area in a fun and playful way.
[Kati] and [Tomi] based the design on a gorgeous
Chalcosoma atlas
beetle species which was found in insect box scans that were taken from a nearby museum. The cool thing about this project is that the Cyberbeetle that [Kati] and [Tomi] created has its own hi-tech insect box with various special features. For instance, when the box was rotated on its side, small doors were revealed that when opened unveiled a tiny home theater system with a hi-definition flat screen, audio system and infrared communication. Inside the horn of the Cyberbeetle was an infrared receiver, which allowed the creature to interface with its TV program when it started. Music videos as well excited the robotic insect.
The project was awarded the “Funniest hack” prize during the hackathon. And a video of it can be seen after the break: | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1703351",
"author": "bremenpl",
"timestamp": "2014-08-10T13:00:30",
"content": "Does this has to do something with marihuana?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1703854",
"author": "hackliptik",
"timestamp": "2014... | 1,760,376,104.703909 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/10/reverse-engineering-a-gps-watch-to-upload-custom-firmwares/ | Reverse Engineering A GPS Watch To Upload Custom Firmware | Mathieu Stephan | [
"ARM",
"handhelds hacks",
"hardware",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"gps",
"reverse engineering"
] | Sometimes GPS watches are too good to be left with their stock firmware. [Renaud] opened his Kalenji 300 GPS watch,
reverse engineered it
in order to upload his own custom firmware.
The first step was to sniff the serial traffic between the PC and the microcontroller when upgrading firmware to understand the protocol and commands used. [Renaud] then opened the watch, figured out what the different test points and components were. He used his buspirate with OpenOCD to extract the existing STM32F103 firmware. The firmware helped him find the proper value to store in a dedicated register for the boot loader to start.
By looking at the disassembly code he also found the SPI LCD initialization sequence and discovered that it uses a controller similar to the ST7571. He finally compiled his own program which uses the
u8glib
graphics library. Follow us after the break for the demonstration video. | 25 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1702923",
"author": "gravatarnonsense",
"timestamp": "2014-08-10T10:28:20",
"content": "There is no s in firmware.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1702976",
"author": "Shannon",
"timestamp": "2014-08-10T10:56:2... | 1,760,376,104.818027 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/09/3d-printed-virtual-reality-goggles/ | 3D Printed Virtual Reality Goggles | Matt Terndrup | [
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"3d printing",
"9-dof motion sensor",
"adafruit",
"Arduino micro",
"aspheric lenses",
"Ninjaflex",
"Oculus",
"PLA",
"virtual reality",
"vr2go"
] | Oculus, as we know, was acquired by Facebook for $2 billion, and now the VR community has been buzzing about trying to figure out what to do with all this newly accessible technology. And adding to the interest, the 2nd iteration of the development kits were released, causing a resurgence in virtual reality development as computer generated experiences started pouring out from of every corner of the world. But not everyone can afford the $350 USD price tag to purchase one of these devices, bringing out the need for Do-It-Yourself projects like these
3D printed wearable video goggles via Adafruit
.
The design of this project is reminiscent of the
VR2GO mobile viewer
that came out of the MxR Lab (aka the research environment that spun out Palmer Lucky before he created Oculus). However, the hardware here is more robust and utilizes a 5.6″ display and 50mm aspheric lenses instead of a regular smart phone. The HD monitor is held within a 3D printed enclosure along with an Arduino Micro and 9-DOF motion sensor. The outer hood of the case is composed of a combination of PLA and Ninjaflex printing-filament, keeping the fame rigid while the area around the eyes remain flexible and comfortable. The faceplate is secured with a mounting bracket and a pair of aspheric lenses inside split the screen for stereoscopic video. Head straps were added allowing for the device to fit snugly on one’s face.
