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/2014/08/09/arduino-gives-your-toilet-options/ | Arduino Gives Your Toilet Options | Bryan Cockfield | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"2",
"arduino",
"deuce",
"environment",
"toilet"
] | With the severe drought going on in California with no end in sight, [TVMiller] decided he could put an Arduino and a toilet together to try and save at least a few gallons of water per day. The invention
fills a toilet to the minimum level
, saving around two gallons per day for the average “user”.
A typical toilet functions by using gravity and moving water to create a vacuum, sucking the waste down and out of the toilet. As long as there is nothing, uh, solid in the bowl, the toilet will be able to function on the reduced amount of water. The Arduino cuts the flow of water off before the toilet fills up the entire way.
In the event that anyone -ahem- needs the toilet’s full capacity, there is a button connected to the Arduino that fills the reservoir to capacity. [TVMiller] notes that if 1,825 hackers installed this device on their toilets, we could save a million gallons of water per year and be well on our way to saving the planet.
The project site is full of more information and puns for your viewing pleasure. We might suggest that the “2” button would be very easy to integrate with the
toilet terror level indicator
as well. | 60 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "1700365",
"author": "Dombas (@dombastik)",
"timestamp": "2014-08-09T08:10:06",
"content": "Don’t toilets normally have two buttons for flushing different amounts of water?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1700557",
"aut... | 1,760,376,108.388001 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/08/unorthodox-gopro-camera-rigs-produce-unreal-videos/ | Unorthodox GoPro Camera Rigs Produce Unreal Videos | James Hobson | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"camera mount",
"camera rig",
"ECAL",
"GoPro",
"gopro rig",
"gopro stabilizer",
"Roel Wouters"
] | For a workshop at the ECAL University of Art and Design in Switzerland, students were asked to come up with new unorthodox ways to capture video using a GoPro camera. The
results
are pretty awesome.
Lead by the Dutch designer [Roel Wouters], students in the Media & Interaction Design program worked together with Industrial Design students to create these fascinating camera rigs. From “the eye”, a water based stabilizing ball, to a silly bobble hat can be spun around the user, the results are super fun and unique to watch. The workshop was one week long and produced five different camera rigs as featured in the following video.
The video reminds us of this most excellent
GoPro Slingshot
that we featured last year! And if you’re not crazy about throwing your GoPro, you can always make a
sliding time lapse rig
, or even a
panning mount to catch bad drivers on the road!
[via
MAKE
] | 15 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1700355",
"author": "WorthyAdversary",
"timestamp": "2014-08-09T08:04:52",
"content": "Stupid arts students forgot that only black and white photography is evocative… arts 101.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1700358",
"auth... | 1,760,376,107.911313 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/08/estimating-bb-gun-muzzle-velocity-with-a-voice-recorder-and-a-curtain/ | Estimating BB Gun Muzzle Velocity With A Voice Recorder And A Curtain | James Hobson | [
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"BB muzzle velocity",
"estimating speed",
"speed sensor"
] | [Luke Wren] just wrote in to tell us about his new science blog called Wren’s Tech — it’s only a few days old, but he’s already got some pretty cool science experiments written up! Like how to estimate the muzzle velocity of a BB gun
using just a voice recorder, and a curtain!
There are many different ways you could do this. One of the easiest is using a high-speed camera with a known grid or pattern as the background — like how Mythbusters does it. Unfortunately, high-speed cameras are usually out of reach for most hobbyists. [Luke] explains a rather cool system you can build with some electronics, whereby you have two thin wires a known distance apart — run current through both and use a circuit that can detect the interrupt as your projectile breaks the wires — or, you can use a voice recorder.
His method is by far the easiest and can be done by pretty much anyone. By using sound, you can record the shooting of the BB gun at a known distance into a curtain, or wall, or anything really. Take the sound clip and measure the time between the two sounds — the firing and the impact. It’s not perfectly accurate but it’s a pretty good estimation of the average speed of the projectile: 33.6-38.3m/s.
Unfortunately, that’s just the average — not muzzle velocity. By making a few assumptions about drag force and doing a few calculations, [Luke] was able to calculate the approximate muzzle velocity of 63m/s, with the kinetic energy of about 0.22 Joules. While that may seem fast, by the time the BB hits the curtain 4 meters away, it’ll have a mere 1/9th of its initial energy. Ouch. | 17 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1699916",
"author": "chuck",
"timestamp": "2014-08-09T03:03:04",
"content": "Cool! Another HaD post that will turn into fun science time with uncle chuck and the nephews.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1699988",
"author": "... | 1,760,376,108.100041 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/08/wooden-case-sega-saturn-laptop/ | Wooden Case Sega Saturn Laptop | Rich Bremer | [
"laptops hacks"
] | [
"portable console",
"sega",
"Sega Saturn"
] | Remember the Sega Saturn? You know, that short-lived game system of the mid 90’s. Well, [c_mon] is still a fan and decided to make a
portable
version with a built in screen.
As you can see from the photos, the main case is made from wood, plywood to be exact. Several pieces of the plywood were cut out using a CNC Router and laminated together to achieve the full height needed to enclose the internal electronics. The finished case takes up a little less real estate than the original, however it is slightly taller.
You may recognize the screen as an old PSOne unit. The screen was taken part and housed in it’s own wooden enclosure which is hinged to the main case. The video is supplied to the screen by a composite output from the Saturn. There is no unique CD lid either, the screen functions as one when it is folded down. For sound there are a couple built in powered speakers that tap into the stock audio output.
To ad a little pizzazz, [c_mon] routed in a groove in the top to accept some EL wire. There are also some cool engravings in the wooden case, including the Saturn Automobile Manufacturer logo on the top of the screen lid…. whoops! | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1699358",
"author": "Guy",
"timestamp": "2014-08-08T23:04:08",
"content": "This is pretty cool- I dig the EL wire. And the Saturn car logo- well played!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1699389",
"author": "Moser Labs",... | 1,760,376,107.959558 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/08/defcon-22-badge-talk/ | DEFCON 22: Badge Talk | Mike Szczys | [
"cons",
"hardware"
] | [
"badge",
"defcon",
"defcon 22",
"talk"
] | I got a great seat on the main floor for the first big DEFCON 22 talk which is a welcome to the con and discussion of
the badge hardware
. [LosT], the creator of this year’s badge, started the discussion with a teaser about the badge… there’s a phone number hidden as part of the challenge. [LosT] took a call from someone chasing the puzzles. The guy was in the audience which was pretty fun.
The process of building a puzzle that can be solved at DEFCON is really tough. How do you make it just hard enough that it won’t get pwned right away but easy enough that a large number of attendees will be able to figure it out during the weekend? The answer is to build a secure system and introduce strategic flaws which will be the attack vectors for the attendees solving the badge challenge.
Of course the badge can be used as a development platform. The populated electronics on the board all have these nice little footprints which can be cut to disconnect them from the chip. The breakout headers on either side of the board allow you to connect headers for your own uses. Great idea!
The back of the lanyards have special characters on them too. This encourages community at the conference. To solve the puzzle you need to find others with different lanyards. Compare the glyphs and crack the code (so far I have no clue!!).
Know what I’m doing wrong? Have suggestions on where to go from here? I’ll be checking the comments! | 21 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1699087",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2014-08-08T20:22:37",
"content": "Perhaps the LEDs make a POV thingy. You should post a video of the badge doing it’s thing so those of who aren’t there can see it. Please.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
... | 1,760,376,108.511353 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/08/hacklet-10-cryptography-and-reverse-engineering/ | Hacklet #10 Cryptography And Reverse Engineering | Adam Fabio | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"aes 256",
"arduino",
"encryption",
"hacklet",
"mooltipass",
"the hackaday prize"
] | In honor of DEFCON, this week we’re looking at some cryptography and reverse engineering projects over at Hackaday.io
Every hacker loves a hardware puzzle, and [Tom] has created a tool to make those puzzles. His
Hardware Reverse Engineering Learning Platform
consists of a shield with two ATmega328 chips and an I2C EEPROM. The two Atmel chips share a data bus and I2C lines. Right in the middle of all this is an ST Morpho connector, which allows an ST Nucleo board to act as a sniffer. The platform allows anyone to create a reverse engineering challenge! To successfully reverse
engineer a board, it sure helps to have good tools. [coflynn] is giving that to us in spaces with
The ChipWhisperer
. ChipWhisperer is an open source security research platform. The heart of the system is a Xilinx Spartan 6 FPGA. The FPGA allows very high speed operations for things like VCC and clock glitching. ChipWhisperer is an entire ecosystem of boards – from LNA blocks to field probes. The entire system is controlled from an easy to use GUI. The end result is a powerful tool for hardware attacks.
On the Encryption side of the house, we start by keeping the Feds at bay. The [Sector67] hackerspace has collectively created
NSA AWAY
. NSA AWAY is a simple method of sending secure messages over an insecure medium – such as email. A one-time use pad is stored on two SD cards, which are used by two Android devices. The message sender uses an Android device to encrypt the message. On the receive side, the message can be decoded simply by pointing an android device’s camera at the encrypted data. So easy, even a grandparent could do it!
Next up is [Josh’s]
Bury it under the noise floor.
“Bury it” is an education for cryptography in general, and steganographic software in particular. [Josh] explains how to use AES-256 encryption, password hashing, and other common techniques. He then introduces
steganography
by showing how to hide an encrypted message inside an image. Anyone who participated in
Hackaday’s ARG
build up to
The Hackaday Prize
will recognize this technique.
[yago] gives us encrypted voice communications with his
ZRTP Hardphone.
The hardphone implements the
ZRTP
, a protocol for encrypted voice over IP communications. The protocol is implemented by a Raspberry Pi using a couple of USB sound cards. User interface is a 16×2 Line character LCD, a membrane keypad, and of course a phone handset. Don’t forget that you need to build two units,or whoever you’re trying to call will be rather confused!
Finally we have the
Mooltipass
. Developed right here on Hackaday by [Mathieu Stephan] and the community at large, Mooltipass is a secure password storage system. All your passwords can be stored fully AES-256 encrypted, with a Smart Card key. Under the hood, Mooltipass uses an Arduino compatible ATmega32U4 microcontroller. UI is through a OLED screen and touch controls. That’s it for this week! Be sure to check out next week’s Hacklet, when we bring you more of the best from
Hackaday.io
! | 25 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1698817",
"author": "blim",
"timestamp": "2014-08-08T17:25:01",
"content": "steganography, not stenography. Totally different.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1698833",
"author": "furiousd",
"timestamp": "2014-08-08T17:... | 1,760,376,108.452191 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/08/astronaut-or-astronot-dont-try-to-record-sql-queries-at-defcon/ | Astronaut Or Astronot: Don’t Try To Record SQL Queries At DEFCON | Brian Benchoff | [
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"the hackaday prize"
] | It’s Friday morning and time for another round of Astronaut Or Astronot, the little lottery thing where we’re giving away
lots of dev boards, programmers, and an awesome meter
to someone on hackaday.io
if they have voted in the latest round of voting.
There’s no video this week because, you know, DEFCON,
but the person randomly chosen
did not vote. Too bad.
This means the voting will continue next week, same time. If you want a chance to get your grubby mitts on a bunch of awesome gear,
vote
.
Do it now
. | 28 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1698765",
"author": "Gigawipf",
"timestamp": "2014-08-08T16:47:07",
"content": "just randomly choosing someone who probably has not even voted but making a vote a requirement for winning is pretty sad.There where many hackers who voted but probably far more who did not.Why not choos... | 1,760,376,108.572128 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/07/dots-and-dashes-on-a-roll/ | Dots And Dashes… On A Roll! | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"555 timer",
"glow in the dark",
"ham radio",
"morse code"
] | Morse code was once a staple of the communications industry, but with advancing technology it has become relegated almost exclusively to movies and a niche group of ham radio operators. [Jan] has created a device which might not put a stop to this trend, but will at least educate children on the basics of how Morse code works by
visually displaying Morse code as it’s generated
.
The setup is fairly simple. An old momentary switch (which could easily be used in an actual Morse code setup) activates two pieces of circuitry. The first is a 555 timer circuit that creates an audible tone when the switch is pressed so the user can hear exactly what an operator would hear when decoding a real Morse code message.
The second piece of circuitry is where the real genius lies: a continuously spinning roll of glow-in-the-dark tape is placed in front of a white LED. When the switch is pressed, the LED turns on, which produces dots and dashes on the roll of tape as it passes by. This eliminates the need for rolls of paper or a more complicated moving pen/pencil setup to draw on the paper which might also be less child-proof.
While [Jan] built this as a toy, the children who used it thoroughly enjoyed it! They even decoded some Morse code messages and used the device to practice on it. After a while they’ll easily be able to master the
Morse code trainer
! | 27 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1696427",
"author": "netbeard",
"timestamp": "2014-08-07T20:24:41",
"content": "Coolest Morse code related hack I’ve seen was the binary search tree.http://apfelmus.nfshost.com/articles/fun-with-morse-code/morse-tree.pngYou can traverse the tree to determine each character.",
"p... | 1,760,376,108.0419 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/07/parallax-propeller-1-goes-open-source/ | Parallax Propeller 1 Goes Open Source | Adam Fabio | [
"Microcontrollers",
"News"
] | [
"Altera",
"fpga",
"open source",
"open source hardware",
"p8x32a",
"parallax",
"propeller",
"verilog",
"vhdl"
] | Parallax has embraced open source hardware by
releasing the source code to its Propeller 1 processor
(P8X32A). Designed by [Chip Gracey] and released in 2006, the 32-bit octal core Propeller has built up a loyal fan base. Many of those fans have created development tools for the Propeller, from libraries to
language ports
. [Ken, Chip], and the entire Parallax team have decided to pay it forward by releasing the entire source to the Propeller.
The source code is in Verilog and released under
GNU General Public License v3.0
. Parallax has done much more than drop 8-year-old files out in the wild. All the configuration files necessary to implement the design on an Altera Cyclone IV using either of two different target boards have also been included. The
DE0-Nano
is the low-cost option. The
Altera DE2-115
dev board is more expensive, but it also can run the upcoming Propeller 2 design.
The release also includes sources for the mask ROM used for booting, running cogs, and the SPIN interpreter. [Chip] originally
released this code in 2008
. The files contain references to PNut, the Propeller’s original code name.
We’re excited to see Parallax taking this step, and can’t wait to see what sort of modifications the community comes up with. Not an Altera fan? No problem – just grab the source code, your favorite FPGA tools, and go for it! Starved for memory? Just add some more. 8 cogs not enough? Bump it up to 16. The only limits are the your imagination and the resources of your target device.
Interested in hacking on a real Propeller? If you’re in Las Vegas, you’re in luck. A Propeller is included on each of the nearly 14,000 badges going to DEFCON 22 attendees. While you’re there, keep an eye out for
Mike and The Hackaday Hat
! | 60 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1696126",
"author": "Alan Hightower",
"timestamp": "2014-08-07T17:07:36",
"content": "Woooow. Super exciting to see a silicon company step up and release RTL for a processor design. GPL3 is a good move to protect their investment and ensure only pay-it-forward projects make use of... | 1,760,376,108.196213 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/07/rolly-bot-puts-a-new-spin-on-independent-wheel-control/ | Rolly Bot Puts A New Spin On Independent Wheel Control | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"2 wheel robot",
"arduino pro mini",
"ir",
"micro servos",
"remote controlled robot",
"robot"
] | All of [Darcy]’s friends were making wheeled robots, so naturally, he had to make one too. His friends complicated theirs with h-bridges and casters for independent wheel maneuvering, but [Darcy] wanted something simpler. A couple of 9g servos later,
the Rolly Bot
was born.
Rolly Bot is self-balancing because of its low center of gravity. Should it hit a wall, the body will flip over, driving it back in the other direction. The BOM comes to a whopping $10, and that includes continuous rotation servos. It does not include the remote control capability he added later, or the cost of the CNC you would need to completely replicate this build. He even made a stand so he could test the wheels during programming.
[Darcy]’s code is on his site along with some pictures of another version someone else built. Watch Rolly Bot roll around after the jump.
How would you make this build even simpler? Tell us in the comments. | 38 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1695780",
"author": "gjiij",
"timestamp": "2014-08-07T14:06:31",
"content": "How is this a hack? Wait… “Filed Under: Arduino Hacks”. That explains everything. I really need to write myself a plugin that will hide all this arduino/raspi crap.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,108.718383 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/07/testing-vr-limits-with-a-raspberry-pi/ | Testing VR Limits With A Raspberry Pi | Matt Terndrup | [
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"augmented reality",
"mixed reality",
"oculus rift",
"opengl es",
"raspberry pi"
] | Virtual Reality by function pushes the boundaries of what we perceive as existence, tricking the mind into believing that the computer generated environment that the user is thrust into actually contains a real place. So in the spirit of seeing what is possible in VR, a developer named [Jacques] hooked up
a Raspberry Pi to an Oculus Rift
. He used a computer graphics rendering API called
OpenGL ES
, which is much like any mobile platform found these days, to render a floating, rotating cube.
All his tests were done on a Release build which utilized the official vertex and fragment shaders. There was no attempt to optimize anything; not like there would be much to do anyways. The scene was rendered twice at 16 milliseconds per frame. From there, he attempted 27 ms per frame with texture, followed by 36 ms/frame, and then 45.
The code used can be found on
[Jacques]’s Github account
. A simple improvement would use a
Banana Pi
for better processing speed. However, don’t expect any spectacular results with this type of setup. Really, the project only proves that it’s possible to minimize a VR experience into something that could become portable. And in the same vein, the Pi + Oculus integration can produce an
uncomfortable lagging effect
if things are not lined up properly. But once the energy/computing power issues are addressed, VR devices could transform into a more fashionable product like Google Glass, where a simple flip of a switch would toggle the view between VR and AR into a something more mixed. And then a motion sensing input camera like this
Kinect-mapping space experiment
could allow people all over the world to jump into the perspectives of other reality-pushing explorers. That’s all far down the line though, but this project lays the foundation for what the future might hold.
To see [Jacques]’s full set up, view the video after the break. | 15 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1695515",
"author": "John Ohno",
"timestamp": "2014-08-07T11:15:54",
"content": "While trying a normal Oculus Rift demo on the Pi is likely to be VR-sickness-inducing, I’ll bet running any of the many VR demos from the first VR hype boom (about 1987-1993) would go wonderfully (even ... | 1,760,376,108.817016 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/07/george-crowdsourcington-a-3d-printed-community-built-statue/ | George Crowdsourcington: A 3D Printed, Community Built Statue | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printed sculpture",
"crowd sourced statue",
"wethebuilders"
] | Macro 3D printing is some cool stuff — but it’s extremely time consuming and can be very expensive. Introducing
We The Builders
,
a 3D printing crowd source site which creates large scale projects the whole country can enjoy.
Their first project was
George Crowdsourcington
— a 1:1 copy of the Baltimore George Washington statue made out of 110 individual pieces. They chopped the model up into 4″ cubes and created the website in order to organize and distribute the files. One of their sponsors, Tinkerine Studio, reimbursed the shipping costs for makers who helped print out parts! Since his creation, Crowdsourcington has traveled all over the country, making stops at 3D printing shows in New York, mini-Maker Faires, art galleries, science centers and more — he even did a short residency in the Adafruit office in Manhattan!
It was quite the success, so they’re starting a new statue called the Distributed Ben Franklin. This one has a whopping 198 pieces, and they hope to have it built in time for the Silver Spring and World Maker Faires.
[Todd Blatt], one of the organizers has done some other pretty cool projects in the past — including the
Tickle-Me-Elmo: Carbonite Edition. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1695429",
"author": "pelrun",
"timestamp": "2014-08-07T10:26:41",
"content": "I had to go digging to find a photo that showed the true size of that print. They should have included a banana.https://plus.google.com/photos/+ToddBlatt/albums/5979233388545332497/5981432184968148962?pid=... | 1,760,376,108.764829 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/06/controlling-music-with-the-wave-of-a-hand/ | Controlling Music With The Wave Of A Hand | Matt Terndrup | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"alamode",
"alarm clock",
"fading LED",
"gpio",
"mpdroid",
"Music box",
"raspberry pi"
] | [Thomas] created a
magical music player
that gives the listener the ability to change songs and alter the volume levels without having to touch anything but air. Called the LighTouch, this device puts the control in the hands of the user by interpreting input from an ultrasonic sensor and plays back tracks based on waving gestures.
It is the 2nd iteration of a prototype that he completed about a year ago and functions as a streaming radio/alarm clock. The sensor is hooked up to a Raspberry Pi with a fading LED. Everything is highly customizable including the distances used for playback features. The criteria [Thomas] put in place has the pause method trigger when an object is detected between 0-10cm from the sensor. The volume control on the next level up brightens and dims the LED light just for some added flair.
In addition, [Thomas] integrated an LCD screen to display the currently playing track. A Pi Alamode GPIO shield to act as the interface between the Raspberry Pi and the ultrasonic sensor/LCD. Custom soldered boards are used as well to ensure proper placement inside the case. Playlists can be set up too. [Thomas] recommends using
MPDroid
to get that working.
Here’s a video of [Thomas] demoing the LighTouch:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCrYmi5ZA3M] | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1695301",
"author": "Bogdan",
"timestamp": "2014-08-07T09:04:30",
"content": "Woa the functionality is great!Now I want to make one. We got some new options now: capacitive sensing and optical sensing, both can have even more complex gesture detection. Anyone have experience with op... | 1,760,376,108.983988 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/06/pole-climbing-device-runs-up-flags-and-undies/ | Pole Climbing Device Runs Up Flags And Undies | Rich Bremer | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"camera dolly",
"camera gantry",
"tubular drive"
] | Driving a carriage up and down a cylindrical object isn’t the most popular activity but that is certainly no reason not to build such a device. Check out [Ryan’s] creation that does just that, he calls it a
Tubular Drive
.
There isn’t much going on here, basically there are 4 wheels that grip a pipe. Two of those wheels have integrated gears and are driven by a DC motor. The remaining two wheels are idlers. When power is applied to the motor, two of the wheels spin, which then moves the entire assembly down the pole. A quick reversal in polarity brings the unit back the other way.
With those 3D printed plastic wheels you may think that traction would be an issue but [Ryan] insists that it is not a problem. The ABS wheels were treated with an acetone bath to smooth out the print layers and the distance between the wheels can be adjusted using a couple of bolts. Together that allows enough surface contact and pressure to ensure slip-free traveling.
