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https://hackaday.com/2014/07/28/cloning-tektronix-application-modules/ | Cloning Tektronix Application Modules | Brian Benchoff | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"application modules",
"eeprom",
"hardware",
"i2c",
"MSO2000",
"MSO2012B",
"oscilloscope",
"tektronix",
"tools"
] | Tektronix’s MSO2000 line of oscilloscopes are great tools, and with the addition of a few ‘application modules’, can do some pretty interesting tasks: decoding serial protocols, embedded protocols like I2C and SPI, and automotive protocols like CAN and LIN. While testing out his MSO2012B, [jm] really liked the (limited time) demo of the I2C decoder, but figured it wasn’t worth the $500 price the application module sells for. No matter, because it’s just some data on a cheap 24c08 EEPROM, and with a little bit of PCB design <<removed because of DMCA takedown>>
The application module Tektronix are selling is simply just a small EEPROM loaded up with an <<removed because of DMCA takedown>>. By writing this value to a $0.25 EEPROM, [jm] can enable two applications. The only problem was getting his scope to read the EEPROM: a problem easily solved with a custom board.
The board [jm] designed <<removed because of DMCA takedown>>, with the only additional components needed being an EEPROM, a set of contacts for reading a SIM card, and a little bit of plastic glued onto the back of the board for proper spacing.
UPDATE:
Learn about the DMCA Takedown Notice that prompted this post to be altered: http://hackaday.com/2014/08/05/hardware-security-and-a-dmca-takedown-notice/ | 169 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "1670671",
"author": "Ginsublade",
"timestamp": "2014-07-28T14:10:25",
"content": "How is doing this not theft….I’m just curious… ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1670677",
"author": "Wah Hammer 32K",
"timestam... | 1,760,376,123.154432 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/28/a-better-google-glass-for-60-this-one-folds/ | A Better Google Glass For $60 (This One Folds) | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"google glass",
"head mounted display",
"hmd",
"oled"
] | For [Tony]’s entry for The Hackaday Prize,
he’s doing something we’ve all seen before
– a head mounted display, connected to a Bluetooth module, displaying information from a smartphone. What we haven’t seen before is a cheap version of this tech, and a version of Google Glass that folds – you know, like every other pair of glasses on the planet – edges this project over from ‘interesting’ to ‘nearly practical’.
For the display, [Tony] is using a 0.96″ OLED connected to an Arduino Nano. This screen is directed into the wearer’s eye with a series of optics that, along with every other part of the frame, was 3D printed on a Solidoodle 2. The frame itself not only folds along the temples, but also along the bridge, making this HMD surprisingly compact when folded up.
Everything displayed on this head mounted display is controlled by either an Android phone or a Bluetooth connection to a desktop. Using relatively simple display means [Tony] is limited to text and extremely simple graphics, but this is more than enough for some very interesting applications; reading SMS messages and checking email is easy, and doesn’t overpower the ‘duino.
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. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1670651",
"author": "Wapp",
"timestamp": "2014-07-28T13:58:10",
"content": "Kickstarter this thing and see it kick off!I’d kick a few bucks his way to help him get going and possibly get one of my own!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_... | 1,760,376,122.2006 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/28/the-smart-humidor/ | The Smart Humidor | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"cigar",
"dht22",
"humidity",
"humidor",
"sensor",
"temperature",
"wifi"
] | If you’re a cigar aficionado, you know storing cigars at the proper temperature and humidity is something you just need to do. Centuries of design have gone into the simple humidor, and now, I guess,
it’s time to put some electronics alongside your cigars
.
The design of [dzzie]’s smart humidor consists of an Arduino, WiFi shield, LCD + button shield, and most importantly, a DHT22 temperature and humidity sensor. In a bit of thoughtfulness, only the DHT22 is mounted inside the humidor; everything else is in an enclosure mounted outside the humidor, including a few buttons for clearing alerts and logging when water is added.
The smart humidor reads the DHT22 sensor every 20 minutes and uploads the data to a web server where useful graphs are rendered. The control box will send out an alert email to [dzzie] if the temperature or humidity is out of the desired range. | 16 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1670174",
"author": "tdhjyt",
"timestamp": "2014-07-28T08:35:15",
"content": "Smoke weed everyday!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1670243",
"author": "Dodo",
"timestamp": "2014-07-28T09:15:30",
"conten... | 1,760,376,122.45889 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/27/diy-keyboard-backlighting-takes-forever-worth-it/ | DIY Keyboard Backlighting Takes Forever, Worth It | Marsh | [
"LED Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"backlight",
"backlighting",
"backlit",
"Cherry Blue",
"keyboard",
"led",
"mechanical keyboard",
"peripherals"
] | Want a back-lit keyboard?
Make one yourself.
Though you may not want to after seeing this build by [prodigydoo], who devoted
40 hours
to upgrade his mechanical keyboard with a smattering of shiny.
No eye rolling just yet, though, because [prodigydoo’s] work is a monument to meticulous craftsmanship and dedication. So what if he accidentally dropped the keyboard’s PCB and cracked it? He patched that up with a few wires in true hacker-problem-solving fashion and no one will ever know.
With the electronics “safely” removed, [prodigydoo] set about desoldering every single key switch, then carefully detaching and disassembling the Cherry MX Blues. He then inserted an LED into each switch’s backplate, reassembled them, mounted the keys back on the board, then added some current-limiting resistors and heat shrink to the circuit. [prodigydoo] cut a few necessary holes for a power switch, state indicator LEDs (Caps Lock, etc.) and some under-the-board lighting, then rounded off the build by hooking up a power supply capable of running all the lights.
No microcontroller? No RGBLEDs? We like it anyway, and it seems [prodigydoo] is
glad he kept it simple.
Go check out the gallery for gritty details, an explanation of the circuit, and more pictures than your family vacation album. | 23 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1669922",
"author": "jpnorair",
"timestamp": "2014-07-28T05:41:52",
"content": "This is a great build, but the thing I like most is simply that it’s Dvorak. Your layout is indeed the hardest core of Dvorak layouts. I tip my hat to you, sir.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,... | 1,760,376,121.795821 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/27/the-rc-white-house-robot/ | The RC White House Robot | Matt Terndrup | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"Bukobot",
"Deezmaker",
"neopixel ring",
"NFC",
"nfc shield",
"qtechknow",
"remote controlled robot",
"white house make faire",
"xbee"
] | This remote controlled, Arduino-based robot was created by a young student named [Quin] who likes to teach electronics classes at hackerspaces. It is an adaptation of this
awesome, fast, fully autonomous mini Roomba
that has since driven its way into the Presidential building during the 1st ever White House Maker Faire.
The quick, little device uses a robot chassis kit with an XBee wireless module so that the controller and the robot can be connected together. An NFC Shield was hacked and split in half so that the wires could be soldered in place.
[Quin]’s goal was to develop a fun game that records the number of times the robot drives over NFC tags laid across a flat surface. Points are shown in the form of blinking lights that illuminate when the device goes over the sensors, keeping track of the score.
The controller container was made with an
open source 3D printer called a Bukobot
. The enclosure holds an Arduino and another XBee shield along with a joystick and a neopixel ring, giving it a nice polished look complete with a circle of beautiful, flashing LED’s.
We saw the robot in action during an Arduino workshop at a
local 3D printing store/makerspace in Pasadena called Deezmaker
. [Quin] told us that will.i.am, the musician, tried it out during the Maker Faire in Washington DC. He also said that he met Bill Nye the Science Guy there as well.
This simple project, and more inventions of his, has opened up many doors in the maker community. And yet [Quin] seems unphased by all the attention, staying very focused on teaching his skills to anyone who is eager to learn.
Documentation of the project is on his website (
Qtechknow
) along with this
color-changing Christmas star
; which is perfect for sprucing up a holiday Christmas tree. Another project is this
methane sensing fart cap
. All 3 can be seen in the photo below.
A video with the robot being demoed comes next. In it, [Quin] talks about what it was like to be invited into the White House.
[youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0uwgSRWsvs&w=420&h=315%5D
Also, check out this spectacular video about the Maker Movement with [Quin] in it.
In addition, here is a
Popular Science article
and this
feature in Make Magazine
about him. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1669644",
"author": "Thinkerer",
"timestamp": "2014-07-28T03:07:07",
"content": "Great build, and inspired builder – the tags/shield are RFID rather than NFC though (no peer-to-peer communication)http://blog.atlasrfidstore.com/rfid-vs-nfc",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,376,121.842272 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/30/call-for-proposals-hackaday-10th-anniversary/ | Call For Proposals: Hackaday 10th Anniversary | Mike Szczys | [
"cons",
"Featured"
] | [
"10th anniversary",
"call for proposals",
"live event",
"talk"
] | On October 4th Hackaday is celebrating our 10th anniversary. We’ll be hosting a live event in Pasadena that day which includes some hardware hacking, some workshops, a mini-conference, and a party. Details to follow on most of this, but we are putting out a call for proposals to those who would like to present a talk at the mini-conference. We plan to record the talks, workshops, and events so that those unable to attend can also enjoy the festivities.
The mini-conference will be about 3 hours long on the afternoon of Saturday, 10/4. We are looking for approximately four talks on topics interesting to the Hackaday community. These will be no more than 20-minutes in length with a short Q&A after.
In addition to the talks we will invite a limited number of hackers to give 7-minute lightning presentations on hardware projects they bring with them to the event.
Talk Proposals
Please email your proposal of no more than 350 words to conference -at- hackaday.com. Preference will be given to speakers who are able to be at the event in person. Exceptional presentations given via video-chat will also be considered. Talk proposals should be submitted before Friday, August 22nd.
Please specify whether you will present in person or via video
.
Hardware Project Lightning Talks
Please email your proposal of no more than 350 words to conference -at- hackaday.com. Your proposal should mention what stage of development/operation your hardware is currently in. Lighting talks must be presented in person. | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1675384",
"author": "ianmcmill",
"timestamp": "2014-07-30T15:13:07",
"content": "On October 4th I am celebrating my 32th anniversary. This day includes some cake, presents and some gratulations. FYI. A Hackaday patch would be nice ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"rep... | 1,760,376,121.895016 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/30/adding-bluetooth-and-a-lightning-connector-to-beats-pro-headphones/ | Adding Bluetooth And A Lightning Connector To Beats Pro Headphones | Brian Benchoff | [
"digital audio hacks",
"Mac Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"apple",
"Apple Lightning",
"Apple Lightning Connector",
"Beats By Dr. Dre",
"Beats Headphones",
"Beats Headphones By Dr. Dre",
"bluetooth",
"headphones"
] | Not wanting to wait for Apple to step up their game and complete their purchase of Beats headphones, [Carnivore] decided he wanted his own pair of Apple-compatible Beats cans with Bluetooth. He created something that will probably be for sale in the Apple store come Christmas:
a pair of Beats Pro headphones with Bluetooth and a Lightning connector for charging
.
[Carnivore] liked the sound of his Beats Pro headphones but hated the wires. After disassembling the headphones, he carefully rewired the speakers with smaller gauge wire, added a small Bluetooth module and battery, and sealed everything back up.
There are a few interesting bits to this build – by getting rid of all external wires, [Carnivore] was left with a few holes in the headphones. These were a perfect place to add a 3D printed mount for the power button and the Lightning adapter taken from an Apple Lightning extension connector.
Thanks [Tony] for the tip! | 42 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "1675023",
"author": "themip",
"timestamp": "2014-07-30T11:45:45",
"content": "Surely not a mod for the audiphile.And what about the weight difference (bt module + accu on one side)?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1675186",
... | 1,760,376,122.126521 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/30/a-3d-printed-brushless-motor/ | A 3D Printed Brushless Motor | Brian Benchoff | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printed electronics",
"BLDC",
"brushless motor",
"printed",
"printed electronics"
] | Building electronics with 3D printers is something we see hitting the tip line from time to time, but usually these are printed circuits, not electromechanical parts like motors, solenoids, and relays. [pitrack] thought he could do better than printing out a few blinking LED circuits and
designed and built a brushless motor
, the same kind you would find on electric model planes and quadcopters.
In every brushless DC motor, there are a few common parts: the rotor has a few powerful magnets embedded in it, a stators with coils of wire, and the an enclosure to keep everything together. [pitrack] printed all these parts off on his Makerbot, winding each of the three coils with about 400 turns of 26 AWG magnet wire. Also embedded in the stator are a trio of hall effect sensors to make the control via an Arduino and an L6234 motor driver easy.
For his next trick, [pitrack] is going to test the efficiency of the motor and attempt to optimize it. In the long term, it should be possible to parameterize the design of one of these printed motors, effectively allowing anyone to type in the torque and Kv rating of a desired motor, plug that into an equation, and have a motor design come out the other end. | 35 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1674814",
"author": "Solenoid",
"timestamp": "2014-07-30T09:37:49",
"content": "This is a fantastic idea, it won’t be very efficient though and probably not usable in high-power applications.You could also try making asynchronous motors with this technique or try making a sensorless... | 1,760,376,122.732007 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/29/giant-spirograph-delights-children-dwarfs-banana/ | Giant Spirograph Delights Children, Dwarfs Banana | Kristina Panos | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"casters",
"chalk",
"jigsaw",
"mdf",
"outdoor fun",
"plywood",
"router",
"spirograph"
] | Late last year at a craft show, [hahabird] and a friend came across a laser-cut Spirograph and they both had a go at it. After mocking his friend’s lack of fine motor skills, [hahabird] was struck with the idea of making
a giant-scale Spirograph
that would (hopefully) be less frustrating for kids of all ages.
He generated the gears using an InkScape plugin, and then moved the project to Illustrator for adjustments. After nesting the inner gear drawings, he was able to print them out on one 3×3′ piece of paper at the local FedEx-Kinko’s. To make a template for routing he pieces that make up the eight-foot diameter outer ring, [hahabird] first cut it out of MDF and then bolted that to plywood. The outer ring’s size was dictated by the number of sections that fit on a 4×8 piece of plywood.
The challenge of the inner cogs was to make them move smoothly and still mesh with the teeth of the outer ring. [hahabird] solved this by mounting casters on raised platforms, which double nicely as handles. Each inner cog has a series of PVC couplers that take the 1″ PVC chalk holder insert.
So far, [hahabird] has cut 22-, 35-, and 44-tooth cogs, all of which are painted in nice, bright colors. According to his
reddit comments
, he will have a video or gif of it in a few days. We hope he makes the plus sign cog and the tongue depressor piece, too. | 15 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1674374",
"author": "Lord Nothing",
"timestamp": "2014-07-30T05:16:28",
"content": "that headline wins the internet",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1674424",
"author": "RunnerPack",
"timestamp": "2014-07-30T05:48:11",
... | 1,760,376,123.205357 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/29/a-cheap-diy-smoke-detector-that-can-save-lives/ | A Cheap DIY Smoke Detector That Can Save Lives | Matt Terndrup | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"attiny84",
"fire alarm",
"internet of things",
"node-red",
"piezo siren",
"pushbullet",
"smoke detector"
] | A faulty wire, a discarded burning cigarette, or a left-on curling iron can trigger sparks of fire to engulf everything nearby until all that’s left is brittle mounds of smoldering ash. Which is why smoke detectors are so important. They are life saving devices that can wake people up sleeping inside, well before the silent, but deadly carbon monoxide starts to kick in. But what happens if no one is home, and the alarm begins to blare? The place burns down into the ground without the owners knowing.
So when [Martin] purchased a battery-powered smoke detector and
rigged it up to notify him exactly when the piezo siren is activated
, the evolution of the automatic fire alarm continued into the realm of wireless internet-connected things.
His home automation system (a Raspberry Pi running
Node-Red
) links to a
Funky ATTiny84-based sensor
and transmits the data wirelessly, redirecting the information to his phone. SMS messages can be sent, as well as emails and
pushbullet notifications
. Once the piezo siren starts to sing, the system alerts him that smoke has been detected and that he should check on it as soon as possible.
The electronics fit perfectly inside the case waiting for any smoky disturbance in the room to light up. And what makes this project even better, besides the life saving capabilities and the instant push notifications, is that it was hooked up for the cheap. No need to buy a brand-new, expensive Nest protect, when all it takes it a sensor or two and a Raspberry Pi to hack the fire alarm that already sits in the house.
This video coming up after the break shows how simple it is to make.
For more projects similar to this, check out this
leaking water detector
developed from an old smoke alarm, and this
beefed-up fire detector
with built in video, temperature, and internet connectivity. You might also like this
very tiny gamma radiation detector
that uses a very small photodiode and a miniature solar cell as well. | 25 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1674135",
"author": "polobunny",
"timestamp": "2014-07-30T02:34:16",
"content": "I don’t want to be the guy bashing the project, but what would be the use of your smoke detector warning you if you’re out of the house? Did you develop firefighter skills in the mere seconds you realiz... | 1,760,376,121.954693 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/29/infinity-mirror-clock-theres-a-time-joke-there-somewhere/ | Infinity Mirror Clock: There’s A Time Joke There Somewhere | Marsh | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"clock hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"charlieplex",
"charlieplexing",
"clock",
"infinity mirror",
"mirror",
"real time clock",
"rgb",
"RGB LED",
"rgbLED",
"rtc"
] | We don’t think we’ve seen
an Infinity Mirror Clock
before, but we love this new twist on an old favorite. Different colors distinguish between seconds, minutes and hours, and an additional IR sensor detects when someone is directly in front of the clock and switches the LEDs off, allowing it to be used as a normal mirror. This build is the work of [Dushyant Ahuja], who is no stranger to hacking together clocks out of LEDs. You can tell how much progress he’s made with the mirror clock by taking a glance at
his first project
, which is an impressive creation held together by jumbles of wire and some glue.
[Dushyant] has stepped up his game for his new clock, attaching an LED strip along the inside of a circular frame to fashion the infinity mirror effect. The lights receive a signal from an attached homemade Arduino board, which is also connected to a real-time clock (RTC) module to keep time and to a Bluetooth module, which allows [Dushyant] to program the clock wirelessly rather than having to drag out some cords if the clock ever needs an adjustment.
Stick around after the jump for a quick demonstration video. The lights are dazzling to watch; [Dushyant] inserted a stainless steel plate at the center of the circle to reflect the outer rim of LEDs. After a quick rainbow effect, it looks like the mirror enters clock mode. See if you can figure out what time it is. For a more step-by-step overview of this project, swing by his
Instructables
page. | 20 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1674047",
"author": "chango",
"timestamp": "2014-07-30T01:28:21",
"content": "Lunchtime doubly so.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1674050",
"author": "mitchell theobald (@smoothtunez)",
"timestamp": "2014-07-30T01:31:26... | 1,760,376,122.660584 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/29/teaching-the-word-clock-some-new-tricks/ | Teaching The Word Clock Some New Tricks | Adam Fabio | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"clock hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"arduino",
"Arduino Yun",
"led",
"lpd8806",
"neopixel",
"RGB LED",
"word clock"
] | [Joakim] has built a
clock that spells out the time in words
. Wait a second – word clock,
what is this, 2009
?
Word clocks
are one of those projects that have become timeless. When we see a build that stands out, we make sure to write it up. [Joakim’s] clock is special for a number of reasons. The time is spelled out in Norwegian, and since the clock is a birthday gift for [Daniel], [Joakim] added
the
his full name to the clock’s repertoire.
One of the hard parts of word clock design is controlling light spill. [Joakim] used a simple 3D printed frame to box each LED in. This keeps the spill under control and makes everything easier to read. The RGB LED’s [Joakim] used are also a bit different from the norm. Rather than the WS2812 Neopixel, [Joakim] used LPD8806 LED strips. On the controller side [Joakim] may have gone a bit overboard in his choice of an Arduino Yun, but he does put the ATmega328 and Embedded Linux machine to good use.
The real magic happens at boot. [Daniel’s] name lights up in red, with various letters going green as each step completes. A green ‘D’ indicates an IP address was obtained from the router’s DHCP server. ‘N’ switches to green when four NTP servers have been contacted, and the Linux processor is reasonably sure it has the correct time. The last letter to change will be the ‘E’, which reports ambient light.
[Joakim] added a web interface to trigger his new features, such as a rainbow color palette, or the ability to show minutes by changing the color of the letters K,L,O,K. The final result is a slick package, which definitely brings a 2009 era design up to 2014 standards! | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1673679",
"author": "Default",
"timestamp": "2014-07-29T21:53:53",
"content": "added the his full name to the clock’s repertoire.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1673766",
"author": "sniklefritz",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,376,122.773523 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/26/led-cube-in-an-elongated-cube-be-jammin/ | LED Cube In An Elongated Cube Be Jammin’ | Mike Szczys | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"cube",
"led"
] | We get a lot of tips about LED cubes. They’re a great build to explore a lot of different things, from the circuit design, to current source and sink, and of course there’s the firmware. Why don’t we see a million of them on the front page? Well, we have seen a lot, but most of what is sent our way doesn’t exhibit such a clean build. It’s obvious that [Justin] took a lot of pride
in his work on this 4x4x4 single-color cube
.
Hidden away under one of the protoboards is an Arduino that drives it. A lot of the components were salvaged from the e-waste bin at his University. This includes the 12V AC wall wart he uses to power the device. A bridge rectifier converts to DC, and in addition to powering the LEDs there are a couple of USB charging ports. After the break you can see and hear it in action. The cube pulses to the music but the flip of a switch will disconnect the speaker if you want some peace and quiet to go with the light show.
If you’re looking for a challenge,
this 8x8x8 RGB offering
is several orders of magnitude harder to pull off… block out a lot of extra time if you do decide to take the plunge. We also heard that [Benchoff] might try to make a cube with some of
those through-hole ws2812 pixels
. | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1667866",
"author": "foolishdane",
"timestamp": "2014-07-27T05:19:38",
"content": "Nothing impressive here. the led’s look pretty overage, the sound is awful and I’m sure those voltage regulators get a bit to hot when he uses the USB-ports. And he even put an entire arduino in there... | 1,760,376,122.819788 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/26/electric-go-cart-has-arduino-brains/ | Electric Go-Cart Has Arduino Brains | Rich Bremer | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"ecu",
"go-kart",
"gokart"
] | Oh how times have changed. Back in the 30’s the VW Beetle was designed to be cheap, simple and easy for the typical owner to maintain themselves. Nowadays, every aspect of modern cars are controlled by some sort of computer. At least our go-carts are spared from this non-tinkerable electronic nightmare…. well, that’s not completely true anymore. History is repeating itself as [InverseCube] has built an
electronic go-cart
fully controlled by an Arduino. Did I forget to mention that [InverseCube] is only 15 years old?
The project starts of with an old gas-powered go-cart frame. Once the gas engine was removed and the frame cleaned up and painted, a
Hobbywing Xerun
150A brushless electronic speed controller (ESC) and a Savox
BSM5065
450Kv motor were mounted in the frame which are responsible for moving the ‘cart down the road. A quantity of three 5-cell lithium polymer batteries wired in parallel provide about 20 volts to the motor which results in a top speed around 30mph. Zipping around at a moderate 15mph will yield about 30 minutes of driving before needing to be recharged. There is a potentiometer mounted to the steering wheel for controlling the go-cart’s speed. The value of the potentiometer is read by an Arduino which in turn sends the appropriate PWM signal to the ESC.
In addition to the throttle control, the Arduino is also responsible for other operational aspects of the vehicle. There are a bunch of LED lights that serve as headlights, tail lights, turn signals, brake lights and even one for a backup light. You may be wondering why an Arduino should be used to control something as simple as brake or headlights. [InverseCube] has programmed in some logic in the code that keeps the break lights on if the ESC brake function is enabled, if the throttle is below neutral or if the ESC enable switch is off. The headlights have 3 brightnesses, all controlled via PWM signal provided by the microcontroller.
There is also an LCD display mounted to the center of the steering wheel. This too is controlled by the Arduino and displays the throttle value, status of the lights and the voltage of the battery.
via
reddit | 16 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1667331",
"author": "LS",
"timestamp": "2014-07-26T23:38:39",
"content": "450kV??? ‘Typo’ was my first thought. ‘Ignorance’ was the second, and ‘Marketing’ the third. But the motor manufacturer’s specifiction says “KV Motor KV (No Load) 450 KV”. Can anyone explain what that’s suppos... | 1,760,376,122.873893 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/26/control-this-pedestrian-walk-signal-online/ | Control This Pedestrian Walk Signal Online! | Matt Terndrup | [
"internet hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"internet of things",
"spark core wifi module",
"walk signal"
] | [Jon Bennett] is an electrical engineer who specializes in embedded systems software. He was the first employee of Pebble Technology and the lead developer of the inPulse Smart Watch. He has studied at the University of Waterloo during which he completed several interesting internships, including working on Bluetooth and WiFi embedded software for the iPhone (Apple, 2007). Now, he has hooked up
this pedestrian walk signal
— picked up at an electronics surplus store — to the internet.