At the end of the tutorial, the instructions state that once everything is assembled, all that is required afterwards is to plug in a 9V power adapter and an HDMI cable sourcing video from somewhere else. This should get the console up and running; but it would be interesting to see if this design in the future can eliminate the wires and make this into a portable unit. Regardless of which, this project does a fantastic job at showing what it takes to create a homemade virtual reality device. And as you can see from the product list after the break, the price of the project fits under the $350 DK2 amount, helping to save some money while still providing a fun and educational experience.
Estimated Products List:
5.6″ Display – $149.95
9-DOF IMU Breakout – $39.95
Arduino Micro – $22.95
HDMI Cable – $4.95
50mm 5x Aspheric Lenses – $12.94 x 2 = $25.88
Total – $269.56 (not including taxes and shipping)
DK2 Price – $350.00
As you can see, these DIY VR goggles cost about one hundred US dollars less than the DK2, but perhaps there is a way to reduce the amount even further. Especially since the 3D printer and the filament is not accounted for. If you have any ideas on how to get this design, or a similar one, down into the $150 USD range, be sure to let us know in the comments section.
And check out this video that Adafruit made describing the project: | 27 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1702337",
"author": "charliex",
"timestamp": "2014-08-10T05:36:07",
"content": "To be fair the dk2 has a lot better hardware and more features, adding the same spec would get them closer in price. Still very nicely done though",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies":... | 1,760,376,104.883484 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/09/commodore-1530-datasette-gets-a-digital-counter/ | Commodore 1530 Datasette Gets A Digital Counter | Adam Fabio | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"1530",
"1531",
"audio tape",
"bubble led",
"cassette drive",
"CBM",
"commodore",
"datasette",
"led",
"tape counter",
"tape drive"
] | Ah, the humble Commodore 1530 Datasette drive. It never enjoyed much popularity in the USA, but it was the standard for quite some time in Europe. [DerSchatten13] still uses and loves his 1530. When a co-worker showed him some 7-segment bubble LEDs, he knew what he had to do. Thus the
1530 digital counter
(
translated
) was born.
[DerSchatten13] started out by building his design on a breadboard. He used every I/O pin on an ATtiny2313 to implement his circuit. Tape motion is detected by a home-made
rotary encoder
connected to the original mechanical counter’s belt drive. To keep the pin count down, [DerSchatten13] multiplexed the LEDs on the display.
Now came the hard part, tearing into the 1530 and removing the mechanical counter. [DerSchatten13] glued in some standoffs to hold the new PCB. After rebuilding the circuit on a piece of perfboard, he installed the new parts. The final result looks great on the inside. From the outside, one would be hard pressed to tell the digital counter wasn’t original equipment.
Operation of the digital counter is identical to the analog unit – with one exception. The clear button now serves double duty. Pressing and holding it saves the current count. Save mode is indicated by turning on the decimal point. If the user rewinds the tape, the counter will stop the motor when the saved count is reached. Cueing up that saved program just got a heck of a lot easier!
Thanks [Frank]! | 25 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1702137",
"author": "reboots",
"timestamp": "2014-08-10T03:55:26",
"content": "Outstanding concept, craft, and attention to detail, coupled with obvious love and respect for the original equipment. The bubble display is a perfect retro-futuristic upgrade. I’m confident this is the b... | 1,760,376,104.940229 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/09/an-open-source-1mhz-abritrary-waveform-generator-with-an-awesome-ui/ | An Open Source 1MHz Arbitrary Waveform Generator With An Awesome UI | Mathieu Stephan | [
"handhelds hacks",
"hardware",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"arbitrary waveform generator",
"dds",
"lcd",
"microchip",
"pic32",
"tft"
] | [Herp] just shared a
nice 1MHz Arbitrary Waveform Generator
(right click -> translate to English as google translation links don’t work) with a well designed user interface. His platform is based around a PIC32, a
TFT module with its touchscreen
and the 75MHz AD9834
Direct Digital Synthesizer
(DDS). Of course the latter could generate signals with frequencies up to 37.5MHz… but that’s only if two output points are good enough for you.