Although the wheels were made to grip 1/2″ electrical conduit, it would be very easy to adapt this design to fit around and climb up all sorts of cylindrical objects, maybe even rope! Perhaps v-wheels with a spring tensioner system would allow for traveling on different size tubes while also adjusting for any variation in the diameter of a single tube.
[Ryan] says version two will have a linear encoder and be driven by a stepper motor. Check out the video after the break… | 20 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1694658",
"author": "Waterjet",
"timestamp": "2014-08-07T02:01:50",
"content": "This sounds like it would work well if you ran it horizontally instead of vertically?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1694713",
"author": ... | 1,760,376,109.887419 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/06/san-francisco-event-hardware-developers-didactic-galactic/ | San Francisco Event: Hardware Developers Didactic Galactic | Mike Szczys | [
"Featured",
"hardware"
] | [
"hardware developers didactic galactic",
"meetup",
"san francisco",
"supplyframe"
] | It’s a mouthful to say, but an evening-ful of fun. San Franciscans who like to talk about all things hardware need to
block this one out on their calendars
:
Hardware Developers Didactic Galactic
Thursday, August 14th 2014 starting 6pm-9:30pm
500 3rd St., Suite 230 in San Francisco
The night will include a few talks on hardware; So far we know [Matt Berggren] is doing FPGA stuff, [Chris Gammell] will talk about KiCAD, and I’m going to talk about the community adventure that is Mooltipass. We’re also looking for others to make presentations so step up and share your hardware passion!
In addition to the formal talks there’ll be plenty of time for chewing the fat with all the other hardware-awesomes that will be there. See you a week from tomorrow, and don’t be shy about bringing your own hardware to show off! | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1694401",
"author": "hue",
"timestamp": "2014-08-07T00:40:23",
"content": "August 14th is not a Wednesday…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1694583",
"author": "zuul",
"timestamp": "2014-08-07T01:28:43",
... | 1,760,376,109.489714 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/06/building-a-home-made-iphone/ | Building A Home Made IPhone | Brian Benchoff | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"iphone",
"mobile",
"pic32",
"portable"
] | A few years ago, [Michele] built a mobile device with a touch screen, a relatively powerful processor, and a whole bunch of sensors. To be honest, the question of why he built this was never asked because it’s an impressive display of electronic design and fabrication.
[Michele] calles it the iGruppio.
Although it’s not a feature-packed cell phone, it’s still an impressive project that stands on its own merits.
Inside the iGruppio is a Pic32mx microcontroller, a 240×320 TFT touchscreen, and enough sensors to implement a 10 DOF IMU. The software written for the iGruppio is heavily inspired by the iPhone and a completely homebrew project – all the software was written by [Michele] himself. While the first version of the iGruppio was a little clunky, the second revision (seen in the pic above) uses an old iPhone case to turn a bunch of boards and plugs into a surprisingly compact device.
No, there’s no cellular modem inside the latest version, but [Michele] has put
all the sources up on Github
, and anyone wanting to build a homebrew cell phone could do worse than to take a look at his work. Video demo below. | 17 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1694251",
"author": "Galane",
"timestamp": "2014-08-06T23:15:29",
"content": "He built a PDA, not a phone.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1694270",
"author": "the gambler",
"timestamp": "2014-08-06T23:24:38",
... | 1,760,376,109.445576 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/06/focus-your-ears-with-the-visual-microphone/ | Focus Your Ears With The Visual Microphone | Adam Fabio | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"adobe",
"CSAIL",
"image processing",
"laser microphone",
"microsoft",
"mit",
"Visual Microphone"
] | A Group of MIT, Microsoft, and Adobe researchers have managed to reproduce sound using video alone. The sounds we make bounce off every object in the room, causing microscopic vibrations.
The Visual Microphone
utilizes a high-speed video camera and some clever signal processing to extract an audio signal from these vibrations. Using video of everyday objects such as snack bags, plants, Styrofoam cups, and water, the team was able to reproduce tones, music and speech. Capturing audio from light isn’t exactly new.
Laser microphones
have been around for years. The difference here is the fact that the visual microphone is a completely passive device. No laser or special illumination is required.
The secret is in the signal processing, which the team explains in
their SIGGRAPH paper
(pdf link). They used a
complex steerable pyramid
along with wavelet filters to obtain local pixel motion values. These local values are averaged into a global motion value. From this global motion value the team is able to measure movement down to 1/1000 of a pixel. Plenty of resolution to decode audio data.
Most of the research is performed with high-speed video cameras, which are well outside the budget of the average hacker. Don’t despair though, the team did prove out that the same magic can be performed with consumer cameras, albeit with lower quality results. The team took advantage of the
rolling shutter
found in most of today’s CMOS imager based consumer cameras. Rolling shutter CMOS sensors capture images one row at a time. Each row can be processed in a similar fashion to the frames of the high-speed camera. There are some inter-frame gaps when the camera isn’t recording anything though. Even with the reduced resolution, it’s easy to pick out “Mary had a little lamb” in the video below.
We’re blown away by this research, and we’re sure
certain organizations
will be looking into it for their own use. Don’t pull out your
tin foil hats
yet though. Foil containers proved to be one of the best sound reflectors.
Thanks [Zach]! | 53 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1693935",
"author": "nioga",
"timestamp": "2014-08-06T20:08:26",
"content": "I’ve seen it on niebezpiecznik.pl at least 2 days ago. Old news.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1694171",
"author": "chuck",
"timest... | 1,760,376,109.585684 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/06/thp-entry-cpld-video-card-with-vga-and-ntsc/ | THP Entry: A CPLD Video Card With VGA And NTSC | Brian Benchoff | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"color NTSC",
"cpld",
"fpga",
"ntsc",
"vga",
"video"
] | [PK] is working on a very simple video card, meant to output 640×480 VGA with a cheap CPLD. The interface will be 5 Volt SPI, meaning there’s a ton of potential here for anyone wanting put a reasonable (and cheap) display in a microcontroller project. The project has come a long way, and his latest update showcases something that has only been done once before:
color NTSC with programmable logic
The brains of the outfit is a $5, 100-pin CPLD from Xilinx. Apart from that, the rest of the components are a crystal, PLL, and an almost hilarious number of resistors for the R2R ladder. The one especially unique component is the 25.056815 MHz crystal – multiply by that by two, and it’s fast enough to drive a VGA monitor. Divide the crystal by seven, it’s the 3.579545 MHz you need for an NTSC colorburst frequency. That’s VGA and NTSC in a single programmable logic project, something
the one FPGA project we could find that did color NTSC
couldn’t manage.
The next step in the project is designing a PCB and figuring out the code for the framebuffer. [PK] put up a demo showing off both VGA and NTSC; you can check that out 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. | 24 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1693664",
"author": "h3ll0_w0rld",
"timestamp": "2014-08-06T17:41:26",
"content": "reminds me a little of this project, I don’t remember if it was on HaD or not:http://www.lucidscience.com/pro-vga%20video%20generator-1.aspx",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
... | 1,760,376,110.097329 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/06/hit-the-polls-before-friday/ | Hit The Polls Before Friday | Mike Szczys | [
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"astronaut or not",
"defcon",
"vote",
"voter lottery"
] | Don’t forget to vote in the newest round of
Astronaut or Not
. In addition to deciding which projects should be recognized as “Too Cool for Kickstarter”, you will be eligible for the voter lottery.
What is this voter lottery we speak of? On Friday we’ll draw a random number and see if that hacker profile on
Hackaday.io
has voted at least once in this round, which started on Monday.
If they voted they’ll received a prize package packed with all kinds of prototyping hardware. This cycle offers several breakout boards, a bunch of programmers and debuggers, as well as a digital multimeter and a bench power supply (
full list here
). For the hackers who haven’t registered a
vote
? Nothing!
We’ll be drawing the number from a hotel room in Vegas since
we’ll be there for DEFCON
. If you’re also attending the conference track us down to show off your own hardware or just to grab some stickers. | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1693500",
"author": "gregkennedy",
"timestamp": "2014-08-06T16:24:35",
"content": "Projects to consider not voting for, since they are already on Kickstarter:* Widgeuino:http://hackaday.io/project/1510* OSCAR, the Open Screen Adapter:http://hackaday.io/project/369* $300 Pick-and-Pla... | 1,760,376,109.640135 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/06/reverse-engineering-a-nand-flash-device-management-algorithm/ | Reverse Engineering A NAND Flash Device Management Algorithm | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Teardown"
] | [
"NAND flash",
"NOR flash",
"reverse engineering",
"sd card"
] | Put your hand under you chin as here comes a 6 months long
jaw-dropping reverse engineering work
: getting the data back from a (not so) broken SD card. As you can guess from the picture above, [Joshua]’s first step was to desolder the card’s Flash chip as the tear-down revealed that only the integrated SD-to-NAND Flash controller was damaged. The flash was then soldered on a breadboard so it could be connected to a Digilent Nexys-2 FPGA board. [Joshua] managed to find a similar Flash datasheet, checked that his wire-made bus was reliable and generated two 12GiB dump files on his computer.
In order to extract meaningful data from the dumps he first had to understand how SD-to-NAND controllers work. In his great write-up he provides us with a background of the Flash technology, so our readers can better understand the challenges we face with today’s chips. As flash memories integrate more storage space while keeping the same size, they become less reliable and have nifty problems that should be taken care of. Controllers therefore have to perform
data whitening
(so neighboring blocks of data don’t have similar content), spread data writes uniformly around the flash (so physical blocks have the same life expectancy) and finally support
error correcting codes
(so damaged bits can still be recovered). We’ll let our users imagine how complex reverse engineering the implementation of such techniques is when you don’t know anything about the controller. [Joshua] therefore had to do a lot of research, perform a lot of statistical analysis on the data he extracted and when nothing else was possible, use bruteforce… | 18 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1693244",
"author": "Nathaniel",
"timestamp": "2014-08-06T14:12:05",
"content": "Wow, absolutely Brilliant, i do admire his dedication. Well done.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1693264",
"author": "Chris T",
"timestamp... | 1,760,376,110.037194 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/06/paperclip-lock-picking-sets/ | Paperclip Lock Picking Sets | Matt Terndrup | [
"lockpicking hacks"
] | [
"lock picks",
"lockpicking",
"paperclip",
"pick"
] | Lockpicking has become a trademark skill of hackers all across the world, and is regularly taught at hackerspaces and maker faires. But a lot of the time, the sets have already been made or bought online somewhere. However, [Sean] has demonstrated how to create a lock picking set with ordinary paperclips in the video embedded at the end of this post. Wikihow also has
these awesome instructions
on how to build them.
What’s great is that the material for these picks are easily found. There are other ways to fashion a set together. For example, street sweeper bristles can be used. And electrical metal tape is a good material as well, but these paperclip sets are, by far, the most accessible. Pretty much anywhere that has office stationary supplies will have mounds of these little metal clips lying around.
But how well do they work? Have you made a paperclip lock picking set before?
If so, let us know in the comments, and tell us how well they did.
[Thanks Bob for the tip!] | 78 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1692946",
"author": "Jokke",
"timestamp": "2014-08-06T11:34:45",
"content": "inb4 DMCA from lock manufacturers.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1693013",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2014-08-06T11:57:32... | 1,760,376,109.829963 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/06/raspberry-pi-spies-on-your-front-door/ | Raspberry Pi Spies On Your Front Door | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"doorbell",
"email",
"Email notification",
"python",
"raspberry pi",
"webcam"
] | One of [Sander]’s first projects with a Raspberry Pi was to get it to send messages to his iPhone. From there he decided to take it a step further and wire the tiny computer up to his doorbell, creating a system that can
send push messages to his phone whenever someone is at the front door
.
[Sander]’s doorbell is wireless, and he decided to keep all of its original functionality. All it took to signal the Pi was a simple circuit tied to the doorbell’s status LED which turns off whenever the doorbell is pushed.
The Raspberry Pi runs a python program that handles the GPIO pin which is wired to the doorbell. When the doorbell is pushed, the program processes and sends the push notification while taking pictures of the visitor with an attached webcam. The pictures are included in the message so [Sander] can see who is at the front door. The code for the project is included on his project page.
This project rang a bell for us since we’ve seen
projects using a Raspberry Pi and push notifications
. None of them so far have included a webcam or utilized an existing wireless doorbell though, and this is a great step forward! | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1692779",
"author": "nio",
"timestamp": "2014-08-06T10:26:46",
"content": "how’s this useful?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1692921",
"author": "eccentricelectron",
"timestamp": "2014-08-06T11:27:09",
... | 1,760,376,109.981893 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/05/sniffing-nrf24l01-traffic-with-wireshark/ | Sniffing NRF24L01+ Traffic With Wireshark | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"nRF24L01+",
"sniffing",
"wireshark"
] | We’re sure that some of our readers are familiar with the difficult task that debugging/sniffing nRF24L01+ communications can be. Well, [Ivo] developed a sniffing platform based on an Arduino Uno, a single nRF24L01+ module and a computer running the popular network protocol analyzer Wireshark (
part1
,
part2
,
part3
of his write-up).
As these very cheap modules don’t include a promiscuous mode to listen to all frames being sent on a particular channel, [Ivo] uses for his application a variation of
[Travis Goodspeed]’s technique
to sniff Enhance Shockburst messages. In short, it consists in setting a shorter than usual address, setting a fix payload length and deactivating the CRC feature. The Arduino Uno connected to the nRF24L01+ is therefore in charge of forwarding the sniffed frames to the computer. An application that [Ivo] wrote parses the received data and forwards it to wireshark, on which can be set various filters to only display the information you’re interested in. | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1692233",
"author": "Tobias",
"timestamp": "2014-08-06T06:19:43",
"content": "Ohhh. This is SWEET!Looks great. I will take a closer look at that this evening.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1692415",
"author": "sparerobot",... | 1,760,376,109.928647 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/05/the-arduino-yun-shield/ | The Arduino Yun Shield | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"arduino",
"Arduino Yun",
"cloud",
"openwrt",
"router",
"shield"
] | A few years ago, the most common method to put an Arduino project on the web was to add a small router loaded up with OpenWrt, wire up a serial connection, and use this router as a bridge to the Internet. This odd arrangement was possibly because the existing Arduino Ethernet and WiFi shields were too expensive or not capable enough, but either way the Arduino crew took notice and released the Arduino Yun: an Arduino with an SoC running Linux with an Ethernet port. It’s pretty much the same thing as an Arduino wired up to a router, with the added bonus of having tons of libraries available.
Since the Yun is basically a SoC grafted onto an Arduino, we’re surprised we haven’t seen
something like this before
. It’s an Arduino shield that adds a Linux SoC, WiFi, Ethernet, and USB Host to any Arduino board from the Uno, to the Duemilanove and Mega. It is basically identical to the Arduino Yun, and like the Yun it’s completely open for anyone to remix, share, and reuse.
The Yun shield
found on the Dragino website
features a small SoC running OpenWrt, separated from the rest of the Arduino board with a serial connection. The Linux side of the stack features a 400MHz AR9331 (the same processor as the Yun), 16 MB of Flash, and 64 MB of RAM for running a built-in web server and sending all the sensor data an Arduino can gather up to the cloud (Yun, by the way, means cloud).
All the hardware files are available
on the Yun shield repo
, with the
Dragino HE module
being the most difficult part to source. | 25 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1691675",
"author": "ANC",
"timestamp": "2014-08-06T02:13:47",
"content": "This seems like adding a motorcycle to my bicycle. Are there any Arduino emulators for Linux?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1691750",
"autho... | 1,760,376,110.250269 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/05/hardware-security-and-a-dmca-takedown-notice/ | Hardware “Security” And A DMCA Takedown Notice | Mike Szczys | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"dmca",
"dmcatakedown",
"oscilloscope",
"takedown",
"tektronix"
] | Last week we published a post about how it was discovered through trial and error that
Tektronix application modules are designed with laughable security
. We’ll get to that part of it in a minute. We received a DMCA Takedown Notice from Tektronix (which you can read after the break) demanding that we remove the post. We have altered the original post, but we believe our coverage of this story is valid and we don’t agree that the post should be completely removed.
First off, Tektronix sells the modules to unlock the features already present on the Oscilloscope in questions. We’re operating on the moral assumption that using these features without paying their asking price is wrong. If you want the features they’ve developed you should pay for them.
The real story here is that Tektronix designed a woefully weak system for unlocking these modules. Learn from this. If you’re ever designing a hardware key, don’t do it like this!
An EEPROM, a connector, and a plain text string of characters which is already published publicly on their website is all that is necessary to unlock these “crippled” features. Let’s just say that again: apparently every hardware key is the same and just
uses a plain-text string found on their website
which is not encrypted or obfuscated. If you were selling these keys for $2.99 perhaps this would be adequate, but Tek values these modules at $500 apiece.
If you were designing this system wouldn’t it be worth using an encryption key pair based on the serial number or some other piece of unique information? How do you think this should have been done? Leave your comment below.
I am the Chief Intellectual Property Counsel at Test & Measurement group of companies including Tektronix, Inc.
I have been notified of a posting on the “Hack A Day” website concerning hacking of Tektronix’ copyrighted modules for use in oscilloscopes. Hacking those modules permits unauthorized access to and use of Tektronix’ copyrighted software by means of copying of Tektronix’ copyrighted code in those modules.
http://hackaday.com/2014/07/28/cloning-tektronix-application-modules/
A copy of the offending posting is attached for your reference.
<Copied text removed>
The posting includes instructions for how to hack our modules and thereby violate Tektronix’ copyrights.
Tektronix has a good faith belief that there is no legal basis for this individual to provide such instructions to anyone, much less on a public forum.
I hereby submit that the above statements are true and accurate, and under penalty of perjury state that I am authorized to act on Tektronix’ behalf.
In view of the above, Tektronix demands that the posting identified above be expeditiously removed from the website.
Very Truly Yours, | 305 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "1691239",
"author": "uri",
"timestamp": "2014-08-05T23:22:44",
"content": "Engineers spend OPM and care little about unlocking “occult” features in test equipment unless it is their personal piece. Unlikely HP lost a dime due to poor encryption, lost face yes. Home Hardware hackers... | 1,760,376,111.860955 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/05/unlocking-a-door-with-a-phone-easy-as-pi/ | Unlocking A Door With A Phone – Easy As Pi! | Matt Terndrup | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"golgi sdk",
"gpio",
"office hacks",
"raspberry pi"
] | [Ian] has created a way for his office colleagues to get inside the door, even if they have forgotten their keys. This
office automation, Raspberry Pi set up
is appropriately named the ‘Doorman’ and provided an alternative method of unlocking the entry system.
His solution tapped into the existing security circuit, which is closed by a simple relay, which is connected to the main piece of hardware; a Raspberry Pi. On one side of the Pi is the GPIO pins that allow control access while the other side links to the internet. The company’s internal system is responsible for authenticating users, issuing keys and processing access requests. A mobile client, aka a smartphone, can request a set of keys from the Doorman.
[Ian] used the
Golgi SDK
to speed up the development of the in-house app. With the wires in place, the Doorman has become a great success, and now forgotten keys are a thing of the past. And even though staff members no longer need to buzz into the office interrupting their co-workers, the development team has plans to beef up their office automation system. Already other innovations are being created to be integrated in with the Doorman.
Now all that’s left is to show a video demonstration of the Doorman, which can be seen after the break: | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1690887",
"author": "gcftyfyj",
"timestamp": "2014-08-05T20:48:28",
"content": "A key is fine too.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1690918",
"author": "greenbacks",
"timestamp": "2014-08-05T21:04:29",
"content": "Loo... | 1,760,376,110.393835 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/05/retrotechtacular-we-heard-you-like-tubes-so-heres-a-film-about-tube-tubes-from-the-webtubes/ | Retrotechtacular: We Heard You Like Tubes, So Here’s A Film About Tube Tubes From The Webtubes | Kristina Panos | [
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"Mullard",
"Mullard EF80",
"pentode",
"radio valve",
"thermionic",
"tubes",
"tungsten",
"vacuum tubes"
] | This lovely little number is the EF80 pentode thermionic valve, or vacuum tube, made by Mullard beginning in 1950. They were used in radio and radar applications, but most of them wound up in VHF television sets. This week’s Retrotechtacular takes a close look at
the assembly of and on-site materials production for
the EF80 in particular.
The film begins with slow and careful hand assembly of an EF80. The cathode is inserted into a mica disc, and a series of three grids are placed over the cathode. The semicircular anode sits around the outermost grid. Another mica disc is placed on top which does triple duty as a spacer, a base for the
getter
/plate assembly, and a firewall against the getter flash.The dark lining of the upper part of the tube is the residue of the vaporized getter, which is heated after the first stage of air removal.
Before the vacuuming begins, the inner assembly is mounted on a glass base with nine pins that have been pre-bent to meet the inner assembly wires. The heater, dissipating shield, and a meshy cylinder are added, and then the getter on its plate. A tube is slipped over the assembly and fused to the base in a jig, forming an airtight seal.
Once you’ve seen the assembly, you’ll have a better perspective for the in-house materials production. This method lends greater quality control for a large quantity of valves with identical specs. Mullard cooks up their own glass and draws it out into long rods. These are formed against an internal air current that controls the diameter and thickness. The rods are cut into shorter lengths and made into bulbs with one closed end. Finally, the tube that will be used to suck out the air is fused on and the bulbs are annealed. Each bulb is tested with a high-tension discharge between a pair of electrodes.
Perhaps the most impressive part of production happens in the tungsten department. The heater in each valve begins life as a wad of scheelite that spends seven days in a ball mill. It is chemically treated to make tungsten powder and then pressed into a bar and tempered in hydrogen and high current. The bar is drawn out in several stages into a wire measuring 1/50th of an inch in diameter. It is then drawn out further and further still using diamond dies. A single bar of tungsten is ultimately drawn into 200 miles of wire.
Every component is subjected to numerous automated and human-administered tests before being assembled by dexterous, dainty-handed women. And then, of course, they’re tested some more.
[Thank you Hedley for sending this in]
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
. | 24 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1690628",
"author": "Rusty Shackleford",
"timestamp": "2014-08-05T18:22:15",
"content": "Gotta love the graceful, warm glow of a vacuum tube!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1690728",
"author": "That One Guy",
"timestamp... | 1,760,376,111.921053 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/05/your-15-days-to-be-excellent/ | Your 15 Days To Be Excellent | Mike Szczys | [
"cons",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"be excellent",
"countdown",
"deadline",
"entry",
"the hackaday prize"
] | This is it. It’s time to step up and be a hardware hacker.