The web-enable project utilizes a
Spark Core Wifi Module
, which is an Arduino-like micro-controller with more power, to wirelessly connect to the device. With the click of a button, the hand signal can be flashed. The walking illuminated man can be triggered with another press. Messages can be sent scrolling across the LED’s flashing by in sets of two simply by hitting enter.
All the source code
has been posted on Github in case anyone wants to create their own.
[Jon]’s previous work can be found in a few of our featured articles from a couple of years ago. There’s the
Thrift Shop Wifi Router Robot
he made that could be controlled through the internet. He also built this
interactive bubble music visualizer
, and this
programmable RC car
that can be driven by a computer.
What will he think of next?? | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1667067",
"author": "Radolf Bittler",
"timestamp": "2014-07-26T20:25:28",
"content": "I like that 2nd picture.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1667546",
"author": "untrustworthy",
"timestamp": "2014-07-27T02:08:12",
... | 1,760,376,122.914665 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/26/4-minutes-to-entry/ | 4-Minutes To Entry | Mike Szczys | [
"Featured",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"TheHackadayPrize",
"tutorial"
] | If you think it’s too much work to write about your projects you’re simply wrong, and I’m going to prove it to you.
The first of this set of videos walks though
the steps for submitting an official entry
… I did it in under 4 minutes. The second clip covers the extra details you need to post to
meet the requirements
for the first cutoff on August 20th.
This is the bare minimum needed for your project to be reviewed by the judging panel. But here’s the thing: get your basics down early, then refine as you go along. The Hackaday Prize celebrates the journey of developing interested connected devices. From now until November you should be working on the build and adding to infor to your project post as you go.
Did we mention
your odds of winning this thing are really good
? | 20 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1667076",
"author": "braino",
"timestamp": "2014-07-26T20:28:05",
"content": "Thanks for the video. I trried to submit several times before, but did not have the patience to figure out the steps.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,376,122.966878 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/26/ask-hackaday-graphene-capacitors-on-kickstarter/ | Ask Hackaday: Graphene Capacitors On Kickstarter | Brian Benchoff | [
"Ask Hackaday",
"Featured",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"capacitors",
"graphene",
"graphene capacitors",
"kickstarter",
"supercapacitors",
"supercaps"
] | Last week, we heard of
an interesting Kickstarter
that puts a capacitor and charging circuit in the same space as a AA battery. This is usually a very simple endeavour, but this capacitor has the same energy density as an alkaline cell. The chemistry inside this capacitor was initially attributed to lithium ion, and
a few people in the comments section
were wondering how this was possible. The math just didn’t seem to add up.
The guy behind this Kickstarter, [Shawn West],
recently spilled the beans
on these… interesting capacitors. Apparently, they’re not lithium ion capacitors at all, but
graphene
capacitors. Graphene capacitors you can buy. On Kickstarter. Graphene capacitors, also known as the thing that will change everything from smartphones to electric vehicles, and everything in between. I will admit I am skeptical of this Kickstarter.
Apparently, these graphene supercaps are in part
designed and manufactured by [Shawn] himself
. He fabricates the graphene by putting graphite powder in a ball mill for a day, adding a bit of water and surfactant, then running the ball mill for another few days. The graphene then floats to the top where it is skimmed off and applied to a nonconductive film.
There’s absolutely nothing that flies in the face of the laws of physics when it comes to graphene capacitors –
we’ve seen a few researchers at UCLA
figure out how to make a graphene supercap. The general consensus when it comes to graphene supercaps is something along the lines of, ‘yeah, it’ll be awesome, in 10 years or so.’ I don’t think anyone thought the first graphene capacitors would be available through Kickstarter, though.
I’m a little torn on this one. On one hand,
graphene supercaps, now
. On the other hand,
graphene supercaps on Kickstarter.
I’m not calling this a scam, but if [Shawn]’s caps are legit, you would think huge companies and governments would be breaking down his door to sign licensing agreements.
Post your thoughts below. | 140 | 46 | [
{
"comment_id": "1666486",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2014-07-26T14:09:28",
"content": "Scam. Just so much doesn’t add up. Paying a factory to make it for him with his own special mix he made himself? Why wasn’t that in the original kickstarter, where he said he was buying the caps and sol... | 1,760,376,123.481218 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/26/pwning-timberman-with-electronically-simulated-touchscreen-presses/ | Pwning Timberman With Electronically Simulated Touchscreen Presses | Mike Szczys | [
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"relay",
"timerman",
"touchscreen"
] | What do you do if you suck at a smartphone game? Buy some in-game upgrades to pretend like you’re good? Screw that! [Valentin] did what any self-respecting hacker would:
developed an automated system to play for him
.
Granted, when you see
the demo video
embedded below you’ll realize there isn’t much strategy involved in this game. But that setup to simulate the touchscreen presses is pretty neat. We’re used to
seeing mechanical touchscreen hacks
but this one is electronic, using a couple of pads of copper foil tape and some relays to make it happen. Here’s the one caveat: you still need to be touching
something
with your hand. This just uses the relays to switch the connection between the pads and your body.
We’ve looked around for this before. Does anyone have a cheap, simple, and effective hack to fully automate presses on a modern touchscreen? Can we use a potato or something? Tell us below, but
send it in to the tips line too
! | 19 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "1666238",
"author": "Default",
"timestamp": "2014-07-26T11:15:43",
"content": "Conductive silicone rubber?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1666248",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2014-07-26T11:21:11",
"content": ... | 1,760,376,123.541462 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/26/hats-with-sunblock-reminders-are-easy-to-make/ | Hats With Sunblock Reminders Are Easy To Make | Matt Terndrup | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"conductive thread",
"FLORA",
"lipoly",
"piezo",
"uv sensor"
] | Just about anyone can build this
UV index sensing wearable
that detects heat rays from the sun and reminds the user to put on sunscreen. There is no soldering required, which makes this a nice beginners projects for those unfamiliar with hooking up electronic sensors.
All that is needed is a
FLORA main board
, one UV index sensor, a piezo Buzzer, a 500mAh lipoly battery, 2-ply conductive thread, a couple of household tools, and your favorite summer’s hat.
Once the materials have been rounded up, the rest of the process is relatively simple. Threading the FLORA in and place and connecting the Piezo only takes a few minutes. Then the UV sensor is added allowing the hat to start collecting data. A little bit of coding later, and the whole system is ready to be worn out in the sun.
What’s great about this project is that the hat can be programmed to play a song when it is time to apply more sunscreen. Everyone from beach bums, to sun-bathing beauties, to music festival attendees will be able to find this hat useful. And, it is cheap and easy to make.
The video on the Adafruit tutorial page shows how simple it is to rig up the system. | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1665953",
"author": "whitequark",
"timestamp": "2014-07-26T08:18:14",
"content": "Should’ve added BLE and an iPhone app.A hat that requires charging, may or may not catch fire on your head after contact with water, and raises oh-so-intense scrutiny from airplane security. Oh, and it... | 1,760,376,123.596041 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/25/the-entire-commodore-64-library-in-your-pocket/ | The Entire Commodore 64 Library In Your Pocket | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"c64",
"cassette",
"commodore",
"commodore 64",
"datasette",
"retrocomputing"
] | [sweetlilmre] is just beginning his adventures in retrocomputing, and after realizing there were places besides eBay to buy old computers, quickly snagged a few of the Amigas he lusted after in his youth. One of the machines that didn’t make it into his collection until recently was a Commodore 64 with Datasette and 1541 drive. With no tapes and a 1541 disk drive that required significant restoration, he looked at other devices to load programs onto his C64.
These devices, clever cartridge implementations of SD cards and Flash memory, cost more than anyone should spend on a C64. Realizing there’s still a cassette port on the C64, [sweetlilmre] created
Tapuino, the $20 Commodore tape emulator
The hardware used to load games through the Datasette connector included an Arduino Nano, a microSD breakout board, a 16×2 LCD, some resistors, buttons, and a little bit of wire. The firmware part of the build –
available here on the Git
– reads the .TAP files off the SD card and loads them into the C64.
[sweetlilmre] posted
a very complete build post
of the entire device constructed on a piece of protoboard, Pop that thing in a 3D printed case, and he can have the entire C64 library in his pocket. | 15 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1663830",
"author": "birdmun",
"timestamp": "2014-07-25T12:04:52",
"content": "Nice work. I am surprised this tactic hasn’t been featured before.OT I realize a Color Computer and a C64 aren’t one in the same, however, I recall some programs that ran from cassette using the actual au... | 1,760,376,123.693036 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/25/electric-microkart-has-tons-of-kick/ | Electric “Microkart” Has Tons Of Kick | James Hobson | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"electric go kart",
"go-kart",
"mini go kart"
] | When you’re building an electric go kart, you really have two options. Convert a normal gasoline powered one by swapping out the power plant… Or build it from scratch! [Ganharr] opted for the for the latter to save some money, and to design it
just the way he wanted.
Now you may have noticed it looks a bit small — because it is. It’s really more of a Micro-Kart, but that’s okay because [Ganharr] is winning a father-of-the-year award for building it for his kid!
It features two 2kW (~3HP) brushless electric motors, which independently drive the rear wheels. These are powered by two 48V 50A continuous (100A peak) speed controllers.[Ganharr] also spared no expense on the batteries, opting for a 48V lithium-ion pack composed of Headway cells (3.2V 15aH capacity each, 40152 type).
Having spent over $1000 of his $1500 budget on batteries and motors, [Ganharr] opted to keep it simple for the frame and drive train. Wood, wagon wheels and some other basic components make up the rest of the vehicle, but holy cow does it work well!
[via
Adafruit
] | 14 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1663500",
"author": "Nathaniel",
"timestamp": "2014-07-25T08:24:17",
"content": "Nice, this guy is giving the rest of us fathers quite a run for our titles as fathers..lol",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1663608",
"author": ... | 1,760,376,123.647437 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/24/custom-can-system-logs-motorcyle-data-like-magic/ | Custom CAN System Logs Motorcyle Data Like Magic | Matt Terndrup | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"beaglebone black",
"controller area network",
"electric motorcycle"
] | A student team at Ohio State University has designed and built a custom Controller Area Network (CAN) data acquisition system complete with a
sensor interface
,
rider display
, and a
Linux-based data logger
for a
RW-2x motorcyle
.
They call their small, convenient micro-controller circuit board the Magic CAN Node, and it measures automotive sensors throughout the electric vehicle. This includes a variety of thermistor resistors to check changes in temperature. A few 0-5V and 0-12V sensors to monitor brake pressure transducers along with some differential air pressure sensors can be added too. Since the vehicle is basically a “rolling electromagnetic noise bomb”, they wanted to keep all of these analog sensors as close to the source as possible.
The Magic CAN Node is based on a Texas Instruments microcontroller called the
TMS320F28035.
This keeps the energy consumption at a low level.
For message handling, the team, led by [Aaron], tapped into the built-in CAN module within the F28035. All of the CAN plugs have two of the pins shorted to GND or +12V, so when there’s only one plug connected, the analog switch IC will connect a 120 ohm resistor across the CAN lines.
The rest of the board is laid out in SI units, but the expansion interface is 0.1” pin headers on 0.1” centers. Seven of the analog inputs are available on the expansion header, as well as PWM outputs and digital interfaces (serial, SPI, I2C). Plus, a backpack can be made out of some perfboard if needed.
Software features can be programmable over CAN as well making it able to receive and respond to commands over the network bus. The user interface is made up of bright, illuminated push buttons and has a unique feature in which the buttons light up, either red or green, depending on which way current flows. Lights in the buttons indicate which ones are active. Tri-colors indicate the status of the motor controller and GPS/datalogging unit.
Combine together the CAN bus and a datalogger and they created the CANCorder! This is a device on RW-2x that uses a
Beaglebone Black
, which not only records all the data on the CAN bus but also provides a quick and easy way to access the current data inside. It can even find past data recorded as well.
It was created by [Jenn] who was equipped with a custom built cape and a USB WiFi dongle to transform the Beaglebone into the CANCorder. This provided the them with the basic features to start off the project: which was a way to access CAN data easily.
Their early goal for data logging was achieved by using a database file to cross check the various CAN messages that the CANCorder intercepted. They did this by programming the software to parses a specially formatted file that holds all the CAN messages. The data parsed by the software then had to be stored in a way that allowed quick searching later on.
An AVL tree was chosen because it self balances itself as nodes are inserted; allowing for quick searching. Since adding nodes would occur only once during execution and nodes would never be removed, the inefficiency with these two operations was not a concern.
For more CAN hacking, check out this
introduction to CAN and automotive hacking
. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1663436",
"author": "hsiboy",
"timestamp": "2014-07-25T07:37:32",
"content": "I didn’t see any of the code or board files. Closed source project?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1663464",
"author": "joee",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,376,123.741918 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/24/a-better-cheaper-smartphone-thermal-imager/ | A Better, Cheaper Smartphone Thermal Imager | Brian Benchoff | [
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"flir",
"ir",
"thermal imaging",
"thermal imaging camera"
] | For the last few years, the prices of infrared thermal imaging devices have fallen through the floor, down from tens of thousands of dollars a decade ago, to just about a grand for a very high-resolution device. This dramatic drop in price was brought about by new sensors, and at the very low-end, there are quite a few very inexpensive low resolution thermal imaging devices.
The goal now, it seems, is to figure out some way to add these infrared devices to a smartphone or tablet. There have been similar projects and Kickstarters before, but
[Marius]’s entry for The Hackaday Prize
is undercutting all of them, and doing it in a way that’s far, far too clever.
Previous ‘thermal imagers on a smartphone’ projects include the
Mu Thermal Camera
, a $300 Kickstarter reward that turned out to be vaporware.
The IR-Blue
is yet another Kickstarter we’ve seen,
and something that’s actually shipping
for about $200. [Marius] expects his thermal imager to cost just $99. He’s getting away with this pricing with a little bit of crazy electronics, and actually designing a minimum viable product.
Both the Mu Thermal Camera and the IR-Blue communicate with their smartphone host via Bluetooth. [Marius] felt radio modules were unnecessary and inspired by the
HiJack system
where low-power sensors are powered and read through a headphone jack, realized he could do better.
Always the innovator, [Marius] realized he could improve upon the HiJack power harvesting solution, and got everything working with a prototype. The actual hardware in the sensor is based on an engineering sample of the Omron D6T-1616L IR array module, a 16×16 array of IR pixels displaying thermal data on a portable device at 4 FPS.
It’s interesting, for sure, and half the price and quadruple the resolution of the IR-Blue. Even if [Marius] doesn’t win The Hackaday Prize, he’s at least got a winning Kickstarter on his hands. Video of the 8×8 pixel prototype 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. | 35 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1663053",
"author": "pelrun",
"timestamp": "2014-07-25T03:16:46",
"content": "It’s cool to see more thermopile array sensors on the market (FLIR has had a patent monopoly for long enough, thank you) but this sensor only has a range of 5-50C, unlike the Melexis sensor in the IR-Blue ... | 1,760,376,123.815375 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/24/a-new-approach-to-robotic-walking-looks-more-like-kinetic-art/ | A New Approach To Robotic Walking Looks More Like Kinetic Art | James Hobson | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"flipping robot",
"fliprobot",
"walking robot"
] | Here’s a really cool application of 3D printing and robotics by a fellow named [Maundy] – He’s created
a very unique kinetic robot
which relies on gravity to walk around.
All the electronics are housed in the cylinder as shown above. It can roll freely back and forth by some kind of mechanism inside (not shown), but the beauty of it is, when the cylinder rolls to one end, gravity takes over and the little robot actually flips through the air, reorienting itself onto its other feet.
Due to the flipping nature of the bot, it can even climb over small obstacles with ease – but this one can’t steer, so there’s no threat of them taking over the world. Perhaps with a modification to the control cylinder (turn it into a ball), the robot could orientate itself vertically, and then kind of spin in place in order to steer…
Anyway, you have to see it to believe it, so stick around after the break to see it in action!
[via
Makezine
] | 22 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1662544",
"author": "Phil",
"timestamp": "2014-07-24T23:11:37",
"content": "It looks like a progress meter",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1662562",
"author": "carbohydrates",
"timestamp": "2014-07-24T23:22:15",
"con... | 1,760,376,123.872568 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/24/cosmonaut-or-taikonot-vote-for-the-most-outrageous-component/ | Cosmonaut Or Taikonot: Vote For The Most Outrageous Component | Brian Benchoff | [
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"astronaut or astronot",
"astronaut or not",
"the hackaday prize",
"voting"
] | We have a new round of
Astronaut or Astronot
, the little community voting thing we’re doing for The Hackaday Prize. Why should you care? Because tomorrow (Friday, 10:00 AM Eastern) we’re doing a voters lottery. We’re selecting a random person on
hackaday.io
, and if that person has voted, they win
a pretty awesome bench power supply
.
Why are we telling you this now? Because
voting in previous rounds doesn’t count for this round.
If you want to nab a power supply,
you need to vote
. We previously gave away
an awesome scope
, and
a very cool 3D printer
to a random person on hackaday.io. Judging from previous rounds, I’d guess the odds of us giving away the supply this week are pretty good, but I’m not doing those maths right now. I’ll post a video of the drawing tomorrow around 10:30 Eastern. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1662508",
"author": "Jake Mercer",
"timestamp": "2014-07-24T22:47:58",
"content": "Dead link should be Hackaday.io",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1664487",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "2014-07-25T18:36:34",
"conte... | 1,760,376,123.988358 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/24/adding-gpios-to-the-raspberry-pi-with-the-camera-interface/ | Adding GPIOs To The Raspberry Pi With The Camera Interface | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"Camera Conector",
"csi",
"gpio",
"I/O",
"i2c",
"raspberry pi",
"Raspi"
] | The Raspberry Pi Model B+ was just released, and now everyone who picks one of those up has a few more GPIO pins to play around with. For the millions of people with the two-year-old version of the Pi, we’re still stuck with the same old, same old: 17 GPIOs on the big header, and that’s about it as far as toggling pins goes.
The Broadcom SoC on the Pi has far more GPIO pins than are broken out on the large header, and a few of those go to the CSI camera interface.
These GPIOs can be broken out with a few flat cables
(Portuguese,
Google Translatrix
), giving you four more GPIOs, and this technique can also be used with the new, expanded Model B+.
The CSI camera connector has two I²C lines that go directly to the camera, controllable in Linux as GPIO0 and GPIO1. There are two more GPIO connectors on the CSI connector controllable as GPIO5 and GPIO21. By carefully slicing and soldering wires to a flat cable, these GPIO lines can be broken out onto a breadboard.
There’s a video below demonstrating these GPIO lines being used to control a few LEDs. Of course, anything that is possible with a normal Raspi GPIO is possible with the CSI connector GPIO lines. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1662366",
"author": "Dodo",
"timestamp": "2014-07-24T21:08:53",
"content": "This is a really trivial hack. But it’s useful though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1663074",
"author": "kaidenshi",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,376,124.469865 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/24/thp-hacker-bio-kenji-larsen/ | THP Hacker Bio: Kenji Larsen | Brian Benchoff | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Interviews",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"bio",
"conversation",
"interview",
"TheHackadayPrize"
] | I met up with
[Kenji Larsen]
at HOPE X last weekend, and I’m fairly certain he was the coolest person at a conference full of really cool people. Talking to him for a little bit, you get a sense of what it would be like to speak with [Buckmister Fuller], [Tesla], or any of the other ‘underappreciated, but not by people in the know’ minds scattered about history. I’ll just let his answers to our hacker bio questions demonstrate that.
[Kenji]’s project for The Hackaday Prize is the
Reactron Overdrive
. It’s not just one board he’s building here, but an entire suite of sensors, interfaces, and nodes that form a complete human to machines – note the plural ‘machines’ – interface. When you consider that no one knows what the Internet of Things actually is, and that [Kenji] is working on IoT 3.0, you get a sense that there’s really something here. Also, his project log has a
Tron
Recognizer in it. That has to count for something, right?
Interview/Bio below.
Culinary arts, both sides of it. I love to make food, and love to consume it; I just really appreciate how diverse it can get. Lots of schools of thought, from French and Italian standards, to Japanese nature harmony, to chem-technical, to Ayurvedic, and many other things in between, and outside those concepts. I’ve eaten a lot of weird things. Even when it’s awful, I am glad for the experience. I took some courses at the Culinary Institute of America, and I like to tell people “I learned my knife skills at the CIA.”
Other hobbies are hiking, flying airplanes, and sailing, but I find I don’t have a lot of time to do these that much anymore. Have to eat, though…
Data analysis and prototyping for product and process development. I would characterize it as hacking, actually. There is a fair amount of metrology, experimentation and testing, visualization, simulation, and a lot of coding. There is a lot of time and workflow analysis. I analyze what can be done asynchronously, and what things must be done in critical path; what can be left open-loop, what must be done with feedback. There is usually a “critical now” period in every process that is supported by several non-linear, asynchronous worker processes. This got me thinking that really, human existence is the real “critical now” and we should use technology and just-in-time manufacturing methods, with the same non-linear optimization to augment that existence. Human experience is not just something we have by virtue of being alive – it is also something we are in charge of, can improve, optimize, and really is our most important product. That thinking led me to trying to do this with my own life’s workflow, and later led to my entry in The Hackaday Prize.
Violins and antique violin restoration. Here is a machine (and work of art) that is old enough to have a real natural evolution. Made of several different woods, animal substances, plant extracts, minerals, and insect secretions, this thing is the definition of hacking diverse stuff around you for optimum output. End result beauty. The older ones need some help to continue their beautiful existence. Restoration is not just repair – it’s harder in a lot of ways, because you must respect the flaws and exceptional excellences of what came before, remain true to the personality you found. It’s not just about bringing the machine back to some standard. I mean, that is part of it, but there is more to it. Maybe this is my passion because there are things about this that I cannot yet quantify (despite a lot of efforts!)
Cable box. So many reasons. But in reality it’s not something I would ever do. Poor defenseless components are better upcycled into awesome machines.
while(1){do_your_own_stuff();}
No operating system is the best operating system. Simple loop execution such as in the AVR allows you to optimize as you like. I totally get the utility of OSs in the sense of drivers and so forth, but uCs do that well enough with libraries. I find that once a system has a name, and is itself a product looking for market share, it feature creeps to serve many varying needs, until there is stuff I don’t want or need. Then it creeps further until that stuff is not removable. Wait, isn’t that the definition of cancer?
If you really press me, I will say Minix.
Well this is another tough question because I have several benches, all different. In my prototyping work, I have separate benches for electronics work, woodworking, inspection/measurement, microscopy, vacuum, high voltage, and sewing (yes, for wearables). There’s also a photography area but let’s not call that a “bench”.
I love my o-scopes but they are not the best ones out there, and I love my soldering irons but also, they aren’t anything too special. I love using my optical flat but don’t need to use it very often. I do use my granite surface plate all the time, but it’s just a flat rock. And of course my Fluke 79 DMM, but as much as I love it, it is unremarkable.
The one tool I use at all my stations is something I make myself, out of necessity. It is the pointy stick. You know those fiberglass rods they sell for next to nothing for marking the end of your driveway, so that they stay visible after it snows a lot? I cut them down to 10 inch lengths and sharpen the ends on the grinder at different angles, then hone them further with finer grits.
They are strong and durable, they are chemical resistant, heat-resistant, electrically non-conductive, great for high voltage. They can hold a fairly precise point, with which to
A fiberglass poking device
manipulate anything you need. From pushing around carbon fiber cloth in resin, to holding something you are machining on the CNC, to moving something you are looking at under the microscope, or holding something tiny down when you are soldering, or pushing textiles through a sewing machine when you are working on something small, these are totally versatile. I have several colors so that if I need several in a single job, I can keep them straight, if they need to touch different chemicals or whatever. I also grade the point angle by color, so I know what I am reaching for (asynchronous process, sight and recognition) before I obtain it – keeps the workflow utilization up.
Does the Earth’s crust count? (42.) If we are talking about a semiconductor design, it is very tough, there are so many. I have to say I do really appreciate the INA128/129 instrumentation amplifier. I mean I love the ATMega328P but that’s a higher level thing, more complex, and doesn’t need me to get it more press and admiration. The INA128/129 is simple, clean, and does for ADCs what the electron microscope does for the eye. Power in, high-resolution knowledge out, I like it.
C++. I think it is the best compromise of a lot of factors. Been that way for a lot of years. I will accept a better compromise, but so far haven’t seen one. I don’t like languages that attempt to make things easy for you by doing things for you in undocumented ways under the hood. It’s usually at the cost of performance, and loss of control over the process. I like manipulating memory directly.
This is not an easy question, because I am constantly re-prioritizing and I figure, anything that falls off the bottom by the time I die was not important enough to get to. That said, the top items right now are:
Extend the time from now until I die (and stabilize bio-age at a good spot).