As you can see in the video embedded below, the ‘tiny dds’ can generate many different kinds of periodic signals and even ones that are directly drawn on the touchscreen. The offset and signal amplitude can be adjusted using several operational amplifiers after the DDS ouput and a separate SMA TTL output is available to use a PIC32 PWM signal. The platform can read WAV audio files stored on microSD cards and also has an analog input for signal monitoring. Follow us after the break for the video. | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1701601",
"author": "Freddy",
"timestamp": "2014-08-09T23:19:21",
"content": "Really nice project. Love the design. Even thought, I would have made it operable by hand. A DDS is part of my to-do-list and I will definitely use some of this for it =)(As a semi-native speaker I would s... | 1,760,376,105.081262 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/09/defcon-22-hack-all-the-things/ | DEFCON 22: Hack All The Things | Mike Szczys | [
"cons",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"command injection",
"defcon",
"defcon 22",
"emmc",
"gtvhacker",
"injection",
"uart"
] | This morning I went to a fantastic talk called
Hack All the Things
. It was presented by GTVHacker. If you don’t recognize the name, this is the group
that hacked the GoogleTV
. They haven’t stopped hacking since that success, and this talk is all about 20+ devices that they’ve recently pwned and are
making the info public
(that link still had oath when I checked but should soon be public).
The attacks they presented come in three flavors: UART, eMMC, and command injection bugs. I’m going to add the break now, but I’ll give a rundown of most of the device exploits they showed off. I found all amusing, and often comical.
UART Hacks
UART connections on a PCB are usually pretty easy to spot. Most often they are 3 or 4 pins in a line or a square. Since pretty much everything runs Linux so once you have a serial connect pwning the device is familiar. Let’s look at some hardware:
Epson Artisan 700/800 printer and the Belkin Wemo both have UART exploits.
Greenwave reality smart bulbs ship with open U-boot which will let you issue commands at boot up to open root shell access.
File transporter
(cloud/nas; was a kickstarter by drobo). Buildroot-based. The UART header is actually populated on this!
Vizio CoStar LT (ISV-B11). At boot it looks for fs.sys on USB. Research discovered this is U-Boot file which the device is looking. Give it your own crafted U-boot image and you pwn the device.
Staples Connect
: wifi, zigbee (UART) — short out pins 29 and 30 on the NAND chip corrupts the U-Boot at power-up and gives U-Boot access which is an easy avenue to opening a root console.
eMMC Hacks
eMMC is basically an SD card on a chip. If you can patch into the data lines you can own the data on the device and monitor transactions. Usually you get at the pins by soldering to nearby resistors. Here’s some devices pwned with this method:
Amazon Fire TV
Hisense Android TV (rebranded Google TV)
LG Smart Refrigerator (LFX31995ST)
Vizio Stmart TV (VF552VXT)
Sony BDP-S5100 (Blu-Ray)
LG BP 530 (Blu-Ray)
Injection attacks:
Whether you know the term or not you should already be familiar with injection attacks. This is best described as poorly implemented user interfaces; places you can enter text that don’t scrub for commands.
Motorola RAZR LTE Baseband (processor separate from Android). This is done over a USB network connection.
PogoPlug can be attacked with injection via web interface
Netgear Push2TV set-top box. You can interrupt the boot loader through the UART. You can also get into the root shell for a second or two during boot. You can even inject via the nickname of the box to run commands as root.
Ooma Telo router. ssh is already running (LAN only) but it is firewalled by default. You can inject a command via the web interface IPtables field to bring down that firewall. (default root password is !ooma123).
Netgear NTV200-100NAS. Everything on the box is signed. Another injection via web interface. Updates are downloaded over http. You can pull down an app, inject your symlink, and dump your own commands onto the device to open a root shell.
ASUS cube (Google TV). The team giving the talk put an app on the Play store to get root but Google pulled it down (apparently they don’t like apps that crack their precious hardware). You can use the built-in media app to inject through its SMB mounting feature.
Getting fun:
Summer Baby Zoom WiFi. “Secure” baby monitoring device according to their marketing. There is a hard coded username and password for uploading firmware. This can be injection attacked with a simple ‘curl’ command.