If you haven’t submitted your entry for
The Hackaday Prize
, get out that graph paper and mechanical pencil and start scribbling. The coming fortnight is your time to shine.
As of right now you have exactly fifteen days to tell us about your concept for an Open, Connected device. This doesn’t mean you have to finish the build, there’s time for that after the August 20th deadline.
What you do need to do
is describe your idea and explain how you plan to build a working prototype for the final deadline in early November.
I’ve appealed to your vanity — it’s hard to call yourself a hacker if you sit on the sidelines for this one! Now I’ll appeal to your want of recognition and the prizes that dreams are made of. Right now we haven’t quite crossed the 500 entry mark. When was the last time you had a chance as good as 1 in 500 for
such a huge bag of booty
? | 12 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1690211",
"author": "static",
"timestamp": "2014-08-05T14:49:33",
"content": "“The Hackaday Prize will send one person into space for building the next evolution of hardware. ”That’s pretty high bar, I’m not surprised there are so few entries. Appears the entries feature so far ar... | 1,760,376,110.595204 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/08/ipad-finds-new-home-in-mac-classic/ | IPad Finds New Home In Mac Classic | Rich Bremer | [
"Mac Hacks"
] | [
"casemod",
"ipad",
"iPad dock",
"mac",
"mac Classic",
"macintosh",
"retrocomputing"
] | Who of us out there don’t have a spare iPad and Mac Classic kicking around? If you are one of those lucky folks then this project is for you. [site hirac] has made a pretty neat
stand for an iPad made out of a Mac Classic
case (
translated
). It just happens that the screens of the Mac Classic and iPad are pretty darn close in size. Although the screen size is similar, the resolution is not. The original Macintosh Classic had a black and white screen with a resolution of 512 × 342 pixels. The iPad’s resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels has 450% more pixels than the original Mac.
To get the iPad to fit correctly, the case had to be significantly modified. First, all of the internals of the Mac were removed, leaving just an empty case. The front panel of the case was removed and a slot on the left side is made. This slot helps to allow the iPad to slide into the Mac. On the inside of the front panel quite a few of injection molded supports were trimmed away for clearance. A slot was also cut in the left side of the rear case half. When the case is re-assembled, the slots in the front and rear halves provide a large enough hole for the iPad to fit through. Oddly, there are some plastic features on the front panel that are at just the right height to hold the iPad in the ideal location to line up with the screen cutout in the case.
All the case mod details
well documented
, in case you are itching to build one. This is a pretty neat project already but if we had to make any suggestions, it would be to add a docking connector and some integrated speakers. As the project is now, the iPad runs off battery power and the iPad speakers are facing into the case. | 22 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1698481",
"author": "jcwren",
"timestamp": "2014-08-08T14:02:25",
"content": "I wish to click the ‘Like’ button for this :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1698515",
"author": "Jgunn",
"timestamp": "2014-08-08T14:23:47",... | 1,760,376,111.107514 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/08/a-do-it-yourself-air-conditioner-with-evaporative-cooling-5-gallon-bucket/ | A Do-It-Yourself Air Conditioner With Evaporative Cooling 5 Gallon Bucket | Matt Terndrup | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"air conditioner",
"burning man hacks",
"evaporative cooling"
] | The people over at Gray Wolf Survival have this
amazing little air conditioning project
that is a perfect addition to any household that doesn’t have flowing air wafting through. It was created by [Figjam] for a trip to Burning Man, where all kinds of crazy ideas are bred in the hot dry heat of The Playa sun.
The design uses no ice, which is the cooling agent typical found in other DIY air conditioners. Those generally cut holes in the top of a cooler, put a fan on top to blow the air down across the ice. This is similar, but acts more like an evaporative cooler (not really a traditional air conditioner but it does the job).
It uses a LOT less energy than an air conditioner unit so there won’t be a need to increase the power capabilities of a simple system to work it, and it can reduce the temperature by up to 30 degrees as well as alleviate the dryness associated with living through a Burn. It runs off 12V DC so it can either use the solar panel or connect to a battery. It has a 12V power plug for this, and draws as little power as absolutely possible. Plus, it has the ability to easily connect to a larger water source so it won’t have to be continually refilled. These considerations make it very portable and perhaps backpackable as well.
[Figjam] took a 5 gallon bucket, wrapped the inside with two layers of swamp cooler matting, made a loop of hose above it connected to a submersible pump and ran a fan out the top with piping. Connecting it to a shelter is done with a vent hose. | 58 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1698228",
"author": "the gambler",
"timestamp": "2014-08-08T11:10:14",
"content": "so a mini swamp cooler. nice compact design but if you are doing this please remember that these coolers even though they do work well are just magnets for mold.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth":... | 1,760,376,110.989364 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/08/turning-street-sweeper-bristles-into-lock-picking-tools-for-science/ | Turning Street Sweeper Bristles Into Lock Picking Tools…For Science! | Matt Terndrup | [
"lockpicking hacks"
] | [
"23B",
"lockpicking guide",
"street sweeper bristles"
] | In between writing for Hackaday, most of us (if not all of us) like to design projects on our own, creating whatever might come to mind. I, for instance, enjoy experimenting with lock picking techniques at industrial, gritty, and real warehouses in Southern California learning how to utilize the resources there, turning spare parts into something completely different.
One such skill I learned is how easy it is to make
lock picking sets from discarded scraps of metal
. The documentation is found on a personal blog of mine called HackerTrips (we cover our own stuff sometimes). It contains several photos and descriptions of the process involved which I picked up thanks to a
hackerspace in Fullerton
where local makers dream up all kinds of interesting projects.
The project starts out by walking on the streets, which is a rarity these days. This is because the general modes of transportation now are either a car, a bus, a subway, a train, a bike, or a plane, which puts the attention on the destination at hand rather than peering into the fractures of the road. This means that a lot of the time, people don’t notice the hidden treasures found on the side of the street, including the street sweeper bristles that have been knocked off their edges.
They are usually uncovered within cracks of the concrete where the street machine sweepers gnaw their steel teeth from time to time on the disrupted seams of asphalt, leaving behind battered bits of metal, which are the perfect size for feeling their way into the pins of a lock. Once collected, the steel can be heated up, then promptly cooled in liquid, and fashioned into fingering picks or wavy rakes and tension wrenches. A simple bench grinder can be used to cut grooves in the spring steel into the necessary points, but a handheld file tool does the job too.
Other types of spare metal that are good for unlocking include blued steel fishing tape,
stiffening bars that run down the sides of various wiper blades
, handle wire from binder clips, and
stationary paperclips converted into lock picks
. However, the street sweeper approach is one of the most fascinating because it acts like an Easter egg hunt, giving the curious road walker a sense of accomplishment when handfuls of leftover material are transformed into eye-opening, lock picking tools.
Now with great power, comes great responsibility. I wouldn’t recommend going around town, picking every lock nearby, unless it’s for educational purposes…for science! Trust me, you don’t want to show this technique to the wrong person; they will freak out, or arrest you. But raising awareness that lock picking sets can be made with ordinary scraps of metal is a good thing.
Whether you embrace the skill, or are nervous of the consequences, all this project shows is that it can be done. Just a bit of ingenuity transforms a metal bristle that most people have no idea exists for use in an unexpected way. | 25 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1698100",
"author": "iojioag",
"timestamp": "2014-08-08T09:29:11",
"content": "Lockpicking takes too long, lock bumping is way faster.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1699129",
"author": "Viv",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,376,111.051638 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/07/lego-technic-mechanical-seven-segment-display/ | Lego Technic Mechanical Seven Segment Display | James Hobson | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"7-segment display",
"lego",
"lego technic",
"lego technik"
] | Here’s a rather mesmerizing piece of Lego genius, displayed as a .GIF for your enjoyment. It’s
a 7-segment display that is completely mechanical
!
Built by [aeh5040], this beauty features 7 separate linkages that control each display segment. It’s powered off of a single motor which rotates a cylinder covered in small protrusions, similar to how music boxes work. As the cylinder rotates, the protrusions knock the main drive gears back and forth, flipping each segment between the ON and OFF states through a series of axle joints and bevel gears.
It makes rather satisfying sounds too!
Now if only the segments could be controlled individually…
Speaking of other amazing Lego creations, do you remember this Super 8 projector —
built almost entirely out of Lego?
How about a full
7 speed transmission (plus reverse)
! Not to mention the entire full-size car made of Lego that
hit 30km/h last year…
[via
Reddit
] | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1697737",
"author": "wren6991",
"timestamp": "2014-08-08T05:25:24",
"content": "I’m fairly sure this has been posted here before? But it’s still gorgeous, the mechanical “ROM” in particular is very neat.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comm... | 1,760,376,111.582537 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/07/hands-on-defcon-22-badge/ | Hands-On DEFCON 22 Badge | Mike Szczys | [
"cons",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"badge",
"defcon",
"defcon 22",
"p8x32a",
"parallax",
"propeller"
] | It took a measly 2-hours in line to score myself entry to DEFCON and this nifty badge. I spent the rest of the afternoon running into people, and I took in the RFIDler talk. But now I’m back in my room with a USB cord to see what might be done with this badge.
First the hardware; I need a magnifying glass but I’ll tell you what I can. Tere are huge images available after the break.
Parallax P8X32A-Q44
Crystal marked A050D4C
Looks like an EEPROM to the upper right of the processor? (412W8 K411)
Something interesting to the left. It’s a 4-pin package with a shiny black top that has a slightly smaller iridesent square to it. Light sensor?
Tiny dfn8 package next to that has numbers (3336 412)
Bottom left there is an FTDI chip (can’t read numbers)
The DEFCON letters are capacitive touch. They affect the four LEDs above the central letters.
I fired up minicom and played around with the settings. When I hit on 57600 8N1 I get “COME AND PLAY A GAME WITH ME”.
Not sure where I’m going from here. I don’t have a programmer with me so not sure how I can make a firmware dump. If you have suggestions please let me know in the comments! | 45 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1697371",
"author": "NotArduino",
"timestamp": "2014-08-08T02:56:30",
"content": "Did you reconfigure the FTDI and enable the GPIOs? What happens when you toggle those?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1697450",
"author... | 1,760,376,111.190999 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/07/easy-to-build-solar-pool-heater-saves-money-and-keeps-you-from-freezing/ | Easy To Build Solar Pool Heater Saves Money And Keeps You From Freezing | James Hobson | [
"Solar Hacks"
] | [
"pool heater",
"solar pool heater"
] | For those cool summer days it’s sometimes nice to have a heated pool — but usually pretty expensive too. Looking for a simpler solution [Martin] came up with
his own solar pool heater for under $100!
He’s copied the basic design of a solar pool heater but managed to do it using fairly cheap parts from the hardware store. It consists of three 100′ lengths of 1/2″ drip irrigation hose, and the way he’s connected them is rather ingenious. Using a half inch piece of copper pipe and a blow torch, he was able to squeeze the pipe into one hose end and then the other for a permanent seamless connection. He then coiled the resulting hose into a large circle by interweaving string back and forth to keep its shape.
A 12V utility pump coupled with a timer allows water to sit in the hose under the sun for one hour, at which point it cycles the system for 10 minutes, pumping the warm water into the pool, and refilling itself with cool water from the bottom of the pool. This one is only made for a small above ground pool, but the design could easily be doubled or even tripled for larger pools. You could also throw in a PID temperature controller or even an Arduino to make it even better… but it sounds like it works quite well by itself with a timer.
Combine this with
a compost-based hot water system
for indoors and you’ll really be cutting the expense associated with your hot water needs! | 37 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1697248",
"author": "barry99705",
"timestamp": "2014-08-08T02:09:47",
"content": "We recycled a semi radiator. Built a hotbox to put it in and plumbed it into the pool pump. If we forgot to open it’s valve it would blow steam for a couple minutes until it cooled down a bit. It wo... | 1,760,376,111.259263 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/07/nerds-helping-sea-turtles/ | Nerds Helping Sea Turtles | Bryan Cockfield | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"accelerometer",
"environment",
"open source",
"sea turtle"
] | Life as a sea turtle can be rough. Not only are turtles trying to survive predators, destruction of habitat, fishing nets, and pollution, but only about 1% of hatchlings survive to face those challenges in the first place. Enter [Samuel Wantman] and a new volunteer hacker group called
Nerds Without Borders
, with their first order of business of creating an
egg-shaped monitoring device for sea turtle nests
.
Sea turtles are protected under the Endangered Species Act, which goes to great lengths to protect certain species from human activity. The ultimate goal of the project is to help people and sea turtles better coexist under this law by more accurately predicting hatching times. A suite of sensors and a cell network antenna are placed in a plastic “egg” that can be buried in a nest after a sea turtle lays the real eggs. The sensors detect vibrations within the eggs as the embryos grow, which is an indication that the tiny turtles are about to break free of their eggs and head for the open ocean!
Click past the break for more on this project.
The entire project is open source, which includes the hardware, the software, and even the data that the sensors send in. This is especially important for a project like this, because the group expects that people around the world will be able to use their work for sea turtles everywhere and hopefully even expand upon their ideas.
With the device, the group will be able to provide Parks Service employees better information about active sea turtle nests with the ultimate goal of knowing which parts of the beach are safe for humans (and vehicles) to use without disrupting the nests. Nerds Without Borders is off to a great start! There is amazing potential in this project to gather even more data, and even more potential in the idea of a worldwide network of volunteer “nerds” willing to work on projects like this one. | 25 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1696747",
"author": "Jeff Nichols",
"timestamp": "2014-08-07T23:25:59",
"content": "How is putting a bunch of electronics into a turtle nest insulating turtles from human activity? Sounds like the exact opposite.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,111.436647 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/05/thp-entry-a-holonomic-drive-3d-printer/ | THP Entry: A Holonomic Drive 3D Printer | Brian Benchoff | [
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"3d printer",
"holonomic",
"Holonomic drive",
"mecanum wheels",
"wheels"
] | [Sugapes] always wanted to cut a few corners and build a really,
really
cheap 3D printer, but the idea of using linear actuators – pricing them, sourcing them, and the inevitable problems associated with them – scared him away. One day, he realized that moving in a plane in the X and Y dimensions wasn’t hard at all; cars and robots do this every day. Instead of moving a 3D printer bed around with rods and pulleys, [Sugapes]
is moving his 3D printer around with
wheels
.
It’s different, it’s interesting, and it’s the perfect project to show of his creativity for The Hackaday Prize.
The drive system [Sugapes] is using is called a holonomic drive system. In his build, three omnidirectional wheels are attached to continuous rotation servos, each of them mounted 120 degrees apart. The print bed is simply placed on these wheels, and with the right control algorithms, [Sugapes] can move the bed in the X and Y axes. With an extruder on a Z axis above the bed, this setup becomes a 3D printer with a theoretically unlimited XY build axis. Pretty clever, huh?
There are a few problems [Sugapes] will have to overcome to turn this project into a proper printer. The omnidirectional wheels aren’t the best at transferring movement to the bed, so a quartet of USB optical computer mice are being used for a closed loop system. [Sugapes] put up a video of his project, you can check that out 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. | 59 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1689788",
"author": "jioaegijg",
"timestamp": "2014-08-05T11:06:51",
"content": "I wake up in the morning. I see the yellow sun. I see the green grass and I think to myself, I hope it will be a pink day.I wake up in the morning, I eat a yellow banana, a green pepper and in the eveni... | 1,760,376,111.535659 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/05/what-could-possibly-go-wrong-giving-a-robot-a-chainsaw/ | What Could Possibly Go Wrong Giving A Robot A Chainsaw? | James Hobson | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"chainsaw",
"chainsaw carving",
"chainsaw robot",
"robot",
"sculpture"
] | [Morgan Rauscher] is a rather eccentric artist, inventor, maker, professor… jack of all trades. His latest project is called the Art-Bot – and it’s an
8′ robotic arm equipped with a
chainsaw
.
Did we mention you can control it via arcade buttons?
He’s been building sculptures for over 10 years now, and has enjoyed observing the evolution of automated manufacturing – from CNC machines to laser cutters and even now, 3D printers. He loves the technologies, but fears machines are making it too easy – distancing us from the good old physical interaction it once took to make things with a few simple tools. His Art-Bot project attempts to bridge that gap by bringing tactile transference to the experience.
The cool part about the Art-Bot is that it is mostly made of recycled materials – in particular, bicycle parts!
Making a robot from bicycle parts is really not that difficult, and I highly recommend it.
The rest of the robot consists of electric actuators (linear), the control circuitry, and of course — a chainsaw. For safety’s sake, [Morgan] also built a polycarbonate wall around it to protect users from
it going on a murderous rampage
wood chips and other debris thrown from the robot.
[Via
MAKE
] | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1689454",
"author": "Hyratel",
"timestamp": "2014-08-05T08:23:48",
"content": "impressive build, and I hope that’s good heavy acrylic/polycarbonate sheilding for the enclosure",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1689852",
... | 1,760,376,111.974842 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/04/automated-bathtub-prepares-your-bath-just-the-way-you-like-it/ | Automated Bathtub Prepares Your Bath Just The Way You Like It | James Hobson | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"328p Atmega",
"arduino bath",
"arduino bathtub",
"automated bath",
"automated bathtub",
"DS18B20",
"maker faire NC 2013",
"maker faire NC 2014"
] | We live in the future don’t we? Is there a reason why only rich people have touchscreen controlled showers and temperature regulated bathtubs? [Raptor_Demon] shows us
how to make our very own automated bathtub for cheap
, using our favorite microprocessor — the Arduino.
The system controls the filling of the tub, monitors the temperature based on a user profile — and it even adds bubbles. Why do you need this? You probably don’t — but why not, wouldn’t it be nice to press a button and have a bath drawn for you? It uses an Arduino compatible board that controls 3 relays for the water system, a DS18b20 temperature sensor on the inlet and a second wireless (434mhz) Arduino compatible board for monitoring the tub temperature and adding bubble bath using a hacked automated soap dispenser.
[Raptor_Demon] showcased his prototype at the Maker Faire NC 2013 and 2014 where it was a huge hit. He even had a full size tub going, in which he would sit in during his explanation — check it out!
[Thanks Hardik!] | 21 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1689108",
"author": "icanhazadd",
"timestamp": "2014-08-05T05:18:34",
"content": "Ah, come on.. make it IoT.. many lulz await in the land of bath/shower hacking!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1690025",
"author": "rap... | 1,760,376,112.08656 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/04/a-mechanically-scanned-lidar-for-autonomous-robots/ | A Mechanically Scanned LIDAR For Autonomous Robots | Brian Benchoff | [
"Crowd Funding",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"autonomous",
"autonomous vehicle",
"Autonomous Vehicle Competition",
"distance measurement",
"lidar"
] | [Patrick] has spent a lot of time around ground and aerial based autonomous robots, and over the last few years, he’s noticed a particular need for teams in robotics competitions to break through the ‘sensory bottleneck’ and get good data of the surrounding environment for navigational algorithms. The most well-funded teams in autonomous robotics competitions use LIDARs to scan the environment, but these are astonishingly expensive. With that, [Patrick] set out to create a cheaper solution.
Early this year, [Patrick] learned of an extremely cheap LIDAR sensor. Now [Patrick] is
building a robotics distance measurement unit based on this sensor
.
Early experiments with mechanically scanned LIDAR sensors centered around
the XV-11 LIDAR
, the distance sensor found in the Neato Robotics robot vacuum cleaner. [Patrick] became convinced a mechanically scanned LIDAR was the way forward when it came to distance measurement of autonomous robots. Now he’s making his own with
an astonishingly inexpensive LIDAR sensor
.
The basic idea of [Patrick]’s project is to take the
PulsedLight LIDAR-Lite
module, add a motor and processing board, and sell a complete unit that will output 360° of distance data to a robot’s main control system. The entire system should cost under $150 when finished; a boon to any students, teams, or hobbyists building an autonomous vehicle.
[Patrick]’s system is based on the PulsedLight LIDAR – a device that’s not shipping yet – but the team behind the LIDAR-Lite says they should have everything ready
by the end of the month
, all the better, because between these two devices, there’s a lot of cool stuff to be done in the area of autonomous robots. | 17 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1688677",
"author": "cr0sh",
"timestamp": "2014-08-05T02:34:54",
"content": "Well – until that PulsedLight system is shipping, a low-cost LIDAR sensor (beyond a few options) is almost ubobtanium right now.I have noticed something, though – and I am currently playing with one right n... | 1,760,376,112.14147 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/04/soccer-playing-robots-score-on-human-goalie/ | Soccer Playing Robots Score On Human Goalie! | James Hobson | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"fifa robot",
"fifa world cup",
"football robots",
"robocup",
"robocup 2014",
"soccer robots",
"world cup"
] | Did you know there’s a rather large community dedicated to making robots that can play soccer? Did you know
they’re getting pretty good?
RoboCup is an international robotics competition held annually, first founded in 1997. The goal first and foremost is to promote robotics and AI research — and to do so, they decided to make the competition something that is publicly appealing — Why not one of the most popular sports around? The official goal of the project is to have a team of autonomous humanoid based robot players beat the most recent winning team of the World Cup, complying with the official rules of FIFA. This year, the RoboCup coincided with the real World Cup, and was
hosted in Brazil.
There are several categories in RoboCup with various types of robots, and the mid-size team did pretty well this year.
Arguably, this is the most exciting game of all, because it gives a sense of what the current state-of-the-art in robotic soccer is, and how it stacks up to a team of moderately talented squishy bipeds.
We guess that’s a nice way of saying “non-professional soccer players”. Regardless though, they
SCORED!
[Thanks Steve!] | 22 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1688296",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2014-08-04T23:16:06",
"content": "Yea, but it cover it’s balls during a free kick? Really though this robot isn’t really playing soccer (football) since it’s holding the ball, but still not bad.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,112.029589 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/04/new-round-of-astronaut-or-not-too-cool-for-kickstarter/ | New Round Of Astronaut Or Not: Too Cool For Kickstarter | Mike Szczys | [
"cons",
"Featured",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"astronaut or not",
"TheHackadayPrize",
"voter lottery",
"voting"
] | Round 3 of Community Voting has drawn to a close. This time around we had nearly 60,000 votes for 420 projects! The first voter lottery drawing didn’t turn up a winner, but on Friday
we ended up giving away the bench supply
. We’ll cover the projects with the top votes in just a moment, but first let’s take a look at the voter lottery prize for the new round.