Aubrey de Grey, hello!
Help him, please – everyone help him if you can. I am trying to figure out how I can help. So I guess the top item is, the “How can I help Aubrey de Grey?” Project. (If this one works, I will get to complete more projects.) Maybe just writing this is helping by raising awareness.
Here is a TED talk
. Look, I am working on this project already!
Build a practical anti-neutronic fusion reactor. People seem to be focused on Boron 11 at this time, but I have some ideas about Lithium 7 which has a good cross-section and seems just as promising. Lots of people have built fusors for regular deuterium reactions, so it’s not fantasy – but they are not over-unity yet. It seems like it may just be a matter of time before the right balance of things is achieved. I think Polywell technology is cool and I would just love to have some time to investigate it further. Fusion@home. Open source. I am sure someone will get to this before me, and that will take it off the list (or at least move it way down) because then it just becomes a formula – for me the discovery and experimentation process is the fun part – you know, the hacking.
Engineered organs, like a seven-pump distributed heart (like RAID for blood flow). But people are doing this sort of thing now, and will likely get to it before I will. I’m cool with that, you go, people! Take the whole liver situation. We have to do better than transplants from corpses, or half-organ donations. The liver is one organ we know can regenerate parts on its own! 3D printing, extracellular matrix + stem cells, it sounds like an there is an exploit, let’s hack it. This would be #2 on my list if I felt I knew I could contribute enough – and really, it’s part of #1. But from what I have read, this is well on its way without me. Which is good, because then I will be able to focus on biological robots of arbitrary form. Bishop to King 7. Checkmate, I think.
Request buffering. That actually boils down to old-world etiquette, which, far from being an archaic system, simply defined rules of engagement, a standardized people interface. The style may change, but the concept is valuable. In modern speak, I try to be polite, and optimize my communication in harmony with the surrounding people and events. Human communication is like an RF mesh network. You need an organizing principle to maximize data transfer to all nodes. (Thanks for listening.)
Also, statistics.
It is the one I live and breathe.
Computers are tools. They need to be useful, or step aside (or be upcycled into excellence). They are sophisticated enough now to know when they need extra time to prepare for a task, or when they are failing. Those things need to be removed from the critical path of human activity, otherwise we are just going to spend our precious moments being maintainers of machines. Forget that. When I was younger, one statistic often cited was how many years of our lives the average person would spend in their car commuting. Now many work from home, and the time taxes are smaller and distributed. Waiting for machines to boot, to log in, web pages to refresh, “please wait while your updates are being installed”. Really? Add them up, do the math. It is worse than dying that much earlier, since you have to sit through it all. I joke (sort of) that I am trying to make computers “go away” – that seems surprising to some people because I’ve been working with computers my whole life, and my solution to make them go away actually means having many, many more of them. But my project is about freedom of experience, and there are also aspects pertaining to personal data ownership. It’s definitely in the spirit of the Hackaday Prize; when I read the bit about technology giving individuals the freedom to build the future, where once only large corporations could do something meaningful, I thought, yes, I will do this.
I am often really jammed for time, so I started to use my manufacturing process knowledge to optimize it. It has worked in some ways so far, and I am looking to expand its scope. I’m still as busy as ever, so it is hard to get this stuff documented, but making this a formal entry has forced me to be a bit more rigorous. I think it could benefit a lot of people..
Right now the thing that I would like to have help on is how to get reasonable integration with multiple Kinects, native on Debian. Short term-goal obviously, but seems like a great sensor and integrable into my paradigm. I’m sure it will be superseded soon by something 10X cheaper and 100X more awesome, but for now, this is what we have.
Sure, see my list above, any of them, but for this Prize the fusor is probably the most appropriate. I wouldn’t tackle it for the Prize because of the timeframe. But if anyone is bold enough to go for it, I will gladly contribute! Maybe engineered organs is closer to practical already though. Again, I will help if I can!
Just need time to think!
I’d like to explain my avatar.
It’s a symbol related to the Schrödinger wave equation, applied to human and machine interfaces, instead of matter. We expose our abilities and properties, what we are about, through our communication and cooperation. These interfaces can be harmonic, or vibrationally destructive, which consumes energy. That’s the same for matter, people, or computers. One curve represents machine interfaces, and the other human interfaces. The two together look like a double helix, a good metaphor for what I am trying to do with my THP entry. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1662075",
"author": "davedarko",
"timestamp": "2014-07-24T17:53:55",
"content": "He definitely deserves some attention :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1662235",
"author": "eccentricelectron",
"timestamp": "2014-07-24T... | 1,760,376,124.524208 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/24/20000-hackers/ | 20,000 Hackers | Mike Szczys | [
"Featured"
] | [
"features",
"hackaday.io"
] | What a pleasant thing to wake up and realize that we now have more than 20,000 Hackers on
Hackaday.io
. It wasn’t even two months ago that we celebrated
passing the 10k mark
. While we’re talking numbers, how about
2,075 projects
, and
148 hackerspaces
?
But what’s in a number? It’s what this stands for that really gets us excited! You took the leap and decided to show off what you’re working on while you’re still working on it. This is the key to pollinating ideas. One concept can result in many awesome spin-off projects. So if you haven’t yet written about that killer idea bouncing around in your head, do it now and be the inspiration for the next iteration of amazing hacks.
Much more to come
Our crew has been refining an overhaul of how the feed works to make it easier to know when and how your favorite hackers are updating their builds. You should see that functionality live in August. We’re also working on improving interactivity so that you can better find others with similar interests whether it’s just for casual conversation or to undertake an epic build as a team.
We’re certainly not above pointing out our own weaknesses.
The Stack
never took off. The idea seemed like a good one, but we need your help figuring out how to make it shine. Leave a comment below telling us what you think The Stack should be and how you think it should work. | 15 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1661910",
"author": "superUnknown",
"timestamp": "2014-07-24T15:56:02",
"content": "I don’t really get the .io site. It the layout is hard to navigate. Is it optimized for tablets or something? I find it hard to snoop around, like every page is a dead end.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,124.17195 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/24/a-lesson-in-blind-reverse-engineering-signals-intelligence/ | A Lesson In Blind Reverse Engineering – Signals Intelligence | Will Sweatman | [
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"reverse engineer",
"wireless"
] | In a fit of desperation, I turned to data mining tools and algorithms, but stepped back from the horror of that unspeakable knowledge before my mind was shattered. That way madness lies.
–[Rory O’hare]
Wise words. Wise words, indeed. Who among us hasn’t sat staring into the abyss of seemingly endless data without the slightest clue to what it means or even how to go about
figuring out
what it means? To literally feel the brain damage seeping in as you start to see ‘ones’ and ‘zeros’ reach out to you from every day electronic devices…like some ghost in the wires. But do not fear, wise hacker! For we have good news to report! [Rory O’hare] has dived into this very abyss, and has emerged successful.
While others were out and about playing games and doing whatever non-hackers do to entertain themselves, [Rory O’hare] decided to reach out and grab some random wireless signals for a little fun and excitement. And what he found was not just a strong, repeating signal at 433Mhz. Not just a signal that oozed with evidence of ASK. What he found was a challenge…a mystery that was begging to be solved. A way to test his skill set. Could he reverse engineer a signal by just looking at the signal alone? Read on, and
find out
. | 20 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1661765",
"author": "Jerrry Cook",
"timestamp": "2014-07-24T14:25:14",
"content": "Dibs",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1661766",
"author": "gag",
"timestamp": "2014-07-24T14:26:18",
"content": "Some people have soci... | 1,760,376,124.812773 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/24/fantastic-tach-is-strangely-called-tachtastic/ | Fantastic Tach Is Strangely Called Tachtastic | Rich Bremer | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"AVR",
"Tach",
"tachometer"
] | We all have projects from yesteryear that we wish had been documented better. [EjaadTech] is fighting back by creating a project page about a
tachometer
he built 3 years ago while in college. He’s done a great write-up documenting all the steps from bread-boarding to testing to finished project. All of the code necessary for this tachometer is available too, just in case you’d like to make one yourself.
At the heart of the project is an AVR ATMega8 chip that performs the calculations and controls the LCD output screen that displays both the immediate RPM as well as the average. To hold everything together, [EjaadTech] etched his own custom PCB board that we must say looks pretty good. In addition to holding all the necessary components, there is also an ISP connector for programming and re-programming.
There are two attachment options for sensing the RPM. One is a beam-break style where the IR emitter is on one side of the object and the receiver is on the other. This type of sensor would work well with something like a fan, where the blades would break the IR beam as they passed by. Then other attachment has the IR emitter and receiver on one board mounted next to each other. The emitter continually sends out a signal and the receiver counts how often it sees a reflection. This works for rotating objects such as shafts where there would not be a regular break in the IR beam. For this reflective-based setup to work there would have to be a small piece of reflective tape on the shaft providing a once-per-revolution reflection point. Notice the use of female headers to block any stray IR beams from causing an inaccurate reading… simple and effective. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1661848",
"author": "Squirrel",
"timestamp": "2014-07-24T15:25:15",
"content": "What, not Fantastach? I am disappoint.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1662351",
"author": "Zaid Pirwani",
"timestamp": "2014-07-... | 1,760,376,124.420776 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/24/zero-dollar-ac-system-looks-funny-but-works-well/ | Zero-Dollar AC System Looks Funny But Works Well | Rich Bremer | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"ac",
"air conditioner",
"air conditioning"
] | Summer is here and with summer comes hot days. You probably know that us humans get uncomfortable if the temperature rises too much. Sure, we could turn on the loud and inefficient window AC unit and try to stay mildly comfortable while the electric company pick-pockets pennies from our change purse, but what is the fun in that? [Fran] had a
better idea
.
He noticed that his basement was always in the upper 50°F range regardless of how hot it was outside. He wanted the cool basement air to reside upstairs in the living area. After thinking long and hard about it he decided that a box fan and two long, skinny cardboard boxes assembled together would be enough to move the required amount of air. Both the fan and boxes were kicking around the house so was no cost and no risk to try this out.
The now one-unit assembly sits on the stairs and blows the cool air from the floor of the basement up the stairwell and into the house. For this to work the door leading to the basement must be open. At this point the system worked somewhat well but [Fran] wanted more airflow. Air was being blown into the house from the basement but the air already in the house didn’t have anywhere to go. [Fran] decided to open the attic hatch to let the air escape which resulted in a big improvement in airflow and decrease in living area temperature.
As funny or low-cost as this may look, [Fran] reports some impressive numbers, a reduction of 11 Kwh/day, which is 50% of his electrical usage during the summer months. He claims to have not used his wall-mounted AC in several years because this cooling system works so well. | 119 | 33 | [
{
"comment_id": "1661156",
"author": "opa",
"timestamp": "2014-07-24T08:07:56",
"content": "He could simply become a basement dweller like most of us.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1661689",
"author": "sonofthunderboanerges",
... | 1,760,376,124.955905 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/23/fishing-for-radio-signals-with-the-moxon-antenna/ | Fishing For Radio Signals With The Moxon Antenna | Adam Fabio | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"Antenna Design",
"Beam Antenna",
"bill meara",
"ham radio",
"Moxon",
"yagi"
] | [Bill Meara] has finished his latest project, a
Moxon antenna for HF on 17 meters
. [Bill] is well-known here on Hackaday.
When not building awesome radios
, he can be found
ranting about ham radio
. His new antenna turned out to be a true hack. He even used a hacksaw to build it!
The Moxon antenna is named for the late [Les Moxon, G6XN] who first described it in “Two-Element Driven Arrays”, a QST magazine article published in July of 1952. [Bill] built his Moxon loosely based on
[Jim/AE6AC’s] excellent instructions
. The design is incredibly simple – a two element directional antenna using crappie fishing poles as spreaders. That’s crappie as in the fish, not the quality of the pole. Crappie poles are typically made up of telescoping sections of graphite or fiberglass in common lengths of 14, 16, and 20 feet. The poles can be bought for under $20 at sporting goods stores. [Bill] used 16 foot poles purchased from Amazon.
The antenna is created by connecting all four poles at their bases in an X shape. The wire elements are stretched across the ends of the poles. The entire antenna bends up as the stiff poles hold the driven and reflector elements in tension. [Bill] used some scrap wood and U-bolts to attach the fishing poles, and bungee cord ends at the tips. Since the antenna is directional, [Bill] added a TV antenna rotor to spin the beam around. The antenna is so light that one could get by with a couple of cords and the “Armstrong method” of antenna rotation.
Once up on the roof, [Bill] found his antenna really performed. He was easily able to cross the Atlantic from his Northern Virginia home to France, Belgium, and Latvia. The mostly horizontal antenna makes it a bit more unobtrusive than other directional designs. [Bill] mentions that his neighbors haven’t revolted yet, so he’s continuing to enjoy the fruits of his antenna labors. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1661209",
"author": "Someone",
"timestamp": "2014-07-24T08:15:57",
"content": "Fishing. Literally.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1661937",
"author": "Mystick",
"timestamp": "2014-07-24T16:15:28",
"content": "If you... | 1,760,376,124.702876 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/23/red-bull-creation-winners-maker-twins/ | Red Bull Creation Winners: Maker Twins | Mike Szczys | [
"contests",
"green hacks"
] | [
"farmer's market",
"ferris wheel",
"maker twins",
"pallet",
"produce",
"red bull creation"
] | This year’s Red Bull Creation theme “Reinvent the Wheel” was pretty broad, but the Maker Twins managed to incorporate it quite closely with
their winning project
which was completed in under 72 hours. They took the idea of urban farming and figured out one way to make farmer’s markets more feasible by helping to eliminate waste and spruce up the presentation of the produce.
The project amounts to
a Ferris wheel
. Instead of passenger compartments there are modular crates which are built with one wooden pallet each. The wheel itself is chain-driven and allows the system to track where each crate is in the rotation. This data is leveraged for a couple of different uses. One lets the customer select their produce on a tablet app and the crate will rotate into position so they may pick the individual items they want. The machine will also take care of automated watering to ensure the produce on display doesn’t get dried out. The icing on the cake is a separate station for washing and cutting the purchased veggies.
Thank you to Maker Twins for contributing some demonstration “b-roll” for use in this video. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,376,124.561214 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/25/using-surface-mount-devices-on-a-breadboard/ | Using Surface Mount Devices On A Breadboard | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"adc",
"breadboard",
"hot glue",
"mcp3008",
"PDIP",
"prototyping",
"soic"
] | [Czar] was working on a project with the Raspberry Pi using the MCP3008 analog to digital converter. The surface mount SOIC version of this chip was slightly cheaper, and
there’s always a way to make that work
(Portuguese,
Google Translation
).
How
[Czar] did it is fairly impressive, as it’s a bit more flexible for breadboard designs than a through-hole version, and done correctly, is an extremely sturdy hack.
A few new leads needed to be soldered onto the SOIC package, and for this [Czar] chose jumper wires. This makes each pin easy to plug into a solderless breadboard, and since [Czar] was extremely clever, all the wires for power, ground, analog, and SPI are color coded.
Simply soldering a few jumper wires onto a chip won’t last for very long. To solve this problem, [Czar] potted the entire chip and its connections with hot glue. Probably not the best solution, and a heavy-duty epoxy would have been better, but the current build is more than enough to stand up to the relatively minor abuse it will receive on the workbench. | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1665712",
"author": "Mister X",
"timestamp": "2014-07-26T05:28:44",
"content": "This is a great Hack, but I didn’t see any potting in the example photo above and question how robust those connected leads would be in a breadboard situation without potting, but then I saw it is mentio... | 1,760,376,124.754818 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/25/this-arduino-hookup-is-perfect-for-microgrowery/ | This Arduino Hookup Is Perfect For Microgrowery | Matt Terndrup | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"dht22",
"grow-op",
"marijuana",
"weed"
] | All it takes is one little seed. One tiny little seed, that when planted into the ground and nourished correctly, can flourish into a healthy and happy plant. But there are some challenges involved. For example, maintaining a steady temperature and keeping moisture at an optimum level can be difficult at times, especially when just starting out.
This Arduino grow-op monitoring solution
helps to solve those problems. It was built by [growershower] as a fun side project to monitor the vital signs of 3 marijuana plants. The board is an Uno and has an SD card shield with a
DHT22 temperature sensor
plus a soil moisture sensor. A photo diode is also used to measure light.
The graph produced from the data is a weed grower’s wet dream:
Humidity, temperature, moisture, and light can all be regularly logged into the system. This empirical data gathering is key for keeping track of how the plants are doing, giving the grower the option to make educated changes.
Obviously these sensors and the attached cables are not waterproof, so they need to be removed when watering, which is very inconvenient. However, this system will be refined over time as more people contribute to the design. [growershower] plans to seal the electronics with some sort of resin for the next grow. In addition, the use of a Raspberry Pi instead of an Arduino will allow [growershower] to check the data in real time remotely through a web browser.
The next steps after all that will be to run the lights and ventilation. Watering schedules could be included as well. Just be careful when adding H2O into the equation, especially when dealing with the high voltages associated with grow lights. You don’t want to accidentally zap yourself into oblivion! Safety first. Safety first.
EDITORIAL NOTE
:
The editorial staff chose to publish this post after considering the following items: First, the gathering and graphing of data by this project is both interesting and useful in other applications. Second, the cultivation of marijuana is legal in some jurisdictions. | 36 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "1665439",
"author": "Indyaner",
"timestamp": "2014-07-26T02:38:42",
"content": "Do you want to know more?http://www.reddit.com/r/microgrowery/top/?sort=top&t=year",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1665489",
"author": "ColdTurk... | 1,760,376,125.077368 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/25/a-diy-geomagnetic-observatory/ | A DIY Geomagnetic Observatory | Brian Benchoff | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"geomagnetic",
"geomagnetic observatory",
"laser",
"laser diode",
"magnetic field",
"magnetometer",
"opencv",
"webcam"
] | [Dr. Fortin] teaches physics at a French High School, and to get his students interested in the natural world around them, he built a
geomagnetic observatory
, able to tell his students if they have a chance at seeing an aurora, or if a large truck just drove by.
We’ve seen this sort of device before
, and the basic construction is extremely similar – a laser shines on a mirror attached to magnets. When a change occurs in the local magnetic field, the mirror rotates slightly and the laser beam is deflected. Older versions have used photoresistors, but [the doctor] is shining his laser on a piece of paper and logging everything with a webcam and a bit of OpenCV.
The design is a huge improvement over earlier DIY attempts at measuring the local magnetic field, if only because the baseline between the webcam and mirror are so long. When set up in his house, the magnetometer can detect cars parked in front of his building, but
the data he’s collecting
(French, but it’s just a bunch of graphs) is comparable to the
official Russian magnetic field data
. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1666142",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2014-07-26T10:28:45",
"content": "And UFO detector! Just like one I read about back in the late 60’s in Pop-Tronics.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1666351",
"author": "uC",
... | 1,760,376,125.00268 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/25/hacklet-8-the-animals/ | Hacklet #8: The Animals | Adam Fabio | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"4000 series logic",
"Animals",
"arduino",
"cat",
"chicken",
"chook",
"cmos",
"dog",
"dog food",
"drinking water",
"hacklet",
"solonoid",
"super soaker",
"timer",
"watergun"
] | This week on the Hacklet we’re looking at
Hackaday.io
projects that are all about animals! Hackers and makers are well-known animal lovers, in fact many a hacker can be found with a pet curled up at their feet, or on their keyboard!
[Brian’s] cat Roger loves drinking from the bathtub faucet. Unfortunately Roger hasn’t learned how to operate the faucet himself, so it gets left on quite a bit. To keep Roger happy while saving water, [Brian] created the
Snooty Cat Waterer
. Cat’s still don’t have thumbs, so [Brian] turned to capacitive sensing in the form of a Microchip MTCH10 capacitive proximity sensor chip. Coupled with a home etched PC board, the waterer can detect a cat at 3 inches. A valve and water feed teed off the toilet provide the flow. The project is moving along well, though Roger has been slow to warm up to this new water source.
[Jsc] has the opposite problem. His cat has decided that bathtubs are the perfect litter boxes. [Jsc] is taking aim at this little problem with his
Cat Dissuader
. After a servo controlled squirt bottle proved too anemic for his needs, [Jsc] turned to the Super Soaker Hydrostorm. These electric water guns can be had for as little as $16 on sale. [JSC] didn’t want to permanently modify the gun, so he 3D printed a switchable battery pack.The replacement pack is actually powered by a simple wall wart. Power to the gun is controlled by an Arduino, which senses his cat with a passive infrared sensor. Since the dissuader was installed, [Jsc’s] cat has been a model citizen!
Cat’s don’t get all the love though, plenty of engineers and hackers have dogs around the house. [Colin] loves his dog, but he and his family were forgetting to feed it. He created
Feed the Dog
to help the household keep its four-legged member from going hungry. [Colin] tried a microcontroller, but eventually settled on implementing the circuit with old-fashioned 4000 series CMOS logic chips. He used a 4060 (14-stage ripple counter w/ internal oscillator) as an 8 hour timer, and 4013 dual flip-flop. Operation of Feed the Dog is as simple as wagging your tail. Once the dog is feed, the human presses a button. A green “Just fed” LED will glow for 30 minutes, then go dark. After about 6 hours, a red LED turns on. After 8 hours, the red LED starts blinking, letting everyone know that it’s time to feed the dog.
[Steve] has outdoor pets. Chooks to be exact, or chickens for the non Australians out there. He loves watching his birds, especially Darth Vader, who is practicing to become a rooster. To keep track of the birds, he’s created
What the Chook?
, a sensor suite for the hen-house. He’s using a GCDuiNode with a number of sensors. Temperature, humidity, even a methane detector for when the bedding needs to be replaced. An OV528 JPEG camera allows [Steve] to get pictures of his flock. The entire project connects via WiFi. Steve hopes to power it from a couple of AA batteries. [Steve] also entered What the Chook? in
The Hackaday Prize
. If he wins, this will be the first case of flightless birds sending a human to space!
Hey – Did you know that
Hackaday is building a Hackerspace
in Pasadena California? We’re rounding up the local community while our space is being built out. Join us at a Happy Hour Show & Tell
Meetup Event
hosted by our own
[Jasmine Brackett]
August 18th! It’s an informal show and tell, so you don’t have to bring a hack to attend. If you’re local to Pasadena, come on down and say hello! | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1664722",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2014-07-25T21:28:36",
"content": "“Cats still don’t have thumbs…” Have you never heard of Youtube man!?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hngBzDDyFE",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "16... | 1,760,376,125.221655 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/25/bil-herd-computing-with-analog/ | Bil Herd: Computing With Analog | Bil Herd | [
"classic hacks",
"computer hacks"
] | [
"ad633",
"analog computer",
"computer kit",
"logarithmic amplifier",
"multiplier",
"op-amp",
"slide rule"
] | When I was young the first “computer” I ever owned was an analog computer built from a kit. It had a sloped plastic case which had three knobs with large numerical scales around them and a small center-null meter. To operate it I would dial in two numbers as indicated by the scales and then adjust the “answer” by rotating the third dial until the little meter centered. Underneath there was a small handful of components wired on a terminal strip including two or three transistors.
In thinking back about that relic from the early 1970’s there was a moment when I assumed they may have been using the transistors as logarithmic amplifiers meaning that it was able to multiply electronically. After a few minutes of thought I came to the conclusion that it was probably much simpler and was most likely a
Wheatstone Bridge
. That doesn’t mean it couldn’t multiply, it was probably the printed scales that were logarithmic, much like a slide rule.
Science Fair Analog Computer
Old meets new: Analog and digital computation
Did someone just ask what a slide rule was? Let me explain further for anyone under 50. If you watch the video footage or movies about the Apollo Space Program you won’t see any anyone carrying a hand calculator, they didn’t exist yet. Yet the navigation guys in the first row of Mission Control known aptly as “the trench”, could quickly calculate a position or vector to within a couple of decimal places, and they did it using sliding piece of bamboo or aluminum with numbers printed on them.
I inherited my first slide rule from my Dad who had used his in college. That slide rule has 32 or 33 scales on it, each a different mathematical computation, and was made of bamboo, a fact my Dad pointed out that during the winter the guys with the aluminum slide rules had a harder time as the cold would cause them to get stuck. I used a slide rule in my 10th grade chemistry class, and by the 12th grade everybody had “four banger” calculators. You couldn’t open a newspaper without seeing advertisement for the calculators as they quickly dropped from $100-$400 down to $29.
Old meets new: Analog and digital computation
Jump forward to today as I sit in front of a breadboard with a couple of analog Op Amp modules and a couple of little voltmeters. There are three basic styles of DC amplification with Op Amps; inverting, non-inverting and differencing depending on which inputs you inject the signal. In the case of differencing, the signal is injected into both inputs.