Samsung SmartCam. There is a LAN-accessible script that checks passwords but not for new users. This can be exploited to make the system think you’re adding a new user; when asked to set the password you’re actually resetting the root password.
The “holy crap you need to buy one of these” hardware was saved for last:
Wink Hub
is an amazing piece of pwned tech. Fifty buck gets you a box billed as a gateway for your home devices. The board has six radios on it (WiFi, Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Zigbee, 433MHz Lutron, and 433MHz Kidde). It will interface with multiple peripherals like door locks, smoke detectors, propane gauges, humidity/temperature/light sensing.
Pwn it like crazy.
A command Injection bug is present in the code which runs a sudo command passing values in through POST variables. Theses are not escaped and make for an easy attack vector. | 21 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1701454",
"author": "Liam Jackson",
"timestamp": "2014-08-09T21:34:37",
"content": "Awesome hacks. Each one of these devices could easily be a seperate post (though I’m sure others would dis-agree).I mostly like to see hacks which save me money (e.g. a 25 quid device that when loade... | 1,760,376,105.138208 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/09/funky-looking-motor-is-powered-by-static-electricity/ | Funky Looking Motor Is Powered By Static Electricity | James Hobson | [
"how-to"
] | [
"corona discharge",
"corona motor",
"electrostatic motor",
"ionizing",
"rimstar"
] | [Steven Dufresne] of Rimstar.org is at it again with another very functional science experiment. This week he’s showing us how he made a large electrostatic motor, also known as a
Corona Motor.
A Corona motor makes use of a cool
phenomenon called the Corona discharge, which is the ionization of a fluid
(in this case, air) surrounding a conductor that is energized. He’s done other high voltage experiments that take advantage of this, like his
Ion Wind propelled Star Trek Enterprise!
The motor works by using an even number of electrodes on the motor, each electrically charged; positive, negative, positive, negative, etc.
Because each electrode is the opposite charge, they want to repel each other — but since the cylinder is electrically insulated, the charges have no where to go — instead the cylinder begins to rotate as the charges attract back and forth — when a positive charge on the insulation meets a negatively charged electrode, the charge is removed by ionization (creating the corona effect), and the cycle continues. The direction of rotation is determined by the angle of the electrodes. The motor can get going pretty fast but doesn’t have that much torque or power.
For a full explanation of the project, check out [Steve’s] explanation in the following video:
And how to make it!
This is actually [Steve’s] second Corona motor, as he already
designed a simpler one
that is easier to build previously. | 26 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1701258",
"author": "zach",
"timestamp": "2014-08-09T19:17:46",
"content": "Interesting…. what is the advantage of such a motor though? At the end of the day, I imagine the number of hp you can get is proportional to the amount of electricity the motor is going to consume. Wouldn’t ... | 1,760,376,105.459217 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/09/more-pole-climbing-bots-haul-antennas-and-bikes/ | More Pole Climbing Bots, Haul Antennas And Bikes | Rich Bremer | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"robot",
"tubular drive"
] | A few days ago we posted about a
Pole Climbing Device
. Since then we’ve gotten a few emails with tips about other pole climbers. We are going to talk about two of those here, they are completely different from each other and have completely different uses. Who knew there was such a variety of pole climber bots out there?
First up is this an antenna-wielding bot that climbs up poles in order to promote over the air communications. The system is called
E-APS
(Emergency Antenna Platform System) and is used by enthusiasts to turn any ol’ parking lot lamp post into an antenna tower. This particular machine has a large rectangular frame made from extruded aluminum. There are four wheels, two of which are driven by what appears to be a car power window motor. The weight of the antenna forces each set of two wheels to be pressed up against opposite sides of the pole, creating enough friction to not only support the unit but allow it to travel up and down the pole. There is not a lot of explanation about the build but there are a lot of
detailed photos
of the final product. We saw E-APS in action at MakerFaire New York 2013, and it was very impressive.