You must
vote
at least once in this new round to be eligible for the voter lottery on Friday!
We’ve got so many prizes in the package for the fourth round of
Astronaut or Not
that we’re just showing you a few in this image.
On Friday morning we’ll be drawing a random number and checking it against the Hacker profiles on
Hackaday.io
. If that person has voted in this current round, they win. If not, they’ll be kicking themselves (emptyhandedly) for not taking part in the festivities.
This week’s prize package includes:
Terasic Technologies DE0 Development Board for Cyclone III FPGA
Raspberry Pi Model B+ Board
Element14 BeagleBone Black
MSP430F5529 USB LaunchPad Evaluation Kit
SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3200 LaunchPad
AVRISP mkII Atmel Programmer
PICkit 3 Microchip In-Circuit Debugger
ST-LINK/V2 ST Microelectronics In-Circuit Debugger/Programmer
B&K Precision 1550 Switching DC Bench Power Supply
Fluke 115 Digital Multimeter
Now onto the results:
Congratulations to the third round winners of Astronaut or Not!
Open Source Science Tricorder
*
Hoverlay II
*
autoCut – robot lawn mower on steroids
DIY 3D Printable RaspberryPi Raman Spectrometer
*
Daisy Kite Airborne Wind Turbine
TJ – $99 Thermal Imager
CUBEX
*
$300 Pick and Place / 3D printer
*
Simple, low-cost FMCW radar
*
Goliath – A Gas Powered Quadcopter
GRID-EYE BLE-capable thermal camera
*
Vacuum System for Deposition
Coil Gun/Gaus Cannon
Swarm
Simple DIY laser cutter
*
* 8 of these projects were recognized in previous rounds and already have T-shirts on the way to them. This time around those multiple-winners are awarded the prestige of being on top again. But we’ll just be sending shirts to the 15 projects that didn’t win earlier. Here’s eight that nearly made the top projects in this second round of voting:
ArduSub
Cheap satellite transponder
Global radiation monitoring network
Cosmic Ray (Muon) 81 (9×9) Pixel Hodoscope
$5 Polymerase Chain Reactor
Robot astronaut COSMA
CO-AFM – Cheap Open source Atomic Force Microscope
DIY Harmonic Drive Equatorial Mount | 20 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1688036",
"author": "drew",
"timestamp": "2014-08-04T20:33:03",
"content": "420 projects…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1688294",
"author": "observationalhumorsucks",
"timestamp": "2014-08-04T23:14:54",
... | 1,760,376,113.014869 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/04/automated-judging-of-hackaday-prize-entries/ | Automated Judging Of Hackaday Prize Entries | Brian Benchoff | [
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"chickens",
"judging",
"neural network",
"the hackaday prize",
"voting"
] | We have some of the Internet’s hacking elite judging The Hackaday Prize, and that means they can’t enter any projects into the prize. All the better for everyone else, we suppose. One of the judges, [Sprite_tm], is a resourceful guy and when it comes to judging the entries for The Hackaday Prize, he’s going to do what comes naturally to him:
build a machine to automate the task
.
[Sprite]’s plan for the JudgeTron 9001 is to use neural networks embedded in biological specimens to do the judging for him. Honestly, we really appreciate the effort he put in to this; biohacking is really in vogue right now, and we do love the classic throwback to the AI renaissance here. It certainly doesn’t hurt that he’s using a Raspberry Pi
and
an Arduino for this project, either.
Grabbing a touchscreen LCD and a few other parts out of his junk drawer, [Sprite] quickly whipped up a project that would display entries to The Hackaday Prize to the biologically embedded neural nets. These nets needed a little bit of encouragement to select winning entries, so a ‘feed’ back mechanism was laser cut out of acrylic, mounted to a servo, and filled with positive reinforcement.
The software running on the Pi crawls through
the list of entries to The Hackaday Prize
,
extracting images from each one. The plan was for the biological neural nets to select winning entries and be rewarded via the feedback mechanism. These neural nets proved to be very sensitive to the sound of the servo gears of the feedback mechanism, and [Sprite]’s attempt at finding a winning entry with his creation has so far proved unsuccessful. Still, there’s a video of it in action, you can check that out below. | 21 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1687664",
"author": "Joel Severin",
"timestamp": "2014-08-04T17:07:02",
"content": "Thought for a moment is was April already…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1687672",
"author": "gannon",
"timestamp": "2014-08... | 1,760,376,112.306333 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/04/ask-hackaday-the-end-of-radio-shack/ | Ask Hackaday: What Can Save RadioShack? | Will Sweatman | [
"Ask Hackaday",
"News"
] | [
"Ask Hackaday",
"local",
"radio shack",
"radioshack",
"store closing"
] | The news for RadioShack is not good
. The retail chain that we hackers hold near and dear to our hearts is in financial trouble, and could go under next year. With just 64 million in cash on hand, it literally does not have enough capital to close the 1,100 stores it planned to in March of this year.
On May 27th, 2011,
we asked you
what RadioShack could do to cater to our community.
They listened
. Most of their retail stores now carry an assortment of Arduino shields, the under appreciated
Parallax
(why?), and even El Wire. Thanks to you.
You
made this happen.
Today, we are asking you again. But not for what RadioShack can do better. We’re asking what they can do to
survive
. To live. It makes no sense for RadioShack to compete in the brutal cell phone/tablet market, and makes every bit of sense for them take advantage of the rapidly growing hacker/builder/maker what-ever-you-want-to-call-us community. Let’s face it. We’re everywhere and our numbers are growing. From 3D printers to drones, the evidence is undeniable.
With 5,000 retail stores across the USA, they are in a perfect position to change their business model to a hacker friendly one. Imagine a RadioShack down the road that stocked PICs, ARMs, Atmels, stepper motors, drivers, sensors, filament….like a Sparkfun retail store. Imagine the ability to just drive a few miles and buy whatever you needed. Would you pay a premium? Would you pay a little extra to have it now? I bet you would.
Now it’s time to speak up. Let your voices be heard. Let’s get the attention of the RadioShack board. You’ve done it before. It’s time to do it again. Hackers unite! | 484 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "1687224",
"author": "George",
"timestamp": "2014-08-04T14:08:46",
"content": "I don’t think that too many will pay a little extra to have it now…Radio Shack was one known for being hacker friendly, so why not go back to those roots, 21 century style:– create a hacker space in all st... | 1,760,376,112.91017 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/04/pokade-twitch-plays-pokemon-reborn-on-vintage-hardware/ | Pokáde: Twitch Plays Pokemon, Reborn On Vintage Hardware | Brian Benchoff | [
"internet hacks",
"Nintendo Game Boy Hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"irc",
"pokemon",
"pokemon blue",
"pokemon red",
"twitch plays pokemon"
] | Early this year,
Twitch Plays Pokemon
, a webstream of tens of thousands of people playing the same game of Pokemon via web chat. It was certainly an interesting sociological phenomenon, but as in any system where thousands of people try to do a single thing, progress was exceedingly slow at points. This was compounded by the fact the Twitch stream delayed the chat by about 30 seconds.
At the time, there was some talk about setting up an alternative to the emulator-based Twitch stream. Ideas were floated, but until now, no one has yet come up with a workable solution.
Now we have Pokáde
: real Pokemon games (Red
and
Blue) running on real hardware (two Super Game Boys, two super Nintendos, and two Game Genies), streamed live to the Internet with an IRC-like chat function.
Simply for the ease of capturing the video of the stream, [Johannes], the guy behind all of this, is using a pair of Super Nintendos and Super Game Boys connected to USB video capture dongles. The Super Game Boys are modded to enable trading between the Red and Blue versions of the game, and controls are handled with a USB connection to the PC running the server.
Anyone can play the game,
simply by going to the Pokáde Chat
, entering the chat, and clicking on random buttons on the brick Game Boy GUI. The game ROMs have been slightly modified to disable the option of starting a new game, but this is still the classic Twitch Plays Pokemon experience: people all around the globe mashing buttons and creating a religion around a fossil pokemon. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1687130",
"author": "Simon Brown",
"timestamp": "2014-08-04T12:59:24",
"content": "Just a quick note unlike ‘Twitch plays Pokémon’ users must apply to play using the commands ‘Apply Red’ or ‘Apply Blue’ then once chosen you may control the game via the web interface",
"parent_i... | 1,760,376,113.262238 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/04/creepy-cat-eyes-with-a-microsoft-kinect/ | Creepy Cat Eyes With A Microsoft Kinect | Matt Terndrup | [
"Kinect hacks"
] | [
"Arduino Uno",
"hcil hackerspace",
"Kinect",
"servo motor",
"towerpro sg-5010 motor",
"university of maryland"
] | Ever feel like someone is watching you? Like, somewhere in the back of your mind, you can feel the peering eyes of something glancing at you? Tapping into that paranoia, is this
Computer Science graduate project
that was created during a “Tangible Interactive Computing” class at the University of Maryland by two bright young students named [Josh
] and [Richard], with the help of
HCIL hackerspace
.
Their Professor [Dr. Jon Froehlich] wanted the students to ‘seamlessly couple the dual worlds of bits and atoms’ and create something that would ‘explore the materiality of interactive computing.’ And this relatively simple idea does just that, guaranteeing some good reactions.
As you’ve probably gathered from the title, this project uses a
Microsoft Kinect
to track the movement of nearby people. The output is then translated into actionable controls of the mounted eyeballs producing a creepy vibe radiating out from the feline, robot poster.
Behind the cardboard is mechanical brain with an embedded Arduino circuit, two
Standard Servo TowerPro SG-5010 Motors
, eight AA batteries, an IC Breadboard, and (of course) a Microsoft Kinect. The ‘third-eye’ sensor watches, waiting for someone to stroll by.
Once an unsuspecting person surfaces, the Arduino fires up the processing and rotates the wooden eyes tracking the individual as they walk nearby. And this is only the beginning. Soon other types of movie, or tv, or internet sensation Youtube posters will be hacked up into something similar.
So. what types of films, or shows, or ads do you think would scare people half-to-death if they saw eyes like this staring at them? Let us know if the comments.
Also, check out this video of this thing in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scfLShbUUH8] | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1686569",
"author": "hng",
"timestamp": "2014-08-04T08:18:12",
"content": "Before anyone complains, this is a project that is part of a graduate course. It is not a graduate project.In other words it was just another assignment. It was not a capstone project.",
"parent_id": null... | 1,760,376,112.564137 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/03/the-fridge-hacking-guide-by-brewpi/ | The Fridge Hacking Guide By BrewPi | Matt Terndrup | [
"Beer Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"beer fridge",
"brewpi",
"micro brew",
"onewire",
"raspberry pi",
"ssr"
] | The team behind BrewPi are at it again! This time they have created an online guide showing how to convert a min-fridge into a
Raspberry Pi & Arduino controlled fermentation chamber
. In it, they describe 3 possible options:
Option 1: Make a simple switched power cord, without hacking into the fridge electronics.
Option 2: Make a switched power cord, but also override or remove the thermostat.
Option 3: Rip out the thermostat and fully integrate the SSRs into your fridge (which is what [Koen] and [Elco] did).
First things first though. They had to clean the fridge. And depending on where they got it or how long it has been unplugged for, the inside might have been pretty rank and disgusting from mold growing out of every corner. This took a good hour or so to clean properly lest the brewing process get infected with external grossness. This is all worth it because a well-controlled fermentation chamber results in a superior batch of beer.
They put their laser cut case on top of the fridge, holding an LCD, Raspberry Pi, Arduino and the BrewPi Arduino shield. The Arduino reads the temperature sensors inside the fridge, the beer and the ambient temperature. Then it controls the SSRs they added to switch the compressor and a heater. Then, the cables were routed through the fridge and take control of the compressor.
[Elco] and [Koen] added two SSRs: one to switch AC power to the compressor and start relay, the other to power to a heater inside the fridge. But, they did need to gain access to the compressor and make a few changes. For one, the two SSR’s will be added with one of the AC terminals connected to LIVE (brown) and the other to the heater and the compressor.
No matter which method is chosen though, the end product will allow anyone to monitor and easily control the temperature range of your micro-brew, along with being able to log data and produce web-embedded graphs like the one shown below. It works by using the Arduino attached to run the temperature control algorithm autonomously, reporting to the Raspberry Pi for its web interface and data logging. | 20 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1686583",
"author": "Frank",
"timestamp": "2014-08-04T08:24:10",
"content": "But if you just put a temperature sensor in the fridge, you are actually only measuring the air temperature… Fridge manufacturers recommend you to put a temperature sensor in a glass of water, otherwise you... | 1,760,376,112.710229 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/03/supersonic-nerf-dart-speedometer/ | Supersonic NERF Dart Speedometer | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"chronograph",
"nerf",
"nerf gun",
"speedometer"
] | [John] was faced with an interesting problem: after he built his own air cannon, how could he tell
exactly
how fast his NERF darts were moving? Luckily he had some spare parts on hand and hacked together a
fully functional projectile speedometer
for less than the cost of an Arduino.
A device is essentially two detectors spaced a precise distance apart from one another. When something passes the first detector, a timer is activated which measures how long it takes the object to reach the second detector. From this, the device calculates the speed. [John] used infrared emitter/detector pairs spaced exactly three inches apart and wired them to an ATtiny2313. After a little bit of coding, he now knows just how fast he can fire those squishy ballistic missiles.
The infrared emitter/detector pairs are mounted to a PVC pipe through which the projectile travels. [John] notes that in theory this could be used to measure almost anything that could fit through the pipe, although this particular device might be damaged by muzzle flash or a pressure wave from an actual gun.
We’ve seen
other NERF dart air cannons before
, and we wonder if maybe there should be some sort of competition to see who can shoot a NERF dart the fastest now that there’s an easy way to measure speed? | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1685854",
"author": "zap",
"timestamp": "2014-08-04T02:36:27",
"content": "Did that guy from a while back ever figure out how fast his rail gun worked? I recall the EMP from it firing seemed to mess up the commercial unit he was using to measure with.",
"parent_id": null,
"d... | 1,760,376,112.953072 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/03/hackaday-links-august-3-2014/ | Hackaday Links: August 3, 2014 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"dunk tank",
"google cardboard",
"magnetron",
"mame",
"microwave",
"nes",
"Oculus",
"oculus rift",
"pcb",
"PCB labels",
"silkscreen",
"table"
] | A ton of people
sent in this video
of crazy Russians who have taken a microwave, removed the magnetron, taped it to a broom, and turned it on. Don’t try this at home. Or near us.
You know the
Google Cardboard kit
that’s a real VR headset made of cardboard (and a smart phone)? Google may have gotten their inspiration from Oculus, because every Oculus Rift DK2
ships with a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 inside
.
Ever design a PCB and be disappointed by the quality of the silkscreen? [Paul Allen] has been defining the edges of his PCB labels with the copper layer,
and the examples are dramatic
. Etching copper is what you actually pay for when you fab a board, so it should come as no surprise that the quality is a little higher.
Dunk tanks are fun, but how about
competitive dunk tanks
? [Chad] built a dunk tank (really more of a ‘dunk shower’) out of a 2×4 tripod, a garbage can, and a few parts from a the toilet aisle of Home Depot’s plumbing department. Then he built a second. Set up both dunk showers across from each other, give two people a few balls, and see who gets soaked last. Looks fun.
Want a MAME cabinet, but don’t want it taking up room in your house?
Build a MAME coffee table
! Here’s
the reddit thread
. Maybe we’re old-fashioned, but we’d rather have
a giant NES controller coffee table
.
Last week we saw a
16-bobbin rope braiding machine
, but odd braiding machines like this aren’t limited to fibers.
Here’s a wire twisting machine
for making RS422 cables. It only produces a single twisted pair, but that’s really all you need to create a cable. Somebody get some paracord and make some Cat5. | 70 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1685229",
"author": "sneakypoo",
"timestamp": "2014-08-03T23:10:33",
"content": "Google “may” have been inspired? Yeah…http://projects.ict.usc.edu/mxr/diy/fov2go-viewer/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1685239",
"author": "D... | 1,760,376,113.217282 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/03/brushless-dc-motor-used-for-high-speed-cnc-spindle/ | Brushless DC Motor Used For High Speed CNC Spindle | Rich Bremer | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"Brushless DC electric motor",
"cnc",
"CNC milling",
"spindle motor"
] | Brushless DC motors are common place in RC Vehicles. They are small, light, fast and
can be
inexpensive. [Raynerd] wanted a new
spindle for his CNC machine
and thought that a brushless DC motor would be a great platform to build from.
[Raynerd] started with an off the shelf motor that had an 8mm shaft. This shaft size was important because the motor shaft was to be replaced with an ER16 collet arbor of the same size. A collet is a device used to hold cutting tools by collapsing a segmented ring around the tool. Collets allows for quick tool changes while providing a strong clamping force.
ER16
is a designation of one of many collet standards.
The main housing was machined out of aluminum specifically for this project. This housing holds two radial load ball bearings that support the new rotating collet arbor. There’s another bearing in this assembly, a thrust washer this time, that keeps the arbor from moving axially in the housing.
The 12 volt output of a standard ATX power supply was used to power the system for testing purposes. A general RC Vehicle electronic speed control and a servo tester work in conjunction to manually regulate the spindle speed. Check out the bench test video and an exploded photo after the break. | 63 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1684969",
"author": "cbaer",
"timestamp": "2014-08-03T20:17:59",
"content": "This is not a DC Motor, its a synchronous 3 phase AC motor driven by a ESC which converts the DC to 3 phase AC.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "16850... | 1,760,376,113.109676 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/02/hackaday-retro-edition-the-compaq/ | Hackaday Retro Edition: The Compaq | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"compaq",
"luggable",
"retro edition",
"router"
] | It’s been a while since we’ve had any submissions to
the Hackaday retro challenge
, but [Philip]’s latest project more than makes up for it. He rescued the original 28 pound Compaq luggable
and turned it into a work of art
. He also managed to get it up on the Internet and pointed it at the Hackaday retro edition, making this one of the best retro submissions in recent memory.
[Philip] rescued this old luggable from the trash, and upon plugging it in and turning it on, heard a loud bang and cloud of smoke from the exploded tantalum caps. We’re guessing [Phil] doesn’t have a variac. After replacing all the broken components, fixing the mechanics of the hard drive, and replacing the two old 5 1/4″ floppy drives with a half-height 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 drives, [Phil] had this machine working again.
After a quick shuffle through his ‘obsolete technology box’, [Phil] found an old 3Com Ethernet card. This was a 16-bit card, but with
a new driver
and
a TCP/IP stack for IBM compatibles
it was actually pretty easy to get this old box on the Internet. Since [Phil] removed one of the 5 1/4 drives, he slightly modified a Linksys WRT54G router, wired in new front panel lights for the router, and cut a smoked gray acrylic panel. You can see it next to the drives in the picture above; the colored lights make this old luggable look even more retro, despite it being manufactured about 15 years before blue LEDs became commonplace.
You can check out all the repairs and modifications to this Compaq over on
[Phil]’s site
, and as always, we’re looking for people to load up
the Hackaday retro edition
on their old hardware. | 18 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1683124",
"author": "APBurner",
"timestamp": "2014-08-02T21:09:15",
"content": "When I worked for U of K in Lexington KY I had one of those. About 1986 or so. It was a great machine.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1683166",
... | 1,760,376,113.309226 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/02/a-nicely-designed-stereo-tube-amp/ | A Nicely Designed Stereo Tube Amp | Mathieu Stephan | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"6V6",
"amplifier",
"stereo",
"tube amp",
"tube amplifier"
] | Most of the work that [Ron] has done in the past with vacuum tubes and solid state electronics has been repair. At 59 years old, he finally put together his
own stereo tube amplifier
and we have to admit it definitely has an awesome look.
The platform is built around the well-known
6V6
beam-power
tetrodes
which are mostly used by major audio brands for their guitar amplifiers nowadays. The Dynaco 6V6 circuit based PCB was bought from China and minor changes were made to it. The amplifier uses one transformer to convert the US 120VAC into 240VAC and 9VAC, the first being rectified by a glassware PS-14 power supply while the later is converted regulated at 6.3V for the tube heaters. The output stage consists of two Edcor audio transformers (one for each channel) that converts the high voltage for its 8 ohms speakers. The home-made chassis provides proper grounding and as a result you can’t hear any background noise.
We are very curious to know if some our readers have been experimenting with glass tubes for audio applications. Please let us know your experience in the comments section below. | 23 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1682739",
"author": "Mike Lu",
"timestamp": "2014-08-02T17:10:22",
"content": "I was always under the impression that the reason to use tubes in audio is for their “musical” distortion and that using feedback largely cancels that out and therefore largely defeats the point.",
"p... | 1,760,376,115.716448 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/02/restarting-3d-prints/ | Restarting 3D Prints | Eric Evenchick | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"abs",
"PLA",
"solidoodle"
] | If a 3D printer is interrupted during a print, it will usually result in a junk part. Resuming the print can be very difficult. A group of researchers at MIT have built
an add-on for 3D printers
that uses a laser scanner to evaluate the state of the print, and allows the printer to restart.
While this will allow you to salvage some partially competed prints, the interesting application is switching between materials. In the image above, the lower piece was printed in ABS. The print was interrupted to change materials, and the top cube was printed in PLA. This allows for prints to mix materials and colors.
The add-on was tested with the
Solidoodle
3D printer, and can be built for about $60. It requires a laser mounted to the print head, and a low-cost webcam for performing the measurements. While the group will not be continuing work on this project, they plan to open source their work so others can continue where they’ve left off.
After the break, we have a video of the printer performing a scan and resuming a print. | 18 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1682496",
"author": "egioaj",
"timestamp": "2014-08-02T14:27:26",
"content": "Use encoders like every proper CNC machine and you won’t need to improvise with some laser scanning.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1682929",
... | 1,760,376,116.256581 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/02/raspi-ambilight-integrated-in-a-19-rack-packs-lots-of-peripherals/ | Raspi Ambilight Integrated In A 19″ Rack Packs Lots Of Peripherals | Mathieu Stephan | [
"LED Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"ambilight",
"raspberry pi",
"Raspi"
] | Ambilight systems create light effects around your monitor that correspond to the video content you’re playing. [Sébastien]
just build his
(French translated to English, original
here
) and embedded all the elements in a 19 inch rack he bought from Farnell.