Inverting Summing Amplifier
It’s easy to see then how to add two voltages together, I go so far as to print the formulas on my own PCB’s to help me remember but the determining factor is there will be a voltage divider formed by the resistors that is connected to one or more inputs. Simply put, a circuit that feeds a proportion of the signal back into the inverting input will have a gain set by that proportion.
Quickly becoming bored with addition and subtraction we move up to multiplication. Using a venerable Analog Devices AD633 four quadrant multiplier, it’s easy to show multiplication in action and wiring the same voltage to both inputs results in square/square root. What makes the AD633 so usable is it has been engineered to be somewhat precise about utilizing the internal logarithmic behavior and then includes gain so that the small usable area of the curve becomes a bigger usable area… big enough to see on my little three digit voltage displays.
Bil Herd with a multiplier breadboard showing the AD633
And finally we take multiplication back to AC where the fun is; injecting a tone in one terminal and a control voltage in the other we recreate a Voltage Controlled Gain block like might be found in an analog synthesizer or as part of an Automatic Gain Control (AGC) system. This is the heart of Amplitude Modulation as used in radios and complex audio synthesis such as ring modulators in 1970’s synthesizers.
Waveform of a control signal multiplied times an audio signal.
The AD633 does a good job of multiplying both DC and AC signals. Basically it uses the inherent logarithmic characteristics of diode/transistors junctions but is also surrounded by carefully trimmed parts (laser trimmed resistors) and built in amplification to make the most use of the desired log responses.
Photo of Science Fair Computer courtesy of [Dan Mathias] of
Futurebots | 34 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1664367",
"author": "Jonathan Whitaker",
"timestamp": "2014-07-25T17:16:33",
"content": "Interesting article. Not just +50s who know what a slide rule is though – I’m 18 and have had one for years :) although I suspect I am definitely in a minority :P",
"parent_id": null,
"d... | 1,760,376,125.671648 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/25/astronot/ | Astronaut Or Astronot: Nobody Won (This Week) | Brian Benchoff | [
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"astronaut or not",
"the hackaday prize",
"voter lottery",
"voting"
] | Another week, another round of Astronaut or Astronot, the little lottery thing where we try to give away some fairly expensive tools to a random person on hackaday.io
if they have voted for The Hackaday Prize.
You should vote.
Go here and do that.
This week, the random hacker selected was
[oscar6ojeda]
, but he did not vote. This means he doesn’t get
a huge bench power supply
. Oh well. I’ll send him a t-shirt and a few stickers. That’s fair compensation for doing nothing, right?
We’re doing the same thing next week,
so go here and vote
. Voting in previous rounds
doesn’t count
, so you’ll only win the supply if you vote for The Hackaday Prize project with the most outrageous component. | 55 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "1664051",
"author": "Dave",
"timestamp": "2014-07-25T14:48:09",
"content": "I voted for the first time (I didn’t during the previous rounds). I was hoping to win something, even if it was just a t-shirt.. I truly am disappointed.Anyway, why not just select a winner from those who di... | 1,760,376,125.593557 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/25/you-might-be-cool-but-youre-not-gas-turbine-motorcycle-cool/ | You Might Be Cool, But You’re Not Gas Turbine Motorcycle Cool | Brian Benchoff | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"Gas turbine",
"jet engine",
"Land speed record",
"motorcycle",
"speed record"
] | For the last four and a half years, [Anders] has been working on a motorcycle project. This isn’t just any old Harley covering a garage floor with oil –
this is a gas turbine powered bike
built to break the land speed record at Bonneville.
The engine inside [Anders]’s bike is a gas turbine – not a jet engine. There’s really not much difference in the design of these engines, except for the fact that a turbine dumps all the energy into a drive shaft, while a true jet dumps all the energy into the front bumper of the car behind this bike. [Anders] built this engine from scratch, documented entirely
on a massive 120 page forum thread
. Just about everything is machined by him, bolted to a frame designed and fabricated by him, and with any luck, will break the land speed record of 349 km/h (216mph) on the salt flats of Bonneville.
As with all jet and turbine builds, this one must be heard to be believed. There are a few videos of the turbine in action below, including one where the turbine drives the rear wheel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXu9UKZCVW4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gd_H8ClmHw | 30 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "1663998",
"author": "JRDM",
"timestamp": "2014-07-25T14:17:17",
"content": "Just to make sure there’s no confusion, a “jet” engine is a type of gas turbine. There are quite a few different configurations and uses of gas turbines:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_turbine",
"parent... | 1,760,376,125.344574 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/23/hacked-e-cigarette-vaporizer-can-send-smellsin-space/ | Hacked E-cigarette Vaporizer Can Send Smells…in Space! | Matt Terndrup | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"e-cigarette",
"Wearables"
] | This 3D printed scent distributor
was put together by eight people from three states during the 2014 NYC NASA Space Apps Challenge. The team went on to take 1
st
place in the competition.
The project is called Senti8 and uses a FLORA Arduino micro-controller and a Neopixel LED strip purchased from Adafruit. A smartphone mobile app then remotely connects to the device allowing the user to choose which scent they would like to send to their friend, who is also wearing one of the wristbands.
They came up with the idea by simply asking an American astronaut named [Doug Wheelock] what he missed the most while travelling through the boundless reaches of outer space. To their surprise, he said that the thing he missed the most was his sense of smell.
Originally, the project was envisioned to be a wearable technology for space tourism. But over time, the project morphed into a wristband that would allow people to remember places or planets visited. Even memories unique to those places through scent could be experimented with.
One of the team members, [Brooks], was spotted wearing the Senti8 at the
Wearable Tech LA
conference in Pasadena, CA on July 17, 2014. The LED lights lining the outside could be seen all the way across the large auditorium as she chatted up with local Crashspace members as they prepared to present their
design-oriented hacks
to the public.
She gave an interview demoing the wristband which can be seen in the video posted below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySvl7jQtXnM
The Senti8 Intro video can be see here as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTgAMKQsZkw | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "1662825",
"author": "Jeremie Guetta (@JeremieGuetta)",
"timestamp": "2014-07-25T01:38:27",
"content": "It’s huge!!Vaping is a big new world, even celebrities vape now! Look what brand do they love:http://bestelectronic-cigs.com/wordpress/?p=77",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1... | 1,760,376,125.387243 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/23/new-round-of-astronaut-or-not-most-outrageous-component/ | New Round Of Astronaut Or Not: Most Outrageous Component | Mike Szczys | [
"cons",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"astronaut or not",
"TheHackadayPrize",
"vote",
"voter lottery"
] | And so ends round 2 of
Astronaut or Not
. We asked you to vote for the projects “most likely to be used in other projects”. Again you didn’t disappoint. We had a mountain of votes, and happily
gave away a Bukito portable 3D printer
to one of the lucky voters.
You must vote at least once in this new round to be eligible for the voter lottery on Friday!
Vote for the project
with “the most outrageous component”. Can’t figure out what we mean by that? Well, if you come across an entry that has
a quarter-million-dollar hard drive
in it… vote for that one.
Voter Lottery Prize:
How long have you been making do with a hacked together power supply?
Be sure you vote and you could kiss those days goodbye with this
BK Precision 1760A bench supply
. It has three channels; 0-30V 0-2A on the first two and 4-6.5V 0-5A on the third. We’re also throwing in some leads so that you can be up and running as soon as it arrives.
We’ll draw a random number on Friday morning. If you have voted at least one time in this current round (your participation in previous rounds doesn’t matter) and your hacker number is drawn you will win! But if your number is drawn and you haven’t voted… no bench supply for you.
Now for the results:
Congratulations to the second round winners of Astronaut or Not!
Simple, low-cost FMCW radar
*
Moti, a smart servo
$300 Pick and Place / 3D printer
*
Open Source Science Tricorder
*
OpenMV
*
LoFi
*
PortableSDR
*
OSRC – Open Source Remote Control
Simple DIY laser cutter
GRID-EYE BLE-capable thermal camera
*
3-In-1 Desktop, CNC and Laser Engraver
*
OSCAR: The Open Screen Adapter
*
Laser Cut Mini Mill
Ethernet/Internet to Serial Adapter
FPGA Vision
* 9 of these projects were
voted to the top in the first round
and already have T-shirts on the way to them. This time around those double-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 nine that nearly made the top projects in this second round of voting:
Arducard
ChipWhisperer™: Security Research
OpenExposer
level: An Ultrawide-band Radio Module
Wireless sensor/actuator network with CC430
Precision Reflow Oven Controller
Linear Servo Actuator (GM) Gear Motor Version
Hoverlay II
Retro Populator | 33 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1659954",
"author": "Telek",
"timestamp": "2014-07-23T21:35:06",
"content": "I wish to again protest the voting system as unfair. Votes for and against are extremely relative – how is it fair to just tally them?I have two projects, both are awesome. I have to pick one, and the oth... | 1,760,376,125.790539 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/23/cut-energy-consumption-by-30-percent-with-this-wifi-xbee-setup/ | THP Entry: Cut Energy Consumption By 30 Percent With This WiFi XBee Setup | Matt Terndrup | [
"home hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"arduino",
"energy conservation",
"home automation",
"mesh network",
"xbee"
] | Let’s be honest. Paying electricity bills sucks. The amount paid is always too much, and the temperatures in the building are rarely set at a comfortable level. But now, with the help of this
DIY Climate Control system
, power-users can finally rejoice knowing that the heating and cooling process of their home (or commercial space) can be easily controlled through the utilization of an XBee Remote Kit and a process called zoning.
The team behind the project is [Doug], [Benjamin] and [Lucas]. They hope to solve the inconsistent temperature problems, which are caused by a moving sun, by open-sourcing their work into the community.
Their XBee system runs on a mesh network making it a perfect tool for sensing and communicating which areas in the house are too hot or too cold. Once the data is collected, XBee modules route the information wirelessly to each other until it reaches a central Arduino gatekeeper; which then decides if it wants to heat, ventilate, or air condition the room.
Not to mention all the added benefits posted below:
For one, you can hook-up
temperature ICs like the TMP36
(PDF) without the need to buy extra parts. Better yet, the XBee can be programmed to fall asleep thus saving battery life. This means that the whole module can run on rechargeable AAA batteries.
Even further, it can be coded at its various ports to read other devices. This is great because it gives the setup the potential to turn on and off devices that are hooked to the module, transforming it into a networked hub of interconnected devices.
This approach not only allows you to be involved in saving the planet, but it keeps your home, warehouse, or office building at a much more comfortable level in the process, a real win-win.
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. | 11 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1659907",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2014-07-23T21:02:27",
"content": "What if the xbee goes into sleep, is the mesh network then brocken? Or does it have a remote wake up function?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1659971... | 1,760,376,125.719267 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/23/flight-for-your-right-and-do-it-by-friday/ | Flight For Your Right (And Do It By Friday) | Brian Benchoff | [
"drone hacks",
"News"
] | [
"academy of model aeronautics",
"ama",
"drone",
"faa",
"model plane",
"quadcopter"
] | About a month ago, the FAA – the governing body for
nearly
everything that flies in US airspace –
proposed an interpretation of their rules governing model aircraft
. The world hasn’t ended quite yet, but if the proposed rules go into effect, an entire hobby will be destroyed in the United States. While congress has given the FAA authority over nearly everything that flies, there are specific laws saying what the FAA has no jurisdiction over – model aircraft being one of the major exceptions.
Congress, however, is working on a definition of model aircraft that is at least 10 years out of date and doesn’t have any leeway for the huge advances in technology that have happened since then. Specifically, all FPV flight with video goggles would be banned under the proposed FAA rules. Also, because model aircraft are defined as being for, ‘hobby or recreational purposes,’ anyone who flies a model aircraft for money – a manufacturer conducting flight tests on a new piece of equipment, or even anyone who records a video of their flight, uploads it to YouTube, and hits the ‘monetize’ button – would be breaking the law.
The proposed FAA rules for model aircraft are not in effect yet,
and you can still make a public comment on the proposal until 11:59 PM EDT Friday
. If you leave a comment, please make a well-reasoned statement on why the FAA’s interpretation of the rules governing model aircraft are overly broad, do not take into account technological advances made since the drafting of Congress’ working definition of ‘model aircraft,’ and the effects of a complete ban flying model aircraft for any type of compensation.
This is not a good comment.
Of course, if the proposed rules for model aircraft go through, the only option will be to turn to the courts. Historically, the FAA simply does not lose court cases. Recently, cases involving drones have come up
with successful defenses
and judges deciding in favor of drone operators. The legal services for the eventual court case challenging the proposed FAA rules will most likely be funded by the
Academy of Model Aeronautics
, who just so happen to be offering membership at 50% off.
Below is a video of some RC people we really respect – [Josh] from Flite Test and [Trappy] of Team BlackSheep – talking about what the proposed rule change would do to the hobby.
There’s also a great podcast
featuring the first lawyer to successfully defend drone use in federal court that’s worth a listen. | 65 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "1659517",
"author": "pff",
"timestamp": "2014-07-23T17:07:04",
"content": "Flying by video goggles is surely risky?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1659553",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"timestamp": "2014-07-23T17... | 1,760,376,125.997871 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/23/diy-conductive-paint-for-all-your-wearable-needs/ | DIY Conductive Paint For All Your Wearable Needs | James Hobson | [
"how-to"
] | [
"conductive ink",
"conductive paint",
"DIY conductive paint",
"graphite paint"
] | Conductive ink or paint is lots of fun. It opens up tons of possibilities for flexible and unique circuits — unfortunately, it’s pretty expensive. [Brian McEvoy] shows us
how to make your own for cheap
, and it works great!
He started trying to formulate his own recipe after playing with other Instructable guides and commercially available paint, and what he found is it’s really not that complex! Graphite powder, acrylic paint, and a jar with an airtight seal — seriously, it’s that simple! But, like any engineer worth their salt (he calls himself the
24 Hour Engineer
), he had to do some tests to compare his formula.
In a
detailed experiment
he compares his formula to the commercially available
Wire Glue
, and two other recipes using Elmer’s Glue-All and graphite, and Titebond III with graphite. The results? Acrylic paint and graphite produce the most conductive material — and the cheapest!
Now that you can make conductive ink, why not 3D print a circuit stamp to
make your very own SMD circuit board! | 24 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1659222",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2014-07-23T14:18:47",
"content": "wearable bah! I wonder how durable it is or compatable with automotive paints. Imagine tiny LED’s embedded in the paint of a car buried under the color and clearcoat.",
"parent_id": null,
"de... | 1,760,376,126.059089 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/23/brazilonion/ | HOPE X: Wireless Tor Proxies And Sharing TrueCrypt Volumes | Brian Benchoff | [
"Network Hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"Cubieboard",
"encryption",
"Onion",
"Onion router",
"samba",
"tor",
"tor proxy",
"truecrypt"
] | When you’re at HOPE, of course you’re going to see a few Tor proxies, but [Jose]’s is top-notch.
It’s a completely portable Tor proxy
(.br,
Google translation
), battery-powered, with a connection for 4G networks.
[Jose]’s OnionPi setup is based on the
Adafruit version
, but adds a few interesting features that make it even more useful. It’s battery-powered with about a day of charge time, has a built-in battery charger, Ethernet pass through, external 4G and WiFi antennas, all in a sealed case that makes the entire build impervious to the elements.
While this isn’t much of a hack per se, the amount of integration is impressive. There are switches to turn off each individual networking port, and all the relevant plugs are broken out to the front panel, with the AC input and USB serial connection using screw connectors that are supposedly very popular in Brazil.
[Jose] also brought along a new device that isn’t documented anywhere else on the web. It’s called NNCFA, or Nothing New Crypto For All. Using a
Cubieboard
, an interesting ARM single board computer with a SATA connector, [Jose] created a device that will mount TrueCrypt volumes on a hard drive and share them via Samba. | 16 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1658900",
"author": "gag",
"timestamp": "2014-07-23T11:04:24",
"content": "TOR, also known as NSA honeypot.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1661702",
"author": "John Ohno",
"timestamp": "2014-07-24T13:38:43",
... | 1,760,376,126.324153 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/23/pov-display-does-it-on-the-cheap/ | POV Display Does It On The Cheap | Adam Fabio | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"arduino pro mini",
"clock",
"dc motor",
"led",
"persistence of vision",
"POV",
"spinning",
"zoetrope"
] | [Sholto] hacked together this ultra
low-budget spinning display
. He calls it a
zoetrope
, but we think it’s actually an LED based
Persistence Of Vision
(POV) affair. We’ve seen plenty of
POV devices
in the past, but this one proves that a hack doesn’t have to be expensive or pretty to work!
The major parts of the POV display were things that [Sholto] had lying around. A couple of candy tins, a simple brushed hobby motor, an Arduino Pro Mini, 7 green LEDs, and an old hall effect sensor were all that were required. Fancy displays might use commercial slip rings to transfer power, but [Sholto] made it work on the cheap!
The two tins provide a base for the display and the negative supply for the Arduino. The tins are soldered together and insulated from the motor, which is hot glued into the lower tin. A paper clip contacts the inside of the lid, making the entire assembly a slip ring for the negative side of the Arduino’s power supply. Some copper braid rubbing on the motor’s metal case forms the positive side.
[Sholto] chose his resistors to slightly overdrive his green LEDs. This makes the display appear brighter in POV use. During normal operation, the LEDs won’t be driven long enough to cause damage. If the software locks up with LEDs on though, all bets are off!
[Sholto] includes software for a pretty darn cool looking “saw wave” demo, and a simple numeric display. With a bit more work this could make a pretty cool POV clock, at least for as long as the motor brushes hold up!
[via Instructables] | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1658679",
"author": "matseng",
"timestamp": "2014-07-23T08:29:33",
"content": "Ghetto level: 100% :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1658692",
"author": "trandi",
"timestamp": "2014-07-23T08:44:34",
"content": "LOV... | 1,760,376,126.108443 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/22/hey-there-little-plant-lets-be-friends/ | Hey There Little Plant. Let’s Be Friends! | Matt Terndrup | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"automated plant care",
"moteino",
"plants",
"raspberry pi",
"wireless"
] | Perhaps, you’re circle of friends is getting too small. Or maybe, you just want to communicate with the leafy, green beings that have rooted themselves in the soil inside your house. If so, this
environmental monitoring system
will be perfect for you!
Created by [Dickson], this project monitors soil moisture, air temperature, and air humidity of your indoor plants and will alert you via email and SMS when your plants are thirsty. No longer will your sprouts shrivel up in the sun, but rather, they will be well-hydrated ready to produce their veggie goodness.
The system is battery operated, wireless, Arduino and Raspberry Pi based and comes with an Android app, which in turn allows you to view real-time and historical data, thus giving you the option to check in on your crew of Chlorophyll-embedded friends.
Let’s look at the sensors which are at work on the project.
The sensors that make up this system are arranged in a set-sequence of monitoring nodes. For example, [Dickson] uses a Moteino (
a low,power Arduino clone with an RF transceiver
), a soil moisture sensor, a humidity sensor, a temperature sensor and a battery meter. The main sensor node collects the data and transmits it via the transceiver over the 915mhz ISM band to the base station. From there, the base station houses another Moteino, which acts as a gateway to receive the RF signals, and a Raspberry Pi where the data is stored in a MySQL database and feeds the information to the Plant Friends mobile app.
[Dickson]’s goal with this project is to release it into to the world so other beginners can learn how to develop a similar plant monitoring system as well.
And what makes this idea even better, it that all the components can be placed in cute little custom, bamboo boxes giving you a greater sense that your group of friends has gotten even bigger.
For more information about the project and to see more adorable photos, be sure to check out
[Dickson]’s how-to-tutorial
on his main site. Full instructions are also located in the first link posted above.
Another hack that is worth checking out is this
rain barrel irrigation system keeps your outdoor plants fed when you’re too busy
, which was covered by us in 2012. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1656242",
"author": "jaromirs",
"timestamp": "2014-07-22T08:34:45",
"content": "“Perhaps, you’re circle of friends is getting too small.”http://www.troll.me/images2/grammar-correction-guy/your.jpg",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
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"comment_id": ... | 1,760,376,126.274517 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/21/monster-100w-led-flashlight-produces-a-whopping-8500lm/ | Monster 100W LED Flashlight Produces A Whopping 8500lm! | James Hobson | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"100W LED",
"100W LED light",
"boost converter",
"flashlight",
"pwm"
] | [Yannick] got a hold of a 100W LED diode recently, and like any self-respecting hacker, he just had to turn it into
a ridiculously over powered flash light.
The tricky thing about these diodes is that they need a high amount of DC voltage, anywhere from 32-48V typically. [Yannick’s] using a 12V sealed lead acid battery coupled with a 600W constant current boost converter which ups it to 32V at around 3.2A. He also managed to find a giant aluminum heat-sink to keep the diode from getting too hot. A 120mm fan helps to keep the heat sink nice and cool, which allows the light to be run constantly without fear of burning it out. But just in case he also has an Arduino monitoring the temperatures — oh and it provides PWM control to adjust the brightness of the light!
To focus the flashlight he bought a proper lens and reflector which can be mounted directly to the diode. At full power the LED puts out around 8500lm, which is brighter than almost all consumer projectors available — or even the high beams of a car!
This isn’t the
first time
we’ve seen a 100W LED diode being used as a flashlight, but the builds are definitely getting fancier! | 33 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1655913",
"author": "jorhlok",
"timestamp": "2014-07-22T06:19:32",
"content": "Inb4 rage because of LED diode.Light Emitting Diode diode.I forgive you.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1657159",
"author": "roger wilco",... | 1,760,376,126.220515 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/21/what-could-you-do-with-7-fingers/ | What Could You Do With 7 Fingers? | James Hobson | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"robotic augmentation",
"robotic grasp",
"robotic hand"
] | A strange thought yes, but MIT researchers think an extra two digits could really make a difference in many people’s lives. And as it turns out, having an extra robotic grasp allows you to do
quite a few things single handed
.
The extra two fingers provide three degrees of freedom each, and are mounted off the user’s wrist. A series of position recording sensors attached to the glove provide feedback to the system in order to control the fingers naturally, just by using your hand normally.
They taught the algorithm that controls the fingers by trying to pick up different (large) items using the hand and manually positioning the fingers. What they discovered is almost every grasp could be demonstrated as a combination of only 2-3 grip patterns.
The extra augmentation allows [Faye Wu], a graduate student working on the project, to peel a banana one handed, pick up large and bulky objects easily, pick up
and
stir a coffee with one hand, or even open a 2L pop bottle — again — with only one hand.
“This is a prototype, but we can shrink it down to one-third its size, and make it foldable,” Asada says. “We could make this into a watch or a bracelet where the fingers pop up, and when the job is done, they come back into the watch. Wearable robots are a way to bring the robot closer to our daily life.”
What do you think? What could you do with an extra couple digits?
[via
arstechnica
] | 36 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "1655438",
"author": "cde",
"timestamp": "2014-07-22T02:05:00",
"content": "There’s an avenue q song that will tell you what most people will do with it…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1655532",
"author": "Ekranoplane"... | 1,760,376,126.393462 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/21/eff-launches-open-router-firmware/ | EFF Launches Open Router Firmware | Eric Evenchick | [
"Network Hacks"
] | [
"cerowrt",
"eff",
"firmware",
"router",
"security",
"tor"
] | The Electronic Frontier Foundation have released an alpha of their own
Open Wireless Router Firmware
as part of the
Open Wireless Movement
. This project aims to make it easier to share your wireless network with others, while maintaining security and prioritization of traffic.
We’ve seen a lot of hacks based on alternative router firmware, such as this
standalone web radio
. The EFF have based their router firmware off of
CeroWRT
, one of the many open source firmware options out there. At this time, the firmware package only targets the Netgear WNDR3800.
Many routers out there have guest modes, but they are quite limited and often have serious vulnerabilities. If you’re interested in sharing your wireless network, this firmware will help out by letting you share a specified amount of bandwidth. It also aims to have a secure web interface, and secure auto-update using Tor.
The EFF has announced this “pre-alpha hacker release” as a call for hackers who want to join in the fun. Development is happening over on
Github
, where you’ll find all of the source and issues. | 20 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1655323",
"author": "gregkennedy",
"timestamp": "2014-07-22T01:19:41",
"content": "Nice. I was convinced years ago to leave my wireless network open for guests and neighbors. Now, I leave a spare 802.11b router hanging off my network specifically named “Free Public WiFi” to help o... | 1,760,376,128.742089 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/21/hope-x-citizens-band-microwave-spectrum-and-free-internet-for-all/ | HOPE X: Citizens Band Microwave Spectrum And Free Internet For All | Brian Benchoff | [
"News",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"3.5GHz",
"cb radio",
"citizens band",
"radio",
"spectrum",
"spectrum allocation",
"wireless"
] | The bulk of HOPE X was the talks, but arguably the far more interesting aspect of thousands of hackers and tinkerers under one roof is talking to everyone about what they’re doing. One guy hanging out at HOPE gave a quick lightning talk to a few people about something very interesting: something the FCC is pushing through that’s open to just about everything: it’s the
FCC’s new CB radio service
(you’ll want to click the presentation link at the very top of the page), giving
anyone
, not just people with a radio license, access to a huge swath of microwave spectrum.