We’ve
covered
this next device before but it’s worth mentioning again. The project assumes that no bike lock is strong enough to deter the most persistent thief. Instead of locking your bike up and hoping for the best, this ‘theft preventer’
hikes your bike up out of the reach of would-be bike nabbers
. So how do you get your bike down once it is up the pole? A remote control fob, of course.
There are 2 cool videos of these inventions after the break….. | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1700870",
"author": "Backwoods Engineer",
"timestamp": "2014-08-09T14:26:35",
"content": "For ham radio operators participating in Field Day (as I believe the two guys in the video are doing), or generalized emergency operations, this E-APS thing is great. In urban areas, and even ... | 1,760,376,105.390898 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/09/twitching-fish-plays-pokemon-underwater/ | Twitching Fish Plays Pokemon Underwater | Matt Terndrup | [
"Nintendo Game Boy Hacks"
] | [
"fishplayspokemon",
"hackny",
"pokemon red",
"twitch",
"twitchplayspokemon"
] | Over a matter of a few days, thousands of people were simultaneously watching this
fish named [Grayson Hopper] float around a bowl of water
as a webcam recorded its every move and translated the directions it took into a working gameplay of Pokemon Red. Each section of the tank was split into partitions, with each section acting like a button. So when the fish swam over a specific area, the main Pokemon character [Ash] was told where to go.
It was created during a
hackNY
hackathon within 24 hours when the fish started its journey in to the world of Pokemon. Already, a
subreddit
popped up documenting the adventure. Amazingly enough, [Grayson] chose Charmander as its starting Pokemon and has defeated its rival Squirtle.
This project was great for watching hours on end, especially at work, as the cute little fish went about its life unaware that it is becoming a popular internet star.
Check out the link above to stream the video. There is even a chat bar on the side, which allows anyone to jump into the fishy conversation. If the fish looks dead though, it’s probably just sleeping.
[Thanks for the tip Bailey!]
Also,
Pokemon was reborn some vintage hardware
recently which allows the player to game via the web. Check that out too! | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1700817",
"author": "Waterjet",
"timestamp": "2014-08-09T13:43:22",
"content": "“plays”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1700887",
"author": "jorpy",
"timestamp": "2014-08-09T14:42:26",
"content": "Yeah,... | 1,760,376,105.265377 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/12/joegrand/ | Joe Grand Talks Deconstructing Circuit Boards | Brian Benchoff | [
"Featured"
] | [
"joe grand",
"lapping",
"microscopy",
"milling",
"pcb",
"reverse engineering"
] | With the exception of [Eric Evenchick], the Hackaday crew are safely back from Defcon and not missing in the desert. This means we can really start rolling out all the stuff we saw this weekend, beginning with an interview with [Joe Grand], creator of the
JTAGulator
, early member of
l0pht
, and generally awesome dude.
The focus of [Joe]’s many talks this year was reverse engineering circuit boards. Most of these techniques involved fairly low-tech methods to peel apart circuit boards one layer at a time: sandpaper and milling machines are the simplest techniques, but [Joe] is also using some significantly more uncommon methods.
Lapping
machines get a mention, as do acoustic microscopy, CAT scans, and x-rays. [Joe]’s Defcon talk isn’t up on the intertubes yet, but
his BSides talk
about techniques that
didn’t
work is available.