As most ambilight systems we’ve covered over the years the HDMI signal is first split in two, one being sent to his monitor while the other is converted into a S-Video signal. The latter is then captured with a STK1160 stick connected to a Raspberry Pi. A python script using the OpenCV library is in charge of extracting the frames pixels and figuring out what colors should be sent to the SPI connected LPD8806 LEDs. A nice web interface also allows to drive the LEDs from any platform connected to his local network. Finally, a standard HD44780 LCD and an infrared receiver are connected to the raspberry, allowing [Sébastien] to control and monitor his platform. Funny thing: he also had to use two relays to power cycle his HDMI splitter and converter as they often crash. You can check out a demonstration video from a previous revision after the break. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1682266",
"author": "Liam Jackson",
"timestamp": "2014-08-02T11:36:03",
"content": "Yeah cheap HDMI splitters and HDMI to analogue converters often get really hot, I wonder if they’re overheating?I don’t see a fan, two spinning very slowly (so they’re inaudible) might help.The benef... | 1,760,376,115.560042 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/02/makers-mountain-house-promises-productivity-without-distraction/ | Makers’ Mountain House Promises Productivity Without Distraction | James Hobson | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"hackerspace",
"hackerspace retreat",
"makerspace",
"makerspace retreat",
"mountain makerspace"
] | Ever wish you could take your projects with you on vacation? Do you ever take time off from your job just to work on things at home? What if you could combine an actual vacation retreat, with the thing you love most — making? A group of people are starting to plan the
Maker’s Mountain House
, and it sounds pretty interesting!
Makers Mountain House will be a mountain retreat and makerspace, whose purpose is to provide time and space for makers to create. Makers Mountain House will be open to the public June through October, and reserved exclusively for makers and artists, November through May.
It’s still completely in the planning stages, but the organizers sound pretty serious about making it a reality. It’s planned for somewhere in Upstate New York (unconfirmed) – so if you’re interested in something like this, do them a favor and fill out the
quick survey
they’ve posted.
And no – just in case you’re wondering – the picture above is just a stock image of a barn. It is rather pretty though! They plan on having shared work spaces in larger buildings, as well as private cabins for people to stay in.
[Thanks KwartsLab!] | 23 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1681941",
"author": "MakeMorons",
"timestamp": "2014-08-02T08:32:33",
"content": "Ask yourself why “Make” has removed the public comments from its website.They’ve done an awful lot of social media campaigns, but can’t stop selling out their readers. Almost all their content now is b... | 1,760,376,115.35946 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/01/solar-powered-lawn-mower-cuts-the-grass-so-you-dont-have-to/ | Solar Powered Lawn Mower Cuts The Grass So You Don’t Have To | Matt Terndrup | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"brushless motor",
"i2c bus",
"lawn mower",
"reed switch",
"solar powered battery"
] | It takes a lot of power and energy to keep grass levels down to an appropriate level; especially when it’s hot out. If cool glasses of lemonade aren’t around, the task at hand may not be completed any time soon causing the unkempt blades of green (or yellow) vegetation outside to continue their path of growth towards the sun.
Instead of braving the oven-like temperatures which will inevitably drench the person in sweat,
this solar powered robot
has been created ready to take on the job. With the heart of an Arduino, this device shaves down the grass on a regular basis, rather than only chopping down the material when it gets too long. This helps to save electricity since the mower is only dealing with young and soft plants whose heads are easily lopped off without much effort.
Internally, the robot’s circuitry interfaces with an underground wiring system that defines the cutting zones within the lawn, and proves to be a simple, accurate, and reliable approach to directing the robot where to go. If the device travels under a shaded area, a battery kicks in supplying energy to the engine. When sunlight is available, that same battery accumulates the electricity, storing it for later.
There is also an interesting mechanism in place that allows the controller to detect if the wheels are moving properly or if one or more of them have locked up. This is done by using a
reed sensor
that has been added near the rear-pivoting wheel which is then operated by a small magnet that is inserted into that same wheel.
Obstacle recognition is accomplished in the front by an ultrasonic sensor that is connected to the I2C BUS. A brushless motor, used in the field of aeromodelling, was coupled into a cutting blade. With everything set up, the solar powered lawn mower is ready to be unleashed into the outside world of unsuspecting, growing plants.
Now sit back, relax, and let the robot do the work for you.
For more grass cutting related hacks, be sure to check out this
remote-controlled lawn mower
, and this
monster truck lawn tractor
that can go through water. | 23 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1681406",
"author": "William Fredrick",
"timestamp": "2014-08-02T05:15:24",
"content": "well done.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1681542",
"author": "notabena4us",
"timestamp": "2014-08-02T05:57:20",
... | 1,760,376,115.519496 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/01/the-blueokiris-gameduino-console/ | The BlueOkiris Gameduino Console | Matt Terndrup | [
"Android Hacks"
] | [
"Arduino Uno",
"game console",
"gameduino",
"gaming",
"TFT LCD"
] | [Dylan] created an
easy to make gaming console
with an Arduino Uno, a makeshift button, an analog stick, and a TFT LCD touchscreen shield. Plus, he fashioned together a simple button with some duct tape.
So far, he has made 2 games. One is the infamous Pong. The other is a ‘Guess the Number’ type experience. The whole project is run within the code, and does not access the bootloader directly like you would with
2boots
or a regular
Gameduino adapter
.
Build instructions can be found on [Dylan]’s hackaday.io project page (linked above). Essentially, all that is needed is to gather up the supplies, then take the button and analog stick and complete a circuit, fitting the open wires into the slots at digital pin 9. Solder the wires in place and connect ground to ground, 5v to 5v, x to A4, and y to A5. Add the TFT shield, insert a micro SD card, and upload a game.
To see it in action, check out the video after the break:
And there you go! An Arduino game console.
Other projects similar to this include a
credit card-sized Gameboy
and UnoJoy, which makes your
Arduino play well with an Xbox 360 or PS3
. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1681433",
"author": "Matt",
"timestamp": "2014-08-02T05:25:17",
"content": "C ca cardboard?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1682216",
"author": "Pixel Pirate",
"timestamp": "2014-08-02T11:14:43",
"content": "The game... | 1,760,376,115.872927 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/01/building-the-nsas-tools/ | Building The NSA’s Tools | Eric Evenchick | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"HackRF",
"kismet",
"nsa",
"pineapple",
"sdr",
"wifi"
] | Back in 2013, the NSA ANT Catalog was leaked. This document contained a list of devices that are available to the NSA to carry out surveillance.
[Michael Ossmann] took a look at this, and realized that a lot of their tools were similar to devices the open source hardware community had built. Based on that, he gave a talk on
The NSA Playset
at Toorcamp 2014. This covered how one might implement these devices using open hardware.
The above image is a parody of an ANT Catalog page, which shows [Michael]’s
HackRF
, an open source software defined radio. In the talk, [Michael] and [Dean Pierce] go over the ANT Catalog devices one by one, discussing the hardware that would be needed to build your own.
Some of these tools already have open source counterparts. The NIGHTSTAND WiFi exploitation tools is essentially a
WiFi Pineapple
. SPARROW II is more or less a device running
Kismet
attached to a drone, which we’ve
seen before
.
A video of the Toorcamp talk is available on [Michael]’s blog. There will also be a variety of talks on this subject at DEFCON next week, which we’re looking forward to. For further reading, Wikipedia has a great summary of the
ANT Catalog
. | 8 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1680754",
"author": "carpetbomberz",
"timestamp": "2014-08-01T23:44:54",
"content": "Reblogged this onCarpet Bomberz Inc.and commented:Ya’ know, there’s a whole world of contract manufacturers out there and the NSA lets them all bid on these. They do not do all this work on their ow... | 1,760,376,115.659181 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/01/arduino-spi-library-gains-transaction-support/ | Arduino SPI Library Gains Transaction Support | Edward Becker | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"interrupts",
"jitter",
"library",
"spi"
] | Transaction SPI Timing
To prevent data corruption when using multiple SPI devices on the same bus, care must be taken to ensure that they are only accessed from within the main loop, or from the interrupt routine, never both. Data corruption can happen when one device is chip selected in the main loop, and then during that transfer an interrupt occurs, chip selecting another device. The original device now gets incorrect data.
For the last several weeks, [Paul] has been working on a new
Arduino SPI library
, to solve these types of conflicts. In the above scenario, the new library will generate a blocking SPI transaction, thus allowing the first main loop SPI transfer to complete, before attempting the second transfer. This is illustrated in the picture above, the blue trace rising edge is when the interrupt occurred, during the green trace chip select. The best part, it only affects SPI, your other interrupts will still happen on time. No servo jitter!
This is just one of the new library features, check out the link above for the rest. [Paul] sums it up best: “protects your SPI access from other interrupt-based libraries, and guarantees correct setting while you use the SPI bus”. | 32 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1680534",
"author": "FlippyBits",
"timestamp": "2014-08-01T20:11:07",
"content": "I guess this would work, but if you’re getting collisions on your SPI bus, you should probably restructure your code.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_... | 1,760,376,115.832608 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/01/defcon-shenanigans-hack-the-hackaday-hat/ | DEFCON Shenanigans: Hack The Hackaday Hat | Mike Szczys | [
"cons",
"Featured"
] | [
"defcon",
"game",
"hash",
"hat",
"TL-WR703N",
"TPlink",
"TPlink703n",
"wearable",
"ws2812"
] | We don’t want to call it a challenge because we fear the regulars at DEFCON can turn our piece of hardware into a smoking pile of slag, but we are planning to bring a bit of fun along with us. I’ll be wearing this classy headgear and I invite you to
hack your way into the WiFi enabled Hackaday Hat
.
I’ll be wearing the hat-of-many-scrolling-colors around all weekend for DEFCON 22, August 7-10th in Las Vegas. You may also find [Brian Benchoff] sporting the accessory at times. Either way, come up and say hello. We want to see any hardware you have to show us, and we’ll shower you with a bit of swag.
Don’t let it end there. Whip out your favorite pen-testing distro and hack into the hat’s access point. From there the router will serve up more information on how to hack into one of the shell accounts. Own an account and you can leave your alias for the scoreboard as well as push your own custom message to the hat’s 32×7 RGB LED marquee.
You can learn a bit
more about the hat’s hardware on this project page
. But as usual I’ve built this with a tight deadline and am still trying to populate all the details of the project. | 17 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1680465",
"author": "Analog",
"timestamp": "2014-08-01T19:04:43",
"content": "Love this idea, shame I won’t be able to make it this year.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1680580",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2014-08-... | 1,760,376,115.611028 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/01/hacklet-9-bugs-and-fire/ | Hacklet #9 Bugs And Fire | Adam Fabio | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"battery charger",
"bees",
"fire",
"Fly Swatter",
"hacklet",
"hive",
"insecticide",
"insects",
"Neonicotinoid",
"propane",
"propane accessories",
"unity candle"
] | This week on the Hacklet, we’re spending some time looking at bugs and fire!
First up we have [Noel] who is saving the bees with
Bee-O-Neo-Tweet-O
. Bees are incredibly important, both to Earth’s ecosystem and the food chain we humans need to survive. Unfortunately bees are also sensitive to some of the chemicals humans dump into the atmosphere. Sometimes it results in
colored honey
, but more often than not it’s detrimental to the bees.
Neonicotinoids
are a class of insecticide that has been causing problems to hives near where they are used. [Noel] is banking on sensors created with bismuth electrodes to detect the chemical near the entrance to hives. The data can be collected by beekeepers all over the world and sent to a central server. He’s using an Arduino Yun as a WiFi connected base station. Each individual hive has an Adafriut Trinket and a 433MHz radio link to send data to the base. [Noel] is even hoping to detect individual bees by the sound of their wings beating.
[Ken] is keeping his own bees, and wants to monitor more than just chemicals. His
honeybee hive monitoring
system keeps track of the temperature and weight (and thus the honey produced) by his hives. Rather than buy an expensive load cell setup, [Ken] modified a standard digital bathroom scale to suit his needs. The insects connect to the IOB (Internet of Bees) with a bit of help from the
Apitronics
platform and a BeagleBone Black. Ken even added a solar-powered weather station with the Apitronics system.
[Mike] is taking a slightly different approach. He doesn’t want to save the bugs, he wants to kill the ones that bug him! [Mike] doesn’t want to get his hands dirty, so he’s created
Lazy Killer 9000
for easy bug killing. Lazy Killer uses the business end of an electrified fly swatter to do its work. This project wouldn’t be complete without an Arduino, so [Mike] is adding one, as well as a WiFi shield. The entire system will have a friendly interface to turn the juice on. One of the best features of Lazy Killer is the internet connected kill count. [Mike] knows that there aren’t any bugs in the vacuum of space, so he’s entered Lazy Killer in
The Hackaday Prize
.
From bugs, we move on to Fire! [mr.jb.swe] needed a reliable portable power source. He found it in LiFePO4 batteries, but still needed a way to charge them. Toward that end he’s created
The Multicharger
, a watt meter and charger which can be powered from solar, wind, or thermometric power. A
Powerpot X
provides the fire and the power to charge the batteries. [mr.jb.swe’s] charger converts that into the standard constant current->constant voltage charging system needed by lithium chemistry batteries. The Multicharger isn’t a complete battery management system yet, but it’s well on its way.
Unity
candles have become a staple at wedding ceremonies.[Quinn] has taken things to the next level and beyond
with this take on the classic unity candle
. This candle throws fireballs 30 feet into the sky! We
covered the candle
back in June, but [Quinn] has been busy since then. With over 20 updates, [Quinn] has created one of the most well documented projects on
Hackaday.io
. Of course, being that this project is dealing with propane and monstrous fires, [Quinn] mentions you shouldn’t try unless you really know what you’re doing. Don’t set any brides on fire! That’s it for this week’s Hacklet! Tune in next week, same hack time, same hack channel, for more of the best of
Hackaday.io
! | 6 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1680525",
"author": "Quinn",
"timestamp": "2014-08-01T20:02:37",
"content": "Adam, thank you for all your work in writing the Hacklet’s, I appreciate them! I did want to make a request though, please do not make assumptions about the gender of hackers. I think we all want hacking ... | 1,760,376,115.763992 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/01/prize/ | Astronaut Or Astronot: Totally Giving Away A Power Supply | Brian Benchoff | [
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"astronaut or astronot",
"Hackaday Prize",
"power supply",
"the hackaday prize",
"voter lottery",
"voting"
] | Hey! It’s time for another round of Astronaut or Astronot, where we try to give away a jumbo power supply to someone on hackaday.io
if they have voted in the most recent community voting round.
Before I get around to telling you who won, we need to go over the criticism of the current voting scheme.
There’s a lot of valid criticism out there
about how the algorithm that presents projects to the voting page is broken. Yes, it weights projects so some are seen more often than others. And yes, it can be frustrating.
However
, the results of the voting have no bearing on The Hackaday Prize (the space thing), and the purpose of the entire community voting is to get people looking at the projects, give away t-shirts to the project creators and 3D printers, o-scopes, and power supplies to random people who have voted. We listened to your suggestions and we’re tweaking the algorithm that presents projects for the next round of voting. That starts Monday, we’re doing the drawing on Wednesday, and votes don’t carry over from round to round.
With that out of the way
, it’s time to do the whole ‘pick a random person on hackaday.io and see if they voted’ thing. For this week’s lottery, I chose five random people on the site, hoping I wouldn’t go through all of them before giving away
a nice bench power supply
. The first person,
[in3rtial]
, didn’t vote. You just lost out on a really cool prize there, man.
The second person randomly selected was
[tyler]
. He voted a total of six times this round. I voted fifty times, but we’re not picky. That means he wins a nice power supply. Everyone go congratulate him for living somewhere that’s cheap to ship a power supply to.
That’s it for this round of Astronaut or Astronot. We’ll have a new round of voting up on Monday. For a change of pace (and because we’re going to be at DEFCON at this time next week),
we’re going to do the drawing on Wednesday
nevermind, we’re totally doing the drawing from DEFCON. Oh, and if you haven’t, you might want to
submit a project to The Hackaday Prize
. There’s still time, and your odds of winning something
are really, really good
. | 21 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1680193",
"author": "tekkieneet",
"timestamp": "2014-08-01T15:31:24",
"content": "May be worth while to look into paying for these prizes at the winner’s local distributors may solve the shipping/import duties/sale tax surprises and most importantly offers warranty/tech support if t... | 1,760,376,116.095589 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/01/laser-projected-christmas-lights/ | Laser Projected Christmas Lights | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Holiday Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"christmas lights",
"decoration",
"laser projector",
"led strips"
] | It’s August, and of course that means that it’s time for retail stores to put up their Christmas decorations! But seriously, if you’re going to do better than the neighbors you need to start now. [Joey] already has his early start on the decorations, with a
house-sized light show using LED strips and a laser projector
that he built last Christmas.
What started off as a thought that it would be nice to hang a wreath over the garage soon turned into a laser projector that shows holiday-themed animations on the front of the house. The project also includes a few RGB LED strips which can match the colors displayed by the projector. The LEDs are powered from a custom-built supply that is controlled by a laptop, and the program that runs on the computer averages the colors from the video signal going to the projector which lights up the LED strips to match the projected image. This creates an interesting effect similar to some projects that feature
home theater ambient lighting
.
The only major problem [Joey] came across was having to account for the lasers’ motion in the projected patterns, which was causing the computer to read false values. This and a few other laser-related quirks were taken care of with a bit of programming to make sure the system was functioning properly. After that it was a simple matter of attaching the projector to the roof and zip-tying the LED strips to the eaves of the house.
The projector is weatherproof, has survived one harsh winter already, and can be up and running for any holiday. With Halloween right around the corner, this could be a great way to spice up some trick-or-treating. Check out the video after the break to see this setup in action. | 30 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1680117",
"author": "Will",
"timestamp": "2014-08-01T14:39:43",
"content": "What would it take to completely replace Christmas lights with a laser projector?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1680125",
"author": "Mike Sz... | 1,760,376,116.159218 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/01/fischertechnik-cnc-machine-looks-innocent-whilst-cutting-your-face/ | Fischertechnik CNC Machine Looks Innocent Whilst Cutting Your Face | Rich Bremer | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"CNC mill",
"matlab"
] | Hallo iedereen! All the way from the Netherlands comes this
fairly unique CNC milling machine
built by a handful of Mechanical Engineering students over at the Delft University of Technology. These guys only had one week to build the mill in order to fulfill a requirement of their Mechtronics class. Unfortunately, directly after showing the machine worked, it had to be disassembled.
If the frame looks a little toy-ish, it’s because it is. This particular system is called
Fischertechnik
and the main support beams are similar to that of aluminum extrusion (ex
80/20
,
Misumi
) except that it is made from nylon. Notice the extremely long cutting bit and comparatively abnormal large Z axis travel capability. What this system lacks in rigidity is made up by being able to carve a
very
3D shape with steep sides without the machine hitting the work piece. The loss of rigidity was totally acceptable since the team was only planning on cutting foam and the project’s purpose was to learn mechanics and automation.
The control system also a little unique. Although it uses an Arduino and off-the-shelf stepper drivers, a computer running a modified version of
MATLAB
sends the commands to the Arduino which, in turn, sends step and direction signals to a Motor Control Shield and one
EasyDriver
. Stepper motors are responsible for moving all 3 axes. The Z axis is lead screw driven while the X and Y are rack and pinion based.
As you can see from the above photo, this NC program removes a lot of material making a mess that hides the end result until the work piece is vacuumed off. The students had to wait in suspense for quite a while before witnessing how their machine performed. | 6 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1679766",
"author": "WorthyAdversary",
"timestamp": "2014-08-01T11:18:37",
"content": "There are only two things I can’t stand in this world. People who are intolerant of other people’s cultures… and the Dutch.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,116.203947 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/01/electricity-monitoring-with-a-light-to-voltage-sensor-mqtt-and-some-duct-tape/ | Electricity Monitoring With A Light-to-Voltage Sensor, MQTT And Some Duct Tape | Matt Terndrup | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"energy-intelligence",
"internet of things",
"light to voltage sensor",
"mqtt",
"Pinoccio",
"power meter",
"power monitor"
] | When it comes down to energy management, having real-time data is key. But rarely is up-to-the-minute kilowatt hour information given out freely by a Utility company, which makes it extremely hard to adjust spending habits during the billing cycle. So when we heard about [Jon]’s
project to translate light signals radiating out of his meter
, we had to check it out.
From the looks of it, his hardware configuration is relatively simple. All it uses is a TSL261 Light-to-Voltage sensor connected to an Arduino with an Ethernet shield attached. The sensor is then taped above the meter’s flashing LED, which flickers whenever a pulse is sent out indicating every time a watt of electricity is used. His configuration is specific to the type of meter that was installed by his Utility, and there is no guarantee that all the meters deployed by that company are the same. But it is a good start towards a better energy monitoring solution.
And the entire process is documented on [Jon]’s website, allowing for more energy-curious people to see what it took to get it all hooked up. In it, he describes how to get started with MQTT, which is a
machine-to-machine (M2M)/”Internet of Things” connectivity protocol,
to produce a real-time graph, streaming data in from a live feed.
Now, with all this valuable information, other applications can be built on top of it. Interfacing with something like the
Pinoccio microcontroller system
can allow for devices to be turned off during peak-power times, helping to reduce the billing price at the end of the month.
Energy-intelligence platforms like this assist in conserving electricity while keeping the rate-payer consistently informed of their power usage habits. A real win, win. However, we still need to figure out how to (legally) extract the data from other types of meters.
One example is to
harvest the information wirelessly with a special USB dongle
to gather the data emitting from the Utility meter. But this only works for that brand of meter. Another solution is to
read infrared flashes
with an AVR, a resistor, a capacitor, and a phototransistor, which is similar to what [Jon] created above.
So, what kind of meter do you have? And, do you think there is a better way to extract the kWh data? Let us know in the comments, and let’s see what we can come up with. | 25 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1679479",
"author": "Ben",
"timestamp": "2014-08-01T08:34:29",
"content": "every time a watt is used? Oh c’mon.But this is a cool idea indeed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1679503",
"author": "Gaz99",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,376,116.446492 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/31/milling-curved-objects-with-a-g-code-ripper/ | Milling Curved Objects With A G-Code Ripper | Brian Benchoff | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"autoleveling",
"cnc",
"CNC mill",
"CNC router",
"LinuxCNC",
"mach3",
"touch probe"
] | Milling and routing flat surfaces is pretty much the point of a CNC router, but how about curved surfaces? Auto leveling of hobby CNC machines and 3D printers is becoming commonplace, but Scorch Works is doing just the opposite:
using a probe touch probe on a CNC machine to transform a G-Code
file into something that can be milled on a curved surface.