The short version of the talk was the fact the FCC is extremely interested in opening up 100 to 200 MHz of spectrum at 3.5 GHz. The idea is to create something like cellular service that can either be implemented by companies, or normal, everyday people. The initial goal of this is to provide -possibly- free Internet to anyone with the right USB dongle. Since it’s just radio, and open to everyone, just about anything can be implemented.
This is something the FCC, Google, Microsoft, and a whole bunch of startups are extremely interested in, and the fact that about half of the spectrum will be open to anyone creates some interesting opportunities. A community-based freenet of wireless Internet links becomes an easy solution, and since the hardware to access 3.5 GHz is similar to other hardware that’s already available means building your own wireless ISP could be relatively easy in 12 to 18 months.
A transcript of the lightning talk is available below.
Transcript
These days when you mention the FCC to the hacker community or the DIY community, net neutrality is what they think about. This has nothing to do with net neutrality. What we’re talking about is a radically new way of doing internet service providers. What makes it radically new and different is a few things. The first is a proposal the FCC is very seriously and intensively developing right now, and the other is that it is a new frequency band with strange new business relationships in the frequency band.
This is legally and technically citizens band radio. Some of you might be users who are over 50 and remember CB radio from the 70s and truckers talking and it’s not at 27 MHz; this new form of wireless communication is at 3500 MHz or 3.5 GHz, so this is in the microwave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
It’s called the citizens broadband radio service, or CBRS, and those of us who are hearing this or reading this who are radio amateurs will recognize the number 97 as FCC Part 97 – this is in Part 96 of the FCC regulations.
The FCC calls this the Innovation Band, and what they mean by that phrase is that they have really thrown the doors open to new applications, new service providers, and individuals to do creative things with this radio spectrum. The chairman of the FCC, Tom Wheeler, has said this proposal could unlock vast opportunities for wireless in areas like energy, security, and financial services. I pointed out in the beginning that this was unusual. This arrangement is very strange, and he acknowledge that. He said we should not flinch from this opportunity simply because it is not standard operating procedure.
The citizens broadband radio service is a nationwide network of small microwave cells. This is similar to WiFi access points, but in a completely new frequency band using technology that’s much more advanced than what is available in WiFi today. This service will be operated by a mix of licensed wireless carriers, or the kinds of companies we all pay a fee to each month to our cellphone or Internet service, and general public CB operators without individual licenses. They will be together in the same radio spectrum. Right now this band is 3550 to 3650 MHz. That means a 100 MHz wide band, however part of the proposal would be to increase this band and make it go as much as 50 to 100 MHz higher. So there’s a possibly of 150 MHz, 200 MHz, or even higher amounts of spectrum.
This is a very generous allocation of spectrum, keeping in mind nobody is making radio spectrum any more. God made all of it during the Big Bang. It’s very difficult to get any and normally companies bid millions of dollars at auctions for licenses to use radio spectrum. This band will essentially be completely new to the public. It is currently used – the main user is Navy radars. The Navy operates radars along the coast, but it is the opinion of the people who are doing the engineering on this that this will not be a big difficulty in this, simply because of the physical distances involved and the characteristics of the Navy radars.
The frequencies that these wireless ISPs and wireless operators will use will be assigned in real-time by a third-party provider. This is called the Spectrum Access System Administrator. The FCC sees several companies being authorized to allocate the service. They’re going to monitor the use of frequencies all across the country, and then when you want to use it, your device or your network will receive an instruction either directly or indirectly from this administrator to tell you what frequency to use. And Google is all over this. Google wants to provide that service. They already provide a similar service called the TV whitespaces – those are TV channels that are not used in rural areas, so they can be used for WiFi backhaul.
There are mainly two classes of license in this service. The PAL which stands for Priority Access License are commercial wireless carriers who are bidding for wireless frequencies in auctions in those places where there are more people who want licenses than licenses available. Potentially tens of thousands of licenses will be auctioned. The other license is GAA or General Authorized Access, which is the general public who operate without licenses who will share the spectrum with licensed carriers. Microsoft has said the GAA spectrum is their main interest. Essentially, Microsoft is pushing for the unlicensed public network mode of use.
One of the things that has come up is how much information will be collected. Microsoft and a few other companies are saying only a very minimal amount of information should be collected about who is using this and what they’re using it for and where they are. They should limit the amount of information about how much information administrators should collect.
What is this going to be used for? Well, the FCC has virtually no opinion on that subject. Basically, they say a citizens broadband wireless network user, that is anyone with a laptop with a wireless dongle or any access point that uses this is an authorized user if that equipment has been authorized by the FCC. They may render any kind of communication service, commercially, sell internet access, not commercially, use it for your family or friends or community or school, there’s no restriction on content.
So if people want to follow this, find out what’s going on, there’s two things to know. One is the name of it. That is the Citizens Broadband Radio Service, if you want to Google that. The other is the FCC proceeding number, the docket number, and it’s 12-354. That’s the number of the proceeding at the FCC. This thing is moving much faster than proceedings typically move through the FCC. They can take years and years, and after a few years nothing happens and the FCC cuts it down and says it’s too old. This happens all the time. This is not that. This is moving quickly. In 2013, the FCC not only put out the proposed rules for the requirements the end-user devices must meet, but also held two public workshops that were filled with people doing public presentation – companies like AT&T, Verizon, Quallcom, Google, Sony, and more, and startups were piling in and lobbying the FCC to get a piece of this action. And very fortunately public oriented groups like the EFF, Public Knowledge, and the New America Foundation, Free Press, are pushing for the GAA, the free access, which we hope will be preserved when the FCC makes a final ruling on this, which I expect will be about one year from now.
<Question>
When will I be able to buy a piece of hardware with this?
What the FCC is being told is that companies are very eager to jump into this market, and some of them make equipment that is very similar. Some of these are not American companies, but I anticipate that within perhaps three to six months after a final decision from the FCC, which I expect to be summer of 2015, and more likely by the end of 2015. This is actually a huge undertaking. We’re talking about a nationwide network of totally interconnected hardware with a spectrum access administrator, they have to be certified, they have to be monitoring the spectrum. I have to be honest with you: this could take a few years, but in many, many years of my tracking FCC proceedings, I have never seen the excitement level I’m seeing.
Most of [Bennett Kobb]’s career has been with the FCC. Not as an employee, but as a trade journalist covering the agency for trade publications. He’s also written
a few books
which are handbooks of spectrum allocations. They’re used very widely in the FCC and the Air Force, and the NSA. The address the books were shipped to at the NSA was “Door Number 1, 2, or 3”. | 20 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1654763",
"author": "Kevin",
"timestamp": "2014-07-21T20:23:33",
"content": "FCC Proposal:http://www.fcc.gov/document/proposes-creation-new-citizens-broadband-radio-service-35-ghz",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1654871",
"a... | 1,760,376,128.473756 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/21/right-now-your-chance-of-winning-a-prize-is-66-or-better/ | Right Now: Your Chance Of Winning A Prize Is 66% Or Better | Mike Szczys | [
"contests",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"odds",
"TheHackadayPrize",
"unofficial"
] | Everyone who enters
The Hackaday Prize
is already making a statement that Open Design is important to them. But if doing things on principle isn’t your primary motivation, you do stand a
really
good chance of winning
something
. At least at this very moment you do.
We’re giving away 55 really awesome prizes, and “hundreds of other” prizes. Since we just passed
300 entries
over the weekend, a bit of quick math shows that right now your chances of winning something are quite good.
Still not enough for you? Consider
the top three prizes
which offer a cash value of $10k. At this moment each entry has just under a 1 in 100 chance of placing. And a 1 in 300 chance of claiming the trip into space valued at around 250 grand.
Do it because you support Open Hardware, do it because you want to go to space, or just do it because the odds are really really friendly at this point! You now have until the evening of August 20th to document your concept of an open, connected device. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1654793",
"author": "ganzuul",
"timestamp": "2014-07-21T20:36:52",
"content": "I’ve been thinking about the grander goal of open hardware and how it relates to the mythical ‘Maker’ of sci-fi. Perhaps the first iteration of the maker isn’t a desktop-sized device but instead an entire... | 1,760,376,128.293109 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/21/reverse-engineering-unobtanium/ | Reverse Engineering Unobtanium | Brian Benchoff | [
"classic hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"6500/1",
"6502",
"amiga",
"ATmega32",
"commodore",
"microcontroller",
"MOS",
"plotter",
"retro"
] | If you listen to [Bil Herd] and the rest of the Commodore crew, you’ll quickly realize the folks behind Commodore were about 20 years ahead of their time, with their own chip foundries and vertical integration that would make the modern-day Apple jealous. One of the cool chips that came out of the MOS foundry was the 6500/1 – used in the keyboard controller of the Amiga and the 1520 printer/plotter. Basically a microcontroller with a 6502 core, the 6500/1 has seen a lot of talk when it comes to dumping the contents of the ROM, and thus all the code on the Amiga’s keyboard controller and the font for the 1520 plotter – there were ideas on how to get the contents of the ROM, but no one tried building a circuit.
[Jim Brain] looked over the discussions and recently gave it a try.
He was completely successful
, dumping the ROM of a 6500/1, and allowing for the preservation and analysis of the 1520 plotter, analysis of other devices controlled by a 6500/1, and the possibility of the creation of a drop-in replacement for the unobtanium 6500/1.
The datasheet for the 6500/1 has a few lines describing the test mode, where applying +10 VDC to the /RES line forces the machine to make memory fetches from the external pins. The only problem was, no body knew how to make this work. Ideas were thrown around, but it wasn’t until [Jim Brain] pulled an ATMega32 off the top of his parts bin did anyone create a working circuit.
The code for the AVR puts the 6500/1 into it’s test mode, loads a single memory location from ROM, stores the data in PORTA, where the AVR reads it and prints it out over a serial connection to a computer. Repeat for every location in the 6500/1 ROM, and you have a firmware dump. This is probably the first time this code has been seen in 20 years.
Now the race is on to create a drop-in replacement of what is basically a 6502-based microcontroller. That probably won’t be used for much outside of the classic and retro scene, but at least it would be a fun device to play around with. | 40 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1654439",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2014-07-21T17:30:32",
"content": "Cant you basically write an entire C64 in verilog?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1654757",
"author": "F",
"timestamp": "2014-07-... | 1,760,376,128.370516 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/22/talking-beagleboard-with-jason-kridner/ | Talking BeagleBoard With [Jason Kridner] | Mike Szczys | [
"Featured",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"bbb",
"beagleboard",
"beaglebone",
"detroit",
"gsoc",
"i3 detroit",
"logic analyzer",
"pru"
] | [Jason Kridner] is a member of the i3 Detroit hackerspace and during the Hackaday meet-up we were able to spend a few minutes talking about what’s going on with BeagleBoard right now. For those of you that don’t know,
BeagleBoard
is a non-profit foundation which guides the open hardware initiative of the same name. This includes BeagleBone which is the third iteration of the platform. [Jason’s] a good guy to talk to about this as he co-founded the organization and has been the driving force in the community ever since.
Right now the organization is
participating in the Google Summer of Code
. This initiative allows students to propose open source coding projects which will help move the community forward. Students with accepted proposals were paired with mentors and are paid for the quality code which is produced. One of the projects this year is a 100 Megahertz, 14-channel Logic Analyzer which [Jason] is waving around in the video. It’s the GSoC project of [Kumar Abhishek] and you can
learn more from his proposal
.
Also of interest in the video is a discussion about the power of the BeagleBone’s PRUs, or Programmable Real-Time Units. They’re basically unused microcontrollers that have direct access to a lot of the processor’s features and are just waiting for you to bend them to your will. Having these is a huge boon for hardware hackers. If you haven’t played with them before, check out
our earlier article on what PRUs are all about
and then give it a whirl yourself.
After the break there’s a brief table of contents which maps the topics shown off in the video.
0:40
– Discussion of the Programmable Real-Time Units (PRUs) on the BeagleBoard
2:51
– BeagleBoard and the Google Summer of Code
4:19
– 100 MHz, 14-channel Logic Analyzer which is a product of the Google Summer of Code | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1658610",
"author": "Abhishek",
"timestamp": "2014-07-23T07:38:18",
"content": "Hello Hackaday community,This is Abhishek, I’m the student currently working on the BeagleLogic Project for my Google Summer of Code Project with BeagleBoard.org .For potential users, you can view the do... | 1,760,376,128.100868 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/22/smart-hat-puts-your-head-in-the-game/ | Smart Hat Puts Your Head In The Game | Will Sweatman | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"head mounted display",
"voice command",
"webcam"
] | [Arvind] has dropped his hat in the game of head mounted displays. With Google Glass pushing $1,500, it’s only natural for hackers to make a cheaper alternative. [Avind’s]
$80 version
might not be pretty, but it gets the job done.
Using a Raspberry Pi loaded with speech recognition software, a webcam, 2.5 inch LCD display and a handful of other parts, [Arvind’s] hat mounted display allows him to view email, Google Maps, videos or just about anything he wants.
An aspheric loupe magnifier lens lets him see the display even though it sits around 5cm from his eye. No outside light is allowed in. Only the guts of the webcam were used to give him the video and microphone. We’ve seen other
head mounted displays
before, and this one adds to the growing collection. Be sure to check out [Arvinds] site
for a tutorial
on how to build your own, and catch a video of it in action after the break. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1658357",
"author": "David O",
"timestamp": "2014-07-23T04:10:54",
"content": "During the first make of a product no matter how bulky or ugly it looks as long as it works as intended than the look and aesthetic part comes after. But so far nice job man we need more people making hac... | 1,760,376,128.418045 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/22/reely/ | HOPE X: Creating Smart Spaces With ReelyActive | Brian Benchoff | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"915 MHz",
"bluetooth",
"internet of things",
"radio",
"smart spaces"
] | When we hear about the Internet of Things, we’re thinking it’s a portable device with a sensor of some kind, a radio module, and the ability to push data up to the Internet. There’s nothing that says a device that puts data on the Internet has to be portable, though, as [Jeff] from ReelyActive showed us at HOPE X last weekend.
[Jeff]’s startup
is working on a device that turns every space into a smart space. It does this with radio modules connected to a computer that listen to Bluetooth and the 868, 915 and 2400MHz bands. These modules turn every place into a smart space, identifying who just walked into a room, and who is at a specific location. Think of it as the invisible foundation for any truly smart house.
The radio modules themselves are daisychained with Cat5 cable, able to be plugged into a hub or existing Ethernet drops.
The software
that makes the whole thing work can run on just about anything; if you want a Raspi to turn on the lights when you enter a room, or turn off a thermostat when you leave a building, that’s just a few lines of code and a relay.
The software is open source, and [Jeff] and his team are looking at making the hardware open. It’s a great idea, and something that would be a good entry for The Hackaday Prize, but ReelyActive is located in Montréal, and like Syria and North Korea, we’re not allowed to run a contest in Quebec. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1657720",
"author": "FRP",
"timestamp": "2014-07-22T23:10:32",
"content": "Wouldn’t RTLSDR allow the same thing? What is special about these dongles since they are fixed to certain frequencies. Can anyone point to RTLSDR doing the same kind of decoding?",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,128.24052 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/22/usb-rotary-phone-a-lync-to-the-past/ | USB Rotary Phone: A Lync To The Past | Kristina Panos | [
"Phone Hacks"
] | [
"devirtualization",
"MS Lync",
"PIC32MX440F256H",
"rotary phone",
"usb",
"USB sound card"
] | [Ivan] is fed up with all this rampant virtualization. When his company took away his physical desk phone in favor of using MS Lync,
he was driven to build a USB rotary phone
. His coworkers loved it and one of them asked [Ivan] to build another. The build log focuses on converting his coworker’s vintage brass and copper number that must weigh a ton.
He had to do a bit more work with this one because it had rusted out inside and a few of the contacts were bent. The good news is that the speaker and microphone were in working order and he was able to use them both. After restoring the stock functionality, he added a USB sound card and created a USB keyboard using a
PIC32MX440F256H
.
The rotary phone’s dial works using two switches, one that’s open and one that’s closed when no one is dialing. Once dialing is detected, the open switch closes and the closed switch clicks according to the dialed digit (ten clicks for 0). [Ivan] also reads the switch hook state and has added debouncing. This gave him some trouble because of the quick response expected by the PC bus, but he made use of interrupts and was allowed to keep his seat.
Please stay on the line. [Ivan]’s videos will be with you shortly. | 16 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1657447",
"author": "asmecher",
"timestamp": "2014-07-22T20:09:41",
"content": "Sounds only slightly more useful than the rotary phone shower I made:http://cassettepunk.com/small-projects/duchess/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,376,128.153478 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/22/judge-spotlight-andrew-bunnie-huang/ | Judge Spotlight: Andrew “Bunnie” Huang | Mike Szczys | [
"Interviews",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"bunnie",
"bunniestudios",
"chumby",
"judge",
"Novena",
"TheHackadayPrize"
] | This week’s Judge Spotlight focuses on [Andrew “Bunnie” Huang]. If you haven’t heard of him you need to pay more attention. His hacker cred goes way back to the original Xbox, which he reverse engineered and laid bare its security flaws. Maintaining his hacker spirit he went on to design and
hack the Chumby
. More recently he took on the challenge of
developing and Open laptop called Novena
. All of this while continuing to explore and experiment with all kinds of electronics,
posting about his adventures
for those of us that care about an electronics ecosystem that doesn’t shut out the user from tinkering with the hardware. Join us after the break for our conversation with
The Hackaday Prize
judge [
Bunnie Huang
].
You will have eternal hacker fame for reverse-engineering the hardware security on the original Xbox. What were you doing in your life at the time and how did you settle on that piece of hardware for the challenge?
At the time, I was completing my PhD dissertation on computer architecture at MIT. My advisor encouraged our research group to study the current crop of video game consoles to see what we could learn about how they achieve such high performance at a low price. As such, the Xbox was one of the three main consoles at the time and as a result I set upon reverse engineering it.
You wrote a book called
Hacking the Xbox
that described your adventure. Did you have any concerns about the repercussions of making that knowledge public and what pushed you to follow through?
Yes, of course I had concerns. At the time, the DMCA was just a couple years old and the as-of-yet untested legislation stood as a major impediment to our freedom to research and to tinker. MIT’s institutional counsel even sent me a letter repudiating their involvement with my hacking activity, possibly in part because they saw a lot of legal risk in aiding the disclosure of my findings. It was convenient for them that the actual implementation of the hack was done on my personal Xbox using my own resources, and largely during a winter break period called IAP.
What pushed me to follow through? Hacking, and the freedom to hack, is an important part of me. I grew up with this freedom, and new legislation stood to take it away. I suppose as a result, I had nothing to lose — whether I stepped up or backed down, either way I could lose an important freedom. And I’d rather go down with a fight.
Can you describe your role in Chumby?
I was responsible for the design, manufacturing and operations of the consumer hardware half of the business.
Chumby surely holds the record as the hackable device which gained the widest public acceptance. What do you think of that part of Chumby and is there a good argument for increasing the number of hackable devices available to the average consumer?
Hackability is something that only a small fraction of the population actually takes advantage of; however, I think there is a certain peace of mind that a larger portion of users get knowing they have the *option* to hack and fully understand their technology. There is something vaguely disconcerting when you become so reliant upon black box technologies. So, sharing the designs and plans with your customers gives them back a sense of agency that I believe is meaningful.
Even though few people exercised their option to hack, I was pleased at the kinds of applications our hardware found. It ended up being used in applications as diverse as a braille terminal for the blind, to the controller for a walking robot, to a console for controlling A/V functions installed at a college campus. We couldn’t have predicted these hacks and the greatest pleasure of producing Chumby was always reading about the clever things people would do when you enable them to hack.
At the end of the day, I’d say the openness and hackability of Chumby had a neutral impact on the business end of things; it didn’t drive sales, but it also didn’t hurt it. But it did create a very loyal customer base and I’m extremely pleased to see that one of our other original founders has rebooted the Chumby servers and there are still lots of enthusiastic users who are delighted by its reincarnation.
The
Novena Open Hardware Laptop
has two points that stick out in our minds: it’s hackable and free of “black boxes” (like binary blobs on a video card). Did you have both in mind from the beginning of the project?
Yes, of course. Hackability and depth of openness were two major goals of the project. We took special pains, for example, to source a wifi card that is blob-free; the wifi card isn’t the cheapest or best performing one, but it also doesn’t require a blob.
Although, I do have to make a correction to your question: we went as open as we could, but that does still mean that individual sub-components still contain their firmware. The SSD and microSD memory card, for example, still contain the load of firmware permanently burned in there by the original manufacturer. On the other hand, firmware that is “burned in” to a device and not typically visible to the user is not considered a show-stopper by the standards of the broader Linux community.
Furthermore, there are some components which can accept a proprietary blob, which would cause some things to run faster, but they are not required to boot or to function well. For example, the decoding of video can be accelerated using a proprietary DSP built into the CPU, but we don’t include that blob in our distribution; instead, we opt for software decode running on the ARM CPU. Also, the 3D graphics engine is the subject of an on-going reverse engineering effort that we’ve partially funded from campaign proceeds, and with any luck by the time we ship we’ll have an open-source 3D-accelerated desktop environment.
Powerful, portable computing hardware that is extensible is obviously useful to any project that needs custom hardware as they don’t have to start from square one. Do you foresee changes or iterations in Novena’s future that will gain it wider adoption like the Chumby experienced?
Possibly. A large part of Novena’s future will depend of course on how the silicon that powers our machines evolve. If Freescale will do a new, more powerful processor with the same level of openness, I would be very enthusiastic to upgrade my personal laptop by building a new motherboard for it. There’s also some hope that there will be some other open SoC designs coming out in the future, which can give us more options in terms of cost and feature sets that can make the system more affordable to end users. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1657296",
"author": "Markus",
"timestamp": "2014-07-22T18:06:08",
"content": "Bunnie is really one of those people who makes the world a slightly better place with each project and seem to be a really nice guy to boot.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
... | 1,760,376,128.617066 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/22/retrotechtacular-were-gonna-have-manual-transmissions-the-way-my-old-man-told-me/ | Retrotechtacular: We’re Gonna Have Manual Transmissions The Way My Old Man Told Me! | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"archimedes",
"chicken pies!",
"countershaft",
"drive shaft",
"engine shaft",
"gear",
"jam handy",
"lever",
"manual transmission",
"synchromesh"
] | Simple machines are wonderful in their own right and serve as the cornerstones of many technological advances. This is certainly true for the humble lever and the role it plays in manual transmissions as evidenced in this week’s Retrotechtacular installment,
the Chevrolet Motor Company’s 1936 film, “Spinning Levers”
.
This educational gem happens to be a
Jam Handy
production. For you MST3K fans out there, he’s the guy behind shorts like
Hired!
from the episodes
Bride of the Monster
and the inimitable
Manos: The Hands of Fate
. Hilarity aside, “Spinning Levers” is a remarkably educational nine-ish minutes of slickly produced film that explains, well, how a manual transmission works. More specifically, it explains the 3-speed-plus-reverse transmissions of the early automobile era.
It begins with a nod to Archimedes’ assertion that a lever can move the world, explaining that the longer the lever, the better the magic. In a slightly different configuration, a lever can become a crank or even a double crank. Continuous motion of a lever or series of levers affords the most power for the least work, and this is illustrated with some top-drawer stop motion animation of two meshing paddle wheels.
Next, we are shown how engine power is transferred to the rear wheels: it travels from a gear on the engine shaft to a gear on the drive shaft through gears on the countershaft. At low speeds, we let the smallest gear on the countershaft turn the largest gear on the drive shaft. When the engine is turning 90 RPM, the rear wheel turns at 30 RPM. At high speeds using high gears, the power goes directly from the engine shaft to the drive shaft and the RPM on both is equal. The film goes on to explain how the gearbox handles reverse, and the vast improvements to transmission life made possible through synchromesh gearing.
[Thank you to Peter 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 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1656927",
"author": "Ron",
"timestamp": "2014-07-22T14:21:14",
"content": "Jam Handy had nothing to do with the production of “Manos: The Hands of Fate” (as this article seems to imply). The only connection between the two is that the Jam Handy short ‘Hired!’ was presented on an ep... | 1,760,376,128.68528 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/22/cold-war-clock-is-all-tubes/ | Cold War Clock Is All Tubes | Eric Evenchick | [
"classic hacks",
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"cold war",
"dekatron",
"nixie",
"reproduction",
"tubes"
] | Clocks are great projects to build. They serve a real purpose, and there’s a wide variety of ways to implement a unique timepiece. [Hank]’s
Cold War Clock
only uses parts and technologies that were available in 1959. It contains no semiconductors, but has an audible alarm and reasonable time accuracy.