In case you forgot, [Joe] is also a judge for
a little contest we’re running
, and we asked what he’s looking for in a truly spaceworthy entry. [Joe]’s looking for projects with a lot of effort put into them. Don’t get us wrong, project that require no effort
can be extremely popular
, but documentation is king. [Joe] thinks well documented projects are evidence project creators are building something because they want to build it, and not because they want to win a prize. That’s intrinsic motivation, kiddies. Learn it. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1710888",
"author": "Jim Turner",
"timestamp": "2014-08-13T01:32:54",
"content": "Why do “hackers” always think drinking is cool? Is it because they saw the “cool kids” in highschool drinking? I’m glad to see at least one hacker knows drinking doesnt make you cool.",
"parent_id"... | 1,760,376,106.170072 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/12/and-so-castings-made-of-kinetic-sand-turn-out-pretty-well-actually/ | And So Castings Made Of (Kinetic) Sand . . . Turn Out Pretty Well, Actually | Kristina Panos | [
"Tool Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"aluminium casting",
"aluminum casting",
"casting",
"founding sand",
"kinetic sand",
"manliness",
"polydimethylsiloxane",
"vitrification"
] | That kinetic sand stuff is pretty cool. It’s soft, it builds motor skills, and outside of sprinkling it on carpet, it’s not messy. If you don’t know, it’s 98% sand and 2% polydimethylsiloxane, which is a major component of Silly Putty, and according to a certain yellow and red clown, it’s safe enough to put in chicken nuggets. [Chris]’s wife bought him some, probably because she wanted to see him play around with something that isn’t potentially deadly for a change. In the course of researching its magical properties, he found out that it doesn’t really have a thermal breakdown point, per se. At high enough temperatures, It vitrifies like a sand castle in a mushroom cloud. Between this property and its malleability, [Chris] thought he’d have a reasonable substitute for founding sand. As you can see in
his latest experiment
, he was right. As a bonus, he managed to turn the benign into the dangerous.
[Chris] had never cast aluminium before, so he decided to start small by making an offset cam for a rotary broach. He packed some magic sand in a wax paper cup and shoved the cam in to make the negative. Then he cut down some aluminium rod and put it in a graphite crucible. He stuck his DC arc welder’s electrode down into the crucible and cranked it up to 50A. That wasn’t enough, so he went to 110. The crucible was soon glowing orange. He carefully poured the molten aluminium into the mold. Make the jump to see how it panned out.
Spoiler alert: there’s no cussin’ this time!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3t-jBATM0w | 35 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1710166",
"author": "Edeiwmurk Nivek",
"timestamp": "2014-08-12T20:17:51",
"content": "One of the important properties of casting sand is that its grain size is a compromise between small enough to provide an acceptably smooth surface and large enough to allow gases to flow through ... | 1,760,376,105.595614 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/12/retrotechtacular-the-voder-from-bell-labs/ | Retrotechtacular: The Voder From Bell Labs | Kristina Panos | [
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"band pass filter",
"bell labs",
"encrypted speech",
"Homer Dudley",
"plosives",
"SIGSALY",
"speech",
"speech synthesis",
"vocoder",
"voder"
] | This is the under-the-hood view of the keyboard for the Voder (Voice Operating Demonstrator), the first electronic device capable of generating continuous human speech. It accomplishes this feat through a series of keys that generate the syllables, plosives, and affricatives normally produced by the human larynx and shaped by the throat and tongue. This week’s film is a picture montage paired with the audio from
the demonstration of the Voder at the 1939 World’s Fair
.
The Voder was created by one [Homer Dudley] at Bell Laboratories. He did so in conjunction with the Vocoder, which analyzes human-generated speech for encrypted transfer and re-synthesizes it on the other end. [Dudley] spent over 40 years researching speech at Bell Laboratories. His development of both the Voder and the Vocoder were instrumental in the
SIGSALY project
which aimed to deliver encrypted voice communication to the theatres of WWII.
In this film, the Voder is first demonstrated with a flat, robotic rendition of the phrase “she saw me”. The operator then runs through the various possible inflections to show the flavor that the foot pedal provides. Inside the Voder is a group of band pass filters in parallel that span the frequency range of human speech. Excitations are received from either the noise generator or the relaxation oscillator, and selection between the two is made from the wrist bar. The pitch is controlled with the foot pedal. The band pass outputs are fed to ten gain pots under the operators fingers. Three additional keys manipulate the excitations to produce the consonant stop sounds like /t/, /d/, /p/, /b/, /k/, and /g/.