The technique is pretty much the complete opposite of
Autoleveller
, the tool of choice for milling and routing objects that aren’t completely flat or perpendicular to the bed with a MACH3 or LinuxCNC machine. In this case, a touch probe attached to the router scans a curved part, applies bilinear interpolation to a G-Code file, and then starts machining.
The probe can be used on just about anything – in the videos below, you can see a perfect engraving in a block of plastic that’s about 30 degrees off perpendicular to the bed, letters carved in a baseball bat, and a guaranteed way to get your project featured on Hackaday. | 33 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1679226",
"author": "macona",
"timestamp": "2014-08-01T05:11:08",
"content": "Oh, this looks incredibly useful. I have a renishaw touch probe I have been meaning to mount to my mill. This will make engraving jobs so much easier.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies"... | 1,760,376,116.555 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/31/an-excel-based-high-frequency-transistor-amplifier-calculator/ | An Excel Based High Frequency Transistor Amplifier Calculator | Mathieu Stephan | [
"hardware"
] | [
"class a amplifier",
"comment collector circuit",
"common emitter circuit",
"high frequency"
] | [Paulo] just tipped us about an Excel based
high frequency transistor amplifier calculator
he made. We’re guessing that some of our readers already are familiar with these
class A amplifiers
, commonly used to amplify small audio signals. Skipping over the fact that their efficiency is quite low — they are cheap to make, don’t require many components and usually are a great way to introduce transistors to new electronics enthusiasts. All you usually need to do is a
few calculations
to properly set your output signals and you’re good to go.
Things are however more complex when you are amplifying 200MHz+ signals, as all the components (complex) impedances have to be taken into account so you can get a nice amplification system. On a side note, at these frequencies your transmission lines impedances may even vary depending on how much solder and flux you left on your SMT pads along the way. [Paulo]’s calculator will therefore compute most of the characteristics of two class A common emitter/collector amplifiers for specified loads. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1678924",
"author": "starhawk",
"timestamp": "2014-08-01T02:16:38",
"content": "Awww, HaD already crushed his server. Anyone have a google-cached page?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1679127",
"author": "Tony",
... | 1,760,376,116.384326 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/31/ps2-synth-will-knock-you-off-your-broom/ | PS/2 Synth Will Knock You Off Your Broom | Kristina Panos | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"arduino nano",
"din",
"dreamblaster",
"drum machine",
"harry potter",
"keyboard",
"midi",
"ps2",
"synth",
"synthesizer",
"Teensy"
] | Here’s a hack centered around something a lot of people have sitting around: a PS/2 keyboard. [serdef] turned a
Harry Potter-edition PS/2 into a combination synth keyboard and drum machine
and has a nice write-up about it on Hackaday.io.
For communication, he tore up a PS/2 to USB cable to get a female mini DIN connector and wired it to the Nano. He’s using a Dreamblaster S1 synth module to generate sounds, and that sits on a synth shield along with the Nano. The synth can be powered from either the USB or a 9-volt.
Keymapping is done with the Teensy PS/2 keyboard library. [serdef] reused a bunch of code from
his bicycle drummer project
which also employed the Dreamblaster S1. [serdef] is continually adding features to this project, like a pot for resonance control which lets him shape the waveform like an analog synth. He has posted some handy PS/2 integration code, his synth code, and a KiCad schematic. Demo videos are waiting for you across the link.
As a drum machine:
As a sweet synth: | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1678570",
"author": "FartsFace",
"timestamp": "2014-07-31T23:27:11",
"content": "http://ronwinter.tv/drums.htmlandhttp://webaudiodemos.appspot.com/midi-synth/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1678651",
"author": "vonskippy",
... | 1,760,376,116.487372 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/31/diy-usb-spectrometer-actually-works/ | DIY USB Spectrometer Actually Works | Will Sweatman | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Uncategorized"
] | [
"spectrometer",
"webcam"
] | When we hear spectrometer, we usually think of some piece of high-end test equipment sitting in a CSI lab. Sure, a hacker could make one if he or she put their mind to it. But make one out of a webcam, some cheap diffraction grating purchased off ebay and some scrap?
Surely not
.
[Renaud] pulls off this MacGyver like build with a detailed knowledge of how spectrometers work. A diffraction grating is used to split the incoming light into its component wavelengths. Much like a prism would. The wavelengths then make their way through a slit, which [Renaud] made from two pieces of highly polished brass, so the webcam sensor can see a specific wavelength. While the spectrometer-from-webcam concept
isn’t new
, the build is still impressive.
Once the build was complete, [Renaud] put together some software to make sense of the data. Though a bit short on details, we hope this build will inspire you to make your own spectrometer, and document it on
hackaday.io
of course. | 32 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1678360",
"author": "argoneum",
"timestamp": "2014-07-31T20:45:39",
"content": "Once I got some discharge lamps from my friend. They came in a cardboard box. I made my spectrometer of this box: painted it black inside, used two razor blades and hot glue as slit, mat translucent plas... | 1,760,376,116.998254 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/31/zx-spectrum-turned-into-a-usb-keyboard/ | ZX Spectrum Turned Into A USB Keyboard | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"keyboard",
"usb keyboard",
"ZX",
"ZX Spectrum"
] | They’re a little hard to find in the US, but the ZX Spectrum is right up there with the Commodore 64 and the Atari 8-bit computers in England. [Alistair] wanted to recreate the feeling of sitting right in front of the TV with his Speccy, leading him to create the
ZX Keyboard
, a Spectrum repurposed into a USB keyboard.
While most projects that take an old key matrix and turn it into a USB keyboard use the
TMK firmware
, [Alistair] wanted to flex his programming muscles and wrote the firmware from scratch. It runs on an Arduino Pro Mini, scanning the matrix of five columns and eight half rows to turn combinations of keypresses into an astonishing number of commands, given the limited number of keys on the ZX.
The firmware is available
on [Alistair]’s repo
, available to anyone who doesn’t want to pay the
£50 a new ZX Spectrum keyboard will cost
. As far as the usability of a Spectrum keyboard goes, at least [Alistair] didn’t have an Atari 400 sitting in the attic. | 26 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1678099",
"author": "gregkennedy",
"timestamp": "2014-07-31T17:37:04",
"content": "Wasn’t the ZX keyboard notoriously horrible? This mod seems to be going the wrong way : ) Also, why not program the ZX to dump keypresses out some port, and translate from there? Then you wouldn’t ... | 1,760,376,119.878916 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/31/playing-starcraft-on-an-arm/ | Playing StarCraft On An ARM | Brian Benchoff | [
"Software Development"
] | [
"arm",
"disassembly",
"recompilation",
"starcraft",
"Win32",
"wine"
] | Except for the really terrible Nintendo 64 port, StarCraft has always been bound to desktop and laptop PCs. Blizzard could take the code for StarCraft, port it to an ARM platform, put a version on the Google Play an iTunes store, and sit there while the cash rolls in. This would mean a ton of developer time, though, and potentially years tracking down hard to find bugs.
Or one random dude on the Internet
could port StarCraft to an ARM platform
. Yes, this means all the zerg rushes and dark templar ambushes you could possibly want are available for tablets and Raspberry Pis.
This godlike demonstration of compiler wizardry is a months-long project of [notaz] over on the OpenPandora team. Without the source for StarCraft, [notaz] was forced to disassemble the Win32 version of the game, convert the disassembly to C with some custom tools, and recompile it for ARM while linking in all the necessary Win32 API calls from the ARM port of Wine. Saying this was not easy is an understatement.
If you have an OpenPandora and want to relive your heady days of youth, you can
grab everything you need here
. For anyone without an OpenPandora that wants to play StarCraft on a Raspi, you might want to get working on your own recompiled port. Video below. | 25 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1677843",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2014-07-31T14:15:30",
"content": "Winulator does something similar for Android:http://www.winulator.com/Unfortunately, the project hasn’t received an update for almost a year :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,376,116.879342 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/03/thp-entry-a-theatrical-lighting-controller-powered-by-a-calculator/ | THP Entry: A Theatrical Lighting Controller Powered By A Calculator | Brian Benchoff | [
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"calculator",
"dmx",
"DMX lighting",
"graphing calculator",
"the hackaday prize",
"theatrical lighting"
] | Theatrical lighting usually runs with the help of DMX, a protocol that’s basically MIDI for lights; small, lightweight, ancient, and able to run on the lowest spec computers imaginable. For his Hackaday Prize entry, [Alex] figured a regular ‘ol graphing calculator was sufficient to run a complete DMX controller, and with the help of an Arduino,
figured out a way to do it
.
The hardware for the system consists of a TI-84 graphing calculator, a few bits and bobs in the way of components, and an Arduino Pro Mini powered from the USB port on the calculator. The Arduino handles the transmitting of DMX packets at 250 kbaud using the
DMXSimple library
over a 5-pin XLR jack.
The software running on the calculator is where the novel part of the project begins. The software is designed to be extremely lightweight, sending packets to the Arduino using the 2-wire link cable. DMX Commands are wrapped up and transferred using the TI-83/84 link protocol, decoded on the Arduino, and sent out to the lighting rig.
While this probably won’t replace the multi-thousand dollar lighting consoles found in theatres, it’s still a very handy and portable tool for debugging lights. It’s also [Alex]’s My First Electronics Project™, and a pretty good one at that.
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. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1684742",
"author": "Tiago Dias",
"timestamp": "2014-08-03T17:27:09",
"content": ">a regular ‘ol graphing calculator was sufficient to run a complete DMX controllerwhy didn’t he build it, then?AFAIK a “complete controller” means it doesn’t need another microcontroller.",
"parent... | 1,760,376,116.813317 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/03/behold-the-most-insane-crowdfunding-campaign-ever/ | Behold! The Most Insane Crowdfunding Campaign Ever | Brian Benchoff | [
"Crowd Funding",
"Featured"
] | [
"computer case",
"copper foam",
"cpu",
"Crowd Funding",
"crowdfunding",
"enclosure",
"gpu",
"graphics card",
"heatsink",
"i7",
"indiegogo",
"kickstarter",
"pc"
] | Hold on to your hats, because this is a good one. It’s a tale of disregarding the laws of physics, cancelled crowdfunding campaigns, and a menagerie of blogs who take press releases at face value.
Meet Silent Power
(Google
translation
). It’s a remarkably small and fairly powerful miniature gaming computer being put together by a team in Germany. The specs are pretty good for a completely custom computer: an i7 4785T, GTX 760, 8GB of RAM and a 500GB SSD. Not a terrible machine for something that will eventually sell for about $930 USD, but what really puts this project in the limelight is the innovative cooling system and small size. The entire machine is only 16x10x7 cm, accented with a very interesting “copper foam” heat sink on top. Sounds pretty cool, huh? It does, until you start to think about the implementation a bit. Then it’s a descent into madness and a dark pit of despair.
There are a lot of things that are completely wrong with this project, and in true Hackaday fashion, we’re going to tear this one apart, figuring out why this project will never exist.
The Hardware
The specs for this machine are pretty good; it’s not a slouch by any means. The CPU is an
Intel i7 4785T
. A pretty good chip, but one with the lowest thermal design power of its generation – 35 Watts – not surprising given that the team behind Silent Power is going for a completely passively cooled product.
The graphics card, however, is not a low power part. The Nvidia GTX 760 is a 170 Watt card, and most certainly not the best choice for a passively cooled system. A better choice would be the GTX 750 Ti: they would get reasonably similar performance with a 60 Watt card. saving them from having to get rid of 110 Watts of heat. If you’ve ever touched a hot 100 Watt light bulb, that’s about how much heat the small performance increase from the GTX 760 to the GTX 750 Ti produces. That’s also the amount of extra heat the innovative copper foam heat sink needs to get rid of because of this one design decision.
Chip choices and component selection notwithstanding, a much more interesting aspect of this hardware is the form factor. It’s a pretty small enclosure, only 16x10x7 cm. The smallest commonly available motherboard size, Mini-ITX is 17 cm square and obviously wouldn’t fit in the enclosure. Maybe they’re going with a newer, smaller form factor like the Intel NUC? Nope.
They’re designing their own integrated system
, mounting the GPU and CPU on one board, and the RAM and the Flash chips that make up the SSD on another. There are supposedly a total of three boards in this computer, all separated by expensive, high-speed interconnects.
Just about every graphics card and motherboard you can buy isn’t designed from scratch. Instead, chip companies like Intel, AMD, and Nvidia produce what are called
reference designs
, which are produced by companies like Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and EVGA. Yes, there are a few differences in peripheral support, thermal design, and layout, but the basic fact that there are only a handful of designs out there for a specific class of GPU or CPU holds true.
The team at Silent Power is creating a completely new design for their specific choice of CPU and GPU. That’s a tremendous undertaking and something that costs chip manufacturers millions of dollars to produce. The Silent Power team is willing to do all of this for $60,000 USD
with a team of three
.
Copper Foam
With the hardware design thoroughly debunked, we can move on to the most interesting feature of the Silent Power PC: the heatsink. It’s made of a material called copper foam, an open cell matrix of copper. At first glance, this looks like a decent choice for a heat sink. Copper is extremely thermally conductive, and the huge amount of surface area means there’s a lot of area for heat to radiate out of.
The reality is that this copper foam is a more effective insulator than a conductor of heat.
Heat sink design is no simple matter, and simply by observation of stock heatsinks, a few generalities can be observed. Most heat sinks are made from aluminum, and while the most common explanation for this is the price of copper versus the price of aluminum, that’s not the whole picture. All heat sinks have a property called emissivity, or the effectiveness of a material in emitting thermal radiation. When it comes to the emissivity of heat sinks and radiators,
color is important
. The radiator in your car is painted black, and the heatsink on your CPU is most likely black anodized aluminum. Copper cannot be anodized and short of artificially oxidizing their copper foam, the Silent Power team can do nothing to improve the efficiency of their chosen material.
Another consideration in the design of heat sinks is the area of the fins. The fins on every heat sink have something called a ‘boundary layer,’ or an area where heat is transferred from the metal to the air.
A lot of time and resources
have been dedicated towards calculating the ideal size, shape, and spacing of fins in a heat sink to optimize heat transfer with this boundary layer in mind. A copper foam is not an ideal heat sink. The boundary layer for all the cells in the foam quickly reaches capacity; after that,
radiating any more heat is impossible
.
This is, quite literally, one of the worst possible heat sinks imaginable.
Previously Found On Indiegogo
While being a crowdfunded project, Silent Power can’t be found on any of the regular sites like Kickstarter or Indiegogo. They’re doing the crowdfunding by themselves,
asking everyone to contribute towards production
via Paypal. The plan is simple: send some money to them via PayPal, and when they receive €45,000, they’ll start production. If they don’t receive the funds necessary, they’ll refund all of the potential buyers, minus PayPal fees.
Read that last paragraph again and tell me if that’s a reasonable deal. There are things called, ‘investors’ and ‘loans’ that might also work in this situation, doubly so if you’re running a business.
It’s certainly an unorthodox way of raising money for a project, and with a little bit of googling, you quickly find the reason why.
Here’s the link
to their previous Indiegogo campaign. That campaign was pulled down by the Indiegogo, “‘without warning and justification,” according to the team. If anyone can find a cache of that campaign somewhere, I’ll gladly link to it.
Yesterday, the Silent Power team hit a bit of a snag.
Paypal froze their account
. Yes, this means all the funds to be used in the development of this project are now locked away, and yes, this means the team has no funds to develop the project further.
That doesn’t mean the Silent Power team is calling it quits just yet: they’re still accepting payments and pre-orders to a frozen Paypal account, ready to start production when their account is unfrozen. The mind reels.
Wrap Up
This is only a cursory assessment of this project, and far from a complete look at the failings of the Silent Power PC. There’s much, much more to talk about here but really only one word that can describe the totality of this project: insane.
I would like to take a few words to point out that this is a
critical
assessment
that comments on the engineering and design of the Silent Power PC, something the rest of the tech blogosphere didn’t seem to manage. In no particular order, here is a list of blogs that have taken an uncritical look at the Silent Power PC, without taking the effort to determine if it is real or not:
The Verge
Gizmodo
Gizmag
PC World
, with the quote, “That’s not to say Silent Power isn’t legit—far from it…”
Techspot
Ubergizmo
Stuff.tv
There is really nothing more for me to say, but there are still dozens of reasons why this project will never see the light of day. Comments welcome below. | 150 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "1684474",
"author": "FunnyFace",
"timestamp": "2014-08-03T14:15:34",
"content": "While I largely agree, I wanted to point out Clock speeds:For the intel cpuare lower than normal (less wattage) and the clock speeds and voltages aren’t listed for the GPU, which could be drastically lo... | 1,760,376,117.268477 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/03/fixing-a-basic-calculator/ | Fixing A BASIC Calculator | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"basic",
"calculator",
"computer",
"HP9800",
"HP9830b",
"retrocomputer"
] | The early days of modern computing were downright weird, and the HP 9830B is a strange one indeed: it’s a gigantic calculator, running BASIC, on a CPU implemented over a dozen cards using discrete logic. In 2014 dollars, this calculator cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $50,000. [Mattis] runs a retrocomputer museum and recently acquired one of these ancient machines,
and the walkthrough of what it took to get this old machine running
is a great read.
There were several things wrong with this old computer when it arrived: the keyboard had both missing key caps and broken switches. The switches were made by Cherry, but no one at Cherry – or any of the mechanical keyboard forums around the Internet – have ever seen these switches. Luckily, the key cap connector isn’t that complex, and a little bit of bent wire brings the switches back up to spec. The key caps were replaced from a few collectors around the globe.
Getting as far as booting the machine, [Mattis] found some weirdness when using this old calculator: the result of 2+2 was 8.4444444, and 3+1 was 6.4444444. Simply pressing the number 0 and pressing execute resulted in 2 being displayed. With a little bit of guesswork, [Mattis] figured this was a problem with the ALU, and inspecting the ROM on that board proved to be correct: the first 128 nibbles of the ROM were what they were supposed to be, and the last 128 nibbles were the OR of the last half. A strange error, but something that could be fixed with a new replacement ROM.
After hunting down errors with the printer and the disk drive, [Mattis] eventually got this old calculator working again. For such an astonishingly complex piece of equipment, the errors were relatively easy to hunt down, once [Mattis] had the schematics for everything. You can’t say that about many machines only 10 years younger than this old calculator, but then again, they didn’t cost as much as a house. | 26 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1684269",
"author": "garym53",
"timestamp": "2014-08-03T11:34:36",
"content": "“The early days of modern computing were downright weird”Compared to what??? Fuck me dead – what condescending crap – grow up!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"co... | 1,760,376,117.330698 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/03/repurposed-laptop-batteries-with-a-twist/ | Repurposed Laptop Batteries With A Twist | Bryan Cockfield | [
"laptops hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"i2c",
"laptop battery fix",
"lithium battery",
"lithium ion"
] | Lithium ion batteries are becoming more and more common these days, but some of the larger capacity batteries can still carry a pretty hefty price tag. After finding Acer’s motherboard schematics online and doing a little reverse-engineering, [Tiziano] has found
a way to reuse batteries from his dead laptop
, not only saving the batteries from the landfill but also cutting costs on future projects.
These types of batteries have been
used for many things in the past
, but what makes this project different is that [Tiziano] is able to monitor the status of the batteries and charge them using I2C with an Arduino and a separate power supply, freeing the batteries from the bonds of the now-useless laptop.
With this level of communication between the microcontroller and the battery pack, there is little chance of the batteries catching on fire when they’re used in another project. Since the Arduino can also monitor the current amount of charge in the batteries, there is also a reduced risk that they will be damaged from under- or over-charging.
This wasn’t just as simple as hooking up the positive and negative leads of a power supply to the battery. [Tiziano] also had to model the internal resistance of the motherboard that the battery expects to see, and get the supply voltage just right so the battery’s safety protocols wouldn’t kick in to prevent them from charging. After a few other hurdles were jumped, [Tiziano] now has a large capacity lithium ion battery at his disposal for any future projects. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1684104",
"author": "Laszlo",
"timestamp": "2014-08-03T09:27:23",
"content": "When a laptop battery starts to degrade,is the whole battery loosing its capacity orjust one of the cells fails quicker then others?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,117.087679 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/02/hypno-jellyfish-is-great-for-kids-and-kids-at-heart/ | Hypno-Jellyfish Is Great For Kids (and Kids At Heart) | Matt Terndrup | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"accelerometer",
"arduino nano",
"leds",
"mpu6050",
"neopixel ring",
"polymorph"
] | LED’s are fun. They are easily seen, not to hard to hook up, and produce a nice glow that can be gazed at for hours. Kids love them, so when [Jens] daughter was born, he knew that he wanted to create a
device that would alternate colors
depending on the object’s movement.
He utilized a
mpu6050 accelerometer
to detect changes in position, and wired together an Arduino Nano, a 9V battery, and a 12 LED neopixel ring from adafruit. Design requirements were jotted down beforehand ensuring that any child playing with the Hypno-Jellyfish would not be injured in any way. For example, anything that fits in a child’s mouth, will go in that child’s mouth; meaning that any materials used must be non-toxic, big enough not to be swallowed, and drool proof/water proof. The kids will pull, and throw, and drop the toy as well, so everything has to be of sturdy quality too. Epilepsy is also a concern when dealing with LED’s. But, [Jens] project hit the mark, making something that is kid-friendly while at the same time enjoyable for anyone else who likes color-changing lights.
The steps involved started by stripping the wires and inserting them into strands of paracord. Next, the electronics were rigged in place; followed by the making of the jellyfish from Polymorph plastic which was heated up above 60° C, transforming it into a soft and translucent material that can be crafted by hand. The end results looks something like this photo.
After molding the jellyfish, the final step in the process is the code, which is based on the
i2cdevlib
and the
Adafruit’s neopixel library
. [Jens] uploaded work can be found in
his Github repo
.
Now, if you don’t have kids, you can always develop this project for painting light. An example of what is possible can be seen below as letters are spelled out with the Hypno-Jellyfish that floats gracefully through the air.