Looking through the hand drafted schematics, you’ll find a number of
Dekatron tubes
. These vintage components are used as registers to store and count the time. [Hank] found some cheap Soviet Dekatrons, but had to machine his own sockets to connect them. These tubes do the counting, but the actual display consists of
nixies
.
A cost estimate puts this clock at $2130 in 1959, which equates to $17040 today. Clearly this would be outside the price range of most hobbyists. The actual build cost [Hank] around $1600.
There’s some intricate details in this build. The front panel has an authentic look to it, and
the manual
has instructions for “demolition of clock to prevent enemy use.” [Hank] calls it a “creative anachronism.” In a sense, it’s a reproduction of a product that never actually existed.
A video of this clock in action, including the Cold War era alarm, is after the break. | 45 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "1656600",
"author": "ehoogma",
"timestamp": "2014-07-22T11:27:33",
"content": "Wow, respect! That is one hell of a old school project. Want one! :P",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1656602",
"author": "bobfeg",
"timestamp... | 1,760,376,128.820519 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/20/800-led-wall-with-diffuser-panel-is-a-work-of-art/ | 800+ LED Wall With Diffuser Panel Is A Work Of Art | James Hobson | [
"LED Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"LED music visualizer",
"LED wall",
"OctoWS2811",
"RGB LED matrix",
"Teensy 3.0",
"teensy microcontroller",
"ws2812b"
] | What happens when you take over 800 individually addressable super bright RGB LEDs and house them in a giant diffused panel? You
get awesome
. That’s what you get.
[Epoch Rises] is a small electronic music and interactive technology duo who create cool interactive projects (like this wall) for their live shows and performances. They love their WS2812B LEDs.
The cool thing about this wall is that it can take any video input, it can be controlled by sound or music, an iPad, or even generate random imagery by itself. The 800 LEDs are controlled by a Teensy 3.0 using the
OctoWS2811
library from
Paul Stoffregen
which is capable of driving over 1000 LEDs at a whopping 30FPS using just one Teensy microcontroller. It works by using Direct Memory Access to send data over serial into the Teensy’s memory and directly out to the LEDs with very little overhead — it is a Teensy after all!
As an added bit of interactivity, they’ve also written an app for Kinect that allows the wall to react to people dancing in front of it!
Let’s see them make a bigger one next time — Like this
1470 pixel stage wall! | 21 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1651772",
"author": "rasz_pl",
"timestamp": "2014-07-20T19:18:20",
"content": "it is awesome … until you realize you can just use 32′ lcd TV and laptop with winamp, or rpi/phone",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1652139",
... | 1,760,376,128.880437 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/20/printing-text-with-a-chart-recorder/ | Printing Text With A Chart Recorder | Eric Evenchick | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"analog",
"arduino",
"chart recorder",
"printer",
"seismometer"
] | Chart recorders are vintage devices that were used to plot analog values on paper. They’re similar to old seismometers which plot seismic waves from earthquakes. The device has a heated pen which moves across a piece of thermally sensitive paper. This paper is fed through the machine at a specified rate, which gives two dimensions of plotting.
[Marv] ended up getting a couple of discontinued chart recorders and figured out the interface. Five parallel signals control the feed rate of the paper, and an analog voltage controls the pen location. The next logical step was to hook up an Arduino to control the plotter.
However, once the device could plot analog values, [Marv] quickly looked for a new challenge. He wanted to write characters and bitmaps using the device, but this would require non-continuous lines. By adding a solenoid to lift the pen, he built a
chart recorder printer
.
After the break, check out a video of the chart recorder doing something it was never intended to do. If you happen to have one of these chart recorders, [Marv] included all of the code in his writeup to help you build your own. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1651435",
"author": "ks",
"timestamp": "2014-07-20T15:15:30",
"content": "You should print text (like bible quotes) on toilet paper.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1651552",
"author": "Greenaum",
"timestamp": "2014-07-2... | 1,760,376,128.925998 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/20/the-cryptocape-for-beaglebone/ | The CryptoCape For BeagleBone | Brian Benchoff | [
"Linux Hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"Atmel",
"beaglebone black",
"crypto",
"cryptocape",
"elliptic curve chip",
"encryption",
"sha-256",
"Trusted Platform Module"
] | [Josh Datko] was wandering around HOPE X showing off some of his wares and was kind enough
to show off his CryptoCape to us
. It’s an add on board for the BeagleBone that breaks out some common crypto hardware to an easily interfaced package.
On board the CryptoCape is an Atmel
Trusted Platform Module
, an
elliptic curve chip
, a
SHA-256 authenticator
, an encrypted EEPROM, a real time clock, and an ATMega328p for interfacing to other components and modules on the huge prototyping area on the cape.
[Josh] built the CryptoCape in cooperation with Sparkfun, so if you’re not encumbered with a bunch of export restrictions,
you can pick one up there
. Pic of the board below. | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1651589",
"author": "Greenaum",
"timestamp": "2014-07-20T17:08:33",
"content": "On-board is NSA Spychip #1, with innocent-sounding backdoor module #2 and special SUCKERCRYPT ROT-13 encryption.At least software encryption is trustworthy in theory. If you understand the brain-bending ... | 1,760,376,129.070989 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/20/the-radius-t-t-velomobile/ | The Radius T-T Velomobile | Eric Evenchick | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"blender",
"human powered vehicle",
"recumbent",
"trike"
] | Over the past year, [Dave] has been hard at work on his human powered vehicle. One year and six hundred hours of build time later, the
Radius T-T Velomobile
is complete. This 80 lb. vehicle features a custom body, mirrors, and integrated lights.
The Radius T-T started out as a
TerraTrike
recumbent tricycle. [Dave] built the body by laying up fiber glass on a foam mold. To that he added a variety of 3D printed accessories such as lights and mirrors. Inside the cockpit, the driver can control turn signals and flashers.
[Dave]’s blog provides a massive amount of documentation on the build. Everything from
3D modelling of the vehicle in Blender
to the
rear view mirror design
is discussed. This great looking build should move along quickly with its lightweight design, but we’re still waiting to hear how fast it goes. Either way, it should be a fun mode of transport which will definitely turn some heads. | 22 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1650813",
"author": "Katrina LeFaye",
"timestamp": "2014-07-20T08:22:02",
"content": "Velos are nothing new and this is not even close to the best design I have seen…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1650844",
"author":... | 1,760,376,129.13024 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/19/wearable/ | Is Your Wearable Tech Too Subtle? | Brian Benchoff | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"pip-boy",
"smart watch",
"watch",
"wrist"
] | With any con, you’re going to have people walking around with things they’ve built. It’s the perfect venue for wearable tech, and the cream of the crop for HOPE X
is [Zack]’s SmarTwatCh
. Billed as a 3D printed big ass smart watch, it’s anything but subtle and has enough gadgets and gizmos to make even the biggest tech aficionado blush
The front of the SmarTwatCh is an authentic 2×20 glass encapsulated VFD running at 160 Volts, chosen for its danger and character. Inside the 3D printed enclosure is a Teensy 3.0, pots, knobs, and switches, a laser, LEDs, and an alcohol sensor because, “the future is quantified drinking”.
‘Apps’ for this smart watch include a TV-B-Gone, laser pointer, breathalyzer, flashlight, and just about anything else [Zack] can think of that would involve a Bluetooth adapter and a text display. Video of [Zack] demoing the watch at HOPE below. | 30 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "1650499",
"author": "ERROR_user_unknown",
"timestamp": "2014-07-20T05:13:59",
"content": "That is a sweet gantlet man. future additions will include. Nintendo wii mote capability. GPS locater tazer to go with laser sight. SOC with linux wifi bluetooth hands free. touch screen. EMP t... | 1,760,376,129.194356 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/19/long-range-wireless-sensors-for-the-home-area-network/ | Long Range Wireless Sensors For The Home-Area-Network | Matt Terndrup | [
"home hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"arduino",
"home automation",
"mqtt",
"openhab",
"osgi"
] | In the near future, we will all reside in households that contain hundreds of little devices intertwingled together with an easily connectable and controllable network of sensors. For years, projects have been appearing all around the world,
like this wireless sensor system that anyone can build
.
[Eric] hopes his work will help bring the truly expansive Home-Area-Network (HAN) into fruition by letting developers build cheap, battery-powered, long-range wireless sensors. His method integrates with the pluggable
OSGI
architecture and home automation platform
openHAB
along with using an Arduino as the lower power, sensor node that is capable of utilizing many types of cheap sensors found online.
[Eric]’s tutorial depicts a few examples of the possibilities of these open-source platforms. For instance, he shows what he calls a ‘Mailbox Sentinel’ which is a battery-powered mail monitoring device that uses a Raspberry Pi to play the infamous, and ancient AOL sound bite “you’ve got mail.” It will also send an email once the postman cometh.
In addition, he lists other ideas such as a baby monitoring sentinel, a washer/dryer notification system, water leak detectors, and security implementations that blast a loud alarm if someone tries to break in. All of this potential for just around $20.
The key to making this project work, as [Eric] states, is the MQTT binding that ties together the Ardiuno and openHAB platform. This allows for simple messages to be sent over the Ethernet connection which is often found in IoT devices.
So all you developers out there go home and start thinking of what could be connected next! Because with this system, all you need is a couple of ten-spots and an internet plug, and you have yourself a strong foundation to build on top of. The rest is up to you.
This open, connected device is [Eric’s] entry for The Hackaday Prize. You can see his video demo after the break. We hope this inspires you to
submit your own project to the contest
! | 16 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1650282",
"author": "vonskippy",
"timestamp": "2014-07-20T03:22:08",
"content": "Good idea – but the “mail” sensor needs work. It doesn’t detect actual mail, just the mailbox door being open. The moment one of the more clever neighborhood kid discovers that, you’ll get around 9 ba... | 1,760,376,129.247098 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/19/hope-x-whistleblower-central/ | HOPE X: Interviews With Ellsberg And Snowden | Rich Bremer | [
"Featured",
"News"
] | [
"ellsberg",
"HOPE X",
"snowden",
"whistleblower"
] | Two of the talks at
HOPE X
Saturday revolved around Daniel Ellsberg and Edward Snowden. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard of
Snowden
when he leaked thousands of classified NSA documents to several media outlets. The older readers may remember
Ellsberg
who released government documents, known as the Pentagon Papers, pertaining to government decisions made during the Vietnam War. It was a popular topic here as all three conference rooms were dedicated to the the talks and all three were completely filled to the point that staff again had to turn people away. Luckily, even if you couldn’t make it into a conference room you could still watch it as all talks are
streamed live
via the HOPE website.
Regardless whether you feel these two are heroes or traitors, the talks were interesting with both giving accounts of their story. Each interview was about an hour long.
Ellsberg, who was here in person, talked about his entire experience and why he felt it necessary to reveal the classified documents he had secretly made copies of. Even though Ellsberg did release what he felt was evidence that the government knew that the war could most likely not be won and would cause many more casualties, he does still feel that some things are necessary for the government to keep secret. He gave an estimate that 95% of the documents classified are over-classified at the time of document creation and after a few years only 0.5% of the those documents are still classified correctly, the remaining 99.5% still over-classified.
Snowden, who was available by video, was warmly welcomed and applauded by the attendees of the conference. During the talk he discussed that he did not feel that some of the NSA’s actions he was aware of were constitutional, specifically collecting enormous amounts of data of not only ‘people of interest’, but of everyday american citizens. Snowden feels that we, as a community, give too much trust in our electronic devices. He went on to suggest that the population do what it can to minimize the capability of organizations to monitor communications and track data. He urged that people, with the capability, help educate others on how to interact with technology safely, reliably and in a way that serves the interest of all people, not just a select few.
Let us know what you think below in the comments. | 46 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1649663",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2014-07-19T22:09:23",
"content": "“heros”->”heroes”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1649722",
"author": "Rich Bremer",
"timestamp": "2014-07-19T22:36:38",
"co... | 1,760,376,129.605754 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/21/spot-welder-dont-buy-it-build-it/ | Spot Welder; Don’t Buy It, Build It | James Hobson | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"diy spot welder",
"spot welder",
"welder"
] | Spot welders are super handy for making sheet metal enclosures for your projects. The problem is, commercial ones are rather expensive… The good news is, they’re actually really easy to make! This is [Caio Paulucci’s]
first submission
to Hack a Day, and it was a weekend project him and his father just finished.
A spot welder works by dissipating large amounts of heat in between two electrodes in the material you are bonding. It makes use of a transformer that converts mains voltage to a very low voltage, but high current energy source. The cool thing with this type of welder is it’s perfectly safe to hold onto the electrodes as the voltage is so low, you won’t get electrocuted. By running a super high current (generally >1000A @ ~1-2V) through a small surface area, you can super heat most materials hot enough to weld them together.
They can be made using the transformer from a microwave, some heavy duty welding wire (generally 2/0 or thicker), and a few other odds and ends such as wood, electrodes, and maybe a few nuts and bolts. At the most basic level, you are basically re-wrapping the transformer’s secondary coils to change the ratio to produce a low voltage, high current transformer.
For more detailed instructions on
how to build your own
, we’ve covered
these builds
many
times before. | 84 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "1654081",
"author": "grady",
"timestamp": "2014-07-21T14:20:36",
"content": "well a harbor freight spot welder is $174, minus the 35 for your 20% off coupon, and for $140 you have someone for your family sue after you are electrocuted.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"r... | 1,760,376,129.52464 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/21/pic-up-a-neopixel-ring-and-c-what-you-can-do-using-this-tutorial/ | PIC Up A NeoPixel Ring And C What You Can Do Using This Tutorial | Kristina Panos | [
"LED Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"led",
"microcontroller",
"neopixel",
"neopixel ring",
"pic",
"pic18f4550",
"rgb",
"RGB LED",
"ws2812",
"ws2812b"
] | As [Shahriar] points out in the introductory matter to
his latest video
at The Signal Path, Arduinos are a great way for a beginner to dig into all kinds of electronic excitement, but they do so at the cost of isolating that beginner from the nitty gritty of microcontrollers. Here, [Shahriar] gives a very thorough walkthrough of a 60-neopixel ring starting with the guts and glory of a single RGB LED. He then shows how that ring can easily be programmed using a PIC and some C.
[Shahriar]’s eval board is a simple setup that he’s used for other projects. It’s based on the PIC18F4550 which he’s programming with an ICD-U64. The PIC is powered through USB, but he’s using a separate switching supply to power the ring itself since he would need ~60mA per RGB to make them burn white at full brightness.
He’s written a simple header file that pulls in the 18F4550 library, sets the fuses, and defines some constants specific to the ring size. As he explains in the video, the PIC can create a 48MHz internal clock from a 20Mhz crystal and he sets up this delay in the header as well. The main code deals with waveform generation, and [Shahriar] does a great job explaining how this is handled with a single pin. Before he lights up the ring, he puts his scope on the assigned GPIO pin to show that although the datasheet is wrong about the un-delayed width of the low period for a zero bit, it still works to program the LEDs.
[Shahriar] has the code available on his site. He is also holding a giveaway open to US residents: simply comment on his blog post or on the video at YouTube and you could win either a
TPI Scope Plus 440
with probes and a manual or a
Tektronix TDS2232
with GPIB. He’ll even pay the shipping. | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1653739",
"author": "James",
"timestamp": "2014-07-21T11:19:10",
"content": "This looks interesting. I’ve been working on porting the Adafruit Neo-Pixel libs to work with PIC18, my ‘weapon-of-choice’ when it comes to micros. This looks like a much cleaner, fresh implementation tha... | 1,760,376,129.911928 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/21/cutting-ribbons-with-robots-and-a-oculus-rift/ | Cutting Ribbons With Robots And A Oculus Rift | Matt Terndrup | [
"Robots Hacks",
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"clearpath robotics",
"Kinect",
"oculus rift",
"pr2",
"robots",
"ros",
"telepresence",
"virtual reality"
] | On June 26th, 2014, Clearpath Robotics opened up the doors to their brand new 12,000 square foot robot lair by
bringing out a PR2 to cut the ceremonial ribbon
and welcome everyone inside. And instead of just programming the ‘locate and destroy’ ribbon sequence, the co-founders opted to use an Oculus Rift to control the robot tearing through the material with flailing arms.
This was accomplished having Jake, the robot, utilize a Kinect 2.0 that fed skeleton tracking data via
rosserial_windows
, a windows-based set of extension for
the Robot Operating System
which we heard about in January. The software gathers in a stream of data points each with an X,Y,Z component allowing [Jake] to find himself within a 3D space.Then, the data was collected and published directly into the PR2’s brain. Inject a little python code, and the creature was able to route directions in order to move it’s arms.
Thus, by simply stepping in front of the Kinect 2.0, and putting on the Oculus Rift headset, anyone could teleoperate [Jake] to move around and wave its arms at oncoming ribbons. Once completed, [Jake] would leave the scene, journeying back into the newly created robot lair leaving pieces of nylon and polyester everywhere.
An earlier (un-smoothed) version of the full system can be seen after the break:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqDRGLMm_Ao
A simulated version of the system can also be found in the link posted above. | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1653558",
"author": "Galane",
"timestamp": "2014-07-21T09:44:32",
"content": "“…tearing through the material with failing arms.” FAILING arms? I think you missed an L in there. ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1653562",
... | 1,760,376,129.816114 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/20/hackaday-links-july-20-2014/ | Hackaday Links: July 20, 2014 | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"android",
"ASIC",
"bitcoin",
"Crowd Funding",
"mouse",
"Nikola Tesla",
"usb otg",
"wardenclyffe tower",
"water cooled",
"wireless electricity"
] | Etch-a-Sketch spray-painted silver with electronics bolted onto the side? Sign us up!
This art installation
adds one thing that we don’t often see in
these types of hacks
, eerie audio.
If you’re still mining bitcoin you need to do it faster than anyone else… that’s pretty much how the whole thing works. [Lewin] has been using the Antminer USB ASIC and toyed around with overclocking to 2.2 GH/s (gighashes per second) but to make sure his hardware holds up to the overwork he hacked
his own water cooling system for the dongle
.
Smart phones are the best bang for your buck on portability and power. Better yet you can get slightly broken ones for a song. If you manage to find an Android device with a broken touch screen but functioning LCD
try this trick to add a mouse to it
. There must be another life for this in a future hack!
We have a love-hate relationship with this particular crowd-funding campaign. First this hate: It’s basically a 100% clip-art video presentation with an $800,000 ask. Yeah… good luck buddy. On the other hand, this is the type of stuff we actually want to see as crowd funding. The idea is to use modern materials and techniques to build [Nikola Tesla’s]
Wardenclyffe Tower
, which was designed and built to research wireless energy (both as a means of communication and actual energy transfer). It was never fully functional and ended up being demolished. Wouldn’t it be great if teams of highly skilled and motivated people took grand ideas like this, crossing every theoretical “t” and dotting every theoretical “i”, and then proposed a crowd funding campaign to build a test platform? Oh wait, that sounds very much like a government research grant. Anywhoo… check out
the Global Energy Transmission’s campaign
. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1653185",
"author": "Yarr",
"timestamp": "2014-07-21T06:08:46",
"content": "lol, bitcoin",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1653581",
"author": "kg",
"timestamp": "2014-07-21T09:55:43",
"content": "Remembe... | 1,760,376,129.649429 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/20/march-attends-hope-x-in-july/ | MARCH Attends HOPE X In July | Rich Bremer | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"HOPE X",
"MARCH",
"Mid-Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists",
"retrocomputing",
"Vintage Computer Festival",
"vintage computing"
] | The Mid-Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyist (
MARCH
) group is at HOPE X displaying a chronology of Apple computers, everything from an
accurate Apple 1 reproduction
all the way way up to an Apple Macintosh, and of course including all the II’s in between. Although they are only displaying Apples at this event, don’t confuse them for an Apple group. They love all types of vintage computers from the 1940’s to the 80’s.
[Evan], president of the group, elegantly explained why they are here; “to let people know that vintage computing
is
a thing and there are people in the area that
do
that thing”. He would like to encourage everyone who is mildly interested in retro computing to contact their local retro computer group and get involved in the community.
The group also puts on a yearly Vintage Computer Festival in New Jersey. This year’s event has already passed but you can still see what happened as
Hackaday was there
documenting all the cool stuff. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1653163",
"author": "DarkSim905",
"timestamp": "2014-07-21T05:50:50",
"content": "Phew, I’m not in the background of the photo, thank goodness. Unrelated, but hopefully my suggestions help HaD improve. :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comme... | 1,760,376,129.859077 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/20/im-sorry-dave-im-afraid-i-cant-do-that/ | I’m Sorry Dave, I’m Afraid I Can’t Do That | James Hobson | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"A Space Odyssey",
"hal 9000",
"hal9000"
] | “Let me put it this way, Mr Amer. The 9000 series is the most reliable computer ever made. No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error. “
With that in mind, who
wouldn’t
want a HAL 9000 personal computer at home? For his latest project, [Eduardo Zola] brings us a very realistic
Raspberry Pi powered HAL 9000
, complete with an all seeing eye.
In case you’re not familiar (boo!)
HAL 9000
is a character from
2001: a Space Odyssey
. His name is an acronym for a
H
euristically programmed
AL
gorithmic sentient computer who is responsible for controlling the Discovery One spacecraft, and well, he goes crazy.
[Eduardo] has built this replica out of wood, a bit of paint, a Raspberry Pi, a speaker, webcam and a beautiful red all-seeing-eye, lit with LEDs. It’s a rather fitting entry to our
Hackaday Prize contest
.
It’s not quite done yet, but HAL 9000.2 is coming out soon! | 51 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "1652146",
"author": "zibri",
"timestamp": "2014-07-20T23:09:47",
"content": "And if you pick the next letter in the alphabet for every letter in HAL… you get IBM :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1652848",
"author": "... | 1,760,376,130.003751 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/20/kenyan-teens-invention-protects-cattle-and-lions/ | Kenyan Teen’s Invention Protects Cattle And Lions | Rick Osgood | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"africa",
"cattle",
"kenya",
"lion",
"motorbike",
"ted",
"turn signal"
] | [Richard’s] community in Kenya had a problem. The people depended on local livestock for survival, but the local lion population had started consuming that very same food source. The result was that people suffered from loss of the livestock, but the lions also suffered when the people killed them to protect their source of food. [Richard] knew he could do something to help both his community, and the lion population. He ended up building a
lion attack prevention system
.
He first tried a sort of scarecrow, to keep the lions away from the cattle. Unfortunately the lions proved to be too “tricky” and quickly realized that the scarecrows were no threat. Then one day, [Richard] was working with a flashlight. This led him to realize that the lions seemed to be afraid of moving light. That gave him the idea for his invention.
He had previously taken apart his mothers new radio, much to her dismay. He learned a lot about electronics in the process. He combined his electronics knowledge with this new knowledge about lions, to create his lion attack prevention system. The core component is the turn signal circuit from a motorbike. The circuit is hooked up to a rechargeable battery and a solar cell. This all runs through a switch so [Richard] can turn it on only when needed. The circuit is switched on at night to keep the lions away. [Richard] claims that they have experienced no lion attacks since the system was put in place two years ago!
This protects both the local cattle as well as the lions themselves. The whole thing is powered from the sun, so it’s likely to last a very long time. This kind of project may seem simple to many readers, but it’s a great example of the good ideas and ingenuity that can grow out of necessity. Oh, did we mention that [Richard] is only 13 years old? His invention is now reportedly being used all over Kenya and has led [Richard] to receive a scholarship to what he calls “one of the best schools in Kenya”.
While this hack has clearly changed the lives of many people in [Richard’s] region. You don’t have to make something overly complicated to change the world.
[ted id=1699]
[Thanks Keith] | 36 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1651843",
"author": "Frank",
"timestamp": "2014-07-20T20:07:57",
"content": "Totally awesome.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1651845",
"author": "Xyroze",
"timestamp": "2014-07-20T20:09:33",
"content": "Slow day? No... | 1,760,376,130.138067 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/19/a-laser-cut-word-clock/ | A Laser Cut Word Clock | Nick Conn | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"clock hacks"
] | [
"acrylic",
"Ardunio",
"clock",
"DS3231",
"laser cut",
"laser cutter",
"led",
"ponoko",
"rtc",
"wooden clock",
"word clock"
] | What is a word clock? A word clock is a clock that displays the time typographically that is also an interactive piece of art. Rather than buy one for $1500, [Buckeyeguy89] decided to
build one as a present
for his older brother. A very nice present indeed!