Voder’s pitch can be adjusted to emulate all kinds of voices, from man to woman to child. It is capable of speaking an any language the operator can speak. As a special bonus, Voder makes very convincing cow and pig sounds.
In creating the Voder, it was discovered that non-inflected vowels sounded like a foghorn, so vibrato was added to make them more human. This of course means that Voder can sing, and the operator gives a heartwarming performance of “Auld Lang Syne”.
For an operator, getting the Voder to speak is a difficult undertaking. Generating a single word requires the keying of several sounds in quick succession, along with simultaneous wrist bar action and pedal work to color the inflection. Bell Labs auditioned a few hundred girls to train in Voder operation, but ultimately had fewer than 30 expert operators. [Helen Harper], who you hear in this film, was considered the best. According to [Helen], mastery required about a year of constant practice.
[Thanks to Fran for the tip!]
[Voder keyboard
image source
] | 36 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1709759",
"author": "Default",
"timestamp": "2014-08-12T17:10:51",
"content": "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bht96voReEo",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1709768",
"author": "Kristina Panos",
"timestamp": "2014... | 1,760,376,105.531415 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/12/cutting-records-out-of-cds/ | Cutting Records Out Of CDs | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"making vinyls at home",
"record lathe",
"recording lathe",
"vinyl lathe"
] | Lovers of records rejoice! Did you know you can cut your own vinyl using something called a record lathe? [Beau Walker] just put the finishing touches on his 3D printed record lathe, and the
results speak for themselves!
A
Recording Lathe
was once used for cutting records, and previously, wax cylinders – if you want to get really old school. [Beau], being an analog lover, decided he had to try making his own. He designed the whole thing in
FreeCAD
and got 3D printing. A single stepper motor drives the lead screw which moves the writing head back and forth as the record spins in place. As to not waste materials, he’s reusing old CD’s for his newly created vinyls. Two 25W speakers cause vibrations in the needle to cut into the disc, via a clever little mechanism.
The system works pretty well, but he wants to replace the turntable with another stepper motor for finer control of the recording — sometimes the turntable slows down during recording under load which messes up the sound. There’s a video of it in action on his site that we can’t embed here, so you should definitely go
check it out!
Of course you could skip the middleman and go straight to
3D printing your records… | 38 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1709383",
"author": "Josh",
"timestamp": "2014-08-12T14:14:12",
"content": "Ack – HAD link to a home dyndns server. Poor little thing… it never really had a chance. *sniff*",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1709444",
"au... | 1,760,376,105.742413 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/12/hyperlapse/ | Hyperlapse Makes Your HeadCam Videos Awesome | Adam Fabio | [
"Software Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"hyper-lapse",
"Hyperlapse",
"time-lapse",
"Time-lapse photography",
"timelapse"
] | First person video – between Google Glass, GoPro, and other sports cameras, it seems like everyone has a camera on their head these days. If you’re a surfer or skydiver, that might make for some awesome footage. For the rest of us though, it means hours of boring video. The obvious way to fix this is time-lapse. Typically time-lapse throws frames away. Taking 1 of every 10 frames results in a 10x speed increase. Unfortunately, speeding up a head mounted camera often leads to a video so bouncy it can’t be watched without an air sickness bag handy. [Johannes Kopf], [Michael Cohen], and [Richard Szeliski] at Microsoft Research have come up with a novel solution to this problem with
Hyperlapse
.
Hyperlapse photography
is not a new term. Typically, hyperlapse films require careful planning, camera rigs, and labor-intensive post-production to achieve a usable video. [Johannes] and team have thrown computer vision and graphics algorithms at the problem. The results are nothing short of amazing.
The full details are available in
the team’s report
(35MB PDF warning). To obtain usable data, the fisheye lenses often used on these cameras must be calibrated. The team accomplished that with the
OCamCalib toolbox
. Imported video is broken down frame by frame. Using
structure from motion
algorithms, hyperlapse creates a 3D models of the various scenes in the video. With the scenes in this virtual world, the camera can be moved and aimed at will. The team’s algorithms then pick a smooth path that follows the original cameras trajectory. Once the camera’s position is known, it’s simply a matter of rendering the final video.