A demo video is embedded below: | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1683802",
"author": "Waterjet",
"timestamp": "2014-08-03T05:23:40",
"content": "This is how tentacle fetishes are formed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1684171",
"author": "Stu",
"timestamp": "2014-08-03T10:1... | 1,760,376,117.438685 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/02/finding-and-repairing-microscopes-from-the-trash/ | Finding And Repairing Microscopes From The Trash | Brian Benchoff | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"12 Volt LED",
"led",
"microscope",
"optical microscope"
] | We’re not quite sure where [Andy] hangs out, but he recently found a pile of broken microscopes in a dumpster. They’re old and obsolete microscopes made for biological specimens and not inspecting surface mount devices and electronic components, but the quality of the optics is outstanding and hey, free microscope.
There was a problem with these old scopes – the bulb used to illuminate specimens was made out of pure unobtainium, meaning [Andy] would have to rig up his own fix. The easiest way to do that?
Some LEDs made for car headlights, of course
.
The maker of these scopes did produce a few for export to be used in rural areas all across the globe. These models had a 12 Volt input to allow the use of a car battery to light the bulb. A LED headlight also runs off 12 Volts, so it was easy for [Andy] to choose a light source for this repair.
A little bit of dremeling later, and [Andy] had the new bulb in place. An off the shelf PWM controller can vary the brightness of the LED, controlled with the original Bakelite knob. The completed scope can easily inspect human hairs, the dust mites, blood cells, and just about anything down to the limits of optical microscopy. Future plans for this microscope might include another project on hackaday.io,
a stage automator
that will allow the imaging of huge fields at very high magnification – not bad for something pulled out of the trash. | 24 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1683619",
"author": "lee",
"timestamp": "2014-08-03T02:38:26",
"content": "No working objective lens should ever make it to the trash! Reading this makes me wonder if I should be dumpster diving more often.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"c... | 1,760,376,117.387829 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/02/home-theater-tribute-to-a-friend/ | Home Theater, Tribute To A Friend | Edward Becker | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"CNC router",
"home theater",
"laser cut",
"projector",
"soda fountain",
"stencil"
] | Ever since purchasing this house, [Ed] Always wanted a to turn his living room into a
home theater
, but not just any old projector and a white wall would do. He wanted the whole experience. [Ed] Started with a slightly damaged 12′ wide 4:3 roll up projector screen, he removed the damaged bottom portion and built a static frame to support the now 16:9 screen. Before he could mount the screen, he needed to drywall over a window that was inconveniently located. With the screen now in place, [Ed] framed out the elevated seating platform and steps with some 2×12 topped off with plywood. Next, the carpet that was sitting directly below the platform and steps was removed and then secured on top. Down firing LED fixtures were installed in the steps, to give them that movie theater look and feel. To provide the image, a refurbished HD projector acquired from the Bay of Electronics, was installed in the loft above the living room.
With the theater functional, [Ed] turned his attention to theater decorations. Dimmable ambiance lighting fixtures, using laser cut acrylic and CNC routed starboard (a marine-grade polymer), were made to resemble a film strip. Next a coffee table was crafted out of an equipment road case filled with movie props. Studio logos were painted on the sides with the use of laser cut stencils, and with a glass top, gives the illusion it came off the set of a hollywood movie. The addition of a rebuilt movie poster marquee, movie posters, candy stand, pop corn machine, and with the existing
soda fountain
and the arcade in the loft, the home theater was almost complete.
In a fitting tribute, [Ed] designed and built a marquee sign to dedicate and name the theater after his cousin Greg, one of his closest friends and avid movie watcher, who had sadly passed away. Video overview of all the hard work after the break.
His next step is an upgraded to the sound system, perhaps we can provide some ideas like
building a tube amp
for the sound, or going crazy with
an unparalleled personal bass rig
. | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1683347",
"author": "sjioag",
"timestamp": "2014-08-02T23:45:15",
"content": "What a wonderful house, full of clutter and corporate logos. Get rid of your TV, drink water, enjoy a normal life.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1... | 1,760,376,117.487384 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/31/a-3dollar-scanner/ | A 3D(ollar) Scanner | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d scanner",
"laser",
"object capture",
"scanner",
"stepper",
"stl",
"webcam"
] | Once you have a 3D printer, making copies of objects like a futuristic Xerox machine is the name of the game. There are, of course, 3D scanners available for hundreds of dollars, but [Joshua] wanted something a bit cheaper.
He built his own 3D scanner for exactly $2.73 in parts
, salvaging the rest from the parts bin at his local hackerspace.
[Josh]’s scanner is pretty much just a lazy suzan (that’s where he spent the money), with a stepper motor drive. A beam of laser light shines on whatever object is placed on the lazy suzan, and a USB webcam feeds the data to a computer. The build is heavily influenced from
this Instructables build
, but [Josh] has a few tricks up his sleeve: this is the only laser/camera 3D scanner that can solve a point cloud with the camera in any vertical position. This potentially means algorithmic calibration, and having the copied and printed object come out the same size as the original. You can check out that code
on the git
.
Future improvements to [Josh]’s 3D scanner include the ability to output point clouds
and STLs,
meaning anyone can go straight from scanning an object to slicing it for a 3D printer. That’s a lot of interesting software features for something that was basically pulled out of the trash. | 23 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1677581",
"author": "iamnotachoice",
"timestamp": "2014-07-31T11:07:21",
"content": "A set of an arduino uno, a stepper motor plus mosfet driver and a (junky) laser for 3$? I take five!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1677618"... | 1,760,376,117.542834 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/31/this-hackaday-prize-entry-sucks/ | This Hackaday Prize Entry Sucks | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"air pump",
"pickup pen",
"smd parts",
"vacuum pen"
] | [K.C. Lee] is busy working on his entry to The Hackaday Prize, and right now he’s dealing with a lot of assembly. For his entry, that means tiny SMD parts, and the vacuum pen he ordered from DealExtreme hasn’t come in yet. The solution?
The same as anyone else who has found themselves in this situation
: getting an air pump for an aquarium.
For this quick build until the right tool has time to arrive from China, [K.C.] took an old fish pump and modified it for suction. He doesn’t go over the exact modification to the pump, but this can be as easy as drilling a hole and stuffing some silicone tubing in there.
The ‘tool’ for this vacuum pen is a plastic disposable 0.5mm mechanical pencil. [K,C.] found this worked alright on smaller parts down to 0402 packages, but heavy parts with smooth surfaces – chips, for example – are too much for the mechanical pencil and aquarium pump to handle. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1677266",
"author": "Bogdan",
"timestamp": "2014-07-31T08:14:38",
"content": "Had the same problem as he did, it’s the tips of the vacuum pens that matter the most. The rest can work well home made.I hope no fish is now suffocating…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repl... | 1,760,376,117.589848 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/30/a-lego-game-controller-just-for-the-hack-of-it/ | A Lego Game Controller; Just For The Hack Of It | Matt Terndrup | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"gaming",
"gaming controller",
"gaming hack",
"legos",
"solderless breadboard"
] | [StrangeMeadowlark] decided one day to create
this badass Arduino-based gaming controller
. Not for any particular reason, other than, why the heck not?!
It looks like a tiny Lego spaceship that has flown in from a nearby planet, zooming directly into the hands of an eager Earthling gamer. With buttons of silver, this device can play Portal 1 and 2, Garry’s Mod, Minecraft, and VisualBoy Advance. Although more work is still needed, the controller does the job; especially when playing Pokemon. It feels like a Gameboy interface, with a customizable outer frame.
Sticky, blue-tack holds a few wires in place. And, most of the materials are items that were found around the house. Like the gamepad buttons on top; they are ordinary tactile switches that can be extracted from simple electronics. And the Legos, which provide an easy way to build out the body console, rather than having to track down a 3D printer and learning AutoCAD.
Communication between the PC and the Arduino inside is done by having the controller pretend to be a USB keyboard, allowing for in-game mapping of the keys. Key presses are sent to the Serial-to-USB chip in buffer specific to the firmware. Not to mention, it gives the option to browse Imgur if the urge arises.
For future iterations, Joysticks might be added. It will take some time to integrate them into the controller, but it will be worth the effort. Another implementation will be the utilization of gamepad firmware instead of emulating a keyboard, which doesn’t report analog values.
Other Lego projects similar to this include this
two-axis panning time lapse rig
, this
custom electronic Lego microcontroller system
called the LegoDuino, this obstacle avoiding
LEGO rover with CD wheels
, this
Lego Drawing Machine
, and this
DIY Spectrophotometer
. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1677170",
"author": "Bones",
"timestamp": "2014-07-31T07:14:21",
"content": "There are cheap ($7) arcade controls controller boards available. USB, pretend to be a gamepad, and ‘mapping’ is as simple as plugging your switch into the appropriate socket.",
"parent_id": null,
"... | 1,760,376,118.018225 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/30/a-dead-simple-well-constructed-fm-transmitter/ | A Dead Simple, Well Constructed FM Transmitter | Brian Benchoff | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"bug",
"fm",
"fm transmitter",
"transmitter",
"wireless bug"
] | [Angelo] is only 15, but that doesn’t mean his fabrication skills are limited to Lego and K’Nex. He’s built himself
an amazingly well constructed FM transmitter
that’s powerful enough to be received a quarter mile away.
The FM transmitter circuit itself is based off
one of [Art Swan]’s builds
, but instead of the solderless breadboard construction you would expect to find in a small demo circuit, [Angelo] went all the way, etching his own PCB and winding his own coil.
Using photosensitized copper clad board, [Angelo] laid out the circuit with Fritzing, etched a board, and went at it with a drill. The components found in the transmitter are pretty standard and with the exception of the trimmer cap and electret mic, can be picked up in the parts drawers of any Radio Shack. He gets bonus points for using a 1/4 – 20 bolt for winding the coil, too.
The power supply for the transmitter is a single 9V battery, the battery connector being salvaged from a dead 9V. Awesome work, and for someone so young, [Angelo] already seems to have a grasp of all the random, seemingly useless information that makes prototyping so much easier. Video below. | 54 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1676603",
"author": "jpnorair",
"timestamp": "2014-07-31T02:09:49",
"content": "Lower frequencies can travel a long way, and through walls relatively easily. Here’s a way to get the range much farther: attach a long wire to the ground of your circuit (e.g. 3m).",
"parent_id": n... | 1,760,376,117.878945 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/30/aerodynamics-super-honey-badger-dont-give-a/ | Aerodynamics? Super Honey Badger Don’t Give A @#*^@! | Adam Fabio | [
"classic hacks",
"drone hacks"
] | [
"airplane",
"brushless motor",
"drone",
"Giant Scale",
"plane",
"R/C aircraft",
"tail rotor"
] | [Arron Bates] is a pro R/C Pilot from Australia. He’s spent the last few years chasing the dream of a fixed wing plane which could perform unlimited spins. After some promising starts with independently controlled wing spoilers, [Arron] went all in and
created The Super Honey Badger
. Super Honey Badger is a giant scale R/C plane with the tail of a helicopter and a soul of pure awesome.
Starting with a standard
87″ wingspan Extra 300
designed for 3D flight, [Arron] began hacking. The entire rear fuselage was removed and replaced with carbon fiber tubes. The standard Extra 300 tail assembly fit perfectly on the tubes. Between the abbreviated fuselage and the tail, [Arron] installed a tail rotor from an 800 size helicopter. A 1.25 kW brushless motor drives the tail rotor while a high-speed servo controls the pitch.
[Arron] debuted the plane at HuckFest 2013, and pulled off some amazing aerobatics. The tail rotor made 540
stall turn
an easy trick to do – even with an airplane. Flat spins were a snap to enter, even from fast forward flight! Most of [Arron’s] maneuvers defy any attempt at naming them – just watch the videos after the break.
Sadly, Super Honey Badger was destroyed in May of 2014 due to a structural failure in the carbon tubes. [Arron] walked away without injury and isn’t giving up., He’s already dropping major hints
about a new plane
(facebook link).
Watch the control surfaces move in the videos. It’s worth noting that Super Honey Badger carries no gyros or flight stabilization systems. The plane’s every move is in direct response to [Arron’s] control inputs. | 50 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1676213",
"author": "vonskippy",
"timestamp": "2014-07-30T23:15:30",
"content": "As graceful as a drunken monkey with the dry heaves.Seems oh so cheaty if you can’t do the maneuvers with just the aerodynamics of the airplane.Whatever floats your pontoons I guess.",
"parent_id": ... | 1,760,376,118.425129 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/30/developed-on-hackaday-beta-testers-animation-and-assembly-videos/ | Developed On Hackaday: Beta Testers, Animation And Assembly Videos | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"developed on hackaday",
"mooltipass",
"password keeper"
] | We’re pretty sure that most of our readers already know it by now, but we’ll tell you anyway: the Hackaday community (writers and readers) is currently developing an offline password keeper, the
Mooltipass
. A month ago we published our
first demonstration video
and since then the development team has been fairly busy at work.
First things first: we heard (well, read) the comments you left in our
previous articles
and decided to make a small animation video that will hopefully explain why having an
offline
password keeper is a good thing. We welcome you to have a look at our
script draft
and let us know what you think. We updated our
GitHub readme
and more importantly our FAQs, so feel free to tell us if there are still some questions you have that we didn’t answer. We finally found a short but yet interesting
paper
about software based password keepers possible security flaws.
Secondly, a little more than 20 prototypes have successfully been assembled and some beta testers actually already received them. As they financially contributed to their units we offered them the possibility to pick a blue, green, yellow or white OLED screen (see picture above). We therefore expect things to gain speed as we’ll have users (or rather bosses) pushing us to improve our current platform and implement much needed features.
Finally, as I figured some of our readers may be interested, I made a quick video of the prototype assembly process (embedded below). It is still a little sketchy and a few changes will be made to make it simpler for production. We expect these next weeks to be full of interesting events as our beta testers / Hackaday readers will be able to judge the work we’ve been doing for so long. We highly recommend you to subscribe to our
official Google group
to stay updated with our adventures.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTOw-sVSXzQ | 53 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1675923",
"author": "erdstrd",
"timestamp": "2014-07-30T20:11:58",
"content": "No offense but this is just an useless trinket.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1675954",
"author": "Mathieu Stephan",
"timestamp":... | 1,760,376,118.182249 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/30/a-real-raspberry-pi-clone-not-inspired-by/ | A Real Raspberry Pi Clone (Not ‘Inspired By’) | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"arm",
"Banana Pi",
"BCM2835",
"clone",
"HummingBoard",
"odroid",
"raspberry pi",
"Raspi",
"RPi"
] | A few years ago, Broadcom had a pretty nice chip – the BCM2835 – that could do 1080 video, had fairly powerful graphics performance, run a *nix at a good click, and was fairly cheap. A Broadcom employee thought, “why don’t we build an educational computer with this” and the Raspberry Pi was born. Since then, Broadcom has kept that chip to themselves, funneling all of them into what has become a very vibrant platform for education, tinkering, and any other project that could use a small Linux board. Recently, Broadcom has started to sell the BCM2835 to anyone who has the cash and from the looks of it,
real Raspberry Pi clones are starting to make their way into the marketplace
.
Other Raspberry Pi clone boards out there like the
Banana Pi
and the
HummingBoard
don’t use the same BCM2835 found in the Raspi and the new Odroid. The new board also has the same 26 pin GPIO expansion socket, and runs the same binaries as the Raspberry P;. It is a clone in every sense, with a slightly different form factor geared towards very tiny, portable, and battery-powered use cases.
Unlike the official
Raspberry Pi Compute Module
, the Odroid isn’t meant to be used as a system on module, shoved into any product that needs a fast-ish ARM core without needing engineers to actually
design
a circuit with an ARM. The Odroid is a cut-down, extremely minimalist version of the Raspi, perfect for any project where space is at a premium.
There are a few interesting features included on the Odroid: there’s an on-board battery connector, a real-time clock on the board, and more of the BCM2835 GPIOs are exposed (although not the same ones as the upgraded
RPi Model B+
). There’s no Ethernet, but odds are if you’re building something that’s battery-powered, you won’t need that anyway.
As far as price goes,
you can pick one of these Odroids
up for $30 USD, with $9 shipping from South Korea. That’s pretty comparable to the price of a real Raspberry Pi, but if the features in the Odroid are worth it to you, it might be a worthwhile clone. | 63 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "1675597",
"author": "henry82",
"timestamp": "2014-07-30T17:18:32",
"content": "arrgh vertically mounted usb plug. Kind of undermining the whole purpose of a slim board.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1675635",
"author... | 1,760,376,118.281943 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/29/thp-entry-tinusaur-avr-platform-teaches-noobs-plays-game-of-life/ | THP Entry: Tinusaur AVR Platform Teaches Noobs, Plays Game Of Life | Kristina Panos | [
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"attiny",
"attiny85",
"AVR",
"AVR programmer",
"conways game of life",
"MAX7219",
"usbasp"
] | [Neven Boyanov] says there’s nothing special about
Tinusaur
, the bite-sized platform for learning and teaching the joys of programming AVRs. But if you’re dying to gain a deeper understanding of your Arduino or are looking to teach someone else the basics, you may disagree with that assessment.
Tinusaur is easy to assemble and contains only the components necessary for ATTiny13/25/45/85 operation (the kit comes with an ’85). [Neven] saved space and memory by forgoing USB voltage regulator. An optional button cell mount and jumper are included in the kit.
[Neven] is selling boards and kits through
the Tinusaur site
, or you can get the board from a few 3rd party vendors. His site has some projects and useful guides for assembling and driving your Tinusaur. He recently
programmed it to play Conway’s Game of Life
on an 8×8 LED matrix. If you’re looking for the zero-entry side of the AVR swimming pool, you can program it from the Arduino IDE. Be warned, though; they aren’t fully compatible.
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. | 17 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1673295",
"author": "Chamb Onz",
"timestamp": "2014-07-29T17:26:17",
"content": "It is very nice and it is tiny. However, considering that you can get an arduino nano clone with full USB support, LOTS of I/O, and a much more powerful atmega328 for about the same price ($6-7), then ... | 1,760,376,118.337507 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/29/retrotechtacular-designing-and-building-rca-televisions/ | Retrotechtacular: Designing And Building RCA Televisions | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"american manufacturing",
"jam handy",
"kinescope",
"made in the USA",
"nipper",
"RCA",
"steam bath",
"television",
"television manufacturing"
] | While it’s almost cliché to say they don’t make things like they used to, this week’s Retrotechtacular offers fairly conclusive proof that, at the very least, they used to put more time and effort into manufacturing consumer electronics. Gather your homemade wisecrackin’ robots and settle in front of
this 1959 film entitled “The Reasons Why”
, a rah-rah film created for new employees of the RCA Victor television division.
It may open with a jingle, but things quickly turn serious. Quality is no laughing matter for the men and women devoted to bringing you the best television set for your money. This type of unmatched excellence begins with tireless R&D into improving sound and picture quality. Every transformer is tested at five times the rated voltage, and every capacitor at two times the rating. Every switch undergoes a series of mechanical tests, including a pressured steam bath to ensure they will hold up even if you drag your set out to the porch some unbearably hot deep South August night.
Cabinet design is just as important—what’s the use in housing a chassis and kinescope that’ll last for 60 years in some cheap box? Woods from all over the world are carefully considered for their beauty and durability. A television set is, after all, the centerpiece of the American family room furniture group. These carefully selected woods are baked in a series of ovens to prove they’ll stand up to hours of continuous use.
This rigorous, Consumer Reports-type testing is performed on every component of every television set. Each vacuum tube is beaten with corks, and every shadow mask is inspected microscopically. One by one, each set’s volume is tested in a special room with a moving microphone. Once a set is finally completed, they spin it on a turntable in a shed to test the likelihood of interference with other sets. These are just a few of the reasons why, if nothing else, American manufacturing was undoubtedly expensive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2si4pop4kDE
[Thank you to Hernandi for sending this in]
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
. | 33 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1673051",
"author": "ErichK",
"timestamp": "2014-07-29T14:48:09",
"content": "Short time ago i dumpster-dived an analog multimeter made in the fifties. That smell when taking it apart… *sniff* aaah… wonderful!I really love the retrotechtacular posts. Without being too nostalgic, but... | 1,760,376,118.572523 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/29/16-bobbin-rope-braiding-machine-inspired-by-surplus-store-find/ | 16-Bobbin Rope Braiding Machine Inspired By Surplus Store Find | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"bobbin",
"braiding",
"gears",
"rope"
] | When the Red Bull Creation build days were past, [David] pulled us aside and asked if we wanted to see the mechanical hack he’s been working on. He built
this rope braiding machine
, which uses 16 bobbins, with help from his brother [Jed].
Ideas for projects always come from funny places. [David] came up with this one after finding a rope braiding machine at Ax-man Surplus. This outlet, located in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota) has been the origin for innumerable hacks. Just one that comes to mind is
this electric scooter project from the ’90s
.
[David] wanted to understand how the mechanism, which divides the bobbins up into groups of orbiting spools, actually works. It’s both mesmerizing and quite tough to visualize how it works without really getting in there and looking at the gearing. Thankfully you can do just that if he follows through with his plan to turn this into a kit.
In case you don’t recognize him, [David] was on
the 1.21 Jigawatt’s team
during this year’s Creation. We’ve also seen a couple of hacks from him in the past like this
half-tone drum printer
, and this
bicycle frame welding jig
.
Assembling the prototypes
Outfeed used to help with even braids
Testing prototypes
Machine being demonstrated | 34 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1672784",
"author": "brownieman",
"timestamp": "2014-07-29T11:40:47",
"content": "sweet mary! lets get those womenz out of the kitchen and building robots!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1672855",
"author": "Tony",
... | 1,760,376,118.502532 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/29/changing-unipolar-steppers-to-bipolar/ | Changing Unipolar Steppers To Bipolar | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"bipolar",
"bipolar stepper motor",
"stepper",
"stepper motor",
"torque",
"unipolar",
"unipolar stepper motor"
] | If you’ve been a good little hacker and have been tearing apart old printers like you’re supposed to, you’ve probably run across more than a few stepper motors. These motors come in a variety of flavors, from the four-wire deals you find in 3D printer builds, to motors with five or six wires. Unipolar motors – the ones with more than four wires – are easier to control, but are severely limited in generating torque. Luckily,
you can use any unipolar motor as a more efficient bipolar motor
with a simple xacto knife modification.
The extra wires in a unipolar motor are taps for each of the coils. Simply ignoring these wires and using the two coils independently makes the motor more efficient at generating torque.