There are many different things that come into play when designing a word clock. The front panel is made from a laser cut piece of birch using the service from
Ponoko
. Additionally, white translucent pieces of acrylic were needed to keep each word’s light from bleeding into the neighboring letters. The hardware uses two Arduinos to control the LEDs and a DS3231 RTC for keeping accurate time. The results are very impressive, but it would sure make assembly easier if a custom PCB was used in the final version. For a one-off project, this makes a great birthday present.
The craftsmanship of this word clock is great, making it well suited for any home. What projects have you built that involve more than just electronics? Sometimes, quality aesthetics make all the difference. | 18 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "1649482",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2014-07-19T20:04:41",
"content": "Max7219 is your friend.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1649519",
"author": "a programmer",
"timestamp": "2014-07-19T20:30:42",
... | 1,760,376,130.056586 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/19/hope-x-commodore-64s-are-back-baby/ | HOPE X: Commodore 64’s Are Back, Baby | Rich Bremer | [
"computer hacks",
"cons",
"Featured"
] | [
"2600",
"commodore 64",
"cons",
"hope",
"HOPE X",
"nyc",
"raspberry pi"
] | Maybe they weren’t really ever gone but even so Commodore enthusiast
[ALWYZ]
is here at HOPE X spreading re-awareness of the Commodore 64 and that there is still a community of Commodore fans out there who have been up to some pretty cool projects.
One of those projects is a Quantum Link-esque service called
Q-Link Reloaded
. Quantum Link was an online service available for Commodore 64 and 128 users that offered electronic mail, online chat, file sharing, online news, and instant messaging. It lasted from the mid-80s to the mid-90’s and later evolved into America Online. In 2005, a group of folks reversed-engineered the original server code and the resultant Q-Link Reloaded lets the Commodore folks once again communicate with each other.
Also on display is a Raspberry Pi running a
C64 emulator
complete with a controller to GPIO adapter. Hackaday has
covered this emulator
just a few months ago and it is great to see it working in person. | 15 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1649351",
"author": "MRE",
"timestamp": "2014-07-19T18:24:07",
"content": "some info on how to actually connect on QLinkReloaded would be nice.. because it seems to be on again, off again. The forum is dominated by threads from 2005. As a service running out of someone’s house, its ... | 1,760,376,130.190957 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/19/high-speed-laser-based-camera-flash-trigger-for-only-2/ | High Speed Laser Based Camera Flash Trigger For Only $2 | James Hobson | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"camera flash trigger",
"camera trigger",
"intervalometer",
"laser pointer",
"laser trigger",
"slow motion"
] | [Matt Kane] works at a really cool company in the UK where he recently finished working on the Triggertrap Ada — the highest-performance, most feature packed camera trigger out there. So just for fun, he decided to challenge himself again — could he make a super basic,
super fast,
bare-bones
camera trigger for $2 instead?
At the most basic level this is just a laser pointer and a light sensor. When the object your photographing breaks the light path, the flash triggers. Typically this is done with an IR laser, but since he’s going for a low-cost system, he’ll use a basic 1mw red laser pointer — the only downfall is you might see it in the picture.
Next up is the sensor. Ideally we’d use a photodiode which is very fast, but also expensive. A photoresistor is cheap, but not fast enough. A nice medium between the two is a phototransistor, which is relatively fast, and cheap. Finally, we need a minimum trigger period to offset the flash. [Matt] thought about using a 555 timer but instead decided to just generate a pulse with an Attiny45.
Add a couple resistors, throw it all together on a breadboard and for $1.44 he’s got a super affordable, and functional camera flash trigger! Check out this exploding crayon that was shot with a BB gun!
This of course can also be created
using an Arduino
for similar results. | 40 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1648980",
"author": "Thinkerer",
"timestamp": "2014-07-19T14:08:33",
"content": "Well done!I’ve messed around with these off and on for some time – how the *heck* do you get the flash to operate briefly enough to stop motion? I’ve always gotten motion blur because the flash pulse i... | 1,760,376,130.585858 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/19/hope-x-hackaday-shirt-gets-hacked-at-hacker-convention/ | HOPE X: Hackaday Shirt Gets Hacked At Hacker Convention | Rich Bremer | [
"cons",
"Featured"
] | [
"2600",
"cons",
"hope",
"HOPE X",
"nyc"
] | In my
last post
I mentioned that we are meeting a lot of interesting people here at HOPE X. One of those interesting people is [Miriam] who is performing
Logo Removal
in the vendor area. If you don’t know what that is, you are not alone, neither did we. She doesn’t much like the idea of being a walking bill board for any ole company and has been removing logos from cloths for a while now.
[Miriam] did us a solid and removed a logo from one of the shirts we are giving away. The process starts by flipping the shirt inside out. A piece of scrap fabric larger than the logo is pinned in place in the logo area. The shirt is then flipped right side out and a shape is sewn around the logo, joining the shirt with the scrap fabric. Scissors are then used to cut the logo out of the shirt being careful to only cut the shirt and not the fabric underneath. The shirt is then flipped back inside out and the excess scrap fabric is trimmed away. That’s it.
What about the shape? [Miriam] likes to make them up as she goes along and admits that they aren’t anything specific. She likes the design to be whatever the viewer feels it is. It’s a fun project that invites conversation.
Leave us a comment below telling us what you ‘see’ in the now non-HaD shirt shape. | 52 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "1648800",
"author": "Old'un",
"timestamp": "2014-07-19T11:26:18",
"content": "Surely it’s easier to just buy clothes that don’t have logos you don’t like on?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1648809",
"author": "Johnnnn... | 1,760,376,130.678284 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/19/roboceratops-a-robot-dinosaur-that-defies-extinction/ | Roboceratops: A Robot Dinosaur That Defies Extinction | Kristina Panos | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"animatronic",
"Arduino Mega 2560",
"ATMega2560",
"ceratopsian",
"laser cut",
"mdf",
"servo",
"upholstery foam"
] | Inspired by a childhood love of dinosaurs, [Robert] set out to build a robotic dinosaur from the Ceratopsian family. After about a year of design, building, and coding, he has sent us
a video of Roboceratops
moving around gracefully, chomping a rope, and smoothly wagging his tail.
Roboceratops is made from laser-cut MDF and aluminium bars in the legs. That’s not cookie dough on those legs, it’s upholstery foam, and we love the way [Robert] has shaped it. Roboceratops has servos in his jaw, neck, tail, and legs for a total of 14-DOF. You can see the servo specifics and more in the video description. [Robert] has full kinematic control of him through a custom controller and is working to achieve total quadrupedal locomotion.
Inside that custom controller is an Arduino Mega 2560, an LCD, and two 3-axis analog joysticks that control translation, height, yaw, pitch, and jaw articulation. For now, Roboceratops receives power and serial control through a tether, but [Robert] plans to add an on-board µC for autonomous movement as well as wireless, a battery, an IMU, and perhaps some pressure/contact detection in his feet.
The cherry on top of this build is the matching, latching custom carry case that has drawers to hold the controller, power supply, cable, tools, and spare parts. Check out Roboceratops after the break. | 13 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1648547",
"author": "fred",
"timestamp": "2014-07-19T08:28:24",
"content": "That’s some amazing work! Just beware of Steven Spielberg, as he’s known for ruthlessly slaying those things…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1648561",
... | 1,760,376,130.46416 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/18/hope-x-lock-picking-and-lock-sport/ | HOPE X: Lock Picking And Lock Sport | Rich Bremer | [
"cons",
"Featured"
] | [
"2600",
"cons",
"hope",
"HOPE X",
"nyc"
] | HOPE X
is happening. There are tons of people here. Tons. So many that people (including me) have been turned away at the door for popular talks. Overall, we are having a great time and meeting some interesting people.
I admit to having zero lock picking experience. It’s something I’ve thought would be neat to learn about for a long time. Well, today was the day…. I attended the “Lockpicking, A Primer” presentation and it was great. They started with the basics, discussing the appeal of lock picking and where organized
Lock Sport
started. The presentation consisted of excellent graphics and clear explanations of the lock picking process. They went over the anatomy of a lock and how they work as well as the tools used and tool types. The talk also progressed into more advanced topics. There is even a lock picking village where you give it a go. I’ll be trying it out for sure.
Couldn’t make it to NYC for the event? All of the talks are
streamed live
. You’ve probably heard that Hackaday has a booth at HOPE this year. Swing by and say hi. You could probably convince us to give you a shirt! | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "1648273",
"author": "unemployedchap",
"timestamp": "2014-07-19T05:43:09",
"content": "REAL HACKERS DON’T GO TO CON",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1650965",
"author": "Lutan",
"timestamp": "2014-07-20T10:19:35"... | 1,760,376,130.508169 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/18/apple-graphics-as-your-screensaver-or-second-screen/ | Apple ][ Graphics As Your Screensaver Or Second Screen | Mike Szczys | [
"Linux Hacks",
"Mac Hacks"
] | [
"apple II",
"python",
"rss",
"screensaver",
"weather"
] | Hipsters rejoice, you can actually make those high-tech IPS panels look like crap. Really nostalgic crap. [Kaveen Rodrigo] wrote in to show how
he displays weather data as his Apple ][ emulated screensaver
.
He’s building on the Apple2 package that is part of the xscreensaver available on Linux systems. The program has an option flag that allows you to run another program inside of it. This can be just about anything including using it as your terminal emulator. [Adrian] recently sent us the screenshot shown here for our retro edition. He is running bash and loaded up freenet just to enjoy what it used to be like in the good old days.
In this case, [Kaveen] is using Python to pull in, parse, and print out a Yahoo weather json packet. Since it’s just a program that is called when the screensaver is launched, you can use it as such or just launch it manually and fill your second monitor whenever not in use.
We gave it a whirl, altering his code to take a tuple of zip codes. Every hour it will pull down the data and redraw the screen. But we’ve put enough in there that you’ll be able to replace it with your own data in a matter of minutes. If you do, post a screenshot and what you’re using it for in the comments.
Here’s our example code:
#!/usr/bin/env python2
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
#
# a2.py
# Based on the work of Kaveen Rodrigo which can be found here:
# http://geeknirvana.org/?p=4
# The original carried the following license:
#
# Copyright 2014 Kaveen Rodrigo <kaveenr@KNET>
#
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
# Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston,
# MA 02110-1301, USA.
#
#
import urllib2,json,time,os
locationCodes = (53716,91105,17201)
def getIt(postalCode):
try:
html = urllib2.urlopen("http://query.yahooapis.com/v1/public/yql?q=select%20item%20from%20weather.forecast%20where%20location%3D%22"+str(postalCode)+"%22&format=json").read()
return json.loads(html)
except:
print("Are you on the innernet?")
exit()
def main():
while True:
for code in locationCodes:
js = getIt(code)
print(js["query"]["results"]["channel"]["item"]["title"])
print(js["query"]["results"]["channel"]["item"]["condition"]["text"]+" Temp "+js["query"]["results"]["channel"]["item"]["condition"]["temp"]+" F")
print
print
time.sleep(3600)
os.system('clear')
print " apple ]["
print
return 0
if __name__ == '__main__':
main() | 16 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "1647927",
"author": "Mateus",
"timestamp": "2014-07-19T02:32:05",
"content": "Argh… I really need to take some time to learn python =/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1647989",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"timesta... | 1,760,376,130.732536 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/16/kumo-connect-from-automated-desktop-and-backyard-gardens-to-automated-everything/ | Kumo Connect: From Automated Desktop And Backyard Gardens To Automated Everything | Kristina Panos | [
"Featured"
] | [
"garden",
"garden gnomes",
"hardware startup",
"home automation",
"kumo connect",
"raspberry pi",
"raspberry pi home automation"
] | I ran into a guy at Maker Faire Kansas City who I used to scoop ice cream with twenty years ago. We were slinging frozen dairy at a Baskin Robbins in a dying suburban strip mall that had a one-hour photo booth in the parking lot. It was just far enough away from our doorstep that dotting its backside with the hard-frozen ice cream balls that had been scooped and then not always accidentally dropped into the depths of the freezer was challenging. This guy, [Blake], kept a hockey stick hidden in the back room especially for this purpose. I never could get them to fly that far, but he was pretty good at it.
I hadn’t seen him since those days, and there he was manning a booth at Maker Faire. He looked quite professional, showing no hint of the mischief from those days of ice cream hockey. His booth’s main attraction was Niwa, a connected indoor garden. Having spent four years living and working in Japan after college, [Blake] did not choose this name arbitrarily: ‘niwa’ is Japanese for ‘garden’. He loves Hackaday and was more than happy to share his story.
Connecting with Nature
[Blake] is an avid gardener, but his wife does not share this passion. A few years ago, he took a new job that required travel on an almost weekly basis, which meant big trouble for his plants. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find what he wanted to ensure they were taken care of. You know what comes next: he decided he would design his own system. However, he had no experience with electronics.
Enter the Sparkfun Arduino Inventor’s Kit. Once he achieved Hello, World, he was unstoppable. After a couple of months, a lot of googling, and several prototype iterations, he arrived at the current design.
Niwa does pretty much everything you’d want a connected garden to do: it measures the soil moisture, relative humidity, ambient light, temperature, and barometric pressure. Inside the controller is a custom ATMega328 shield that can work as a standalone or on top of a Pi for web connectivity and control.
He can set it to water on a schedule through Google calendar, but he prefers to do it himself from his phone. The Pi sends a sensor data breakdown the
Xively
web service so he can check out the graphs from his hotel room. Niwa doesn’t use anything weird or difficult to source, just good ol’ ebay sensors like a photocell, the DHT-11, and a BMP-085 for barometric pressure data.
Garden Party
Once he got Niwa up and running, he expanded automation to his larger indoor garden as well as his 25’ x 25’ outdoor vegetable garden. The indoor gardens use aquarium pumps and buckets for watering. Outside, the vegetables thrive in rows divided by soaker hoses that are fed from the spigot and controlled with a solenoid valve. All three gardens have gnome guardians with weather sensors and a 2.4GHz radio so they can share intel. [Blake] has plans to integrate weather monitoring that would have the system check rain predictions and adjust watering accordingly.
Home of the Future
Once he had all three gardens running smoothly, [Blake] wanted to automate all the things. His blinds could open and close based on the light outside. His dog could be fed automatically. The thermostat could make decisions; the garage door could close itself if left open. Did the mail come? Did the doorbell ring while no one was home? No reason he couldn’t find out, and from almost anywhere in the world.
Then [Blake] saw a business opportunity. He brought in a few people to help with software development, marketing, manufacturing, and design, and
Kumo Connect
was born. They have built many prototypes including an automatic dog feeder, smart thermostat, and garage door unit. All of these are standalone units, but are able to talk to each other. Other designs they have built include automated window blinds, safes, and desk locks.
[Blake] and his team are getting close to releasing Niwa as a commercial product. Either way, they plan to publish all the CAD designs and code once everything is ready for prime time. For now, you can
visit their site and register for updates
.
[Blake]’s advice to anyone who wants to explore open hardware and software, spearhead a startup, or anything in between is simple: surround yourself with people smarter than you. In particular, he is grateful for the support of his teammates and all his friends at
Hammerspace
.
[Photo credit: Back to the Future, Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment] | 8 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "1642186",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2014-07-16T14:58:17",
"content": "All these people with access to laser cutters and other horribly expensive tools.. Is there ANY sources for affordable Laser cutters out there? likes under $500?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": ... | 1,760,376,130.961878 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/16/rbc-i3/ | Red Bull Creation: I3 Detroit | Brian Benchoff | [
"contests",
"Featured"
] | [
"detroit",
"farming",
"greenhouse",
"hackerspace",
"pneumatic",
"rbcreation",
"red bull",
"red bull creation",
"scarecrow",
"urban",
"windshield"
] | If there’s one thing I learned about Detroit last weekend, it’s that it is freaking huge. It’s an unbelievably large city, and looking at the population numbers, you can really start to see the problem of providing city services to such a large area. With such a sparse population, it’s the ideal environment for experimentations in urban farming, after a few seasons of planting crops that will leech everything out of the soil of course.
If you have a farm, you’re going to need some means of irrigation, and you might as well throw a scarecrow in there as well, giving i3 Detroit the idea for RoboCrop, the perfect project for an urban farm or anyone who is putting on a production of
The Wizard Of Oz
but is a little shorthanded for a full cast.
RoboCrop is an all-in-one irrigation and bird and small mammal scaring device, controllable with webcam video streamed right to the remote. It’s a fun project, and fits right into the apparent unofficial “urban gardening” theme of this year’s Red Bull Creation.
i3 is also the largest and arguably the best equipped hackerspace in the Detroit region. They were kind enough to let us throw a little get together there last weekend
where we gave away a 3D printer for The Hackaday Prize
. Good times all around. We’ll have a video tour of i3 up a little bit later.
Cracked windshields ready for greenhouse
Windshields added to greenhouse.
Robocrop dressed with face and hands
Face worthy of Robocop; spits water while camera watches you
Pump, reservoir, and power source for Robocrop | 6 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1641960",
"author": "fartface",
"timestamp": "2014-07-16T11:57:32",
"content": "Detroit is tiny. Chicago and NYC are far larger. In fact right now Detroit is barely the largest city in Michigan. Unless you count all the decay and warzones. Heck even Atlanta is starting to make D... | 1,760,376,130.916414 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/16/thp-entry-the-everything-rc-transmitter/ | THP Entry: The Everything RC Transmitter | Brian Benchoff | [
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"FPV",
"model airplane",
"quadcopter",
"rc",
"remote control",
"rx",
"the hackaday prize",
"THP",
"transmitter"
] | With few exceptions, most of The Hackaday Prize are things we really haven’t seen much of before: base-3 computers that have been relegated to the history books, extremely odd 3D printers, and fancy, new IoT devices are the norm.
The OSRC is not a new project to us
. (UPDATE: Looks like they deleted their project page. Here is
a snapshot of it from the Internet Archive
) We saw it
once in 2011
and again
a year later
. What makes the OSRC an interesting project for The Hackaday Prize isn’t the fact that it’s the most advanced RC transmitter ever created. Creating that was evidently the easy part. The OSRC could use a big financial kick in the pants, and if [Demetris] wins, we’d guess he wouldn’t be taking that ride to space. Rather, he’d be taking the cash prize to get his ultimate transmitter into large-scale manufacturing and out into the wild.
While at first glance the base model OSRC seems expensive at about $6-700 USD, consider this: a six-channel transmitter from an excellent brand costs about $120 USD. Nine channels will run you about $400. The OSRC is a forty channel radio. The sticks are capable of force feedback, and of course the ‘pro’ model of the OSRC has that wonderful screen, capable of displaying video from an FPV camera, a GPS/map overlay, or an incredibly extensive telemetry display. There are multi-thousand dollar avionics for real airplanes out there that have a smaller feature set, and that’s not hyperbole.
A few months ago, [Demetris] was interviewed by the awesome people at Flite Test. That (highly suggested) video is embedded 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. | 25 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1641777",
"author": "zakqwy",
"timestamp": "2014-07-16T10:03:32",
"content": "Whether or not this project wins the prize, I hope Demetris figures out a way to fund and build this controller; I’d love to use one for my projects.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies":... | 1,760,376,130.794371 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/15/in-n-out-boards-sans-hamburgers/ | In-N-Out Boards Sans Hamburgers | Brian Benchoff | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"cubicle",
"indicator",
"office",
"office space",
"velcro",
"whiteboard"
] | Before this project, [David]’s office had a fairly terrible system to tell everyone who was in the office, who was out, and who wasn’t coming in today. Velcro and whiteboards will do the job, but arcade buttons and LEDs called to [David], leading him to create this
In/Out Status Board
.
The old system consisted of a whiteboard on the side of each partition, with velcroed labels indicating if a particular person was in the office today, out, sick, or on holiday. Inconvenient to change, and there was no single place everyone could look to see if a particular person was in or not. The new system consists of a four-person pod with four arcade buttons and WS2811 LEDs, an Arduino Nano, and a 433 MHz radio. The main panel is just a bigger version of the four-person pod, keeping track of everyone in the office.
A single button switch will change a person from being in to being out, with longer presses necessary for ‘sick’ and ‘vacation’. It’s interesting to note what’s
not
included in this build: A fingerprint scanner was out of the question, because that would effectively eliminate anyone ever being marked as ‘sick’. An RFID tag reader was out for the same reason. Also not included is a display. That’s just fine, really – [David] won’t be changing the labels very often, anyway, and that would just add to the cost and complexity of the project. | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1641253",
"author": "Alan Hightower",
"timestamp": "2014-07-16T05:07:54",
"content": "I don’t see a color code for “Doppelganger stand-in”. Time for build 2.0.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1641327",
"author": "Engineer",... | 1,760,376,131.021042 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/15/red-bull-creation-omnicorp-this-time-theyre-not-evil/ | Red Bull Creation: Omnicorp: This Time, They’re Not Evil | Brian Benchoff | [
"contests",
"Featured"
] | [
"detroit",
"farmer's market",
"Omnicorp",
"rbcreation",
"red bull",
"red bull creation"
] | While the bulk of the building for the Red Bull Creation happened at a recycling center/art space in Detroit, the
judging
was at Detroit’s Eastern Market, a huge farmer’s market that has just about everything. The Omnicorp hackerspace is just off Eastern Market, so this is their territory: they know what will work. For their entry for this year’s RBC, they’re going local: a wheeled information kiosk that’s also a great place to make smoothies and grill up a few veggies and dogs.
While the information kiosk the team is commendable, the idea of giving all the visitors to the Red Bull Creation event a halfway decent lunch is a great idea: all the ingredients are already there, so all that’s needed is an extension cord and a little bit of charcoal.
After
the Red Bull Creation event is where this project would have really shined: hundreds of people going through at least six kegs, fireworks, a friggin’ dragon dump truck, and a DJ loud enough to be heard a half mile away. We’ll get to that in a post tomorrow. Let’s just say our head editor had fun. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "1640890",
"author": "ellisgl",
"timestamp": "2014-07-16T02:11:18",
"content": "The origins of the BBS recreated?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1641589",
"author": "static",
"timestamp": "2014-07-16T08:18:38",... | 1,760,376,131.155123 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/15/demystifying-ntsc-color-and-progressive-scan/ | Demystifying NTSC Color And Progressive Scan | Brian Benchoff | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"atmega",
"c64",
"Color TV",
"game console",
"home computer",
"nintendo",
"ntsc",
"progressive scan",
"sega"
] | Black and white NTSC is simple – it can, and was, done with vacuum tubes for a long, long time. Color is just weird, though. It runs at 29.976 frames per second, uses different phases of the carrier for different colors, and generally takes a while to wrap your head around. [Sagar] is doing a series on the intricacies of NTSC, and the latest post
deals with color and progressive scanning versus interlacing
, or as it is better known, how classic game consoles and home computers generate video.
The test bed for [Sagar]’s video experimentations is a circuit containing an ATMega16, a 4-bit shift register, and a 14.31818 MHz clock. This clock is much faster than the 3.579545 MHz clock in an NTSC carrier frequency – exactly four times as fast – allowing the shift register to output four different phases of the carrier frequency a 0°, 90°. 180°, and 270°. Playing with some of the pins on the ATMega in the circuit results in a palette being generated on any old TV.
NTSC requires interlaced scanning, or sending an entire screen of even lines, then an entire screen of odd lines, at around 60 fields per second. The Nintendos and Segas of yesteryear didn’t bother with this, instead opting to send half the vertical resolution at double the frame rate. This is known as a progressive scan. [Sagar] found that this resulted in some image artifacts when displayed on a modern LCD, and moving back to an interlaced mode fixed the problem. All the code and files
are up on the gits
. If you’re feeling adventurous, this is exactly how projects like the
Uzebox
have created homebrew game consoles using little more than the ATMega found in [Sagar]’s build. | 37 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "1640615",
"author": "Audin",
"timestamp": "2014-07-15T23:24:06",
"content": "(Many TVs also did color with tubes.)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1640617",
"author": "peter",
"timestamp": "2014-07-15T23:24:25",
"con... | 1,760,376,131.29616 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/15/pinoccio-mesh-all-the-internet-of-things/ | Pinoccio: Mesh All The (Internet Of) Things | Brian Benchoff | [
"hardware"
] | [
"atmega",
"internet of things",
"IoT",
"mesh networking",
"pinocc.io",
"Pinoccio",
"wifi"
] | There’s a problem with products geared towards building the Internet of Things. Everyone building hardware needs investors, and thus some way to monetize their platform. This means all your data is pushed to ‘the cloud’, i.e. a server you don’t own. This is obviously not ideal for the Hackaday crowd. Yes, IoT can be done with a few cheap radios and a hacked router, but then you don’t get all the cool features of a real Things project – mesh networking and a well designed network.