The results aren’t perfect. The mountain climbing scenes show some artifacts caused by the camera frame rate and exposure changing due to the varied lighting conditions. People appear and disappear in the bicycling portion of the video.
One thing the team doesn’t mention is how long the process takes
. We’re sure this kind of rendering must require some serious time and processing power. Still, the output video is stunning.
Overview Video
Technical details
Thanks [Gustav]! | 34 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1709034",
"author": "Jag",
"timestamp": "2014-08-12T11:44:04",
"content": "That’s actually pretty awesome.I remember poking around with some PC-only video editing software—Hitfilm, I think—that could automatically extract 6D camera paths by using similar techniques, but this was muc... | 1,760,376,105.669858 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/12/piratecade-is-an-impressive-feat-of-woodworking-and-design/ | PirateCade Is An Impressive Feat Of Woodworking And Design | James Hobson | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"arcade",
"arcade cabinet",
"arcade machine",
"raspberry pi",
"retropie"
] | A six month journey of blood sweat and tears is finally over for [David Carver] and what he is left with is nothing short of beautiful. He calls it
the PirateCade
. We call it the perfect arcade cabinet.
This project is actually [David’s] very first Raspberry Pi project – at least it was, until his Pi crapped out on him. After running into too many problems with it and SD card corruptions, [David] decided against the RetroPie project platform and decided to upgrade to a full-blown PC, using an AtomicFE front-end and the Ultimark Ipac.
The entire cabinet is hand made out of solid wood; he didn’t have access to any fancy CNC routers or laser cutters. We gotta hand it to him, he’s quite the
cabinet maker
for an electronics guy.
There’s tons of pictures on his blog of the entire process – one of our favorite features he decided to add is the little black button on the top of the right control panel – it saves screenshots to the screensaver folder. That way when the cabinet isn’t being used, it just shows off screenshots of the games people have been playing!
We certainly do love our arcade cabinet hacks – we’ve seen
halloween themed ones
,
Skull and Wrenches themed ones,
and even
tiny handheld ones! | 17 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1709018",
"author": "pi-head",
"timestamp": "2014-08-12T11:36:49",
"content": "That’s some fine furnishing. Though It would’ve been better if he could get his raspberry pi to work, I mean, a desktop computer? that’s a pricy overkill if you ask me, it makes this classy cabinet looks ... | 1,760,376,105.838767 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/11/adding-features-to-the-doorbot/ | Adding Features To The DoorBot | Bryan Cockfield | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"doorbell",
"DoorBot",
"text message",
"voip"
] | There’s an interesting network-enabled doorbell on the market from Edison Junior called the DoorBot that boasts some useful features, notably that it can make calls to a phone when someone pushes the button for the doorbell. However, [MadBeggar] saw the potential in this device and couldn’t wait to get some more functionality out of it, so he has
reverse engineered the communications protocol for the doorbell
.
His goals for the project were to implement third-party notifications such as text messaging, VoIP/SIP integration, and maybe even a desktop client. So far he has only been able to analyze the communications protocol but he hopes that others will be able to build upon his work or even add features he hasn’t thought of yet. The makers of the device promise to eventually deliver on some of these features but so far haven’t delivered.
There are some other projects out there that
integrate wireless connectivity with a doorbell
. However, [MadBeggar] notes that the DoorBot really stands out among all of the internet-enabled doorbell, mostly because nothing else around is as clean or is as easy to install as the DoorBot. He just wishes that the software wasn’t so clunky and that it had its full potential unlocked with these extra features. We’d say he’s on the right track! | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1709372",
"author": "cyberzerocool",
"timestamp": "2014-08-12T14:09:05",
"content": "Where’s the hack?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1709517",
"author": "Peter (@RetepInk)",
"timestamp": "2014-08-12T15:17:28",
"con... | 1,760,376,105.785892 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.