[Jangeox] did a little experiment in taking a unipolar motor, cutting the trace to the coil taps, and measuring the before and after torque. The results are impressive: as a unipolar motor, the motor has about 380 gcm of torque. In bipolar mode, the same motor has 800 gcm of torque. You can check that video out below. | 68 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1672514",
"author": "Tony",
"timestamp": "2014-07-29T08:49:47",
"content": "The difference is simple – for unipolar only one coil is powered at any time (1/2 a coil to be precise) while with bipolar both coils are powered.More current, more torque.And that’s a gearhead stepper as we... | 1,760,376,118.669568 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/28/hijacking-cromecast-with-the-rickmote-controller/ | Hijacking Chromecast With The Rickmote Controller | Brian Benchoff | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"chromecast",
"never gonna give you up",
"Rick Astley",
"youtube"
] | With a simple $35 dongle that plugs right into your TV, it’s possible to enjoy your favorite TV shows, YouTube channels, and everything else Chromecast has to offer. Being a WiFi enabled device, it’s also possible to hijack a Chromecast, forcing your neighbors to watch
[Rick Astley] say he’s never going to give you up
.
The rickmote, as this horrible device is called, runs on a Raspberry Pi and does a lot of WiFi shennaigans to highjack a Chromecast. First, all the wireless networks within range of the rickmote are deauthenticated. When this happens, Chromecast devices generally freak out and try to automatically reconfigure themselves and accept commands from anyone within proximity. The rickmote is more than happy to provide these commands to any Chromecast device, in the form of the hit song from 1987 and 2008.
Video demo of the rickmote below, along with a talk from ToorCon describing how the hijacking actually works. | 16 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1672366",
"author": "Lasse_Bierstrom",
"timestamp": "2014-07-29T07:07:54",
"content": "Brutality…Great!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1672934",
"author": "Stephen Downward",
"timestamp": "2014-07-29T13:21:01",
"con... | 1,760,376,118.720908 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/28/clay-3d-printer-keeps-it-simple/ | Clay 3D Printer Keeps It Simple | Rich Bremer | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"clay",
"claystruder"
] | Artist [Jonathan] has built a 3D printer specifically for
printing in clay
. The part count is kept to a minimum and the printer was designed to be made with basic tools and beginner skills. The intent was to not require access to a plastic 3D printer in order to build this printer. Although this build’s goal was clay printing, the extruder could certainly be swapped out for a typical plastic printer version.
This Delta uses quite a bit of MDF. The top and bottom plates are MDF, as are the bearing carriages and extruder mount plate. 12mm rods are solely responsible for the support between the top and bottoms plates as well providing a surface for the LM12UU linear bearings. These bearings are zip tied to the MDF bearing carriages. The 6 arms that support the extruder mount plate are made from aluminum tubing and Traxxas RC car rod-ends. NEMA17 motors and GT2 belts and pulleys are the method used to move the machine around.
Getting the clay to dispense was a tricky task. Parts scavenged from a pneumatic dispensing gun was used. If you are unfamiliar with this type of tool, think: Power Caulk Gun. Clay is fed into the re-fillable syringes and an air compressor provides the 30 psi required to force the clay out of the nozzle. The pressure alone controls the rate of clay flow so it is a little finicky to get the extrusion rate correct. Depending on the size of the final sculpture, 1 to 2mm diameter nozzles could be used. For larger work, 1mm layer height works well. For the smaller pieces, 0.5mm is the preferred layer height.
The electronics used here are pretty standard for 3D printing, an Arduino Mega with a RAMPS shield. The firmware is a slightly modified Marlin variant. One minor problem was overcome, even though the nozzle is not heated, it was found that the 100K thermistor still had to be connected to the RAMPS board to keep the firmware happy. [Jonathan] has made all of his build files, software and firmware available on his page for other to use to make their own clay printer.
via
3D Printer Plans | 23 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1671965",
"author": "cr0sh",
"timestamp": "2014-07-29T02:09:17",
"content": "I love how he says that he’s not an engineer, but an artist. Could’ve fooled me!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1672075",
"author": "ANC",
... | 1,760,376,119.187628 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/28/building-a-true-unix-keyboard/ | Building A True Unix Keyboard | Brian Benchoff | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"Emacs",
"Filco",
"keyboard",
"keyboard firmware",
"matrix",
"mechanical keyboard",
"Teensy",
"unix",
"vi",
"vim"
] | compact keyboards that do away with a third of the keys you would usually find on a normal-sized keyboard are all the rage now, but for [jonhiggs], they weren’t good enough. There is a long tradition of Unix shortcuts these compact keyboards don’t pay attention to – CTRL-A being the Home key, and CTRL-D being the Page Down key. To fix this horrible oversight of Unix history, [jon] tore apart one of these compact keyboards, rewired the switch matrix,
and made his own perfect keyboard
.
The keyboard [jon] is using is a Filco Minila, a very nice and high quality keyboard in its own right. After mapping out the switch matrix, [jon] wired all the switches up to a Teensy 2.0 loaded up with the
TMK firmware
. This is a pretty standard way of building a custom keyboard, and [jon] could have just cut a switch plate and installed panel-mount switches and wired up the matrix and diodes point to point. The case for the keyboard is constructed out of Lego.
Because this is a true, modern Unix keyboard, [jon] needed to connect this keyboard to a box running his *nix of choice. He’s doing this in the most future-retro way possible, with an Amazon EC2 instance. This project isn’t done yet, and [jon] is hoping to add an ARM dev board, an iPad Retina display, battery, and SSD, turning this into a completely homebrew laptop designed around [jon]’s needs. | 20 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1671563",
"author": "DainBramage1991",
"timestamp": "2014-07-28T23:12:46",
"content": "+1 for using Lego!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1671599",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2014-07-28T23:38:02",
"content": "It... | 1,760,376,118.938166 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/27/hackaday-links-july-27-2014/ | Hackaday Links: July 27, 2014 | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"calibration",
"delta 3D printer",
"deltabot",
"microwave",
"microwave relay",
"Powerpoint",
"raspberry pi",
"Raspberry pi camera",
"raspi camera",
"RTL-SDR",
"sdr",
"software-defined radio",
"wifi",
"wifi dongle"
] | Taking apart printers to salvage their motors and rods is a common occurrence in hacker circles,
but how about salvaging the electronics
? A lot of printers come with WiFi modules, and these can be repurposed as USB WiFi dongles. Tools required? And old printer, 3.3 V regulator, and a USB cable. Couldn’t be simpler.
The Raspberry Pi has a connector for a webcam, and it’s a very good solution if you need a programmable IP webcam with GPIOs.
How about four cameras?
. This Indiegogo is for a four-port camera connector for the Raspi. Someone has a use for this, we’re sure.
The one flexible funding campaign that isn’t a scam
. [Kyle] maintains most of the software defined radio stack for Arch Linux, and he’s looking for some funds to improve his work. Yes, it’s basically a ‘fund my life’ crowdfunding campaign, but you’re funding someone to work full-time on open source software.
Calibration tools for Delta 3D printers
. It’s just a few tools that speed up calibration, made for MATLAB and Octave.
[Oona] is doing her usual, ‘lets look at everything radio’ thing again, and
has a plan to map microwave relay links
. If you’ve ever seen a dish or other highly directional antenna on top of a cell phone tower, you’ve seen this sort of thing before. [Oona] is planning on mapping them by flying a quadcopter around, extracting the video and GPS data, and figuring out where all the
other
microwave links are.
PowerPoint presentations for the Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone Black
. Yes, PowerPoint presentations are the tool of the devil and the leading cause of death for astronauts*, but someone should find this useful.
* Yes, PowerPoint presentations are the leading cause of death for astronauts. The root cause of the
Columbia
disaster was organizational factors that neglected engineer’s requests to use DOD space assets to inspect the wing, after which
they could have been rescued
. These are organizational factors were, at least in part,
caused by PowerPoint
.
Challenger
was the same story, and although PowerPoint didn’t exist in 1986, “bulletized thinking” in engineering reports was cited as a major factor in the disaster. If “bulletized thinking” doesn’t perfectly describe PowerPoint, I don’t know what does.
As far as PowerPoint being the leading cause of death for astronauts, 14 died on two shuttles,
while a total of 30 astronauts died either in training or in flight
. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1669187",
"author": "Okian Warrior",
"timestamp": "2014-07-27T23:38:17",
"content": "PowerPoint presentations are the tool of the devil and the leading cause of death for astronautsA good turn of phrase can outlive the original article. Is this is the start of a new internet meme?I ... | 1,760,376,119.331876 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/27/original-gameboy-gets-stuffed-full-of-cool-parts/ | Original Gameboy Gets Stuffed Full Of Cool Parts | Rich Bremer | [
"Nintendo Game Boy Hacks"
] | [
"gameboy",
"Nintendo Game Boy",
"retropie"
] | One day at Good Will, [microbyter] came across an original Gameboy for $5. Who reading this post wouldn’t jump on a deal like that? [microbyter] was a little disappointed when he got home and found out that this retro portable did not work. He tried to revive it but it was a lost cause. To turn lemons into lemonade, the
Gameboy
was gutted and rebuilt into a pretty amazing project.
Looking at the modified and unmodified units, it is extremely obvious that there is a new LCD screen. It measures 3.5″ on the diagonal and is way larger than the 2.6″ of the original screen. Plus, it can display colors unlike the monochrome original. Flipping the unit over will show a couple of buttons have been added to the battery compartment door to act as shoulder buttons.
The brains of the project is a Raspberry Pi running
Retropie
video game system emulation software which will emulate a bunch of consoles, including the original Gameboy. The video is sent to the LCD screen via the composite video output. The Pi’s headphone jack is connected to a small audio amplifier that powers the original speaker that still resides in the stock location. Connecting the controller buttons got a little more complicated since the original board was removed. Luckily there is a
replacement board
available for just this type of project that bolts into the stock location, allows the use of the original iconic buttons and has easily accessible solder points. This board is wired up to the Pi’s GPIO pins.
With all the above gear crammed into the Gameboy case, there was not enough room for a battery. The original headphone jack was removed and replaced with a micro USB port for connecting an external battery pack.
Thanks [John] | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1669029",
"author": "Smorges Borges",
"timestamp": "2014-07-27T21:24:59",
"content": "I wish someone would find a way to fix all those Microvision games with failed LCD screens.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1669509",
... | 1,760,376,119.105051 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/27/an-automated-flappy-bird-player/ | An Automated Flappy Bird Player | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"capacitive touch",
"Flappy Bird",
"fpga",
"webcam"
] | Flappy Bird has been ported to just about every system imaginable, including but not limited to the Apple II, Commodores, pretty much every version of the Atari, and serves as a really great demonstration of the TI-99’s graphics capabilities. Porting is one thing, but having a computer automate Flappy Bird is another thing entirely. [Ankur], [Sai], and [Ackerly] in [Dr. Bruce Land]’s advanced microcontroller design class at Cornell
have done just that
. They’re playing Flappy Bird with a camera, FPGA, and a penny wired up to a GPIO pin to guide the little 8-bit-bird through Mario pipes.
The setup the team is using consists of a webcam that records the screen of a smartphone, an FPGA, and a little bit of circuitry to emulate screen taps. Inside the FPGA, the team is looking at the video stream from the phone to detect the bird, pipes, and gaps. The ‘tapper’ unit is a US penny, placed right above the ‘tap’ button, wired to a GPIO port. This was found to be the ideal contact for a capacitive touch screen – taps that were too small weren’t registered, and taps that were too big registered as two taps.
For spending an entire semester on automating Flappy Bird, the team has a lot of knowledge to show for it, but not the high score: the bird only makes it through the first pipe 10% of the time, and the second pipe 1% of the time. The high score is three. That’s alright – getting the algorithm right to play the game correctly was very, very difficult, and to nail that problem down, they estimate it would take at least another semester. | 30 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1668727",
"author": "tdhjyt",
"timestamp": "2014-07-27T17:08:14",
"content": "It’s such a sloppy project :]",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1668736",
"author": "Caleb",
"timestamp": "2014-07-27T17:18:51",
"content": ... | 1,760,376,119.399341 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/27/astrogun-is-like-asteroids-on-steroids/ | ASTROGUN Is Like Asteroids On Steroids | Rick Osgood | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"arcade",
"Asteroids",
"astrogun",
"blaster",
"game",
"gun",
"heads up display",
"hud",
"Jerusalem",
"makerfaire",
"mpu9150",
"raspberry pi",
"Raspi"
] | As the Jerusalem mini Makerfaire approached, [Avishay] had to come up with something to build.
His final project is something he calls ASTROGUN
. The ASTROGUN is a sort of augmented reality game that has the player attempting to blast quickly approaching asteroids before being hit.
It’s definitely reminiscent of the arcade classic, Asteroids. The primary difference is that the player has no space ship and does not move through space. Instead, the player has a first person view and can rotate 360 degrees and look up and down. The radar screen in the corner will give you a rough idea of where the asteroids are coming from. Then it’s up to you to actually locate them and blast them into oblivion before they destroy you.
The game is built around a Raspberry Pi computer. This acts as the brains of the operation. The Pi interfaces with an
MPU-9150
inertial measurement unit (IMU). You commonly see IMU’s used in drones to help them keep their orientation. In this case, [Avishay] is using it to track the motion and orientation of the blaster. He claims nine degrees of freedom with this setup.
The Pi generates the graphics and sends the output to a small, high-brightness LCD screen. The screen is mounted perpendicular to the player’s view so the screen is facing “up”. There is a small piece of beam splitting glass mounted above the display at approximately a 45 degree angle. This is a special kind of glass that is partially reflective and partially translucent. The result is that the player sees the real-world background coming through the glass, with the digital graphics overlaid on top of that. It’s similar to some heads-up display technologies.
All of the electronics fit either inside or mounted around a toy gun. The display system was attached with a custom-made fiberglass mount. The code appears to be available via
Github
. Be sure to watch the video of the system in action below.
[via
Hackaday.io
] | 50 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "1668535",
"author": "jioga",
"timestamp": "2014-07-27T14:30:49",
"content": "Sponsored by IDF, designed to kill children in Gaza.EDITORS NOTE: I’m not deleting any of these israeli/palestinian posts because I believe everyone has the right to make a complete jackass out of themselve... | 1,760,376,119.564336 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/27/enjoying-the-sunrise-every-single-day/ | Enjoying The Sunrise Every Single Day | Brian Benchoff | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"canon",
"chdk",
"real time clock",
"solar time",
"sunrise",
"sunset"
] | [Andy] wanted to take a few at sunrise, but waking up before sunrise has obvious problems associated with it. Instead,
he built a device
that calculates the local sunrise time, snaps a picture, and goes to sleep until the next morning.
The camera used for the project was an old Canon point and shoot, chosen for the ability to load
CHDK firmware
. Other electronics included an Arduino pro mini, a LiPo battery and charger board, real time clock, and an old Nokia LCD for the user interface.
There’s quite a bit of code that goes into figuring out when the sun will rise each day, but once that’s figured out, all [Andy] has to do is take the camera somewhere pretty, point it East, and record a few days worth of sunrises. When put into a ‘game camera’ enclosure, its rugged enough to stand up to everything except a thief, and has enough battery power for a few weeks worth of sunrises.
Video demonstrating the local sunrise time below. | 21 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1668302",
"author": "zaprodk",
"timestamp": "2014-07-27T11:03:21",
"content": "Woman showering in the background ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1670513",
"author": "earnie",
"timestamp": "2014-07-28T12:23:37... | 1,760,376,119.682368 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/27/a-router-based-dev-board-that-isnt-a-router/ | A Router-Based Dev Board That Isn’t A Router | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"board",
"linux",
"openwrt",
"router"
] | Here’s somethi
ng
that be of interest to anyone looking to hack up a router for their own connected project or IoT implementation: hardware based on a fairly standard router, loaded up with OpenWRT, with a ton of I/O to connect to anything.
It’s called the DPT Board, and it’s basically an hugely improved version of the off-the-shelf routers you can pick up through the usual channels. On board are 20 GPIOs, USB host, 16MB Flash, 64MB RAM, two Ethernet ports, on-board 802.11n and a USB host port. This small system on board is pre-installed with OpenWRT, making it relatively easy to connect this small router-like device to LED strips, sensors, or whatever other project you have in mind.
The board was designed by [Daan Pape], and he’s also working on something he calls
breakoutserver
There’s a uHTTP server written specifically for the board that allows any Internet connected device to control everything on the board. There’s also an HTML5 app they’re developing which could be pretty interesting.
All in all, it’s a pretty cool little device that fits nicely in between the relatively simplistic ‘Arduino with an Ethernet shield’ and a Raspi or BeagleBone. | 44 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1668150",
"author": "vb",
"timestamp": "2014-07-27T08:58:49",
"content": "Jist look athttp://8devices.com/carambola-2– same SoC, same functionality, cost only 33Euro",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1668552",
"author": ... | 1,760,376,119.48128 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/26/playing-doom-on-an-atm/ | Playing DOOM On An ATM | Rick Osgood | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"arcade",
"atm",
"doom",
"IPAC2"
] | There aren’t too many details available about this hack, but we still thought it was interesting enough to share. YouTube user [Aussie50] seems to have figured out a way to
install DOOM
on an automated teller machine (ATM). Not only is the system running the software, it also appears that they are using the ATM’s built-in buttons to control the action in-game.
Many ATM’s today are simply computers that run a version of Windows, so one would assume it shouldn’t be too difficult to get an older game like DOOM running on the hardware. Towards the beginning of the video, you can quickly get a glimpse of what appears to be a default Windows XP background screen. You can see later in the video that [Aussie50] drops to what appears to be an MS-DOS command line. It stands to reason then that this particular model of ATM does run on Windows XP, but that [Aussie50] may have had to install MS-DOS emulation software such as DOSBOX as well.
At one point in the video, the camera man mentions they are using an
I-PAC2
. Some research will show you that this little PCB is designed to do USB keyboard emulation for arcade games. It looks like you can just hook up some simple momentary switches and the I-PAC2 will translate that into USB keyboard commands. It is therefore likely that [Aussie50] has hooked up the ATM’s buttons directly to this I-PAC2 board and bypassed the original button controller circuit altogether.
It is also mentioned in the video that [Aussie50] was able to get the receipt printer working. It would be interesting to somehow incorporate this into the DOOM game. Imagine receiving a receipt with your high score printed on it. This also gets us thinking about other possibilities of gaming on ATM hardware. Can you configure the game to require a deposit before being able to play? Can you configure it to dispense cash if you beat the high score? What if you modified the multiplayer deathmatch mode so all players must pay an entry fee and the winner takes all? What creative ideas can you come up with for gaming on ATM hardware?
[Thanks Charlie] | 30 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "1667895",
"author": "chuck stephens",
"timestamp": "2014-07-27T05:35:26",
"content": "How about a high tech piggy bank for the kids? Allowances are issued electronically and each kid in the family has an ATM card for withdrawals. Pay them interest and offer a higher rate if they pla... | 1,760,376,119.62476 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/28/18-channel-pwm-aquarium-lights-provide-habitat-like-life-for-fish/ | 18-Channel PWM Aquarium Lights Provide Habitat-Like Life For Fish | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"aquarium",
"arduino mega",
"fish",
"led",
"pwm"
] | Whether you want to keep your fish happy or just need a good light show,
this aquarium light fits the bill
. It is the second iteration, but [William] calls it v1. That’s because v0 — which used a few loops of LED strips — never really met his requirements.
This build uses just six LEDs, each a 30 Watt RGB monster! To source about 350 mA for each, and to control brightness with 18-channels of pulse width modulation, he had to plan very carefully. This meant a proper aluminum project box and a beefy, fan-cooled power supply.
The driver board is his own design, and he etched a huge board to hold all of the components. Everything is driven by an Arduino Mega, which has 16 hardware PWM channels; two short of what he needed. Because of this he had to spend a bit of time figuring out how best to bit-bang the signals. But he’s putting them to good use, with fish-pleasing modes like “sunset” or the “passing rainbow” pattern which is shown in the image above.
If you need something a little less traditional why not house your fish in a computer case,
complete with LED marquee for displaying data
. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1671317",
"author": "Spock",
"timestamp": "2014-07-28T20:30:50",
"content": "Using ArduinoMega is like shooting to ants from RPG :)Two PCA9685 and some 2$ arduino mini clone would handle that.The only explanation I see was – I had Mega laying around.",
"parent_id": null,
"de... | 1,760,376,119.728092 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/28/the-tree-of-40-fruit/ | The Tree Of 40 Fruit | Adam Fabio | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"art",
"artist",
"Living sculpture",
"San Van Aken",
"Tree of 40 Fruit"
] | [Sam Van Aken] is working on a long-term project which literally will bear fruit. Forty different kinds, in fact. The
Tree of 40 Fruit
is a single tree, carefully grafted to produce 40 different varieties of fruit. Growing up on a farm, [Sam] was always fascinated by the grafting process – how one living plant could be attached to another.
In 2008, [Sam] was working as a successful artist and professor in New York when he learned a 200-year-old state-run orchard was about to be demolished. The
stone fruit
orchard was not only a grove a trees, but a living history of man’s breeding of fruit. Many unique varieties of stone fruit – such as heirloom peaches, plums, cherries, and apricots – only existed in this orchard.
[Sam] bought the orchard and began to document the characteristics of the trees. Color, bloom date, and harvest date were all noted in [Sam’s] books. He then had the idea for a single tree which would bear multiple types of fruit. By using
grafting techniques
such as chip grafting, [Sam] was able to join the varieties of stone fruit tree. The process was very slow going. Grafts performed one year must survive through the winter before they grow the following spring.
Throughout the process, [Sam] kept careful diagrams of each graft. He planned the tree out so the fruit harvest wouldn’t be boring. Anyone who has a fruit tree tends to give away lots of fruit – because after a couple of weeks, they’re sick of eating one crop themselves! With [Sam’s] tree, It’s possible to have a nectarine with breakfast, a plum with lunch, and snack on almonds before dinner, all from the same tree. The real beauty is in the spring. [Sam’s] tree blossoms into an amazing array of pinks, purples and whites. A living sculpture created by an artist with a bit of help from Mother Nature.
Click past the break for [Sam’s] TED talk. | 60 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "1670952",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2014-07-28T17:07:14",
"content": "Something, something, Arduino, something.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1670985",
"author": "Eirinn",
"timestamp": "2014-07-28T17:2... | 1,760,376,119.975564 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.