Pinoccio
is the first Thing we’ve seen that puts a proper mesh network together with a server you can own. The Pinoccio team were kind enough to let us drop in while we were in Rock City last weekend, and we were able to get the scoop on these tiny boards from [Sally] and [Eric], along with a really cool demo of what they can do.
The hardware on the Pinoccio is basically an Arduino Mega with a LiPo battery and an 802.15.4 radio provided by an ATmega256RFR2. The base board – technically called a ‘field scout’ – can be equipped with a WiFi backpack that serves as a bridge for the WiFi network. It’s a pretty clever solution to putting a whole lot of Things on a network, without having all the Things directly connected to the Internet.
Programming these scouts can be done through Arduino, of course, but the folks at Pinoccio also came up with something called ScoutScript that allows you to send commands directly to any or all of the scouts on the mesh network. There’s a neat web-based GUI called HQ that allows you to command, control, and query all the little nodules remotely as well.
In the video below, [Sally] goes over the basic functions of the hardware and what it’s capable of. [Eric] was in Reno when we visited, but he was kind enough to get on a video chat and show off what a network of Pinoccios are capable of by emblazoning their web page with Hackaday logos whenever he presses a button. | 29 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "1640306",
"author": "Nicholas Dalziel",
"timestamp": "2014-07-15T20:10:00",
"content": "Hooray for private videos!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1640383",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"timestamp": "2014-07-15T20... | 1,760,376,131.223484 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/17/xbox-360-slim-gets-gutted-and-painted-white/ | Xbox 360 Slim Gets Gutted And… Painted White? | James Hobson | [
"Xbox Hacks"
] | [
"portable xbox",
"portable xbox 360",
"xbox",
"xbox 360",
"xbox 360 slim",
"xbox hack"
] | We love portable console builds, and
this one
by [Daniel Fürstauer] is no exception. It’s a beautifully hacked Xbox 360 slim into an aluminum briefcase — complete with a screen and a full audio system!
He started by gutting the Xbox 360 slim and throwing out pretty much all of the original enclosure, minus the disc drive cover. Now what he did next was completely for aesthetics, but freaking awesome. He actually took the motherboard out, taped off some of the important components, and spray painted the entire thing white! We’re not too sure what effect this will have on some of the components, but it seems to work, and gives it a really unique look underneath his Plexiglas enclosure.
He housed the rest of it (complete with custom cooling fans!) inside of one of those nice aluminum briefcases, complete with a widescreen LCD monitor, and computer speakers. He even fit the power supply inside — all you have to do is plug it in! There’s also room for at least one controller, whose holding spot doubles as space for the disc drive to eject.
It’s a super slick build, and he’s even made a demonstration video of it:
We’ve seen
lots of PS3 and Xbox 360 portable builds
, but no PS4’s yet. Anyone up to the challenge? | 15 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1645903",
"author": "Cody J Allen",
"timestamp": "2014-07-18T07:04:48",
"content": "http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=94275been done years ago (painting motherboard)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1646435",
... | 1,760,376,131.350748 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/17/make-that-c64-keyboard-work-as-a-usb-keyboard/ | Make That C64 Keyboard Work As A USB Keyboard | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"atmega32u4",
"c64",
"commodore 64",
"keyboard",
"matrix",
"Model M",
"olimex",
"scanning"
] | Let’s face it, we all have keyboard peculiarities. Don’t try to deny it, everyone who types a lot has an opinion of the keyboard they stroke so frequently. We know [Brian Benchoff] swears by his model M, and we’re guessing he was the one that bumped into [Evan] and convinced him to write about his
conversion of a Commodore 64 keyboard for use as a USB device
.
This is not [Evan’s] first rodeo. We recently saw him
fixing up the worn off letters of his own model M
. But this time around there’s some clever microcontroller work at play. Apparently mapping 122 keys using an Atmel AVR 32u4 chip (built in USB connectivity) is quite a task. Luckily someone’s already worked out all kinds of good things and is sharing the love with
the Soarer’s Keyboard Controller Firmware
. Of course it handles scanning, but also includes debounce, muxing, and the trick to scan more keys than the uC has pins for. We still don’t fully understand that bit of it. But [Evan] did post the config file he’s using so perhaps after we get elbow-deep in the code we’ll have a better understanding.
If you give this a try, we want to hear about it. Anyone have any modern keyboards they’re in love with? Leave a comment below. | 25 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1645418",
"author": "MRE",
"timestamp": "2014-07-18T02:32:42",
"content": "I greatly preferred the C128 (or the late model thin C64) keyboards over the C64. Although I had literally a BOX full of C64s at one point (on the order of 10 – 12).That later translated to an absolute love o... | 1,760,376,131.467428 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/17/marvins-marvelous-mechanical-museum/ | Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum | Mike Szczys | [
"classic hacks",
"Featured",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arcade",
"automaton",
"coin-op",
"detroit",
"marvin's marvelous mechanical museum",
"spectacle"
] | Don’t call it an arcade. There are arcade-like things about it… like dance-based video games, Skee-ball, and tickets — oh so many tickets. But
Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum
is a one-of-a-kind that you need to visit next time you’re in the North suburbs of Detroit, Michigan.
[Marvin] was there in person, as he is many days. He talked with us for a few minutes and we’ve folded his interview, along with footage of many of the attractions, into the video above.
He’s been collecting for more than three decades. The attractions are packed into every bit of floor space, spilling up onto the walls, and hanging from every spot in the ceiling. There are true antiques from both home and abroad that could be referred to as automatons, rows of fortune tellers, a track of large airplane models that make a loop around the establishment when fed a quarter, and much more.
Some of the attractions were build for him, like the robot band you can make out behind [Marvin] during the interview. It is a MIDI-based build that allows songs to be selected from a touchscreen. Soon to be on exhibit is a Tesla-coil-based offering which [Marvin] commissioned after taking second place to [Nicolai Tesla] on a list of oddest museums.
Sign out front, entrance down the alley
There is a decent selection of pinball
Two of many fortune teller machines.
Puppets… come connected to machines and some not.
There are very high ceilings and interesting stuff everywhere.
Some of the more interesting oddities
Artwork fills the walls
Try to hold your hand in place
This machine came from england
A bit hard to see, but inside is a functioning guilotine
Brian was a big winner that night… battery operated bubble gun! | 9 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1645061",
"author": "zuul",
"timestamp": "2014-07-17T23:35:59",
"content": "hmm i think i like the musee mechanique in sf better",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1645182",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,376,131.405113 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/17/a-lithium-ion-supercapacitor-battery/ | A Lithium Ion Supercapacitor Battery | Brian Benchoff | [
"Crowd Funding"
] | [
"capacitor",
"crowdfunding",
"kickstarter",
"lithium ion",
"lithium ion supercapacitor",
"supercapacitor"
] | Lithium ion supercapacitors. No, not lithium ion batteries, and yes, they’re a real thing. While they’re astonishingly expensive per Farad, they are extremely small and used as the first line of defense in some seriously expensive heavy-duty UPS installations.
Here’s a Kickstarter
using these supercaps to replace the common AA, C, and D cell batteries. Even better, they can be recharged in seconds.
For each size battery, the caps used actually have a slightly higher energy density than a similarly sized dollar store battery. By adding a little bit of circuitry to drop the 3.8 Volts out of the cap down to the 1.5 V you expect from a battery, this supercap becomes a very expensive rechargeable battery, but one that can be recharged in seconds.
This is one of those crowdfunding campaigns we really like: an interesting tool, but something we just can’t figure out what the use case would be. These lithium ion supercaps are too expensive to be practical in anything we would build (save for a Gauss pistol), but the tech is just too cool to ignore. If you have a use case for these caps in mind, please leave a note in the comments.
Somewhat relevant Mouser link
. | 140 | 41 | [
{
"comment_id": "1644772",
"author": "Tungs",
"timestamp": "2014-07-17T20:08:21",
"content": "How does this respond to heat? I’d hate to have another component inside my device (beside regular LiPo Batteries) likely to ignite…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,131.876677 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/17/building-the-slimmest-raspi/ | Building The Slimmest Raspi | Brian Benchoff | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"display",
"lcd",
"Pi",
"raspberry pi",
"Raspi",
"tft",
"touchscreen",
"wall mounted"
] | [Colin], AKA [Domipheus], was working on a project to monitor a thermostat with a wall mounted Raspberry Pi and a touchscreen. Simple enough, but the Pi has a problem: The plugs are all around the perimeter of the board, and with a TFT touch screen shield, it’s a bit too thick to be wall mounted. What followed is a hack in the purest sense: [Domipheus] removed and relocated components on the Pi
until the entire Pi/display stack was just a hair over 10mm tall
.
A Raspberry Pi Model A was used for this build, meaning the Ethernet jack was gone, and there was only a single USB port to deal with. Still, the highest components – the RCA and audio jacks – were too tall and needed to be removed; they weren’t going to be used anyway.
After these components were gone, [Domipheus] turned his attention to the next tallest parts on the board: fuses, caps, and the HDMI port. For fear of damaging the surrounding components when removing the HDMI connector the right way, this part was simply hacked off. The large tantalum cap near the USB power connector was removed (it’s just a filter cap) and the large protection diode was moved elsewhere.
Slimming down a Pi is no good without a display, and for that [Domipheus] used
this touchscreen thing from Adafruit
. Things got a little complicated when the project required the ability to remove the LCD, but you can do amazing things with a DIP socket and a file.
The end result is a Raspberry Pi with touchscreen display that’s just a smidgen thicker than a CD case. It’ll fit right up against a wall in its repurposed enclosure, and the end result looks very professional.
[Thanks Luke via
reddit
] | 28 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "1644571",
"author": "RandyKC",
"timestamp": "2014-07-17T17:25:56",
"content": "I appreciate the hack. But if you were committed to the Raspi, wouldn’t the Compute be a better starting point?http://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/computemodule/",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,376,131.624564 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/17/thp-hacker-bio-hackersbench/ | THP Hacker Bio: Hackersbench | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Interviews",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"bio",
"conservation",
"meter",
"remote",
"TheHackadayPrize",
"water",
"wireless"
] | Remote sensing applications that make sense and cents? (sorry, couldn’t help ourselves) That’s what [
hackersbench
], aka [John Schuch], aka [
@JohnS_AZ
] is working on as
his entry
for
The Hackaday Prize
.
He received a multi-thousand-dollar water bill after having an underground pipe break and leak without knowing it. His idea will help you notice problems like this sooner. But if you actually have a way to capture data about your own water use you also have a tool to help encourage less wasteful water use habits. We wanted to learn more about the hacker who is working on this project. [John’s] answers to our slate of questions are after the break.
I would have to say building things. While very often that means electronics, I also do a lot of woodworking, and some metalworking too. I’ve been around long enough (I’m probably a fair bit older than most people reading this) that I have accumulated a lot of tools for all those pursuits. Whether it’s silicon, code, wood, or metal, I find the satisfaction of a completed design/build project equally, and highly gratifying.
I spent about 16 years working for Motorola in Manufacturing Engineering at a plant that produced computer circuit boards. 6809 through hole when I started, and we were doing 68030 double-sided SMT when I left. From there I went into being a manufacturers rep for EOS/ESD control equipment and material, as well as doing contract auditing and training for ESD management. After that I went into field sales for a number of high-end aerospace telemetry companies.
Most of that business, and virtually all manufacturing, dried up with the economy quite a few years ago so I say that currently I’m a consultant (but of course that’s code for the fact that what few companies there are prefer to hire inexpensive new college grads). No real sour grapes; I do consult, and do a fair amount of writing, and have quite a lot of time to play in my shops. But if the right manufacturing engineering job came along ….
Solving problems. And that includes improving things. While I would never knock pursuits that give other people joy, I’ve never been one for making blinky lights for the sake of having blinky lights. If the blinky light means I forgot to turn off my soldering iron out in the shop, or the pool pump back pressure is too high, or the dog’s water dish is empty .. I’m all in!
Often the problem I tackle is one of “I want (need) that but it’s really stupidly expensive!”. So I’ll build one. Sometimes it’s a simple hand tool of some sort, and at the other extreme is the 500 sq ft In-law suite (with full bath and kitchen) that I built single-handedly for our home.
Cheap-assed Chinese tools!!! Specific example: I have a band saw from a low-end distributor everyone knows. The blade guides broke in the first month. It’s impossible to keep the wheels aligned. The blade life is measured in minutes. It’s a total piece of crap, and I have other examples from the same place. I learned my lesson, and tell people whenever the topic comes up; You’ll be WAY better off buying a used piece of name brand (usually American) equipment than buying discount import crap.
(I really should sell the damn thing for scrap and just get over it.)
Honestly, I’m pretty operating system agnostic. I started with CPM, lived through all the Windows incarnations, Learned UNIX System V back at Motorola (as well as HP-UX), and have dabbled in Linux since before Red had a Hat. They all have their strengths and their weaknesses.
I will say two things; I do 99% of my work on Windows based systems because the hardware is so inexpensive and the OS really is pretty worry free, and I don’t own a single piece of Apple hardware.
Favorite? That’s tough. I don’t keep gear that I don’t enjoy using. If you forced me to pick one I’d have to say the Fluke Model 77 multimeter that I’ve had for 25 years. It says something for a meter when you’ve worn out three sets of test leads and the meter itself still works as well as the day you bought it. It’s easy, it’s rugged, and it’s operation is intuitive. It does what it does, and it does it flawlessly. I guess this choice is sentimental. This one meter has seen me through a few decades, and a few careers, and just keeps on going.
I’m going to pick three, and the first two are sentimental.
Blinking LED with LM3909 and capacitor [via
Instructables
]
First is the LM3909. You could take this (long out of production) chip, add an LED, a cap, and a D-cell battery and the led would blink … for almost 3 years! It’s one of the very first parts I played with, and helped fire my passion for electronics.
Second would be the MC145436. This is an old Motorola DTMF decoder chip. You’d give it a colorburst crystal, an audio signal, and it would spit out DTMF digits as BCD. I used that part for all sorts of remote control projects when I was young, and was the basis of the very first product I sold … on Usenet. :-)
Modern stuff is a bit tougher. A lot of the Class-D audio amp parts impress me. As well as quite a few new motor controllers. And then modern sensors are just getting more and more amazing. But to pick one, I’d have to say my current favorite is the PIC microcontroller. Dirt cheap, low cost programming equipment, a good (and free) IDE. I just feel totally at home with them. Full disclosure, I’ve been playing with PIC micros for about 25 years.
Again, I’m kind of agnostic on this one too. Language to do what? Program a web page? I love hand coding HTML, and must have written a million lines of Perl code. Program a microcontroller? It’s got to be C, mostly because I spent years stuck in the misery of ASM coding. A Windows app? Honestly, I do very little of that, and often stick with Perl for that too. Though I have just started teaching myself Python.
I’ve always had a soft spot for
Ladder Logic
as well. Seems more like puzzle solving than programming. What’s more, when you tell people you program in Ladder Logic, most have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. Fun.
But really, I am much more a hardware guy. These days, however, you can’t get very deep into hardware without bumping into code.
I’ve just started accumulating parts to build a large analog musical synthesizer, something I’ve wanted to do ever since I played with the ARP-2600 synthesizer back in High School (about 1975).
Runabout [
Image by Dan Gilman
]
I have a lot of ideas for CNC engraving/milling equipment I’d like to build from the ground up. I’ve actually started prototyping motor controllers for that, but I don’t know when I’ll actually get to building the mechanics.
I’ve always wanted to build a boat. A wooden speed boat, a lot like a Chris Craft “Gentlemans Runabout”. I found the blueprints for it years ago. I’d love to start on it … but first I guess I’d have to build another shop ….
Critical thinking.
Insane audio products, free energy plans, get rich schemes, weight loss and health quackery, tabloid publications, hundreds of TV shows, and whole lot of the government would all disappear over night.
About ten years ago we had an underground water pipe break while we were on vacation. I didn’t discover it until I received a water bill for several thousand dollars. Luckily the city gave me a huge once-per-lifetime credit, but since then I’ve thought that the fact that you can only see your water consumption once per month is profoundly stupid. Particularly when everyone is pushing us hard to conserve water. In engineering terms; a feedback-loop that takes 30 days is bound to fail.
Over the years I’ve considered the problem MANY times, but all the solutions I came up with were ridiculously expensive, or stupidly complicated to build and install. And further, no one but me (or other true geeks) would actually build one, so it would be of relatively low value in a societal sense.
The turning point was discovering the sensor I’m using (MAG-3110), a three-axis magnetometer intended be a compass and orientation sensor in tablets and cell phones. The thing about the sensor is that it is VERY sensitive, sensitive enough to detect the orientation of the magnet inside most non-reporting water meters in use today.
The Hackaday Prizes focus is on the future. And yeah, a whole lot of the future is in space and with new technology, but I think a whole lot of our mental energy ought to be focused on cleaning up our act right here on Earth. Because really, the future depends on it.
Um … not really. That sounds conceited, doesn’t it? Really, I hang out on an IRC channel with a bunch of amazing engineers, and we all help each other out a lot. It’s kind of like having an assortment of gurus in my back pocket.
I’d love to see a PRACTICAL 3D printer that could produce small buildings and structures in concrete or some other long lived material. Yeah, there have been a couple of university projects, but I’d love to see the hive of genius we call the Maker Movement tackle the problem. (I think it’s as much an issue of budget as it is technology)
Rules were made to be broken
Never say no to free parts.
Give up. You’ll never have enough storage room.
Solving a problem for your wife (husband) will earn you flack-free shop hours.
Always presume the pointy end is REALLY hot.
Never buy a pet. Adopt from a rescue.
The easiest way to locate a lost part is to order another one.
Life is too short for de-caf.
Always start by measuring the power supply.
Science fiction is just the stuff you haven’t built yet.
Ohms law can not be broken. Recheck your math.
Yes, it’s normal to think of the solution 4 seconds after waking up in the morning.
No one in history has ever created something that is beyond your ability to understand and learn from. | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1644340",
"author": "zakqwy",
"timestamp": "2014-07-17T14:09:29",
"content": "Love the LM3909! As a youngster I always marveled at its ability to flash an LED using a 1.5vdc supply. Great way to get started!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"... | 1,760,376,131.937442 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/17/developed-on-hackaday-discovering-shenzhen-and-its-companies/ | Developed On Hackaday: Discovering Shenzhen And Its Companies | Mathieu Stephan | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"developed on hackaday",
"mooltipass",
"shenzhen"
] | Two weeks ago we showed a
first demonstration video
of the offline password keeper (aka
Mooltipass
) the Hackaday community had been working on for the last 6 months. We received lots of interesting feedback from our dear readers and around a thousand of them let us know they were interested in purchasing the device. We agreed that preferential pricing should be offered to them, as they have been supporting this community driven project for so long.
For the next few days I will be touring Shenzhen and finally meeting the persons who have been assembling my electronics projects for the last 2 years, including the Mooltipass beta testers’ batch. I’ll also meet with Ian from
Dangerous Prototypes
, talk with the people behind the
Haxlr8r program
, visit
Seeedstudio
offices and a CNC shop. If everything goes well with the camera I just purchased in Hong Kong I should have nice things to show you. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below in case you’re in the area… | 21 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1644265",
"author": "mathieu",
"timestamp": "2014-07-17T13:17:39",
"content": "On a mobile phone now… Will correct the honk asap!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1644281",
"author": "BB Gun",
"timestamp": "2014... | 1,760,376,131.684639 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/17/daisywheel/ | Red Bull Creation: A Giant Daisy Wheel Printer | Brian Benchoff | [
"contests",
"Featured"
] | [
"daisy wheel printer",
"printer",
"rbcreation",
"red bull",
"red bull creation",
"typewriter"
] | While most of the teams in this year’s Red Bull Creation didn’t really pay attention to the theme of ‘reinventing the wheel’, 1.21 Jiggawatts did. Their creation, a giant typewriter that can be suspended along the side of a building, takes its inspiration directly from 1970s typewriters and printers. Yes, it’s a giant daisy wheel typewriter.
The basic idea of a daisy wheel typewriter is a wheel with a few dozen petals, on the end of which is a single letter. To print a letter, the wheel spins around, and a solenoid mechanism strikes the letter against a piece of paper. This was cutting edge tech in the 70s, and was a fast (and cheap) way for computers to print out letter-quality reports.
1.21 Jiggawatts used a ladder as the rail to move down a line of text. The movement from line to line was supposed to be done by dangling the ladder off a chain with a few sprockets attached to motors. Unfortunately, the team couldn’t quite get the machine working for the competition and live event, but the build does show an amazing amount of creativity and respect for classic, forgotten technology. | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "1644094",
"author": "oddware",
"timestamp": "2014-07-17T11:24:00",
"content": "What’s going on with the warping video?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "1644110",
"author": "RoboMonkey",
"timestamp": "2014-07-17T... | 1,760,376,132.25201 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/17/print-tasty-treats-with-mits-ice-cream-printer/ | Print Tasty Treats With MIT’s Ice Cream Printer | Rick Osgood | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"cuisinart",
"dessert",
"ice cream",
"mit",
"school",
"solidoodle",
"sweats"
] | Three MIT students decided that 3D printers just aren’t interesting enough on their own any more. They wanted to design a new type of printer that would really get young kids engaged. What’s more engaging to children than sugary treats? The team got together to develop a new 3d printer that
prints ice cream
.
The machine is built around a
Solidoodle
. The Solidoodle is a manufacturer of “accessible” 3d printers. The printer is enclosed inside of a small freezer to keep things cold during the printing process. On top of the machine is a hacked Cuisinart ice cream maker. The machine also contains a canister of liquid nitrogen. The nitrogen is used to blast the cream as it leaves the print head, keeping it frozen for the 15 minute duration of the print.
It sounds like the team ran into trouble with the ice cream melting, even with the liquid nitrogen added. For a single semester project, this isn’t a bad start. Be sure to watch the clip of the machine running below. | 10 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "1643809",
"author": "James Bruton (@XRobotsUK)",
"timestamp": "2014-07-17T08:40:41",
"content": "I’m pretty sure this won’t work because the ice cream would melt on the heated bed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "1643811",
"... | 1,760,376,132.081039 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/16/solar-powered-diy-plant-watering-system/ | Solar Powered DIY Plant Watering System | Rick Osgood | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"green hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"garden",
"green",
"greenhouse",
"plants",
"vegetables",
"water"
] | It’s great having fresh vegetables just a few steps away from the kitchen, but it takes work to keep those plants healthy. [Pierre] found this out the hard way after returning from vacation to find his tomato plant withering away. He decided to put an end to this problem by building his own solar-powered
plant watering system
(page in French,
Google translation
).
An Arduino serves as the brain of the system. It’s programmed to check a photo resistor every ten minutes. At 8:30PM, the Arduino will decide how much to water the plants based on the amount of sunlight it detected throughout the day. This allows the system to water the plants just the right amount. The watering is performed by triggering a 5V relay, which switches on a swimming pool pump.
[Pierre] obviously wanted a “green” green house, so he is powering the system using sunlight. A 55 watt solar panel recharges a 12V lead acid battery. The power from the battery is stepped down to the appropriate 5V required for the Arduino. Now [Pierre] can power his watering system from the very same energy source that his plants use to grow. | 31 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "1643588",
"author": "Erick",
"timestamp": "2014-07-17T06:36:08",
"content": "There’s a great solution already on the market that already does this – check outhttp://www.irrigatia.com– Solar Automatic Watering Systems",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,376,132.205775 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2014/07/16/self-balancing-robot-uses-android-and-lego-nxt/ | Self-Balancing Robot Uses Android And Lego NXT | James Hobson | [
"Android Hacks",
"Robots Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"hippo-ADK",
"Lego NXT",
"Self Balancing Robot"
] | Self-balancing robots are pretty cool, but sometimes a bit too complex to make. [HippoDevices] shows us that it’s really not that hard, and you can even
do it with Lego NXT and an Android device!
First step is to build your two-wheeled robot – go nuts! As long as the Lego NXT motors are strong enough you’ll be able to make most different shaped robots easy to balance. You’re going to need an Android ADK board to provide communication between the Lego motors and your Android device. [HippoDevices] is using their own design, called the
Hippo-ADK
which is on Kickstarter currently.
This allows your Android device to read the status and control the Lego Motors — from there it’s just a matter of programming it to balance according to the device’s gyroscope.
And since you already have a smart device on your robot, you can control it with another Android device!
[Thanks Zipper!] | 21 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "1643190",
"author": "Leibowitz",
"timestamp": "2014-07-17T02:20:22",
"content": "I don’t get what makes this project worthy of Hackaday. It’s functional, but the robot doesn’t demonstrate any benefit of using an Android tablet instead of the standard kit.Hippo-ADK itself is worth me... | 1,760,376,132.139054 |
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